Educating the Disabled or Disabling Education? The Convergence of Culture and Postcoloniality

• In Event: Intersections of Disability Studies Theory and Policy in Education

Abstract

Children with disabilities in Kenya experience limited access and participation in education at higher rates than all other groups of children in similarly difficult circumstances. Drawing from historical and policy contexts as well as from narratives of families of children and youth with disabilities, this paper will discuss the challenges to access and participation in education by children and youth with disabilities in Kenya. Utilizing postcolonial-disability studies perspectives to explore how the marginality of children with disabilities that is scripted in social policy and cultural practices impacts their access and participation in education; we illustrate how inequity in access and participation in education is located at the intersection of postcoloniality, culture and disability and re-imagine spaces of inclusivity.

Authors

• Kagendo Mutua, The University of Alabama

• Beth Blue Swadener, Arizona State University