東京女子高等師範学校附属小学校における「作業科」の特質

抄録

The objective of this study is to elucidate the characteristics of “sagyoka,” which was established in the middle and upper primary grades of the Elementary School Attached to Tokyo Women’s Higher Normal School in 1928, and reveal its relationship to various subjects of study and lower primary education. “Sagyoka” was regarded as a curriculum that added value to the material learned under various subjects through the implementation of objective-based activities and incorporated life studies courses, which were part of lower primary education, into the curricula of the middle and upper years. The logic of integrating various subjects into “sagyoka” was completely different from the approach based on compartmentalization into subjects designated by law, which can be seen in contemporary educational magazines. For example, the concept of “middle integrated learning” at the Elementary School Attached to Nara Women’s Higher Normal School depended on the logic of smoothly linking “wide integrated learning” from lower primary grades with “narrow integrated learning” based on the legally designated curriculum. Due to its design, which caused children to form natural connections with the subjects they learned by performing objective-based activities, “sagyoka” can be considered as an approach that fundamentally altered the very structure of the curriculum as well as children’s connection to it.

Because of the shallowness of the subject content, previous research on this period’s new curriculum at the Elementary School Attached to Tokyo Women’s Higher Normal School has several limitations. However, the results of this study show that the significance of the new curriculum cannot be fully understood from the viewpoint of subject content alone because it is necessary to examine the position of the subjects within the curriculum as a whole.