野外教育における「野外」概念の再解釈

―風土概念を手がかりとして―

抄録

This study reinterprets the word yagai in Japanese, or “outdoors,” in outdoor education. The concept of yagai, which means “open air” or outdoors, outlines the definitions of outdoor education and presupposes a proximity to the image of “nature.” However, those definitions cause a loss of richness in outdoor education due to the use of images of natural science containing nature. Therefore, the author question the assumption that outdoors means nature and attempt to reinterpret the concept of outdoors using the idea of climate. In this reinterpretation, we cite Heidegger's ontology and Watsuji's “Fudo, or Climate” theory and existentially shift the concept of outdoors from a substantial concept to a relational concept of “going outside” while ensuring logicality.

In this study, the concept of outdoors is reinterpreted as a relational concept revealing “the existence of human beings through their going outside, being exposed to climate and nature, as well as an interaction of these two.” Ultimately, we define outdoor education as “an education that reveals human existence through a human being's leaving modern civilization and going out, and an education that exposes the climate and nature fostered in a mutual interaction between them.”