公害教育における自然体験学習

―水俣公害教育史における自然体験学習の成立期を探る―

抄録

  To clarify the position of learning by experiencing nature in the history of education on pollution, this paper aims to clarify the time of establishment of learning by experiencing nature in the history of education on Minamata pollution.

  In the second and third chapters, attention is paid to the educational movement in the Minamata disease epicenter, one of the major pollution-affected areas of Japan, which has been working on the regional revitalization of Minamata while recognizing the existence of Minamata disease patients and the Minamata disease. It is possible to show the historical fact that the practice of the Minamata Nature School developed from learning by experiencing nature in the pollution epicenter of Minamata, indicating the presence of learning by experiencing nature that was developed as education on pollution.

  In terms of the contrast with the Minamata Practice School and the Minamata Life School of the 1980s, is it shown in the last chapter of this paper that learning by experiencing nature in the history of education on Minamata pollution was developed by the Minamata Nature School in the 1990s. However, the author shows that there was another kind of learning by experiencing nature in the 1980s, in which learners felt the suffering due to the Minamata disease. The author points out that several similar cases also appeared after the recent Great East Japan Earthquake. As a finding resulting from this paper, the author concludes that in education on pollution we should consider the aspect of learning to understand suffering through experiencing nature.