Constructing inclusion: lessons from critical,disability narratives |
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| Authors: | Douglas Biklen |
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| Institution: | 1. a.j.booth@open.ac.uk |
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| Abstract: | Drawing from critical disability narratives, including disability studies works, autobiographies and school age students' commentaries, explored is how discussions of school inclusion might be expanded to reflect disability voices. The analysis focuses on inclusion primarily as it concerns students with developmental disabilities such as autism, cerebral palsy, and Down syndrome, and how, in light of lessons from critical disability narratives, students with these disabilities might experience fuller academic as well as social inclusion. Specifically, presented are four themes drawn from disability narratives: (1) resisting static understandings of disability; (2) creating and finding contexts for experiencing competence; (3) learning to recognize and resist normate narratives of disability; and (4) honouring the experience of disability. The paper includes a series of assumptions and principles for practising inclusion that arguably can be derived from critical disability narratives. |
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