Contents of Subjects Related to “Forest Science” Including Silviculture for Vocational High Schools: Historical Outlook and Present Issues

• Published in: Journal of the Japanese Forest Society Vol. 98; no. 1; pp. 11 - 19
• Main Authors: Inoue, Mariko, Oishi, Yasuhiko
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: Japanese
• Published: THE JAPANESE FORESTRY SOCIETY 2016
• Subjects: forest and forestry education; forest science; technical education; textbook; the official guidelines for school teaching
• DOI: 10.4005/jjfs.98.11
• ISSN: 1349-8509

To examining forestry and forest education at vocational high schools, we analyzed that the history of changes in the purpose and contents of subjects related to “Forest Science" including silviculture. We analyzed forestry and forest education during the postwar period, based on the Ministry's official guidelines for school teaching and textbooks. The names of the subjects in the guidelines have changed: at first “Forestry Products", then “Silviculture", and now “Forest Science". As a result, the purpose of the subjects was to learn skills and knowledge for forestation, and the aims of forestation have gradually changed: “raising forest productivity" from the 1950s to the 1970s, to which was added “recognition of various functions and forest protection" in the 1980s, and then “forest conservation and multiple uses" in the 2000s. The contents of the subjects were classified into four fields and ten elements: “general remarks" includes the role of forests and silviculture, “forest environments" includes forest ecology, characteristics and growth conditions of forest trees, “forest nurture" includes nursing, breeding, forestation, tending and preservation, and “the relationship between forests and societies" includes rearing trees for minor forest products, scenery, multiple use of forests. A similar tendency of change has appeared in the subject of “Forest Management" There is some overlap, so it is necessary to examine the revision of these subjects by examining concerning forestry careers.