Ryotaro Urai
project.1
koyasan workshop
Planning and Practice of “Furusato Learning” in Koya Town 2021
Action research / 2021 / KOYASAN
Since 2020, we have been practicing town development learning at a municipal junior high school in Koya Town, Wakayama Prefecture. Koya-cho is famous as a tourist destination with a World Heritage site, but it is a small local city whose population has been declining in recent years. Under such circumstances, Koyasan Junior High School, the only junior high school in Koya Town, has been working on "hometown learning" in the comprehensive study period with the aim of establishing love for the hometown. From 2020, town development learning was introduced as part of this “hometown learning”. In the first year, it was implemented as a proposal-oriented program in which the results of learning were compiled and presented over the course of the year. On the other hand, in 2021, it was implemented as a process-oriented program that incorporates opportunities for regional cooperation through interaction and collaboration between students and local stakeholders in the learning process.
Plan contents of hometown study
For the 2021 ``Furusato Learning'', the authors set the theme of ``Let's find out the charms and issues of Koya-cho and discuss the future of the town.'' The event was divided into three sub-themes: town development and town development that people would want to visit. As in 2020, the classes will be Step 1: Idea Creation (7 hours), Step 2: Fieldwork (8 hours), Step 3: City Future Concept + Workshop (16 hours), Step 4: Future Concept Divided into 4 steps of interim presentations (6 hours), it was planned to be carried out for a total of 19 times and 37 hours.
In 2020, the preparation time for the final deliverable was secured in steps 2 and 3, so the content of the learning program implemented in each step was subject to time constraints. Therefore, in 2021, in addition to increasing the number of class hours, the final presentation of first-year students was positioned as an interim presentation to reduce the burden of preparing for the presentation. In addition, we decided to supplement the work in Steps 2 and 3 in a total of 3 Japanese language classes for 3 hours by coordinating subjects. This provided sufficient time for interviews with local residents and workshops with government officials.
Step1: Idea making
After the author gave a lecture on changes in the town of Koyasan and examples of community development, 10 students were divided into three groups and worked on creating an image map of the town. However, most of the image maps remained vaguely drawn between school and home. I took the steps to write On top of that, in the third workshop, the students were divided into three themes: ``Creating a city that people want to visit,'' ``Creating a city that is fun to walk in,'' and ``Creating a city that people want to live in.'' considered the idea of
Step2: Fieldwork
The students undertook fieldwork three times for approximately 100 minutes in order to understand the "attractiveness and issues of Koyasan" and "what they want for the future" that local residents think. Based on the ideas of each group in Step 1, the author proposed candidate sites, and the students selected 15 target sites (Kongobu-ji Temple, Reihokan, Koyasan Tourist Information Center, bookstores). Kobori Nangakudo”, Souvenir shop “Hotokudo”, Tawaraya footwear shop, Japanese confectionery shop “Fuzen”, Nyonindo, Tokugawa Family Mausoleum, Kinrin Pagoda, Haraigawa Benten Shrine, Koyasan University Library, Guest House “kokuu”, Takano executives Interviews were conducted with local residents at police stations and forests (“Genji no Mori”). Prior to the survey, the students received advice from Teacher B on how to conduct interviews in Japanese language classes, and made appointments with local residents.
Step 3: Future conception of the entire town + workshop
Students worked on group work to draw a future image of the town. Students are divided into the three themes mentioned above, and based on the information collected through fieldwork, they examine ideas that make people want to visit, walk, and live in Koyasan. At that time, we set up a two-hour workshop where we received advice from the staff of the Koya Town Hall Planning Section. In the workshop, the students' ideas and questions about the town that were shared in advance were given advice and answers by the office staff, and then one staff member joined each group to discuss the ideas. Afterwards, the students presented their proposals to local residents, the town mayor, and government officials at an administrative debriefing session in Koya Town, and brushed up their proposals based on advice from the town mayor and others.
Step4：Announcement of future concept
The students created the structure and scenario of the presentation, put the final results together on A1-sized imitation paper, and presented them at a learning presentation on campus.
Artifacts of hometown learning
Through interview surveys of local residents, the students became aware of the trends of tourists, measures against vacant houses, and conservation of the natural environment. In Step 1, the students are divided into three themes: "Creating a town that is fun to walk in," "Creating a town that people want to live in," and "Creating a town that they want to visit." Based on interviews with local residents, we examined ideas such as renovation of campsites to accommodate the diversification of tourism purposes of visitors, implementation of a town walking stamp rally, and establishment of cafes using vacant houses. In addition, through a workshop with the staff of the town hall in Step 3, ideas were developed such as assisting in attracting guests to temple lodgings and creating a teleworking environment using vacant houses.
NEWS
Presented at the “Regional Co-Creation Youth Summit” hosted by the University of Tokyo
Presentation at Tokyo Metropolitan Hibiya High School
Presentation sheet