‘And When did You Last See Your Father?’ Exploring the Views of Children with Learning Difficulties/Disabilities

The Gulliford Lecture 2003 was given by Professor Ann Lewis of the School of Education at the University of Birmingham. Professor Lewis's lecture, on which this article is based, focused on the process of listening to the views of children and, in particular, children with learning difficulties. Following the near-universal ratification of the United Nations (UN) Convention on the Rights of the Child, a plethora of recent initiatives, both in the UK and internationally, has encouraged professionals to access children's views about provision (educational, health-related, social and legal). A range of materials has been developed to support this process, often by, or in liaison with, children's charities. At the same time, research provides valuable insights into effective practice in exploring the views of children with learning difficulties. In this article, Ann Lewis reviews ten strategies for gathering the views of children and raises four challenges for the further development of policy and practice. She closes her argument with a call for greater rigour and critical evaluation in this crucial and demanding area.     

At the Interface of School and Work

The current emphasis that organisations are placing upon knowledge and the corresponding attention that workplace epistemological values are receiving within the educational community has resulted in an interesting convergence of discourses—school-based and work-based. Even as workplaces are tending toward abstraction over practice—based knowing, schools are being nudged into doing the reverse. The result of this ferment is that traditional barriers between these kinds of knowledge are being removed. As can be seen from workplace examples, it is possible for liberal learning to be in the service of instrumental ends. So too schools may come to see more clearly the value of situatedness and team-work in the transaction of liberal learning. More generally, we see also new possibilities for retreat from received views about the worth of practical knowledge.     

Face-to-face contact in blended learning for intercultural education: the role of teachers

In societies experiencing or emerging from conflict, teachers often deliver educational programmes designed to build community cohesion. We report on research which examined teachers’ views of the implementation of a programme involving both face-to-face and online contact between pupils. Findings suggest that this blended approach is highly motivational, enhancing online work and relationship building. The research underlines the importance of the political, educational and historical context for work of this sort and the impact this has on the particular blend of online and face-to-face interaction. Implications for policymakers and teachers include value for money and sustainability of blended intercultural education in similar contexts.     

Educating for an Inclusive World: Lessons Learned From A Globally Networked Human Rights and Disability Course for Social Work and Law Students

This article examines an innovative model of online international education regarding disability through a human rights perspective piloted through a collaboration between Universidad LaSalle, Mexico, and University at Buffalo, United States. The course is organized around a pressing global human rights and development issue. Its objective is to promote effective practice with persons with disabilities through cross-national, cross-disciplinary, human-rights based education; strengthen students’ sense of global engagement; and foster cross-cultural expertise and competence with diversity. The implications for effective professional education in law and social work are discussed. The article also examines pedagogical strategies and presents case study materials, identifies key disability rights themes common to both nations and cultures, and explores how distance learning technology is implemented in the course. A preliminary assessment of this newly piloted approach is also presented, based on data from students, as well as the implications for teaching and practice.     

Effects of ABRACADABRA Instruction on Spelling in Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder

This study explored the effects of an evidence-based literacy program, ABRACADABRA, on the spelling abilities of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Twenty children with ASD aged 5–11 years were assigned to matched instruction and waitlist control groups. Children in the instruction group received 26 hrs of individualized, home-based instruction using ABRACADABRA over a 13-week period. Results showed no change in children’s conventional spelling accuracy skills following ABRACADABRA instruction. However, an analysis of spelling attempts using the Computerized Spelling Sensitivity System (Masterson & Hrbec, 2011) revealed statistically significant gains in linguistic spelling accuracy for children in the instruction group relative to the waitlist control group, with large effect sizes. These findings suggest that ABRACADABRA improves aspects of spelling ability in children with ASD and that the Computerized Spelling Sensitivity System is a useful tool for detecting changes in the spelling abilities of children with ASD following literacy instruction.     

Designing a Bridging Discourse: Re-Mediation of a Mathematical Learning Disability

Students with disabilities present a unique instructional design challenge. These students often have qualitatively different ways of processing information, meaning that standard instructional approaches may not be effective. In this study I present a case study of a student with a mathematical learning disability for whom standard instruction on fractions had been ineffective. With regard to theory, I draw on Lev Vygotsky’s framing of disability and then use Anna Sfard’s conceptualization of mathematics as a discourse to design a fraction re-mediation that provided a bridge from the student’s discourse to the canonical mathematics discourse. This bridging discourse was used in 5 videotaped re-mediation sessions with the case study student. A fine-grained analysis of the re-mediation sessions traced the ways in which the student’s discourse shifted over time, which enabled her to solve problems she had previously been unable to solve. This study provides a proof of concept for reconceptualizing remediation and illustrates the potential utility of a bridging discourse to help students who have a history of failure gain access to the canonical mathematics discourse and content.     

KANT'S CONCEPTION OF RESPECT AND AFRICAN AMERICAN EDUCATION RIGHTS

Immanuel Kant envisioned a kind of respect in which one recognizes each human (1) as being not fully comprehensible by any human understanding, (2) as being an end in him‐ or herself, and (3) as being a potential source of moral law. In this essay, Gregory Lewis Bynum uses this conception of respect as a lens with which to examine African American education rights on three levels: the individual level (the level of individual persons' moral experience and moral significance), the community level (the level of the formation and sustaining of social groups that have value for humanity), and the global level (the level of a universal community of humanity). Bynum's goal in this examination is to strengthen our practical understanding of African Americans' right to education defined, in accordance with international human rights documents, as the right to an education that supports the full development of the human personality in a manner that respects students' “cultural identity, language, and values.”