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 PE