Teachers with Special Needs. De-Psychiatrization of Children in Schools

Psychiatrization not only affects adults. Ever more children in Western countries are being diagnosed with a mental disorder of behavior, such as ADHD. Children may often be labelled with the best intentions, for example in order to be able to provide them with suitable care and guidance. However, this labelling can have exclusionary effects and often entails the consequence that important discussion about contextual factors that give rise to (the perception of) unwelcome behavior or academic underperformance rarely, if at all, takes place. In this article we contend that although children are of central concern to schools and the design of pupils’ education, it is important not to make pupils the sole owner of problems that arise. It is therefore high time that a far more critical normative stance towards inclusive education is taken, in which the presently widespread biomedical approach is met with a school community response that focuses not on the nature of individual disorders but on the special need for additional capacity that schools and teachers have in meeting (perceived) deviant behaviors and emotions and/or academic underperformance. We argue that teaching should not set out to remedy individual diagnoses, but that teachers should be supported to extend their professional competence to the benefit of all pupils

From children to teachers with special needs

Inclusief onderwijs betekent dat alle kinderen op een reguliere school in hun eigen buurt onderwijs volgen. In Nederland zijn verschillende pogingen gedaan om dit in de praktijk te brengen: het Weer Samen Naar School beleid, de Leerlinggebonden Financiering (de rugzakjes) en, meest recentelijk, de wet op Passend Onderwijs. Al deze uitwerkingen zijn echter gericht op het individuele model van inclusief onderwijs, met als afwijkend ervaren kenmerken of eigenschappen van kinderen als uitgangspunt. Hiermee is eerder meer exclusie dan inclusie bewerkstelligd. Dit artikel pleit voor het sociale model van inclusie. Scholen zijn dan ingericht op omgaan met diversiteit en bieden een context waarin geen individuele barrières bestaan voor deelname aan onderwijs. Een eerste wezenlijke stap om de focus van individueel naar het sociaal vormgeven van inclusief onderwijs te verleggen, is om voortaan te spreken van leerkrachten in plaats van kinderen met speciale onderwijsbehoeften.Inclusive education means that all pupils attend school in their locality. In The Netherlands various subsequent national education policies aimed towards this goal. These policies have however pursued an individual model of inclusive education, in which personal attributes taken to be special were the point of departure. The outcome has sooner been more exclusion than more inclusion. In this article we advocate that by re-designing education around handling diversity and so creating settings in which individual barriers to participation are absent, a social model of inclusion is better able to achieve true inclusion. A first significant step in moving away from individual towards the social shaping of inclusive education is to henceforth speak of teachers’ special professional needs instead of pupils with special needs.</p

The sound of study:Student experiences of listening in the university soundscape

The students from three universities (Groningen, Oldenburg and the University of Applied Sciences in Utrecht) were surveyed on the experience of hearing and listening in their study. Included in the online survey were established questionnaires on hearing loss, tinnitus, hyperacusis, a subscale on psychosocial strain resulting from impaired hearing and a questionnaire about students’ perceptions of listening ease in study environments. Results from the 10,466 students who completed the survey (13% response rate) are highlighted, with particular attention to listening ease and measures proposed by students for improving it. A consequence from our findings is that more effective classroom practice may be won if study soundscapes can be improved, while universities might exercise greater inclusive responsibility for study as high quality sensory experience for the benefit of all students

Learning to learn in the European Reference Framework for lifelong learning

<p>This article explores the construction of learning to learn that is implicit in the document Key Competences for Lifelong LearningEuropean Reference Framework and related education policy from the European Commission. The authors argue that the hallmark of learning to learn is the development of a fluid sociality rather than the promotion of fluent task-oriented behaviour. They also make the case for greater attention to the embodied, situated, affective and creative dimensions of learning to learn. These are considered in the context of the main trends in EU lifelong learning policy over the last two decades, which indicate a narrow instrumentalist approach to learning situated firmly within the human capital paradigm. The authors focus on the internal coherence of the Framework, and on the tensions inherent in learning outcomes' that emphasise personal fulfilment and wellbeing, social cohesion and economic competitiveness respectively. This article is the first step in clarifying the epistemological basis of learning to learn, and wresting it from narrow identification with self-regulated learning and meta-cognition, and ultimately challenging a narrow reading of human capital theory.</p>

The lack of common sense in disorder thinking

best read article in 202