4th Hirohima University&National Institute of Special Need Education Joint Seminar Inclusive Education for Children with Foreign Roots

Date and time

December 8th, 2024
2:00 pm – 4:30 pm

Venue

Mirai Crea, Conference Room
(HU Higashi-Hiroshima Campus)

Number of participants

161 (30 in-person, 131 online)

Department in charge

The Center for Special Needs
Education Research and Practice

Goal of this event

The aim of this seminar was to understand the current situation and issues surrounding the education of children with foreign roots, and to discuss inclusive education in the future. Lectures were given on education in the USA, Sweden and Japan.

Report

The three speakers gave lectures on the educationof children with foreign roots. First, Associate Professor North Cooc (University of Texas at Austin) gave a lecture entitled “Race, Diversity, and Disability: School Inclusion Challenges”. He discussed the existence of racial disparities in special needs education in the United States, and how socioeconomic disparities affect this.

Associate Professor Yasuko Okumura (Hiroshima University) gave a lecture entitled “Learning Difficulties in Children in Multilingual Environment”. She explained the term “mismatch”, which refers to the situation where there is a discrepancy between the individual factors of the child and the demands of the school and society.

Mr. Norihiro Namikawa (National Institute of Special Needs Education) gave a presentation entitled “Inclusive Education for Children with Foreign Roots: Learning for Children with Disabilities and Foreign Roots”. He explained the current situation based on a survey of the decision-making process for school placement for foreign children in Japan.

After the presentations, Associate Professor Mariko Omori (Hiroshima University) made comments on the speakers, and a question and answer session was held. The event was a great success, with lively discussions taking place.