Nithi Muthukrishna

The geographies of inclusion of students with disabilities in an ordinary school

With the release of Education White Paper 6: Special Needs Education — Building an Inclusive Education and Training System the issue of inclusive schooling has formed a growing part of the education debate in South Africa. There have been inclusive education pilot projects undertaken by the national and provincial education departments and various school-based initiatives that have engaged with inclusive education policy implementation. This study explored one school-based initiative that aimed to include children with disabilities and implement the imperatives of Education White Paper 6. The research participants were five teachers and the school principal. Data collection techniques included in-depth semi-structured interviews, non-participant observations in classrooms and document analysis. The findings in the study emphasize the importance of spatiality to understanding how ideological and structural forces impinge on a school that is grappling with the inclusion of students with disabilities. The study highlights how the everyday individual and cultural practices in the specific school spaces play out to reinforce dominant normalizing discourses of traditional forms of special education.

Education, childhood and disability in countries of the South – Re-positioning the debates:

We embarked on the ambitious project of a Special Issue on ‘Education, Childhood and Disability in Countries of the South: Re-positioning the Debates’ with the intention of challenging dominant paradigms and making a contribution to educational discourse, childhood studies and disability studies informed by research and scholarly debates in countries of the South. We saw the need to present emerging research agendas, paradigms, methodologies and theories that illuminate the complex social, political and structural influences that shape the childhood of children with disabilities and their access to education and care. We want the collection of articles in this issue to engage scholars and researchers in reflexive critique of North/South dynamics that influence the construction and understanding of disabled children’s childhood and education in the global South. In this introduction, we highlight some key issues that in our opinion necessitate a focus on the South, issues which are different from the North, but issues which also require one to consider ways in which the North and South do connect. We begin with a small note on the use of terminology in the Special Issue, specifically in relation to North and South. North/South terminology came to the fore in the 1960s and was popularised in the Brant Commission’s Report, ‘North-South: A programme for survival’ (1980), which highlighted the stark inequalities between the two blocks and proposed ways of redressing these. Over the years ‘North/South’ has become shorthand for highlighting the complex set of inequalities and dependencies between countries divided not by geographical boundaries, but by fundamental economic inequality. Significantly, most countries of the South also share the legacy of having been conquered

Experiencing Violence in Schools: Voices of Learners in the Lesotho Context

Abstract This study explored learner experiences of school violence at a secondary school in Lesotho. Fifteen (15) learners participated in the study. Data were collected through individual and focus group interviews and document analysis. The study found that learners were exposed to complex patterns of violence and these were experienced in multiple forms, for example, sexual violence, corporal punishment, sexual harassment, bullying, physical violence. In certain ways schooling itself can be viewed as violence in that the school had an ethos of authoritarianism and control. Violence was often experienced as a gendered phenomenon. The study highlights the need for proactive programmes that are directed at attaining the goal of building school communities that are safe havens. A key component of such programmes should be critical self-reflection and self-scrutiny by members of the school community.

Layers of oppression and exclusion in the context of HIV and AIDS: the case of adult and child learners in the Richmond District, province of KwaZulu‐Natal

This paper emerges out of a larger qualitative study that aimed at mapping barriers to basic education experienced by children and adults in the context of the HIV and AIDS pandemic. The study was undertaken in Richmond district and involved a range of centres of learning (formal and informal) including three high schools, five primary schools, two adult basic education centres, a school for the deaf, two early childhood centres and their communities. The participants in the study were child and adult learners, parents and caregivers, school governing bodies, organizations working in the district, officials from the Departments of Health, Education and Social Welfare and members of a support group for people living with HIV or AIDS. The study attempted to capture the voices of participants and to obtain rich qualitative data through individual interviews and focus group interviews. In addition, various participatory research techniques such as transect walks, vulnerability matrices, ranking exercises, photo‐voice and social mapping were used in the focus group interviews. This paper provides an understanding of a theme—that of oppression—that emerged from the data. The findings suggest that oppressions are systematically produced and reproduced in the processes of the everyday lives of learners, their families, teachers and the wider school community in this particular context. The paper juxtaposes Young’s (1990) five categories of oppression: exploitation, marginalization, powerlessness, cultural imperialism and violence, with three post‐structural constructs: discourse, hegemony and resistance to highlight the complex workings of oppression. These constructs are applied to the data from the study. The paper will provide examples of the forms of oppression and multiple ways in which oppression is played out in different situated spaces.

'Walking our talk' : exploring supervision of postgraduate self-study research through metaphor drawing

The authors of this article portray their learning as a group of eight academics who met to examine the roles and relationships of supervisors of postgraduate self-study research. In the article, they represent how through a metaphor-drawing activity they were able collectively to rethink their experiences and understandings of becoming and being supervisors of postgraduate self-study students. They used a metaphor-drawing activity to gain further understanding of self-study supervision, while also learning more about how visual methods can assist in self-study research. Significantly, in their drawings the supervisor was portrayed as a partner working with the student during the supervision process, rather than as a provider of expert knowledge. Through collaborative interactions and sharing of their personal images of supervision of postgraduate self-study research with critical friends, they were able to reconsider their practices in a reflexive manner that provided insight into possibilities for enhancing their supervisory roles and relationships.

Learning about Co-Flexivity in a Transdisciplinary Self-Study Research Supervision Community

In South Africa, every postgraduate (master’s or doctoral) student is usually assigned one academic advisor, known as a supervisor. “The traditional model is the apprenticeship model of individual mentoring. This model is usually supplemented by informal and ad hoc support programmes” (Academy of Science of South Africa [ASSAf], 2010, p. 64).

Teachers' 'Small Stories' About Curriculum Reform in South Africa: 'Square Peg in a Round Hole'

Abstract The impact of neo-liberal curriculum reform policies is explored in the narratives of primary school teachers in South Africa. The central canons of critical theory and cognitive dissonance theory frame this study. The findings unveil ‘small’ stories that teachers tell about their experiences and negotiations with curriculum reform shifts from 1997 to 2012. Globalisation of neo-liberal educational policies has had a negative impact on education systems worldwide and the findings illumine the incongruities teachers encounter between policy and practice and the effect this has on their emotionality and identity. The necessary and crucial role of teachers as guardians of knowledge-power is highlighted amidst their inextricable relationships with globalisation, neo-liberalism, educational reforms and teacher work ‘glocally’.

Structural Violence Effects on the Educational Life Chances of Children from Low Income Families in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa

The aim of the study was to explore the structural conditions and social formations that mediate access to quality education amongst low income children in KwaZulu-Natal. Structural violence can lead to injustices to children such as the experience of hunger, disease, poverty and poor quality of education. A total of 117 students (male = 59; female = 58; age range 8 to 18 years) were drawn from three high schools, five primary schools and a special school in a district of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. The study captured the voices of participants through individual interviews and focus group interviews. Data were analyzed thematically. Systemic structural conditions in society such as poverty, lack of resources in schools, poor infrastructure in communities, poorly trained teachers, lack of accountability created barriers to educational access for children from poor backgrounds.

Motherhood and the disabled child in contexts of early education and care

This article presents a theoretically based narrative analysis of conversations held with six women in South Africa who position themselves as mothers of disabled children. We examine the dominant socio-cultural narratives that impact the lives of the mothers as they enact motherhood, and the counter-narratives that emerge in the process. Three key themes are discussed: struggle, resiliency and agency; motherhood and the intersections of personal histories, spirituality and Ubuntu; and the economics and politics of negotiating access to social benefits, including early intervention and education. The study highlights the contextual, situated and diverse nature of motherhood and the disabled child in contexts of early education and care.

The Geographies of the Schooling Experiences of Children Labelled Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)

Abstract This study sought to examine the geographies of the schooling experiences of children labelled Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) from a social, spatial and temporal perspective. Three children (male: 3; mean age: 12.6 years), and their mothers participated in the study conducted in the province of KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa. The participants were interviewed individually using semi-structured interviews. Participatory research techniques were used with the children during the interviews, which included timelines and ranking activities. Data were analysed qualitatively using a thematic approach. The findings suggest that the schooling spaces of children labelled ADHD are sites of power struggles. Four key themes emerged in the findings: the path to labelling; making the tortuous Ritalin journey; the production of exclusionary and inclusionary spaces; negotiating emotional spaces. The study revealed that various discourses of space work to secure dominant relations of power in the educational experiences of children labelled ADHD.