ABSTRACT
In Japanese schools, curriculum is often used narrowly and non-critically by teachers, as they equate it with a yearly teaching plan or a sequence in which content, such as grammar or vocabulary, is taught as presented in textbooks. Thus, the ways in which teachers understand curriculum are shaped by the sociocultural and institutional factors which surround their daily practice. For example, Japanese elementary and secondary school teachers are required to use textbooks authorized by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Science and Sports (MEXT), based on the criteria specified in the Course of Study, the national curriculum guidelines. These textbooks function as powerful artifacts which tend to define the ways instructional activities are presented in the classroom, and the sociality of these sorts of artifacts tends to shape teachers’ conceptions of curriculum.
