The Role of Emotions in Social Studies Education in Japan: A Theoretical Examination through Social and Emotional Learning Frameworks
Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: This study examines the role of emotions in Japanese social studies education through an integrated theoretical framework of Social and Emotional Learning (SEL). Drawing on CASEL’s Five Core Competencies, Koizumi’s Japanese SEL framework, Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory of emotional development, and Taylor and Larson’s three-domain pedagogical model, the paper reconceptualizes emotions not as supplementary elements but as constitutive foundations of citizenship education. Through a qualitative case analysis of a Grade 4 social studies unit, “Tokyo’s Tap Water That Sustains Daily Life,” the study illustrates how emotional engagement is socially mediated, cognitively internalized, behaviorally enacted within ordinary curriculum-based instruction. The analysis demonstrates that emotions function developmentally, progressing from shared affective experience to ethical judgment and civic action through culturally mediated learning processes. The findings suggest that integrating SEL into social studies education develops conceptual understanding and public-oriented responsibility. The paper concludes by proposing a theoretically grounded model in which SEL operates as a mediating structure linking sociocultural development, competency-based frameworks, and democratic aims in Japanese social studies education.
Author: HAYASE, Hironori
Institution: Ikuei University
Language: English
Subfield: Education
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
SDG: Quality education
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W7213488134