Children With Disabilities and the New National Curriculum in Cyprus: Promises, Statements, and Consequences

• In Event: 63.063 - Disability Studies in Education: Toward Justice Through Educational Reform and Practice in K–12 Schools

Abstract

The present paper contextualizes the recent process of developing the New National Curriculum (NNC) for Greek-Cypriot public schools. Using content analysis, it pays particular attention to the degree to which the language, performance expectations and suggested materials described in the NNC take account of children labeled with disabilities. Notwithstanding the human rights and antidiscrimination rhetoric of the NNC, the findings presented herein suggest that the curriculum seems to consider the student population to be a homogeneous group of children expected to conform to the traditional rules of knowledge acquisition. Based on this finding, the paper draws the links with the basic tenets of Disability Studies in Education. The discussion raises important issues that are of interest to an international audience.

Authors

• Simoni Symeonidou, University of Cyprus

• Katerina Mavrou, European University