Disability Culture and Inclusive Education: Bridging the Gap
Introduction
Due to the long-standing culture of exclusion in education policies and the educational environment, people with disabilities continue to experience many uncharted concerns. Exclusion from ordinary human rights and other fundamental rights are forms of marginalization that call for re-imagination and reconstruction of social and educational systems. Despite the enactment of both national and international policies aimed at fostering equal opportunities for people living with disabilities and ban of their discrimination based on disability, serious patterns of exclusion remain pronounced along these lines. An analysis of various strategies seeking to address full inclusion shows that the policies of inclusion appear to have further stretched the gap leaving the disability community advocating for themselves (Hall 145). In recent years, even though the topic of full inclusion has been explored and researched, the gap persists, and attempts to close it are still farfetched. Inclusive education refers to a system where all students, irrespective of their encounters, are placed in suitable overall education curriculums in their neighborhoods for a high-quality education to enable them to attain future success (Lebeer 31). Reconciling disability culture with education systems, however, requires a thorough analysis and understanding of various propositions. This paper, therefore, shall explore the aspect of implementing inclusive education in an era of struggle where counter-arguments that moving towards inclusivity means lowering educational standards and more exist.
First, before delving into inclusive education, it is paramount to get an overview of disability culture and its importance to people with disabilities. Disability culture is defined as the inclusion of shared values such as art, history, the evolution of symbols and language, social oppression, beliefs, and values for thriving and surviving (Hall 146). It encompasses various core values which include orientation towards helping one another, acceptance of human differences, disability humor, and future orientation among other aspects. The existence of disability culture is characterized by an accord of numerous assumptions including its cross-cultural nature, its emergence from art movement, and the constructive portrayal of disabled individuals (Dupre 168). Disability culture exists and research has revealed this. For instance, in research to determine these aspects, Pratt identified social justice, independence, and giving back as main characteristics of disability culture (8). However, all these aspects require relying on peers to administer these values which should be deeply rooted in the education systems — an aspect that requires thorough restructuring.
Importance of disability culture
Disability culture is a concept where consciousness on the subject can be built upon. People living with disabilities can collectively develop a sense of identity and belonging to this culture and use it to recognize their everyday oppressions. Notably, the importance of this culture, hence, is the fortification it brings which can be used to fight oppression. Fortification is a sense of reinforcement that emanates from a shared disability community and aids in advocating for equal rights (Andrews 61). By joining power, disabled individuals can promote a universal effort, increase their power, and promote a drive that will help defend their rights. This tends to reduce intra-disability hierarchies.
Secondly, disability culture promotes communication which can be developed through art, symbols, rituals, and language. This form of communication aids in articulating the distinctness of the disabled individuals who, due to disengagement, can quickly develop some sense of isolation. Disability culture bridges the gap between isolation and the world of disability where these individuals would have otherwise remained unaware of others who struggle with the same challenges. The impact of communication on the disabled can be far-reaching. For instance, Hall writes that the self-awareness that communication brings can help resolve depressive feelings and also promotes a better relationship with others who may not necessarily have such disabilities (147). This can change how individuals view themselves and other members of society.
Challenges of implementing disability culture in education systems
While there are strategic moves towards inclusion, education systems are still not well-aligned to accommodate disability culture. Consequently, there has been a rising concern over lowering the quality of education to accommodate disability culture — an issue that evokes contradiction. The biggest drawback that can be pointed out in implementing disability culture is the capacity of the education system to adapt to the broad perspective of organizing the disabled individuals to fit into mainstream education. How to educate children with disabilities to the level of their potential just like their counterparts is specifically the major concern. This is because of the various challenges which have been pointed out in this section.
Firstly, the inclusive setting lacks the experience needed to accommodate individuals with special needs, and this is a major disadvantage. Right from developing lesson plans and passing of skills, inclusive settings in education systems largely lag. This aspect, according to Lebeer, can be blamed for several drop-outs that are witnessed in many schools (33). Due to this detriment of poorly structured settings, the aspect of inclusive education which requires that all students should be enrolled in normal classes and bestowed with proper support services to learn together with other students remains a challenge.
Secondly, there is the challenge of including all learners in all educational activities. Inclusion requires that classrooms should involve all the students in all aspects of classroom activities. Empirically, inclusive education refers to flexible and individualize systems that support learners with special needs, mainly due to disability and other reasons (Lebeer 34). Lack of inclusivity in these activities has been found to have a link with individual interactiveness in their later years, a factor that Hall (149) terms as neglected social status.
Recommendations for the society and governments
From the analysis of the above challenges, it can be noted that most of the problems that are witnessed in inclusive settings are the consequences of improper teacher training and other support services. For instance, teachers may successfully identify the needs of special needs students but due to lack of instruction in training, they may not accord the needed support. The first recommendation that the government and society need to look into is teacher training. Teachers play a crucial role in the fight towards inclusivity. This is more essential, particularly to struggling learners. Lack of training among teachers both in mainstream and segregated schools has caused a major drawback in special needs education and the promotion of inclusive education. Allocation of funds into the capacity-training may help in resolving the problem and improve service delivery
Finally, there is a need for strategic support to improve education access as well as quality. Policies that address the issue of disability education need not carry any form of bias or de-prioritization. Parents, teachers, and medical practitioners have been noted as the major stakeholders that play an active role in the lives of children with disabilities. Greater coordination between these key players is essential in improving their access to quality education. If a more scalable solution with a coordinated response from these parties can be implemented, then, disability culture can be fostered in education.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the theme of this article is disability culture and inclusive education — a critical subject in contemporary society. The article notes that it is essential to promote disability culture as it builds consciousness on the part of the parties involved and aids in recognizing the oppressions that these individuals face. From its perspective, disability culture breeds communication and fortification which are all vital for the future of disabled individuals. On the other hand, implementing disability culture in education systems comes with other concerns like inappropriate inclusive settings and the problem of including all learners in all schooling activities. Given the importance of disability culture and challenges in implementing it, the article proposes that the government and society need to look into training and funding to improve access and quality of service delivery in education systems.
References
Andrews, E. (2020). Disability as diversity: Developing cultural competence.
Dupré M. (2012). Disability Culture and Cultural Competency in Social Work, Social Work Education, 31:2, 168–183, DOI: 10.1080/02615479.2012.644945.
Hall, J. P. (2014). Narrowing the breach: Can disability culture and full educational inclusion be reconciled? Article in journal of disability policy studies, Dec 2002. 144–152.
Lebeer, J. (2006). Clues to inclusive and cognitive education: reconciling needs to integrate and activate learning processes. Transylvanian journal of psychology/special issue №2. Supplement №1. 31–61.
Pratt, J. A. F. (2018). (Re) defining disability culture: perspectives from the Americans with Disabilities Act generation. Article in culture and psychology, Sept 2018. 1–16.
