Abstract
The purpose of this paper is to examine how the voices of children were listened to and positioned in the movement for enabling children with disabilities to attend regular schools, focusing on “Educational rights movement” of Shiyo Gakuen, then an institution in Shiga Prefecture for children with severe intellectual disabilities.
The staff of Shiyo Gakuen argued that it was a human right for children to be allowed to attend regular schools. They perceived the “cry of the heart” of the children in the movement as a “wish” to go to school and be educated in the same way as children without disabilities, claiming that attending of children with disabilities would transform education itself. This paper also shows that the unique ideological background which claims that people “exist” as human only when “belonging” to society may have been formed through listening to the voices of children with disabilities.
After the children entered school, the staff requested teachers to let children with disabilities and without disabilities study together in the same classroom. The movement developed involving teachers in the school and listening to the voices of the children from each standpoint. Moreover, the voices of children without disabilities learning “together” with children with disabilities were also heard and positioned in the movement by the staff of Shiyo Gakuen.
The paper found that listening to children's voices during the movement as a means of embodying the implementation of the rights of children with disabilities was greatly influenced by the context of the whole movement and changes in social conditions as well as the listener's views of rights and education. At the same time, especially in terms of the voices of children with disabilities, regarded as the “starting point,” the movement itself may have developed and deepened as a result of repeated listening.
Elsewhere, the paper also found a potential in the relationship between children in the records of Shiyo Gakuen which did not fit in the context of the movement. The children without disabilities may have listened to the voices of children with disabilities and showed thinking and action close to today's “social model” of disability. This suggests that children's relationships in the movement for enabling children with disabilities to attend regular schools include the potential to grow as a group and to learn and grow “together,” not just in the context of guaranteeing the human rights of children with disabilities.
