Inclusive Education in African Contexts


Book Description

How do we articulate the possibilities, limitations and challenges of inclusive schooling and education in African contexts? This book insists that inclusive education cannot be taken for granted. Inclusion is neither a natural nor a given educational practice. It must be struggled for. Bringing a critical perspective to inclusive schooling and education is imperative. This book adds to current educational debates with an African lens. It engages inclusive education from multiple lenses of curriculum content, classroom pedagogy and instruction, representation, culture, environment and the socio-organization life of schools, the pursuit of equity and social justice and the search for educational relevance. It is opined that Africa cannot be left behind in rethinking educational inclusion in ways that evoke critical questions of power, equity and social difference. The question of leaner’s identity in terms of class, gender, sexuality, (dis)ability, language, ethnicity and race are equally consequential for African schooling and education. When inclusion is understood as wholeness of education, then how schooling and education engage the complete learner – her/his body, mind, soul and spirit, as well as the use of local community and Indigenous knowledges in teaching and learning become relevant. Inclusion stands the risk of liberal educational agendas that simply tinker or toy with schooling and education and hardly embrace the challenge of educational change. What we need is a fundamental structural change that ensures schooling and education embraces difference while grappling with the teaching of Indigeneity, decolonization and resistance.




Inclusive Education in Action in South Africa


Book Description

Focuses on how in-service teachers, pre-service teachers, parents, learners and specialists can contribute to the development of inclusive education and its implications for society, communities, schools and classrooms.




Inclusive Education


Book Description




Challenging Inclusive Education Policy and Practice in Africa


Book Description

It is a fundamental right for all children to be given access to quality education to ensure they reach their full potential as individuals; a right which is reflected in international law in Article 26 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and supported by the Education for All Agenda (1990) and the United Nations Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities and Optional Protocol (2006). Nation states across Africa have signed up to these protocols and remain committed to ensuring education for all children. The progress globally however in the past 25 years, including in Africa, has been slow (UNESCO, 2015). Questions remain on why this is so and what can be done about it. This book brings together researchers, education policy makers and academics from the African community. What is unique about this text is that it includes local insights narrated and critiqued by local professionals. This book presents a wide range of African countries across the continent, to provide a critical overview of the key issues affecting developments. It questions the origins of ideas and definitions around inclusive education and the impact it has made on policy and ultimately practice, within local socio-cultural and economic communities, both urban and rural. It highlights positive developments as well as challenges and provides a deep understanding of why the process of implementing inclusive education is so complex in the African continent. It provides an understanding of what is needed to develop a more sustainable model of inclusive education across the continent and within specific countries.




Challenges and Issues facing the Education System in South Africa


Book Description

The quality of education is pivotal for the production of human capital and this cannot be compromised by failing to refocus on the quality of education offered in schools. The inputs in the system such as trained and motivated teachers, buildings and classrooms including sanitation, clean water, instructional material such as textbooks, as well as strong leadership with vision to steer the winds of change are important in providing the desired outcomes. The chapters in this volume are broadly divided into three subsections as follows: learner related issues, (farm and rural schools, poverty and schooling, school violence, and students rights); teacher related issues,(teacher morale and motivation, teachers for all schools, management needs of school principals); and administrative/policy related issues (inclusive education, and school community relations). The social demand for better schools, effective principals, qualified and committed teachers and better opportunities for all place a huge challenge to provinces and the state to protect the rights of all citizens. This volume sets out the challenges facing the education system in South Africa, such as poor school infrastructure, poor learning conditions, and a lack of learning materials and provides recommendations on how some of these can be overcome.




Dyslexia and Alternative Therapies


Book Description

A good book about how alternative therapies can help dyslexia. It mentions each therapy individually and explains what it is, how it works, how many sessions are needed, who will benefit, and if it can be done at home.' - Education Otherwise This comprehensive book offers clear and balanced information on a range of alternative therapies for individuals with dyslexia, dyscalculia, dyspraxia or ADHD. The author provides an overview of each therapeutic option, method of use and case examples, covering nutritional supplements, massage, acupuncture and hypnotherapy, among others. She also includes contributions from experienced alternative therapists, offering an insider's view of what works and what does not. Her objective approach will enable the reader to make an informed choice from among the many available options. A bibliography and a list of useful contacts are also provided. This book is a key resource for anyone interested in exploring alternative therapy approaches to dyslexia and related difficulties, particularly for parents of people with dyslexia, dyslexics themselves and the professionals who work with them.




Systematic Reviews of Research in Basic Education in South Africa


Book Description

Maringe ought to be commended for putting together an invaluable contribution to our understanding of research into a complex education system in South Africa. This volume provides a useful foundation to the current state of education quality in South Africa including the impact of interventions. It also brings to the fore challenges still facing education transformation. The evidence presented which, taken together, lays out a coherent view of how improvements could be made. Albert Chanee Head of Planning, Gauteng Department of Education For too long the weight of educational scholarship produced in South Africa has been limited to that simple and standard form called the literature review. Now, for the first time, education researchers are provided with an African-based text on the concepts and methods of conducting systematic reviews. In this exceptional work of editorship, Felix Maringe brings together some of the leading researchers on South African education to model and demonstrate how to review a significant body of research on a chosen topic which is adjudicated strictly on the basis of the quality and efficacy of the evidence in hand. I have no doubt that this remarkable book will become a standard reference for educational researchers in and beyond the African continent. It will also lift the quality of educational inquiry by equipping a new generation of scholars with the capacity for doing evidence-based research that compels the attention of policymakers, planners and practitioners alike. Prof Jonathan Jansen Stellenbosch University




Inclusive Education in South Africa and the Developing World


Book Description

This book offers a framework for the implementation of inclusive education in developing countries. It proposes bringing the vulnerable to the centre of planning decisions, recognising the history of special education in psychologizing failure, and that mainstream must own the transformation to inclusive education.




The Routledge Handbook of Disability in Southern Africa


Book Description

This comprehensive ground-breaking southern African-centred collection spans the breadth of disability research and practice. Reputable and emerging scholars, together with disability advocates adopt a critical and interdisciplinary stance to prove, challenge and shift commonly held social understanding of disability in traditional discourses, frontiers and practices in prominent areas such as inter/national development, disability studies, education, culture, health, religion, gender, sports, tourism, ICT, theatre, media , housing and legislation. This handbook provides a body of interdisciplinary analyses suitable for the development of disability studies in southern Africa. Through drawing upon and introducing resources from several disciplines, theoretical perspectives and personal narratives from disability activists, it reflects on disability and sustainable development in southern Africa. It also addresses a clear need to bring together interdisciplinary perspectives and narratives on disability and sustainable development in ways that do not undermine disability politics advanced by disabled people across the world. The handbook further acknowledges and builds upon the huge body of literature that understands the social, cultural, educational, psychological, economic, historical and political facets of the exclusion of disabled people. The handbook covers the following broad themes: • Disability inclusion, ICT and sustainable development • Access to education, from early childhood development up to higher education • Disability, employment, entrepreneurship and community-based rehabilitation • Religion, gender and parenthood • Tourism, sports and accessibility • Compelling narratives from disability activists on societal attitudes toward disability, media advocacy, accessible housing and social exclusion. Thus, this much-awaited handbook provides students, academics, practitioners, development partners, policy makers and activists with an authoritative framework for critical thinking and debates that inform policy and practice in incomparable ways, with the view to promoting inclusive and sustainable development.