Dialogues on Inclusive Processes: The Educational Movement of 1970s in Japan and the Toyonaka Experience4
Taeko Futami, Antonello Mura, Ilaria Tatulli, Antioco Luigi Zurru
The issue of the educational and social inclusion of people with disabilities has gradually acquired an impressive international dimension, requiring renewed commitment to comparing and exchanging policies and practices, even between different cultural realities. The article documents the reflections on inclusion undertaken by two groups of researchers from the University of Cagliari and the University of Fukuoka. It focuses in particular on the experience of inclusion promoted since the 1970s in the city of Toyonaka, Osaka Prefecture. The city, moving away from segregated education, developed a basic policy of inclusive education for children with disabilities with the creation of Hirogari classes, thanks to the emancipatory efforts of the teachers’ union and parents’ associations. The pedagogical approach promoted in the city of Toyonaka was reconstructed through the analysis of Japanese regulations protecting inclusion processes and the testimonies of those involved and observed through Tatsuo Okamura’s theory of educational movements.
Keywords
International dialogue, Toyonaka city education movement, Inclusive education, Parents, Empowerment.
