Social difference and the politics of schooling in Africa: a Ghanaian case study

This paper examines the implications of ‘social difference’ for schooling in African contexts. It highlights theoretical and philosophical engagements with ‘difference’ that could help explore and search for viable educational options in Africa. The paper engages voices of university students interviewed in a longitudinal ethnographic research study on schooling done in Ghana. Issues and questions about knowledge production, identity development and representation in pluralistic schooling contexts are raised. Insights about local knowledges, individual agency and resistance as they relate to possibilities for rethinking schooling and education in Africa are also explored. The students' narratives reveal how dialogues about school and educators' practices about difference and diversity are [not] addressed with respect to the students' schooling. Lessons on the possibilities of inclusive schooling environments are offered.     

Cochlear implants in the inclusive classroom: a case study

This article presents a case study of a child aged 12 years with a cochlear implant who is attending a mainstream educational setting in Skopje, FYR Macedonia. The study, which uses both qualitative and quantitative data, took place over a period of 12 months. It illustrates the importance of professional development and training of teachers and a need to emphasise a range of intervention strategies. It also highlights the challenges facing children and young people with cochlear implants in schools and suggests a range of systemic approaches to addressing the issues raised.     

Toward a modern concept of schooling: A case study on Hegel

Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel developed the concept of institutionalized education, which reflected public schooling and its legitimacy in the context of rapid transformation of European feudal societies to modern societies. The concept of school reflects the Hegelian theory of Bildung and the concept of modern society. What makes Hegel’s philosophy interesting is his conviction that the processes of Bildung can take place only in the context of social institutions and in the highly organized forms of human interaction regulated by those institutions. Hence the development of an individual, according to Hegel, depends exclusively on institutionalized forms of interaction. In modern society, pedagogical institutions have a specific function: on the one hand, schooling is essentially an institutional form of initiating the process of Bildung in which an individual acquires culture and applies it to life—a life which consequently becomes consciously led by an individual self; on the other, schooling is essentially a way for modern society to ensure its self-preservation by preparing the individual to respond to the demands of civic society so that she or he can take part in the economic production and reproduction of modern society.     

The challenge of enhancing inclusive education in developing countries

This paper is concerned with enhancing inclusive education (IE) in developing countries (DCs). It is estimated that the majority of the world's population of people with disabilities live in DCs of Africa, Asia, Latin America, Caribbean and the Middle East, some 150 million of them being children, but less than 2% are receiving any form of rehabilitation service. Thus successful implementation of IE could increase the number of those with disabilities receiving educational and other services in DCs. Evidence, however, indicates that IE is not being satisfactorily implemented in most DCs. Factors such as the absence of support services, relevant materials, inadequate personnel training programmes, lack of funding structure and the absence of enabling legislation are the major problems of effective implementation of IE in these countries. The implications for improvements in these areas to achieve meaningful implementation of IE in DCs are discussed.     

A case study of inclusive school development: a journey of learning

A global recognition of students' rights requires school organizations to recognize, value and provide for diversity. The move towards more inclusive schooling in Queensland, Australia, requires schools to address professional development on two levels: reculturing of the school to reflect inclusive beliefs and values; and enhancement of teacher skills and knowledge to better address the learning needs of all students. The recently developed Index for Inclusion 2000) is one resource that can facilitate the process of professional development and facilitate change in school culture, policy and teaching practice. The process used incorporates a critical friend and peer mentoring model within an action research framework, which together provide benefits for all involved in the professional development process. The journey of learning incorporating the phases of the Index for Inclusion are reported along with discussions for future directions.     

Budgeting models and university efficiency: A Ghanaian case study

In recent years universities in Africa have come under increasing pressure from governments and donors to improve their efficiency. A World Bank report in 1988 suggested that African universities were amongst the most inefficient in the developing world. The attack on African higher education mirrors a trend to be found in higher education systems worldwide as institutions used to a large degree of autonomy and preferential funding come under increasing scrutiny.In Ghana, a response to these pressures has been made by the Ministry of Education and the country's three universities. A new system of programme linked budgeting (PLB), to be introduced in 1996, aims to reform the way universities are funded and thereby to improve their efficiency. A case study undertaken in 1993 analysed the new budgeting system to be introduced and found that it was PLB in name only. The need for political and institutional stability had in fact led to the development of an input based model which almost entirely neglected output measures. Despite a positive attempt at budgetary reform, the specification of the model seriously impaired its ability to affect the economic behaviour of the universities in ways likely to improve efficiency. In the worst case, the new budgeting system could even cause a deterioration in efficiency.The lessons of this study are applicable to both the developing and developed world. Governments, sensitive to the difficulties of introducing radical change in institutional funding, tend to adulterate the pursuit of economic efficiency when political expediency becomes a priority. This study of the Ghanaian universities suggests that ignoring the economic effects of changes in funding may be attractive but may, in fact, lead to decreases in efficiency and result in more severe difficulties - both economic and political - being faced in the longer term.     

Insights into inclusive education through a small Finnish case study of an inclusive school context

This study seeks to present data and discussion arising from a case study of a school in Finland renowned for its practice in the inclusion of learners with additional support requirements due to cognitive and physical disabilities. It aims to establish how the school staff understand their practice with inclusion through day-to-day professional experiences. The process of reflexive dialogue has enabled authors to reconceptualise our understanding of inclusive education through gaining deep contextual insight. The case study emerges as an inspiring effort to reduce exclusion and isolation through skilful manipulation of physical, institutional and communicative contexts, from which we may draw valuable lessons. The case study demonstrated high levels of personal motivation in teachers and assistants, used as a force for participation in inclusive education – bottom-up, via dialogue, consultation, voluntary involvement and transformation by exposure. This democratic approach was evident in and supported through leadership and management, teaching and learning, and the involvement of the wider community.     

Democracy,inclusive schooling and the politics of education

Drawing on a variety of social and political theories about the nature and future of democracy, this paper develops athesis about the politics of inclusive education. It concludes with a brief preliminary evaluation of the potential of the UK Labour Government's Education Action Zones policy for the development and governance of inclusive schools.     

Inclusion in play: a case study of a child with autism in an inclusive nursery

This paper discusses the play interaction of a young child with autism and the strategies adopted by her teachers to facilitate her inclusion in and through play. The data are from an ethnographic case study in an inclusive nursery in the South of England spanning 6 months. The aim was to understand and describe the play of a child with autism in a naturalistic context. Methods included field and video observations and semi‐structured interviews conducted with the parents and teachers. Analysis of the data highlighted the teachers' strategies underpinned by a strong play ethos, a collaborative approach and a supportive curriculum framework. We argue that the case provides helpful data on what teachers can do to enable children with autism to be successfully included through play.     

Education,schooling and inclusive practice at a secondary free school in England

Abstract

This paper reports the experiences of staff, parents, governors and students at a secondary free school in the West Midlands of England in relation to the inclusion of students with special educational needs (SEN). The paper is based on a qualitative research project carried out at a school that opened in 2015, with the explicit aim of examining the extent to which it developed as an inclusive school, particularly for children with SEN. In the paper, we draw on the classic distinction between ‘education’ and ‘schooling’ to identify tensions and overlaps between process and outcome oriented practices and examine the views of different stakeholders on how such practices impact on inclusion. By focusing on the day-to-day practices of the school and linking them to broader notions of schooling and education, we provide a complementary perspective on the current research on free schools, which is overwhelmingly quantitative and focused on admissions.     

The Catholic school and social justice in Africa: a Zambian case study

Abstract

This paper will argue that the state-aided Catholic school in Zambia has contributed significantly to the development of the country over the years. However, because of its enmeshment in the state system of education it has inadvertently become an instrument of underdevelopment. It is structurally complicit in alienating some of the poorest sectors of society, which runs counter to its professed religious mission. This essay presents the Zambian situation as a case study where it is contended that in order to understand the current situation there is need to see it in the light of its history. The discussion is intended to explore how faith-based educational settings within the state systems in Africa may become complicit in sustaining forms of oppression. It will include a consideration of how, as part of this, religion has been reduced historically through being too closely allied to a modernisation framework generating the illusion of promoting social justice. The article notes that in the light of better historical appreciation of the issue there is need for a review of the faith-based school’s pedagogy.     

National policy and the development of inclusive school practices: a case study

National education policy in England under New Labour Governments has encompassed both a ‘standards agenda’ and an ‘inclusion agenda’, with schools required to respond to both simultaneously. Some previous studies have seen these agendas as contradictory and have seen schools' efforts to develop inclusive practices as being undermined by these contradictions. This paper questions this account with reference to a primary school participating in a collaborative action research project which aimed to develop inclusive practices in schools. It shows how the school, far from finding these agendas contradictory, drew on both in making sense of its situation. It argues that the development of inclusive practices may draw on national policy as a productive resource, and suggests that inclusion scholars and advocates may need to refocus their work if they are to offer such schools alternatives to the formulations of national policy.     

Portraits of Black schooling in South Africa

This research captures the personal experiences of Black student teachers at the University of Durban-Westville, South Africa, who were asked to write about one significant experience in their schooling careers. About 1,000 such individual stories, collected between 1991 and 1996, were analyzed and recast as broader portraits of Black schooling in South Africa before and after the transition to democracy in 1994. Five major themes were identified in these stories: (1) violence at school, (2) authoritarian climate at school, (3) learning as memorizing, (4) difficulties in schooling related to poverty, and (5) difficulties in schooling related to the language medium. The methodological strategy was influenced by the Dutch school of phenomenological pedagogy that takes the ordinary life-world as a starting point for inquiry. The findings of this research suggest that new education policies, to be effective, must take account of very significant continuities in students' experiences through the political transition.     

The effects of armed conflict on schooling in Sub-Saharan Africa

In the past decades, most of the countries in Sub-Saharan Africa have been affected by armed conflicts. By means of a time-series cross-sectional (TSCS) database, we attempt to measure the impact of war on a sample of 43 countries in Africa from 1950 to 2010. These conflicts, and especially civil wars, are shown to have a strong negative effect on the educational performances of the countries studied. The rate of children not attending school, as well as secondary school enrollment rates, seems particularly sensitive to periods of conflict. It also appears that government expenditures in social sectors including education are a positive factor in increasing school enrollment. In contrast, military expenditure is significantly and inversely related to schooling opportunities. Thus, if an extra 1% only of the GDP were allocated to education expenditure, the rate of children not attending school would decrease by 1.7%, the primary and secondary completion rates would increase respectively by 4.4% and by 2.6%. The gender analysis shows that education expenditures provide a better retention of girls in the school system.     

Measuring access to learning over a period of increased access to schooling: The case of Southern and Eastern Africa since 2000

This paper examines the extent to which increased access to primary schooling in ten Southern and East African countries between 2000 and 2007 was also accompanied by increased access to actual learning. We develop a measure of access to learning that combines data on education access and learning achievement to measure the proportions of children in the population (including those enrolled and not enrolled) that reach particular thresholds of literacy and numeracy. In all countries there was greater access to learning in 2007 than in 2000. These improvements in access to learning especially benefited girls and children from poor households.     

The curriculum as a tool for inclusive participation: Students’ voices in a case study in a Portuguese multicultural school

Portuguese schools in urban areas became multicultural during the 90s. Some students are quite distanced from the school culture. Many repeat grades. The curriculum emerges as a means of (re)organizing school practice, so that it is designed to foster inclusion. It is a tool for social mediation between the culture and knowledge of teenagers, and academic ones. It shapes the interactions between participants, cultural tools and knowledge. The principles of inclusive schooling promote the respect for diversity, underlining the need to listen to all voices of a learning community. According to the sociocultural approach appropriating knowledge and developing competencies is a complex process. Interactive practices shape students’ academic performances. Collaborative project work has been used to promote students’ engagement. This action-research project developed an alternative curriculum in a class (grades 5 and 6) from a poor and multicultural school in Lisbon. A follow-up investigated the impact of the educational changes on the learners’ participation in school and in social practices, and on their future life. We aim at analyzing this alternative curriculum process by focussing on students’ narratives. Results highlight improvements in students’ academic and social competencies. Changing practices during compulsory education facilitated achievement and resulted in a better socialization.