Cross-cultural perspectives on human rights and inclusive education policies : the case of Cyprus

The notions of human rights and inclusion are directly interlinked, as the recognition of disabled children’s human rights is a sine qua non element in the quest for the realisation of an inclusive discourse. Their interconnectedness also pertains to their elusive and contentious nature in an era of increased globalisation. In order to clarify and reinstate the ‘conceptual misappropriation’ of inclusion, it is important to acquire a cross cultural understanding of inclusion and the ways that it is interlinked with the notion of human rights within the wider context of a cultural, historical and socio-political system. Taking as a case study the island of Cyprus in the emergence of the 21st century, the attempt is to explicate this interconnectedness and lay bare the ways that the linguistic and pragmatic misappropriation of inclusion is both the result and the consequence of the inability to establish a human rights discourse within the wider socio-political context of a nation state.peer-reviewe

Sunflowers, hidden disabilities and power inequities in higher education: Some critical considerations and implications for disability-inclusive education policy reforms

The article discusses recent Higher Education (HE) initiatives to introduce the Sunflower Scheme, which enables students with hidden disabilities to ‘discreetly’ indicate the existence of a disability to access support. A significant problem related to persons with hidden disabilities lies in their frequent reluctance to disclose their disabilities because of discriminatory attitudes that arise not only due to the dominance of arbitrary fabrications of ‘normalcy’ – aligned with elitist and human capital HE discourses – but also due to the lack of recognition of the existence of hidden disabilities. Even though the Scheme has been touted as a method that recognises hidden disabilities in HE, it, nevertheless, reinforces discourses of ‘misrecognition’ that create power inequities and project subordinated identities. The article argues that introducing the Scheme in HE constitutes another manifestation of disability-related initiatives that reinforce individual pathology and paternalistic discourses of dependency. The article contributes to a policy dialogue on the need to introduce alternative forms of provision to foster disability-inclusive practices in HE and makes a case to empirically capture the ‘lived experience’ of the Scheme in the context of Disability Equality policies in HE

Inclusive pedagogies in digital post- Covid- 19 higher education

The Covid-19 pandemic has not only led to medical conundrums and uncharted scientific territories but has also engendered new educational challenges and opportunities that need to be considered in order to reconceptualise, recalibrate and reconfigure higher education in terms of its inclusive foundations and orientations. While current research has highlighted the role of digital teaching methodologies in creating the ‘new normal’ in higher education in the post-Covid-19 era, the ‘new normal’ must be concomitantly envisaged in terms of the role of higher education in fostering more inclusive e-learning spaces. This article discusses the ways in which the tenets of an inclusive pedagogical discourse can be conceptualized and enacted in virtual learning environments in terms of teaching methodologies, learner-centred content delivery and formative assessment implementation. The pedagogical triptych should be underpinned by an inclusive and equity-based ‘cyberculture’ that constitutes a sine qua non element in developing all students’ sense of belonging and learning in higher education. Key words: inclusive pedagogies, higher education, online teaching, post Covid-1

A sociological and historical analysis of special education policymaking : the case of Cyprus

EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo

Decolonizing Inclusive Education through Trauma-Informed Theories

Notwithstanding its noble orientations and social justice foundations, inclusion has been contested, interrogated, and subjected to multiple interpretations and enactments. Inclusive education has been, inter alia, characterized as a neo-colonial project that is embroiled in and reinforces geopolitical power asymmetries and oppressive regimes. The article suggests that the enduring legacy of colonial perspectives needs to be problematized and challenged through a trauma-responsive lens that captures the traumatizing effects of colonialism/ty on the ‘lived’ realities of disabled and other disenfranchised groups of students. Trauma is a constituent element of intersectional oppression stemming from and imbricated in conditions of colonial structures of power that conceal and legitimize social inequalities, extreme poverty, malnutrition, violence, substandard childcare, racism, and other ‘cultural’ traumas. This is an issue that highlights the imperative of developing theories of inclusion that acknowledge and address the intersections of colonialism/ty, disability and trauma and their impact on educational accessibility, participation, and achievemen

An Empirical Investigation of Disability-Related Interpersonal Violence Through an Intersectional Research Paradigm: Methodological Considerations and Implications

The study uses an econometric approach to disaggregate data on disability related violence reported in Accident and Emergency departments in London to investigate the extent to which the intersections of gender, ethnicity, and age characteristics of disabled people increase their risk of experiencing interpersonal violence. Our empirical findings suggest that females and older individuals are generally more likely to be interpersonal violence victims. The disability dummy is positive and significant, irrespective of gender or ethnicity. This implies that persons with disabilities are more likely to be victims of interpersonal violence than individuals without disabilities, regardless of gender and ethnicity. The most important discovery concerns the magnitude of the dummy coefficient regarding the disability of individuals. The coefficient is the largest for females of Black origin with disabilities, followed by Asians, with white origin exhibiting the smallest coefficient. This suggests that people with disabilities of Black origin are more likely to experience interpersonal violence than the Asian or white community. The study outcomes provide novel and rigorous empirically validated knowledge of the intersectional vectors of power that impact the risk of experiencing disability-related interpersonal violence while informing the development of intersectionality-based policy approaches to tackling disability-related interpersonal violence

Disabling Discourses and Some Implications for Parent Leadership in Special Education Policy and Practice

The paper aims to explore ways in which mothers of children with cerebral palsy (CP) attempt to voice their concerns about current discourses and power imbalances enshrined in special education policy and provision. Mothers’ narratives are important in making transparent the multiple forms of ‘disablism’ experienced by them in their attempts to negotiate and counteract-on behalf of their children deficit-based and discriminatory discourses and professional practices that violate their children’s rights, notwithstanding international and national legal mandates promoting a rights-based approach to disability. Their narrated subjugated agency in disability politics highlights the imperative to introduce new forms of advocacy through parent leadership in order to enable parents to have a more active and strategic role in challenging disabling discourses and practices that undermine their children’s rights and entitlements

Neoliberal versus Social Justice Reforms in Education Policy and Practice: Discourses, Politics and Disability Rights in Education

This article uses Critical Discourse Analysis in order to discuss the equity and social justice implications of an envisaged education reform agenda in Cyprus, as articulated by two consultation reports commissioned by the World Bank. The reports highlight, inter alia, the imperative to improve teaching and enhance accountability regimes with regard to students’ learning. Selected extracts from these documents are analysed in order to highlight the absence of a social justice discourse in the rhetoric of educational reforms, despite the alleged centrality of a social justice discourse in official policy. The reports fail to include issues of social justice and learner diversity in discussing the necessity to strengthen the existing teacher policy framework and to mobilize structural educational reforms. This omission is indicative of the neoliberal imperatives that drive the envisaged education policy reforms as well as the low priority attributed to issues of equity and learner diversity, with particular reference to students designated as having special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEN/D)

Inclusive education and critical pedagogy at the intersections of disability, race, gender, and class

Abstract The paper aims to use insights from critical pedagogy to forg