Jude MacArthur

Children with physical disability: Gaps in service provision, problems joining in

Aim:  To describe the reported experiences of the estimated 14 500 New Zealand children with a physical disability and those of their families and whanau (extended families).

Introduction to the special issue – making inclusive education happen: Ideas for sustainable change

The articles in this special issue are based on papers presented at an international conference entitled, Making inclusive education happen: Ideas for sustainable change, which was held in Wellington, New Zealand in September 2009. The conference was the work of a group in New Zealand called the Inclusive Education Action Group (IEAG). In this introduction to the special issue, we describe the IEAG, the context for our work and the aims of the conference. We also provide a brief overview of the papers. New Zealand has often been identified as an example of a nation where neoliberal policies have been implemented both quickly and widely. These policies focus on outputs rather than outcomes, stressing the need for efficiency and cost effectiveness (e.g. Apple 2002; Lather 2009; Whitty and Power 1998). Lather (2009) described the resulting climate in schools as an ‘audit culture’ that requires teachers to continuously demonstrate their effectiveness through simplistic and instrumentalist approaches to assessment. Critiques of the implementation of neoliberal policies in education in New Zealand have come from a wide range of educationists within New Zealand, which is evident in the following statement by Peters et al. (2000, 1):

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.