Gill Rutherford

What’s Wrong with ‘Special’? Thinking Differently in New Zealand Teacher Education About Disabled Children and Their Lives

1. The ideology and discourse of ‘special education’ can still be found in thinking, policy and practice in education despite almost 50 years of critique in relation to the arbitrary nature of the term and its negative impact on disabled children and young people. 2. Neoliberal ideologies and the rationalization of some teacher education programmes mean that disability can be left out of discussions in teacher education about social justice. 3. Initial teacher education (ITE) and postgraduate (PG) teacher education programmes can be designed and taught in ways that interrupt students’ received truths, and trouble normative thinking and deficit ideologies inherent in ‘special’ education. 4. Teacher education programmes that work at the nexus of disability studies and childhood studies can support students to challenge ideas about ‘special’ and uphold children’s agency, competence and rights as a foundation for teaching and learning. 5. Inclusive pedagogies and approaches such as Learning Without Limits (LWL) and Universal Design for Learning (UDL) turn teachers’ attention to the use of teaching approaches that are designed for all students.

‘We Put in a Few Ramps in Here and There, that’s about It’

Concern about the lack of recognition of disability matters, other than putting “a few ramps in here and there,” prompted the pilot study outlined in this chapter. As academics working in different university divisions and disciplines, we share a desire to move beyond mere ramping of the physical environment, to investigate means of enhancing the university’s responsiveness to disability matters in its teaching, research, policy and administrative roles.

Questions of Value(S)

Disabled students and teacher aides, recognised as being marginalised and undervalued within education, hold a tenuous place and status in many schools in New Zealand (Giangreco, Edelman, Broer, & Doyle, 2001).