Disabled students’ narratives about their schooling experiences

Abstract

An ongoing interest in disabled learners' voices has been reflected in a number of studies that explore students' experiences of schooling, as part of the quest to understand how inclusive education can be achieved. These studies, however, have been conducted mainly in industrially developed countries, while very few studies exist from industrially developing countries such as Greece in which disabled people's voices are under-represented not only in political processes but in research as well. The aim of this study was to investigate disabled students' educational experience, their social interactions with peers and teachers, the choice of school and the support they received for responding to curricular demands and complexities. The results of the study confirmed that disabled students can provide invaluable information on matters involving their education, and showed how personal experiences of disability are influenced by the socio-cultural experiences lived in different social arenas, such as that of education. Points of interestA number of researchers have suggested that listening to disabled students' voices may foster the proliferation of proposals leading to more inclusive educational models. Based on the above suggestion, the aim of this study was to investigate disabled students' experiences of schooling, their social interactions with peers and teachers, the choice of school and the support they received for responding to curricular demands and complexities. Thirty-two Greek young people with disabilities (17 females and 15 males) participated in the study. The results of the study confirmed that disabled students can provide invaluable information on matters involving their education, and revealed that disabled people do not comprise a homogeneous social and educational group because they each have their unique experiences and viewpoints. At the same time, participants' narratives showed how the personal experience of disability is constructed on the basis of the social experience lived in different social arenas.

Exploring narratives of education: disabled young people’s experiences of educational institutions in Ghana

“…overall, disabled educational experiences at mainstream schools demonstrate that inclusive education can only be achieved when both disabling social and physical structures are removed. There is also the need for non-disabled students and teachers to offer emotional support and assistance in order to promote inclusive practices, as similarly noted elsewhere (Vlachou and Papananou 2015).…”

“…recently, however, there has been an increased interest in exploring the educational narratives of disabled young people (Curtin and Clarke 2005;Davis and Watson 2001;Diez 2010;Llewellyn 2000;Tangen 2008;Vlachou and Papananou 2015). These studies show how investigating the educational experiences of disabled children and young people is crucial in generating inclusion and finding the most appropriate ways of meeting their educational needs.…”

You get tenure, what do I get?: Using art to interrogate a researcher’s dilemma

“…Although teachers can make an important difference to the trajectory of some students they work with (Diez 2010;Vlachou and Papananou 2015;Honkasilta et al 2016), black youth, as individuals and as a class, still face formidable systemic obstacles to success. This reality was again poignantly highlighted for me during my research with an 18-year-old African American woman, Alysha (pseudonym), (mis)diagnosed with ADHD in the fourth grade, who failed almost every class between fourth grade and eleventh grade and was suspended at least once a year during those seven years.…”

What it means to be special: two sisters discuss their experiences

“…Differentiation strategies meant to serve all students within an inclusive environment are often "perceived as segregative" by those with special needs (Vlachou and Papananou 2015), highlighting the distance that still separates democratic ideals from the reality on the ground as well as the pedagogical challenges of educating students who learn in many different ways at many different rates and with varied strengths and weaknesses and distinct personalities. Whether in exclusive or inclusive settings, school environments often provide fertile ground for bullying and for feelings of shame, isolation, and reduced aspirations (Sabornie 1994;Hale 2015;Mishna 2003).…”

“…Structures that foster deficit views of students with special needs can be resisted. Indeed there are studies (Vlachou and Papananou 2015;Díez 2010;Honkasilta, Vehkakoski, and Vehmas 2016) that demonstrate how teachers with non-deficit views of disability and good practices can, at least within their classroom, make a significant difference in how students with special needs see themselves, and how students with and without special needs see each other.…”