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There have been increasing calls within critical disability studies to move beyond ethnocentric Global North/Western interpretive lenses, especially when doing work in countries that have historically been oppressed by such cultures. These lenses rarely embrace the unique cultural nuances and social structures of different communities such that meaningful social justice is not possible. In this paper, we propose that cultural praxis (based on the work of Paulo Freire) could be a necessary paradigmatic shift toward amplifying disability research beyond ethnocentrism and toward culturally reflexive and relevant study. We show how we developed this methodological process through conceptual representations of our evolved thought, author reflections, and theoretical groundings. We invite dialogue from colleagues invested in socially-just research, and hope this approach begins further conversations and methods for doing meaningful, culturally specific work to achieve cultural praxis in physical education and wider realms of critical disability studies.

Ethnocentric models of disability have resulted in an ontology that rarely embraces the cultural nuances and social structures of specific countries. There have been increasing calls from scholars to expand understandings of disability beyond this hegemonic focus and develop new ways to do culturally specific and respectful inclusive work. Utilizing a novel methodological approach based on Paulo Freire's "Pedagogy of the Oppressed", we problematized past research and the current knowledge landscape of inclusive physical education (PE) in Japan. We identified that PE teachers were constantly "Grappling with Conflict" regarding their intrinsic desire to include disabled students in PE, and the cultural, institutional demands that instructed them how to teach. We drew upon numerous holistic, cultural, and Globally Eastern philosophies of thought to interpret these findings. Through reinterpreting past research, we developed a future research agenda for improving inclusive PE in Japan to support teachers and students through cultural praxis.