日本における戦後初期図書館教育の特質

―図書館教育カリキュラムをめぐる議論に着目して―

抄録

In Japan, school libraries are generally regarded as facilities that support student learning and foster information literacy. However, at one time, school libraries influenced educational content and curricula, rather than learning methods. From the post-World War II period through the 1950s, researchers and teachers who endorsed school libraries proposed a new subject called “library education” and developed a corresponding curriculum incorporating educational objectives and content specific to Japan at that time. The subject area differed from that of information literacy. However, recent studies have only considered library education as a learning method that uses books and school libraries to foster information literacy. The aim of this study was to explore the characteristics of library education in Japan in the early postwar years. Specifically, the following issues were addressed: (1) what people expected from library education at that time and (2) the diversity and commonality of the library education curriculum created by each school.

In Chapter 1, we examine researchers’ and teachers’ discourses on library education. We focus mainly on the discourse of Ichiro Sakamoto, who was involved in the development of the library education curriculum at Setagaya Elementary School. In previous studies, this school was positioned as an early library education model. Although Sakamoto consulted the educational contents of “Use of books and libraries” in America, unique educational contents were included in library education in Japan. Examples include teaching moral attitudes and the history and social significance of libraries. We confirmed that researchers and public librarians expect library education to enlighten students by teaching them the significance of public libraries and fostering good users of public libraries in the future.

Chapter 2 reviews the library education curricula developed by each school. In addition, we examine critiques of these curricula. In the 1950s, while a handbook written by the Ministry of Education made recommendations for library education, each school autonomously developed its own library education curriculum to address the actual conditions of their school. Therefore, diversity was observed in the scope, sequence, and position of library education in school curricula. Despite the diversity of the curriculum, commonalities were observed in the sequence from school libraries to public libraries.

The study findings imply that the discipline of library education was intended to develop Japanese society by nurturing good users of public libraries. Public librarians expected that library education would be taught; thus, library education was one aspect of early postwar school education that attempted to directly meet society’s expectations. The research results represent a further step toward developing a historical study of school curricula in the early postwar years.