Difficulties with reading and humanity in the teacher librarian training courses

Abstract

In Japan, the national curricula for future teacher librarians and school librarians includes the subject “Reading and Rich Humanity.” Reading will help develop language, expression, and imagination. However, the relevance between reading and rich humanity is not clear. Therefore, we conducted a survey of the educational content being offered in Japan. Guidelines by the (Japan) School Library Association, textbooks for this class, and syllabi by each university were analyzed. The guidelines for school librarians state, “(2) The significance of reading in nurturing the minds and fostering rich humanity of students.” However, the other guideline for teacher librarians does not mention character at all, even though the teacher librarian has more teaching responsibilities. It is mentioned in the textbooks, but only to explain the relevance of reading to a part of humanity. There were 55 types of syllabi collected from 45 universities. Only 25 universities included words such as Character or Humanity. A class in which character-related terms do not appear on the syllabus, despite the fact that dealing with characters is a requirement, is evidence that this university faculty member does not see a positive connection between reading and characters. The results suggest that many university faculty find it difficult to teach the relevance of reading and rich humanity in their classes.