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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.

The Paralympic Games are currently in the public spotlight not only as a sporting spectacle but also as a vehicle for empowering individuals with disabilities in society. However, previous research indicates that the Paralympic Games currently cater for a limited variety of impairments, which perhaps reflects a limitation of the Games in this respect. The aim of this study was to determine whether this premise is valid by considering the empowerment of individuals in society via the Paralympic Games, focusing on groups including both mobility and hearing impairment. Quantitative data were recovered from a questionnaire survey disseminated to lower secondary departments of special needs education schools for the physically challenged (n = 44, collection rate: 80.0%), lower secondary departments of special needs education schools for the deaf (n = 119, collection rate: 85.6%) and a regular lower secondary school (n = 145, collection rate: 83.8%) used as a control group in prefecture "A" via postal mail. Results were generated using an analysis of variance approach and χ2 test. The data indicated that the Paralympic Games as a vehicle of empowerment is only valid for those with mobility impairment, and not for those with hearing impairment. This suggests that empowerment through the Paralympic Games may only be effective for individuals with impairments that qualify them for entry into the Paralympic Games, while excluding those with impairments that do not. Ancillary findings of this study suggest that the majority of those with disabilities were uncertain about hearing impairment and the eligibility criteria of the Paralympic Games. It is also suggested that the Olympic Games have some positive effects in terms of empowering individuals with disabilities in society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]