Estelle Swart

Parents’ Experiences of Their Rights in the Implementation of Inclusive Education in South Africa:

Parental involvement was a driving and decisive factor in the development of inclusive education worldwide. In South Africa parents also became the advocates of the inclusive education movement in the 1990s, paving the way for parents to be involved in the decision-making process regarding the school placement of their children with disabilities. The purpose of this article is to focus on the way in which equity, individual rights and freedom of choice manifest itself in the implementation of inclusive education with specific reference to the way in which parents experience it. Results indicate that the inclusion of a child into mainstream education is a challenging and dynamic process that starts with the parents’ decision to place their child in a mainstream setting. In spite of legislation and the desires of parents, the development of inclusive educational practises in South Africa does not always reflect the values of equity and individual rights. Failure to establish collaborative and trusting relationships between teachers, parents and professionals poses a major challenge and can have a serious impact on the outcomes of inclusive education.

Access to education in Africa: responding to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities

Article 24 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities mandates that disabled people should have full rights to education in inclusive settings. However, to ensure that educational polices and settings are designed to meet this criterion seems challenging to African countries that have ratified this Convention. This article arises from the 2nd African Network of Evidence-to-Action on Disability Symposium. This fluid network was established to address the gap between research and practice in the region. The article reports proceedings and the emerging themes from the Education, Training and Work Commission; one of the six commissions of this Symposium, focusing specifically on the education aspect. It also challenges various stakeholders to move from evidence to action to ensure the educational rights of disabled people in inclusive settings.

Addressing South African Pre-service Teachers’ Sentiments, Attitudes and Concerns Regarding Inclusive Education

This article recounts the findings of a study that investigated pre-service teachers’ attitudes and concerns regarding inclusive education and their degree of comfort when interacting with people with disabilities after completing courses on inclusive education. One hundred and eighty pre-service teachers from one higher education institution in South Africa completed the Sentiments, Attitudes and Concerns about Inclusive Education Scale. They were all being prepared to teach at either the primary (41%) or secondary (59%) level of education. Pre-service teachers’ mean scores on the sentiments scale increased following the intervention (p < 0.001), as did the mean scores on the attitudes scale (p < 0.001). However, mean scores related to their concerns decreased (p = 0.01). With respect to the latter finding, as a result of the intervention the pre-service teachers became more worried about resources to support inclusive education (p < 0.001), the reality of large classes (p = 0.01) and their workload (p = 0.04). Recommendations based on the research findings are made, suggesting that the quality of courses on inclusive education should be enhanced in higher education institutions.

Where Differences Matter A Cross-Cultural Analysis of Family Voice in Special Education

U.S. education policy acknowledges the troubling differential rates of special education identification and placement for students who are culturally and linguistically diverse by requiring states to review annually student identification data from all local education agencies to identify and address disproportionate representation. Yet, little is known about the interaction between families that are culturally and linguistically diverse and the service providers they encounter at their local schools. The authors examine those relationships in South Africa and the United States, two countries where the legacy of racism lingers in the ways in which school personnel and families negotiate differences in how children are viewed, assessed, and offered support for learning needs. In both countries, sustained efforts from families and school personnel were needed to develop supports and services that worked well for students with disabilities and their families.

Care, performance and performativity: Portraits of teachers’ lived experiences

Abstract Data from an investigation into the care practices of teachers in a primary school in a vulnerable community fore-grounded, firstly, the influence of a performance culture on the lived experiences of teachers; and secondly, the role of language in the meaning-making of teachers regarding care. The data was generated by means of group discussions, individual and focus group interviews and open-ended questions as part of a more comprehensive research project that explored teachers’ care practices in two primary schools. The research project employed an ethnographic methodology and more specifically, an ethnographic casebook design. We purposefully selected three teachers from the one school to construct portraits of their care practices. In an effort to make sense of the data we consulted the writings of Judith Butler on the constitutive nature of language. We viewed the teachers’ accounts of their lived experiences through the lenses of care theory, performance and performativity. The portraits of...

Increasing access into higher education: Insights from the 2011 African Network on Evidence-to-Action on Disability Symposium – Education Commission

This article provides some insights into the challenges regarding inclusion in higher education of students with disabilities. It does this by elucidating aspects of the proceedings of the Education Commission at the African Network on Evidence-to-Action on Disability (AfriNEAD) Symposium, which took place in Zimbabwe in November 2011. The presentations specifically focused on the education of people with disabilities from early childhood through to higher education. This article, however, is informed by presentations focusing on increasing access to higher education. The article is focused on the implementation of evidence in practice, research and policies stemming from rigorous debate and scientific foundations, whilst taking into account the dynamic realities of the higher education context. Themes such as the systemic approach needed for inclusion to be successful, increasing access and the dynamic role of students with disabilities are highlighted.

Students with hearing impairment at a South African university: Self-identity and disclosure

Background A growing number of students with hearing loss are being granted access to higher education in South Africa due to the adoption of inclusive educational policies. However, available statistics indicate that participation by students with hearing impairments in higher education remains low and research suggests that support provisioning for those who do gain access is inadequate. Objectives This article aims to illustrate that the assumed self-identity of students with hearing impairment influences their choice to disclose their disability. The choice not to disclose their hearing loss prevents them from accessing the necessary reasonable accommodations and this in turn may affect their eventual educational success. Method Reported here is a qualitative descriptive case study at a South African university. Purposive sampling methods were employed. Data were gathered from in-depth interviews with seven students with hearing impairment ranging from moderate to profound, using spoken language. Constructivist grounded theory was used as an approach to the process of generating and transforming the data, as well as the construction of theory. Findings All the student participants identified as having a hearing rather than a D/deaf identity cultural paradigm and viewed themselves as ‘normal’. Linked to this was their unwillingness to disclose their hearing impairment and thus access support. Conclusion It is crucially important for academic, support and administrative staff to be aware of both the assumed ‘hearing’ identity and therefore subsequent non-disclosure practices of students with a hearing impairment using the oral method of communication. Universities need to put measures in place to encourage students to voluntarily disclose their hearing impairment in order to provide more targeted teaching and learning support. This could lead to improved educational outcomes for students.

In Their Own Voices Methodological Considerations in Narrative Disability Research

Individuals with disabilities continue to experience exclusion from mainstream contexts amid stereotypical constructions of disability as an inferior status. To address these inequities, we contend that the ramifications for both theory and praxis in disability research rests heavily on the way in which disability is theorized. In this article, we draw on the findings of a narrative inquiry as a context to frame an alternative theoretical model for disability research at both individual and social levels. We propose the efficacy of an integrated theoretical approach using the vehicle of narrative inquiry to present alternative stories by individuals with disabilities themselves. In alignment with a poststructuralist epistemology, we propose the addition of Lacanian psychoanalysis to address the construct of internalized oppression felt at an individual psychological level. We conclude that the epistemological and ontological lens through which research is conceptualized has the power either to subjugate or to emancipate individual experience.

When all the school became a stage: young children enacting a community’s fear and sense of loss

This article gives an ethnographic glimpse of how an urban South African school mirrored a community’s sense‐making during times of rapid social change. The glimpse is extracted largely from an ethnography that was composed in 2000. In this study of school life, the biennial play was central to the year’s activities. In the play the tone, content and style reflected a performance of the discourse of the school community – a discourse of fear and despondency, while searching for hope in spiritual song. Today this previously all White, Afrikaner school is still predominantly White, as Black children’s parents prefer English‐medium schools. On the surface the school appears to be a safe haven for those who were fearful of losing their social position, their language and their way of living, but the initial breakdown of the fabric of the school does not seem to have healed during the time after the study had been completed.

An Ethic of Care in Participatory Research in School Community Settings

We explored the manifestation and development of an ethic of care in school communities using a variety of participatory research methods. The qualitative data from this ethnographic case study were analysed using constructivist grounded theory. Our findings suggest that an ethic of care in participatory research entails collaborating as equal partners, a continuous process of accessing, relationship-building and mutual enabling (CARE). Our research approach enhanced the self-understanding of the two school communities and our own development as researchers. Our main concluding claim is that an ethic of care in participatory research in school communities can be beneficial to research participants and researchers alike.