Social Studies Education Utilising Children’s Motivations: Methodology to Connect Children and Society Through the Dismantling of ‘Performed Consensus’

The pedagogical research in Japanese social studies (SS) faces major challenges, which have come to blur the relationship between SS educational content and children’s motivation (for learning). The contents of SS education practices are often separate from the real world, for it perceives an ideal form of a democratic society (the ideal social image). There is a discrepancy between teachers’ discussion of the ‘idealised society’ and children’s reality. SS education aims to foster citizenship that moulds a democratic society independently. To promote ‘independent formation’, steps are required to nurture citizenship that encompasses children’s participation in the real world (Tanaka, 2015).
This paper summarises how children’s motivation (for learning) and urgency have been captured in relation to SS education research and brings out the implementation of results. Then, it proposes a lesson design concept based on the conclusions. First, information is presented with respect to the treatment of children’s motivation (for learning) and urgency in past SS education research and practice. Afterward, a theoretical approach and lesson design plan are suggested for use in SS education. In other words, this research applies a sociological theoretical approach to the development of social studies lessons.
Traditionally, a significant question that prevails in the study of classwork is ‘What is school/learning?’ Schools and teaching do not always result in a successful learning of children. It is possible for a child to attend school and just pretend to learn. Thus, it is important to ask the question, ‘How does school/learning work?’ In essence, this question is reframed from the perspective of school and learning functioning as a formal scaffold to children’s learning, serving as a category of implementation.
This perspective raises the following two questions. First, ‘How does one perceive children’s engagement with classes and society?’ By reconsidering ‘functions’ as the ‘effects’ of school and learning, the goal of school/learning work can be changed to how to make improvements from the students’ viewpoint (their epistemological reality). Second, ‘How does one manage student engagement in the classroom?’ This research focuses on ‘performed consensus’ by students. In other words, the students reconsider the state of engaging in a lesson as a formal participation of ‘pretending to participate’. In order to dismantle the situation, this paper considers the development of a concrete methodology of engagement for students to autonomously and independently engage with classes and society.