Medical Theory Applied to the Education System: The Attitude of the Japanese Educational Administration Towards Autism as a Brain Disorder

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  • 医学理論はいかにして教育制度に取り入れられるか——自閉症教育制度における脳機能障害説の位置づけ——
  • 医学理論はいかにして教育制度に取り入れられるか : 自閉症教育制度における脳機能障害説の位置づけ
  • イガク リロン ワ イカニ シテ キョウイク セイド ニ トリイレラレル カ : ジヘイショウ キョウイク セイド ニ オケル ノウ キノウ ショウガイセツ ノ イチズケ

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<p>This study aimed to clarify how a medical theory was applied to the Japanese education system. Sociological studies of autism have analyzed narratives and discourses affected by the medical knowledge that autism is a brain disorder. Few studies, however, have examined the process by which autism came to be treated as a brain disorder in the education system, which mainly contributed to the proliferation of this knowledge. By analyzing administrative and medical documents, the following result was found: while bureaucrats recognized the medical theory behind autism, it was treated as a psychogenic disorder by the education system in order to ensure educational opportunities for autistic children in the 1970s. The education reform in the 2000s repositioned it as a brain disorder on the assumption that a more precise medical knowledge could be helpful to meet the increasingly diverse needs of children.</p>

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