Final Research Report

How to develop Inclusive Education in Japan?

My starting story

My school life experience has greatly influenced to my life today. I experienced to be bullied by my friends when I was in elementary school. They said my point of view was different from them, that's why they teased me. Since then, I always try not to negatively respond to others even in the slightest conversation. Now, I think school life and its environment is almost all for children's lives. So I want to find equality in education which is the foundation of a person's life and no one should be excluded.

First, I will look at the educational situation of children with foreign roots and children with disabilities. Further, I will discuss the advantages and disadvantages of special-support education for many of these children.

And I'm also interested in inclusive education. I have a part-time job at English and abacus juku. I have classes with many children including those who has writing disability and who has difficulty in concentrating. But they learn together and help each other by asking and teaching there. Then, I found inclusive education is effective for all children to get more skills and make cooperative environment.

In addition, after conducting research on the promotion of the Ainu people and the education of children with foreign roots, I realized that creating an environment that appreciates diversity in the educational setting is essential to establishing a diverse and harmonious society.

In the latter part of this report, I will discuss the benefits of inclusive education and the potential for its development in Japan, as well as examine the limitations of inclusive education

What Inclusive Education is

According to UNICEF, Inclusive Education means all children in the same classrooms, in the same schools. it means real learning opportunities for groups who have traditionally been excluded.

There are two types of Inclusive education. One is Partial Inclusion, the other is Full Inclusion.

Partial inclusion means children become a part of a regular environment with assistance and support. Those children have special-support classrooms.

Full inclusion means children receive the same assistance and support to succeed in the classroom and students having difficulties don’t have special-support classrooms.

story of toujisha

ex. Shunsuke Nishida

(According to The Asahi Shimbun in 2020)

He has an intractable disease that weakens the muscles, so he has used a wheelchair.

When he was in elementary and junior high school, he was forced to travel outside of his school district by car to attend the only school in the area that had an elevator. As for high school, he hoped to have a chance to choose school and studied hard. But he was rejected to enroll by school because it did not have barrier-free facilities. He ended up enrolled at a prefectural special-needs school.

He said, "If all schools were barrier-free, I could've gone to a regular high school."

In an inclusive educational environment, students with disabilities who want to learn in regular schools and classes are often unable to do so due to barriers in facilities and access. I have found that even if this is not their wish, they are forced to receive special education.

situation

More and more children choose to take special supports.

According to the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, the number of students in 通級 in 2013 is more than 23 times the number in 1993. As for special-needs classes and schools, the number has been doubled.

Currently, mainstream education in Japan is segregated education with special-support schools and classes. Inclusive education basically does not distinguish the line between special-support and others.

what 通級 is

Students with relatively mild disabilities are placed in regular elementary and junior high school classes.Usually attend classes with regular class children.

In 通級 class, special instruction is provided according to each individual's disability.

classification

According to the 東京書籍, the order of the stages of disability changes from special-needs school, to special-needs class, to classroom instruction(通級).

The reason for the increase of special-support needs

First, developmental disabilities are widely recognized today, so more and more children are being diagnosed.

Second, parents are now choose special-support schools and classes for their children in order to make receive more detailed and individualized support for each children's situation.

According to the NPO 夢職人, These lead more and more classes are needed and mean facilities and equipments inadequate.

Why is Inclusive education is needed?

Here are examples of children with disabilities and their parents seeking inclusive education environment.

According to withnews.jp, one of the mothers of a boy with a down syndrome. The mother was not sure whether to enroll him in a special needs class as usual or a regular class with inclusive education. She thought “If brothers are divided between special-support class and regular class, when the younger brother frows up, he might hide the fact that he has an older brother with a disability?” In this case, inclusive education was needed, not only for toujisha, but also for their siblings.

In addition, in Associate Students Health Development Center at San Jose State University, there were actual cases of children with disabilities named Mia growing up in inclusive environments that had a positive impact not only on the child but also on the surrounding environment. That center introduced the “buddy system” and it made other children want to help Mia. For example, when Mia and Maddie were paired, Maddie was used to be very wiggly during circle time and no hearts of focus, but she could control herself and help Mia like a teacher at that time. As a whole class, children got desired results in social-emotional development test. Inclusive environments have been shown to have a positive impact on children's development, which is one reason why inclusive education is needed.

UN recommends Inclusive Education

The UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities strongly requested to Japanese government to stop the current special needs education that separates children with disabilities from the other students. However, in Japan, the separates programs are regulated by law. I found unless Japanese government revise it, children never get the chance to have inclusive education.

Japan: School Education Law

・Establish special needs schools as places for children with disabilities to learn

・Establish special needs classes separate from regular classes in elementary and junior high schools

UN: Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities

・Establish an inclusive education system

(People with disabilities are not excluded from the general education system)

The UN pointed out that regular elementary and junior high schools are not prepared to accept children with disabilities. In effect, enrollment refusals are occurring. Ensure that all handicapped children have the means to enter elementary school and junior high school by adopting policies that do not allow denial of admission.

In April 2022, the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology published a notice requesting that students in special-needs classes stop studying in regular classes for no more than half the week. UN recommended Japanese government to withdraw of the Notice.

Regular education teachers lack the skills to teach children with disabilities and are negative about inclusive education, so they insisted the need to train teachers to learn about the rights of people with disabilities.

←Japanese observers at the U.N. Committee session

① making up basic educational environment

In Japan, many schools are installing slopes and elevators to reduce the steps. In addition, developing specialized support systems and teachers and creating an individualized support plan for each person are on progress.

But in fact, according to MEXT 2020, of the public schools designated as evacuation shelters, about 65% have eliminated steps by installing slopes, etc. (About 90% of public schools are designated as evacuation shelters) I found it's not enough and need more.

② reasonable accommodation

Reasonable accommodation means the adjustments and modifications to remove difficulties that arise based on each person’s characteristics and situations. Take classrooms for example, reducing the number of postings or covering the display during class make students easy to concentrate on the class.

The photo above shows a typical classroom, whereas the photo below shows a classroom with reasonable accommodations

the limits of regular classrooms

This is according to the thesis written by Douglas Fuchs and Lynn S, Fuchs, professors of special education at Vanderbilt University. Vermont, US is a state with nearly double the national average of students with disabilities in regular classrooms. So, it is long known as a leader in inclusive education (Sack, 1997). However, several years ago, Rutland, Vermont, school officials began The Success School which is a separate program for disruptive students in grades 6-12. It is a program to separate children from regular classes newly established for children who have difficulty attending regular classes. As long as this system is seen as a result of the difficulty of raising all children in one class, I thought that the limitations of inclusive education were apparent. According to Rutland’s director of special services, the goal for most students there is to return to the regular class full time and the others’ one is to gain skills necessary to find a job. She said, “A handful students wouldn’t be in school at all if it weren’t for the school.” I found the need for regular classes would depend on whether the goal of education is to attend children to school or to be with a variety of children.

the needs for a variety of special-support education

Bernard Rimland, a well-known advocate and father of a child with autism, writes: “I have no quarrel with (full) inclusionists if they are content to insist upon inclusion for their children. But when they try to force me and other unwilling parents to dance to their tune, I find it highly objectionable and quite intolerable. Parents need options.” From the perspective of the parents of toujisha, there is a strong opposition to full inclusion because it does not take into account the actual situation of the child. Many parents worry that full inclusion will not provide enough support for children with disabilities.

In addtion, according to LITALICO LIFE Inc, one of the parents talked that his child with autism chose special-support class. Because he has been living his elementary school life at his own pace, such as the boy practices for his 運動会 but does not participate in the actual event. he feels that it is very difficult for him to be forced to do things, so special-support class where he can decide what he wants to do was best for him. I thought it is also necessary to leave special-support classes and give them options, even if the goal is full inclusion.

Japanese schoolteachers’ attitudes regarding inclusive education implementation

According to the research report by Kaede Maeda(Graduate School of Letters, Yasuda Women’s University, Hiroshima), Hirofumi Hashimoto(Department of Social-Psychology, Yasuda Women’s University), and Kosuke Sato(Center for General Student Sup[port, Kochi University, Kochi), they conducted an online survey of Japanese schoolteachers to examine their attitudes and perceptions regarding inclusive education. Survey results showed that schoolteachers regard the idea of inclusive education as desirable, but not feasible. However, schoolteachers’ perceptions of the feasibility of inclusive education implementation were positively associated with their help-seeking preference if they perceived their climate as being sufficiently collegial.

Figure 1: Japanese schoolteacher’s evaluation scores regarding segregated, integrated, and inclusive education

Figure 2: Interaction effect of Japanese schoolteacher's help-seeking preference and their perceived collegial climate

Creating a collegial climate among schoolteachers might play an important role in promoting inclusive education and in reducing the perception which is inclusive education implementation is difficult.

proposal for inclusive education from Japan Teachers Union to MEXT

The "Future Measures to Promote Special Support Education for the Establishment of an Inclusive Education System" issued by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology only indicates the obligation to make efforts to provide reasonable accommodations. They pointed out this and insisted it should be revised to an obligation, as indicated in the Basic Law for Persons with Disabilities and the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, which states that reasonable accommodation must be provided.

Furthermore, since the most common request from the field is to increase the number of teachers, it is necessary to promote small-size classes and improve the educational environment.

proposal for inclusive education by the DPI Japan

Japan National Assembly of Disabled People’s International proposed six action plans to 2030.

First, revise Article 16 “Education” of 障害者基本法 to promote inclusive education in which include the establishment of education using sign language as a common language. And specify that reasonable accommodations and support for parents' or students' wishes to be able to study in the same classroom will be enhanced. Second, correct the disparity in school attendance incentive fees between special-support schools and regular schools. This aims to eliminate the disparity between students with disabilities in special-support schools/ classes and students with disabilities in regular classes. Third, promote barrier-free accessibility in regular schools by utilizing the 改正バリアフリー法. Fourth, revise Article 5 of 学校教育法施行令 to make it a principle to enroll student in local regular classes. And as fifth, revise 学校教育法 and revise the purpose provision for special-support education to social model ones. The view of disability as a functional limitation is called the medical model, while the view of disability as a disadvantage suffered by the individual, rather than a characteristic of the individual, is called the social model. In order to enable and ease the participation of persons with disabilities in all areas of daily life and social life, I believe that a shift to the social model is required. At last, as sixth, revise 教職員定数法 to eliminate disparities in the assignment of teachers between special-support schools and regular schools, similar to the proposal by Teachers Union.

Summary

Although the younger the child is in school, the more strongly the parent's will is involved in the child's choices, it’s essential for children themselves to decision-making to his or her school life. It is often difficult for children with disabilities to express their wishes regarding the form of education they wish to receive. In such cases, I have found that children often express their intentions by drawing a simple, easy-to-understand picture and letting them choose between a large or small classroom, or by trying out a trial enrollment. But the issue on limitations of inclusive education raises the question of who decides what kind of education children will receive, the children themselves, their parents, or both. This is worth to be considered from now on.

In terms of institutional arrangements, we also need a flexible system that allows students to receive inclusive education and still receive special needs education separately. In order to actually implement inclusive education in schools, it would be possible to develop both the abilities of regular children and those who need support by introducing the buddy system mentioned earlier. I considered developing a concrete inclusive education proposal, referring also to the teachers' union and DPI's action plan, but what I thought was most important was the shift from a medical model to a social model. In order to build a society that respects diversity, I think there is a need to learn that an atmosphere of acceptance of different things is normal at the point of education.