著者

Jun Iwai

出版者

Center for Global Initiatives, Osaka University

雑誌

アジア太平洋論叢 (ISSN:13466224)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.22, pp.66-71, 2020-03-21 (Released:2020-03-21)

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The purpose of this paper is to introduce the current state of history education in local universities by referring to the case of Shizuoka University. In recent years, the study and value of the humanities have come under growing pressure and debate in Japan. Many Japanese universities face a decrease in the number of professors and research funds in the humanities, including history departments. In national universities, the number of professors of the humanities are rapidly decreasing compared with the number of professors of the natural sciences. This problem is more serious in local universities than large-scale research universities. In these difficult conditions, how did we deal with history education at our university? In this paper, I will focus on two points. First, I will examine the situation of local universities by referring to the case of Shizuoka University and present the process we took to reform undergraduate history education. However, there was a limit to how far the history curriculum could be reformed, as each year Shizuoka University faced a decrease in professors and research funds. Therefore, secondly, I discuss how we set up a new society of history education, which was supported by other faculty members and high school teachers. The Society of History Education in Shizuoka (静岡歴史教育研究会) was established in 2010. I will consider the role played by the Society in bridging history research and history education, combining the efforts of high schools and Shizuoka University, and integrating Japanese History and World History into society.