抄録
This paper investigates the rationale among teachers for separating children with disability in special classes or schools for the handicapped in postwar Japan. It examines the debate within the Japan Teachers Union focusing on teachers' views of “ability” and “discrimination”. We find out that in the 1950s teachers arranged special classes following a logic similar to that used to justify ability grouping based on a generally prevailing view of students' ability as in-born. Notwithstanding the fact that there was a change to a view that saw “ability=equality” in the 1960s, they promoted special classes and schools for the handicapped without seeing the contradiction in logic. By making (social) discrimination the problem, they were able to ignore the inferiority complex of students.
