Transition of educational philosophy based on secondary school geography textbooks from the 1910s to 1930s in Japan: Focusing on Ogawa Takuji

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to trace the history of educational philosophy through geography textbooks in secondary schools before World War II. The focus is on Ogawa Takuji, a professor at Kyoto Imperial University. We can only find enumerating descriptions and meticulous accounts in textbooks in the 1910s. However, in the latter half of the 1920s many authors introduced the theory of man and nature in textbooks. Ogawa and other authors aimed at the description of the man-nature relationship in textbooks. In the 1930s, many authors attached importance to the methodology by which students should examine the theory of man and nature, not only through physical representation but also through intuition, figures, and tables. A transition thus occurred from instilling geographical information into students to the pursuit of the study methodology. As a result, Ogawa's textbooks introduced many maps, illustrations, and figures. He summarized his educational philosophy of geography in the textbook Shin Gaikokuchiri (1933). On the contrary, Ishibashi Goro, who also had a post at Kyoto Imperial University, defined the objective of geography education in the educational curriculum in his book The Theory of Geography Education (1937). They had a cooperative relationship in academic research, but had a different attitude toward the teaching of geography. Consequently, there was diversity in geography education.