Fundamental Research of Interest in Adapted Physical Education

課題番号：2050053

An Interdependence Approach to Empathic Concern for Disability and Accessibility: Effects of Gender, Culture, and Priming Self-Construal in Japan and New Zealand

An interdependence approach to empathic concern could transform the current societal environment for people with disability into a more accessible and equitable one. To our knowledge, this is the first study to investigate two possible factors influencing empathic concern, gender and ethnic culture, in specific helping scenarios. We first examined whether the female gender and collectivist culture of Japan were associated with higher levels of interdependence and empathic concern for disability than were the male gender and individualist culture of New Zealand. Empathic concern for people with impairment was assessed in accessible and inaccessible environments. Neither gender nor culture significantly influenced the level of interdependence, whereas gender and culture differentially moderated empathic concern. We also explored the possibility of altering self-construal and thus promoting prosocial behaviour by examining the correlation between self-construal and prosocial intention, and the effect of cultural priming on self-construal. The correlation was significant under inaccessible conditions in the Japanese sample, and the effect of interdependent priming was not significant on interdependent self-construal in both countries. Discussion centres on theoretical implications of the observed conditional support for the female-gender and collectivist-culture hypotheses, and on ways to promote prosocial behaviour, taking into account gender and cultural differences

An inventory to assess empathic concern for disability and accessibility: development and preliminary psychometric investigation

Cultivating empathy and prosocial attitude towards disability is a first step for university students to become the leaders of society and professions to create accessible environments and inclusive society. Gauging levels of empathy and prosocial attitude towards disability among the students is important for evaluating the adequacy of disability training and education. We developed and conducted an initial psychometric validation of a novel inventory in Japanese and English languages to assess Empathic Concern for Disability and Accessibility (ECDA) in Japan and New Zealand. Preliminary psychometric evaluation indicates strong internal consistency in the Japanese sample (α = .96) and the New Zealand sample (α = .93). Exploratory factor analysis demonstrated a four-factor solution for both samples. The present study has resulted in the development of the ECDA that demonstrated initial support for internal consistency and construct validity. The ECDA may be used for the cross-cultural comparisons of disability training and education.Peer Reviewe

Developing a Socially-Just Research Agenda for Inclusive Physical Education in Japan

Ethnocentric models of disability and inclusive pedagogical practice have resulted in an ontology of disability 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 and move beyond ethnocentrism that has previously dominated this research. From this reinterpretation of findings, we developed a future research agenda for improving inclusive PE in Japan to support teachers and students in culturally respectful and contextual ways

A Proposition for Cultural Praxis in Disability Research: Seeking Socially-Just Agendas for Inclusive Physical Activity

Introduction: There have been increasing calls within the field of critical disability studies to move beyond an ethnocentric, Global North lens, especially when doing inclusive work in countries that have historically been oppressed by such cultures (e.g. Goodley, 2017; Meekosha, 2011). Global South and Postcolonial Disability Studies have advanced conversations and understandings of disability and how to do emancipatory research, but we argue these lenses are far too wide to do meaningful, socially-just research in specific countries. Instead, an approach focusing on more local, country specific cultures is required to truly anchor agendas of social justice within the unique contexts they are lived. We developed such an approach to craft a socially-just research agenda for inclusive PE in Japan Methods: We adopted a cultural praxis paradigm, did a scoping review of all English and Japanese language documents on inclusive PE in Japan, conducted a reflexive thematic analysis on the data set and applied analytical lenses of cultural and critical disability studies to create this socially-just agenda. Results: We learnt much from this process and will share our reflections, processes and lessons learned from developing this novel, pluralistic approach. Discussion: We hope this approach can be applied in countries across the world to create meaningful, inclusive change in culturally specific and sensitive ways to achieve cultural praxis and social justice. Conclusion: While we present our process in the context of Japan, we believe that such an approach can be used as a guide to support researchers seeking to do culturally specific and sensitive, socially just work in inclusive P