Essentials of disability studies for special educators Lecture 1 Victoria Shmidt, PhD, MSS in Social work 320753@mail.muni.cz Aims and objects •Disability studies and education: two options for juxtaposing •Criteria (ideas) and procedures (institutions) of educational system in the context of disability studies •Functionalism, •three further approaches, humanist, radical, and reflexive, will be discussed next time • Disability studies •An example of new type for producing knowledge: •Transforming previous object of study to the subject (participative and interactionist researchers) •Involving studies into social movements in favour of implementing better standards of Human Rights •Highlighting dilemmas and conflicts, provoking reflexivity among various actors, integrating them in teams Disability studies among Studies C:\Users\Victoria\Desktop\str-101111-brown2.jpg C:\Users\Victoria\Desktop\Final_Feminism_Project.jpg C:\Users\Victoria\Desktop\lgbtq_protest_480.jpg Man-in-american-poverty1-300x199 Disability studies C:\Users\Victoria\Desktop\civil_right.jpg C:\Users\Victoria\Desktop\disability-studies_body_img.gif Education as an agent of segregation or anti-oppressive practice •Educationalisation as an element of colonisation and the instrument of obedience •Deschooling society or transforming schools into agents of changes C:\Users\Victoria\Desktop\MV5BMTI0NzQyMDA0MV5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTcwMzgyODIyMQ@@__V1_SY317_CR4,0,214,317_ .jpg C:\Users\Victoria\Desktop\MV5BMTkwNTI4NDc3NV5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTcwMTM1NDgxMQ@@__V1_SY317_CR9,0,214,317_ .jpg C:\Users\Victoria\Desktop\MV5BMTc4NjUzNDYxM15BMl5BanBnXkFtZTcwNjExNzMwMg@@__V1_SY317_CR0,0,214,317_ .jpg C:\Users\Victoria\Desktop\doubt_ver3.jpg Task 1: strands for self-evaluation •What do we analyse (what exists in our analysis) •Criteria (idea, discourses) •Practices, institutions, procedures •On which level do we explore an issue •Macrolevel of explaining (policy, culture, economical reasons, idea of progress/backwardness) •Mesolevel (separate groups of actors, relations between people and groups: community level, lack of embeddedness) •Microlevel (behaviour of certain people, trend to be out of changes) •Connections between levels • • How do we know what we know about society, disability, people with disability? •Facts, behaviours, numbers observable things •Feelings, attitudes, process of meaning making The connection between criteria and procedures •Who does what and under which reasons •Agents, actors, groups of interests •Practices, strategies, policies •Discourses, communicative (translating to public) and coordinative (used within creating and implementing policies) Two trajectories between education and disability studies •Educational system as an area of applying disability studies •Wide range of methodologies for exploring education and planning its transformation •Testing disability studies in the context of education •Achieving more coherent approach in evaluating the impact of education on exclusion How could you define the meaning of each of the trajectories for special education? Task 2: redefining education for disabled children Agents Practices Discourses Family placement of disabled children (foster care, adoption, reintegration with birth families) Transparent decision making related to the trajectory of education Early intervening with disabled children, continuity between early intervention and further education Disability studies as providers of meta-methodological approach •Meaningful dichotomies for constructing our own approach in consistent way •Accepting the diversity of approaches •Accepting the necessity to indicate our own position towards disability The division of social theories regarding disability •Two dichotomies: •Society is understood as regulated vs. Society is understood as in conflict • •Subjective entities in society vs. Objective things in society • • • • The key question of disability studies: what is more important •Human rights •Process of education •Meaning of here and now •the collision of interest groups •Human capital •Outcomes of education •Meaning of future results •over-utilitarian and very traditional approach Functionalism: ideas •Education as an element of social order •Norms as regulators of the balance between individuals and society •Disability as an abnormality (potentially) destroying social order •Variety of approaches •focus on biological factors •Focus on social factors •Coinciding both perspectives The case of eugenics •Selective strand •Main focus: the threat of reproducing low-value people and two alternatives to solve the issue: •the isolation from mainstream society (placement into institutions) •sterilization • • •Assimilative eugenics •Main focus: the mode of life as a key determinant of the national health 1)all diseases are the result of inappropriate mode of life; 2)the sustainable improvements of the quality of life are indispensable for the health of nation • The framework of arguments in favour of residential care in eugenics Combining both domains of eugenics into consistent scheme in education Main elements of the approach to re-educating Selective stream Assimilative stream connection between disability and deviant behaviour Both need to be under control and restrictions, common hereditary factors Common strategies for correction, without which deviance becomes inevitable incapability of parents to provide care and control Mostly, parents of children with disorders are the core source of bad heredity The disorder of child is a result of inappropriate family upbringing indispensable role of institutions and professionals Better knowledge and the ability to differentiate the degree of disorder. Working out classification with various types of disorders relevantly to the main source of disorder’s origin: heredity, social circumstances, or the mix of both Combining both domains of eugenics into consistent scheme Main elements of the approach to re-educating Selective stream Assimilative stream connection between disability and deviant behaviour Both need to be under control and restrictions, common hereditary factors Common strategies for correction, without which deviance becomes inevitable incapability of parents to provide care and control Mostly, parents of children with disorders are the core source of bad heredity The disorder of child is a result of inappropriate family upbringing indispensable role of institutions and professionals Better knowledge and the ability to differentiate the degree of disorder. Working out classification with various types of disorders relevantly to the main source of disorder’s origin: heredity, social circumstances, or the mix of both Roma children in residential care: the first day in children home and after 5 months > Functionalism: selective procedures •Differentiating norms and abnormality •Assessment centres •Tests and the art of psychodiagnostics •Methods of pathopsychology •Correcting deviance towards norms •Special schools •Special programmes •Correction • • Actors •Professionals vs. parents •The knowledge belongs to experts •Parents are posed as a main threat for child up bringing •Children vs. society •What transforms ‘dangerous’ children into socialised entities? •What are expectations of the society from next generations? • Two views on functionalist approach and the education based upon it •Total unacceptance because of the apology of naturalness • •Critique towards monopolising the space of approaches by functionalism, the call for diverse methodologies and practices C:\Users\Victoria\Desktop\cap502m.jpg http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=29Mg6Gfh9Co Home task: Whistleless http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=42CPf-RXgUM •What symbolises the ability to whistle? •Who teaches the bird to whistle? •In which reasons do they have the right to teach? •What are differences between teachers? •How does the movie describe the social order in “the pink town”? •What are consequences of stealing the whistle by policeman? •Which attitude towards functionalist approach does movie provide? Whistleless — A short film by Siri Melchior on Vimeo