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Three models of disability

And their relevance to disability and inclusion within educational

settings

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Introducing the Medical model of disability

Also known as the individualised model and the ‘deficit model’ (Dyson, 1990)

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Introducing the Medical model of disability

Disabled people are disadvantaged when we do not recognise their ‘special, abnormal requirements’ (emphasis in the original, Abberley, 1993: 111).

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The deployment of LSAs: An example of the Medical model in practice

The Warnock Report: ‘the help of an ancillary worker is often crucial to the effective placement of an individual child with a disability or disorder in an ordinary class’ (DES, 1988)

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Stereotypes associated with disability

They can’t …

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A critique of the medical model of disability: Overlooking social

oppression

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8

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A critique of the medical model of disability: Overlooking ourselves

Don’t you understand that

The comments you make about my child

Tell about yourself

And not about him?

And the needs we discuss

Are yours

And not his.

When you look at my child.

(Peter Clough, 1988)

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Introducing the needs model

Ainscow (1998): it is an ‘interactive perspective’.

Interaction between learners and schools (Bradley et al., 1994).

'Special needs are ... needs that arise between the child and the educational system as a whole when the system fails to adapt itself to the characteristics of the child' (Dyson, 1990: 59).

‘By "inclusive learning" … we mean the greatest degree of match or fit between the individual learner’s requirements and the provision that is made for them’.

(FEFC, 1996: 25-26)

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The deployment of LSAs: An example of the needs model in practice

LSAs differentiate and adapt teaching materials and perform an intermediary role between students and their teachers.

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A critique of the needs model:a reduction of education to technology

Needs model overlooks the difference between:

(a) the use of strategies, of particular pedagogies as a means to enable educators to become inclusive,

And:

(b) the elevation of particular teaching techniques and strategies to ends-in-themselves. (‘Method fetishism’ (Bartolome, 1992).)

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A critique of the needs model:a reduction of education to technology

Teaching and learning: Dyson’s (2000: 90) 'technology of inclusion'.

We 'embrace a technicist ideology that reduces education to a technology and teachers to operatives in a system designed by others' (Booth, 2003).

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A critique of the needs model of disability: Overlooking social oppression

This model also acts ‘to distract attention from more significant questions such as why, in a particular society or, indeed, school, do some pupils fail to learn successfully?’ (Ainscow, 1998: 10).

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Introducing the social model

Advocates of the Social Model make a key distinction between:

An impairment, i.e. a functional limitation within an individual caused by physical, mental or sensory impairment.

AND:

A disability, i.e. the loss or limitation of opportunities to take part in the normal life of the community on an equal level with others due to physical and/or social barriers.

(DPI, 1982)

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‘Disability [is] the disadvantage or restriction of activity caused by contemporary organisation which takes no or little account of people who have physical impairments and thus excludes them from the mainstream of social activities’.

(UPIAS, 1976)

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Kant’s practical moral imperative demands that we:

Act in such a way that you always treat humanity, whether in your own person or in the person of any other, never simply as a means, but always at the same time as an end.

(Kant, 1798/1972: 91)

Applied to disability: Teach all students – abled or disabled – in such a way that you always treat learners never simply as the receivers of specialist teaching and/or resources, but always at the same time as contributors to knowledge.

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The deployment of LSAs: An example of the Social Model in practice

LSA is a contributor to the public space of an institution.

‘LSAs are increasingly seen as integral to successful inclusion. Their’s is no longer a peripheral, supporting role but a key teaching and learning collaboration’.

(Corbett, 2001: 88)

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Considering social and environmental factors

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Overview of the models

Medical

Focus on the person with the impairment

Needs

Focus on the interaction between impairment and environment

Social

Focus on both impairment and environment

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Medical

LSA ensures the learner with an impairment can fit into ‘mainstream’ educational space

Needs

LSAs adjust resources, make amendments so that that the ‘special’ or ‘additional’ needs of the child are met.

Social

LSAs works to change learning environments for EVERYONE’S benefit.

Overview of the models as they inform the practice of LSAs

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References Abberley, P. (1993) The concept of oppression and the

development of social theory of disability, Disability, Handicap and Society, Vol. 2, No. 1, pp. 5-19

Ainscow, M. (1998) Would it Work in Theory? Arguments for practitioner researcher and theorising in the special needs field, In: C. Clark, A. Dyson & A. Millward (Eds.) Theorising Special Education (London: Routledge)

Bartolome, L. I. (1994) Beyond the Methods Fetish: Towards a Humanizing Pedagogy, Harvard Educational Review, Vol. 64, No. 2, pp. 73-194

Booth, T. (2003) Letting what is inside out and what is outside in: confessions and dilemmas of an educationalist, Paper presented at European Society for Research on the Education of Adults Conference, Life History and Biographical Research Network Conference, 6 - 8th March 2003

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Bradley, J., Dee, L. & Wilenius, F. (1994) Students with Disabilities and/or Learning Difficulties in Further Education: A review of research carried out by the National Foundation for Educational Research (Slough: NFER)

Corbett, J. (2001) Teaching approaches which support inclusive education: a connective pedagogy, British Journal of Special Education, Vol. 28, No 2, pp. 55-59.

DES (1978) Special Educational Needs, Report of the Committee of Enquiry into the Education of Children and Young People (The Warnock Report) (London: HMSO)

DPI (1982) Proceedings of the First World Congress (Singapore: Disabled People’s International)

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Dyson, A. (1990) Special educational needs and the concept of change, Oxford Review of Education, Vol. 16, No. 1, pp. 55-66

Farrell, P., Balshaw, M. & Filiz, P. (1999) The Management, Role and Training of Learning Support Assistants (DfEE, London)

FEFC (1996) Inclusive Learning (the Tomlinson Report) (Coventry: FEFC/HMSO)

Kant, I (1972/1798) The Moral Law: Kant’s Groundwork of the Metaphysic of Morals, translated by H. J. PATON (London: Hutchinson University Library)

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Margerison, A. (1997) Class teachers and the role of classroom assistants in the delivery of special educational needs, Support for Learning, Vol. 12, No. 4, pp. 166-169

UPIAS (1976) Fundamental Principles of Disability (London: Union of the Physically Impaired Against Segregation )