Graduation date: 2007
This thesis examines the cultural context in which Japanese children are constructing their
own perspective of the environment because in the development of environmental education in
Japan, the perspectives of children and teachers have not been taken into consideration. Although
educators have made efforts to give direction to environmental education, relatively few have
focused on the teachers’ and children’s ordinary activities from the point of view of
environmental education. This ethnographic study helps education policy makers to understand
the actual state of a public elementary school, an institution expected to produce environmentally
literate people.
The data presented in this study were collected in my fieldwork at a public elementary
school in Osaka, Japan between September and December in 2005. Main methods utilized in this
research are participant observation in classrooms, school events, and casual conversation, and in-
depth interviews with twenty teachers, administrators, parents, and community members.
Throughout the research, I have two main objectives in mind. First, I explore whether
children are completely removed from nature or not, a question that is dependent on how nature is
defined. It is a tendency in Japan to view nature and culture as blending with each other, but in
different ways according to the context. Thus, when observing children playing with a small part
of nature (e.g., insects and flowers), some argue that children still have a connection with nature
while others say that children lack opportunities to feel close to nature. Increasingly, people today
accept the latter perspective, and regard nature as something distant from children’s ordinary lives.
This view of nature is reinforced by the dramatic images of nature broadcast on TV. Additionally,
the social circumstances that prevent parents from allowing their children to play outside freely
lead them to think that they need to invest considerable time and money in order to let their
children experience nature. As a result, parents tend to believe that nature hardly exists in their This thesis examines the cultural context in which Japanese children are constructing their
own perspective of the environment because in the development of environmental education in
Japan, the perspectives of children and teachers have not been taken into consideration. Although
educators have made efforts to give direction to environmental education, relatively few have
focused on the teachers’ and children’s ordinary activities from the point of view of
environmental education. This ethnographic study helps education policy makers to understand
the actual state of a public elementary school, an institution expected to produce environmentally
literate people.
The data presented in this study were collected in my fieldwork at a public elementary
school in Osaka, Japan between September and December in 2005. Main methods utilized in this
research are participant observation in classrooms, school events, and casual conversation, and in-
depth interviews with twenty teachers, administrators, parents, and community members.
Throughout the research, I have two main objectives in mind. First, I explore whether
children are completely removed from nature or not, a question that is dependent on how nature is
defined. It is a tendency in Japan to view nature and culture as blending with each other, but in
different ways according to the context. Thus, when observing children playing with a small part
of nature (e.g., insects and flowers), some argue that children still have a connection with nature
while others say that children lack opportunities to feel close to nature. Increasingly, people today
accept the latter perspective, and regard nature as something distant from children’s ordinary lives.
This view of nature is reinforced by the dramatic images of nature broadcast on TV. Additionally,
the social circumstances that prevent parents from allowing their children to play outside freely
lead them to think that they need to invest considerable time and money in order to let their
children experience nature. As a result, parents tend to believe that nature hardly exists in their
neighborhoods. The pervasiveness of this view has led to the strong influence of parents’ sense of
values and families’ socioeconomic status on how their children experience nature.
Second, I describe what kind of environmental education has actually been implemented at a
public elementary school. Children are constructing their perspective of the natural environment
not only in the classes officially regarded as environmental education, but also in other aspects of
their everyday school lives. Even when teachers do not think that they are teaching about the
environment, their words and behavior convey culturally accepted ways to think, act and speak,
and make decisions; this in turn influences the way students deal with nature. Thus, teachers are
officially and unofficially, consciously and unconsciously, implementing environmental
education. Nonetheless, today’s teachers believe that they conduct environmental education only
in a weekly “Period of Integrated Learning.” While their preparation time for environmental
education is limited, they realize the existence of various obstacles for the implementation of
environmental education, such as lack of time and resources and the fact that children do not have
enough knowledge and experiences to understand environmental problems. They eventually
come to conduct environmental education through the lens of their own values. Yet, because of
the lack of efficient criteria to judge whether the activities have a positive influence on the
children, teachers do not seem to have confidence in the ongoing environmental education and
underestimate the value of environmental education in comparison to other subjects like Japanese
and mathematics. Teachers’ perceptions of environmental education have been shaped by the
official discourse of environmental education, which has been widely accepted by common
people and environmental educators. A significant effect is the pervasive belief that
environmental education can be conducted by an add-on approach. This generates the tendency to
ignore the fact that the curriculum itself has a deep cultural perspective on the human-nature
relationship, which is highly problematic from the point of view of environmental education.
In conclusion, I strongly argue that environmental educators and school officials who accept
the importance of environmental education should comprehend the status quo of public
elementary schools before turning over the responsibility of children’s education to teachers.
Japan must build a society that affords the essential needs of education in order for teachers to
give all their time and energy for the children they are currently facing. Before teachers can
concentrate on environmental education, education officials, policymakers, and the public must
understand the limitations of individual schools and teachers in relation to environmental
education within the present education system. I recommend that environmental educators pay
heed to insiders’ voices and experiences, examine what the voices represent from a broader
perspective, and make these findings the basis of future plans for environmental education.