Core Values of Progressive Education: Seikatsu Tsuzurikata and Whole Language

Seikatsu tsuzurikata is a grassroots movement in Japan that has many parallels to the whole language movement, but it developed completely independently, beginning in the late 1920’s. Our research into this movement was conducted in 1984 and described in Kitagawa and Kitagawa (1987). We are now updating our earlier research. Seikatsu tsuzurikata is fundamentally a writing education movement designed to help students develop a strong sense of self by having them write descriptive, detailed compositions about their daily life and the world around them. We want to describe how seikatsu tsuzurikata and whole language are similar and different, just as any set of “distant cousins” might want to know how they are related.