The Third Viewpoint of "Phenomenon-Environment" in Early Childhood Education : Over the Dualistic Viewpoint of Thing- and Man-Environment

Abstract

In 1947 (22th year of Showa), term "environment" was used in the law of school education (Gakkou Kyouiku Hou). According to H. Sakamoto who made up the law, it means both thing- and man-environment. At a later time, term "environment" has been used in the same way. In 1988 (63th year of Showa), its meaning began to change. As soon as the methodology of "education through environment" began to be advocated in early childhood education, the earlier dualistic viewpoint of thing- and man-environment added one more viewpoint. In my opinion, that is the third viewpoint of phenomenon-environment. Under discussing the document of education plan in kindergarten, many articles and documents which are written by government officials of the department of education appeared. In those articles and documents the third viewpoint "phenomenon-environment" has been advocated unconsciously in my view. Now we must classify "environment" into thing-, man- and phenomenon-environment, then we can explain the details of the practice and its structure in early childhood education.