Attitudes and Beliefs About Disability in Cross-Cultural Perspective and Their Implications for Inclusive Educational Practices

• In Event: An International Symposium on the Practice of Inclusive Education: From Teachers to Systems

Abstract

Objectives
This paper addresses some implications of attitudes and beliefs about disability on inclusive education, as suggested by preliminary results of the research project ‘Classifications of Disabilities in the Field of Education’. The project aims to provide a cross-cultural comparative study in the field of special needs and inclusive education. It investigates environmental factors affecting school-aged children with disabilities in the field of education in Austria, Thailand, and Ethiopia. By better understanding beliefs and attitudes about disability across socio-cultural contexts, barriers and facilitators to inclusive education can be targeted for optimization.
Theoretical framework
CLASDISA classification regards disability as a product of impairments of physical and/or mental structures and functions, activity limitations and participation restrictions in combination with environmental and personal factors. Bronfenbrenner’s bioecological model serves as a basis for describing and measuring the interplay between environment and human development at different stages (Bronfenbrenner 1980). The phenomenological definition of culture by Nieke (2008) is used for the examination of the ‘lifeworlds’ of individuals as well as of the culture of groups.
Methods
The empirical data for this study is being collected through field research. The study follows a uniform design and is being undertaken simultaneously in the three countries. Using a mixed-methods approach including a grounded-theory-based analysis, the project takes an ecological perspective on children and the microsystems in which they function, such as their families and school classes.
Data sources
Societal and cultural aspects of disability are reconstructed through interviews with educators, parents, as well as by using adapted techniques for capturing the perspectives of the children with disabilities. Subjective theories as representations of the participants’ lifeworlds are complemented by quantitative surveys and document analysis. The sample consists of boys and girls aged 8 to 12 years, representing various impairment groups (visual, hearing, mental and motor impairments). The comparative case study sample will consist of two cases (each case consisting of one student, one parent, and one educator) per impairment group per country with as many as 100 interivews per case study.
Results
An initial assessment of the empirical data suggests that variations in religious beliefs across countries play a major role in influencing how disability is conceptualized, as well as corresponding attitudes towards and treatment of people with disabilities. Cultural differences are also evident in regard to expectations of service provisions as well as strategies utilized in gaining access to appropriate educational programs for people with disabilities.
Scientific significance
The CLASDISA project is the first of its kind to conduct a multi-national mixed-methods examination of attitudes and beliefs about disability, with the goal of facilitating inclusive educational practices, through the following: (1) fundamental research on the relations between society, culture, disability and education, (2) application of the ICF and ICF-CY in the field of education including its critical examination, (3) development of research methods through international scientific cooperation in the field of special needs education, and (4) applying new understandings of socio-cultural barriers to and facilitators of inclusive education to optimize educational resources.

Authors

• Mikael Luciak, University of Vienna

• Tirussew Teferra Kidanemmariam, Addis Ababa University