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Can Education Be Therapeutic?An Exploration of the TherapeuticNature of Inclusive Education in
Classrooms with Diverse LearnerNeeds.
Ms. S’mangele Mayisela.University of Witwatersrand,Johannesburg , South Africa
S’mangele.Mayisela@wits.ac.za
STRUCTURE OF THEPRESENTATION Aim of the Presentation Research Questions Background Wits – B. Ed honors Programme on
Emotions Students view on the questions of
therapy and education Therapeutic pedagogical practice as
used in the mainstream classroom withreference to three examples.
Conclusion
TEACHERS’ VIEWS ONTHERAPEUTIC EDUCATION
A part of class activity in the B. EdHonours, offered at the Wits School ofEducation at Wits University, Issues inPrimary Education which primarilyaddresses issues of Emotions inEducation, Prof Karin Murris wasobserved working with her students onthe topic of Therapy and Education.She posed the question to her students;“Can education be therapeutic?”
TEACHERS VIEWS ONTHERAPEUTIC EDUCATION The teachers who have an average of about 10years
teaching experience believed that education cannottherapeutic.
Education is about giving knew knowledge and haslittle to do healing and rehabilitation.
Therapists in a school should focus on learnerstherapeutic needs while they (teachers) focus onteaching and facilitating new knowledge.
These teachers have an experience of teaching inschools with support specialist is on site, wherelearners consult the specialist on an pull out system.
The students, who did not have teaching experience,trained in post-apartheid era believed that educationcan be therapeutic.
TEACHER REFLECTIONS AFTERTHE SEMESTER
Student 1: has no teaching experience, justqualified as a teacher.
“... the topic that I am now researching in myresearch project; is Therapy and Education. Ibelieve therapy involves the promotion of selfand I believe education supports the samegoal. At this point in the course I realised thatthis course was made for me as it addressesthe topics I am interested in. It had been sointeresting to learn how to teach a learnerusing different methods and differenttechniques. This course has confirmed myopinion that an inclusive way of teaching isthe best way of teaching”
Student 2: 10 years teaching experience
“Education and therapy was quite an interestingthought processing for me. I have alwayslooked at these two ideas as being separateyet interlinked. What I have found incredibleto look back on as we progressed together asa group of people is that we all have differentviews on this matter and I find that it stronglypertains to our age and the way we wereeducated to become teachers”
TEACHER REFLECTIONS AFTERTHE SEMESTER
AIM OF THE PRESENTATION
This paper seeks to explore thetherapeutic nature of education by
discussing three therapeuticpedagogical practices as applied ina mainstream inclusive classroomwith the purpose of educating andaddressing diverse learner needs.
RESEARCH QUESTIONS
Can education be therapeutic?What is meant by therapeuticeducation?
In which way can pedagogicalpractices have a therapeuticimpact on learners?
THERAPY AND EDUCATION Therapy – a medical term for treatment
of diagnosed physical andpsychological conditions
Education – concerns itself with the total development of an individual
The goals of therapy andeducation – totalwellbeing of aperson
THERAPEUTIC EDUCATIONTherapeutic Education refers toclassroom education practicesthat enhance individual learners’development through therapeuticsocial interactions, curriculumcontent, learning supportmaterials, teaching strategiesand a healthy and safe learningenvironment.
INCLUSIVE EDCATION – A SOUTHAFRICAN PERSPECTIVEApartheid Era – Traditionaleducation
Post –Apartheid Era – InclusiveEducation
Racial, economic, ability, specialneed and segregation
Racial, economic, ability and specialintegration
Disability viewed as an objectiveand scientific construct
Disability is viewed both as amedical and a social construct –from Ecosystemic view.Teacher and curriculum centred
educationOutcomes based educationcompatible to inclusive education
Dual education system of “ordinary”and “special” education.
Integrated system of both - withfocus on right of all learners
Using a medical framework indealing with impairment anddifference
Using social framework
The focus is on placement oflearners into special needs
Developing adaptive and supportivestrategies in regular classroom
CASE STUDY
12
1988. Gloria, 16years old, grade 8, mild cerebralpalsy.
She is limping, her mouth and eyes twitch when shespeaks, she speaks slower, her voice is squeaky butaudible when the listener listens attentively, she canwrite but she is slower that the rest in her class, asher hand is shaking her writing is not so legible
Average intellectual ability New school, new environment, coming from primary
school. Her class is on 2nd floor, takes time to reach there
but she usually early Her teachers are sensitive, are sending her to a
special school – even when she refuses.
THERAPY : A MEDICALCONCEPT? Does therapeutic education subscribe to
a Medical model of addressing diverseneeds in education?
The Medical model as was used – itdescribes impairment as disability,disability is seen a objective andscientific, meant exclusion from societyand economic activity, needing charityand support.
Medical model integrated with Socialmodel in an Ecosystemic approach –creating a therapeutic system.
THERAPEUTIC CLASSROOMSTRATEGIES
CURRICULUM AS ATHERAPEUTIC TOOL Curriculum Addressing fantasy and imagination through knowledge acquisition Created a point where fantasy and reality meet Prevents anxiety of not knowing as depicted in Laing’s poem.
CURRICULUM AS ATHERAPEUTIC TOOL
There is something I don’t knowThat I am supposed to know.I don’t know what it is I don’t knowAnd yet I’m supposed to know,And I feel I look stupidIf I seem both not to know itand not know what is it I don’t knowTherefore, I pretend I know it.This is nerve rackingSince I don’t know what I must pretend to
know.Therefore, I pretend to know everything
Excerpt from ‘Knots’quoted fromStoll, Fink and Earl (2003)
Pre-grade learners
5-6years
Grade 1 learners
6-7years
Your heart stops beating and you are
unable to wake up
Someone who is sleeping with eyes closed
When you are shot with a gun When you disappear and they cannot find
you, you are dead
It means you are dead When someone has their eyes closed
When a person is unable to walk Sleeping person
Death means you have been murdered When someone has been murdered
When a person’s heart has stopped When someone has been hit by a car
Is to faint A person who can’t speak
It means a person cannot wake up A person who has been murdered
When a person is bleeding and sleeping
Responses to the question: what is death?DISCIPLINE, BEHAVIOURMANAGEMENT AND CONTAINMENT
Containment – a psychoanalyticconcept.
Winnicott’s view - containment as bodyand mind in unison, whereby frominfancy the dwelling of the psycheremains in the child’s body.
From conception, skin is formed, womb,mother’s arms, blanket – all form limitingmembrane to contain the psyche.
Later, family rules, social rules,classroom rules used to contain andembody the psyche.
DISCIPLINE, BEHAVIOURMANAGEMENT AND CONTAINMENT
Family and social rules
Mother’s arms andblanket
Mother’s womb
Foetus and its membrane
BIBLIO-THERAPY
To assist learners to deal with lifechallenges that are emotionallycharging, and abstract concepts andmoral and social justice concepts likedeath, emotions, corruption, etc.
Children’s books are therapeutic, duepictures which can used as projectiveidentification by learners.
The author serves as therapeuticobserver, non intrusive reflections
COMMUNITIES OFENQUIRIES
A pedagogical methodology used inPhilosophy for Children (P4C) – pioneered byMatthew Lipman.
Is a structured dialogue on a particularconcept
With community rules, it develops self-control,respect for others, logical thinking skills,language processing skills
It facilitated inclusion promoting communitycitizenship by shared values andacceptance
difference in pinions.
CONCLUSION Considering the willingness of teachers to engage
therapeutically with learners as evidence in thereflection of B. Ed Honours, student in the courseon Emotions, there seem to be a need in teachereducation to raise this consciousness in teachers.
This paper has demonstrated how education isinherently therapeutic if good teaching strategiesare used in a healthy and socially inclusivelearning environment.
It is assumed that many other pedagogicstrategies, when examined ,can be found totherapeutic for all involved in education.
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