Development of Michio Namekawa's philosophy on "Reading Guidance (DOKUSHO SHIDO)" : from the Pre- to Post-WWII

Abstract

In this study, the author examines how Michio Namekawa's philosophy on "reading guidance (DOKUSHO SHIDO)" developed, leading to a clearer understanding of the progression and change of its definition from pre- to post-WWII periods. Namekawa is recognized as one of the key persons to cultivate the practice and philosophy of "reading guidance" in post-war Japan. To conduct the research, the author produces a chronology of Namekawa's writings until 1950. The research then shows both continuity and discontinuity of the time between pre- and post-WWII. The outset of Namekawa's philosophical development, which blossoms in the post-war period, can be determined in the book which he co-authored, JIDO BUNKA RON, published in 1941. While the children's cultural improvement movement was transpiring in the late 1930s, his interest concerning reading guidance deepened. Under the occupation after the war, the CIE Education Division led Namekawa to shape his philosophy and curriculum more concretely. Around 1949, he found important components of the concept of "integrating reading guidance into a student's personal life-Guidance" which Namekawa maintained throughout the post-war period.