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Tangible First Steps: Inclusion Committees as a Strategy to Create Inclusive Schools in Western Kenya

DAMIANI, Michelle L
ELDER, Brent C
OKONGO, Theophilus O
2016

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This paper provides one example of forming an inclusion committee in Kenya toward the vision of creating inclusive primary school campuses. We suggest the development of inclusion committees as a potential innovative strategy and a critical element of community reform toward disability awareness, and to increase access to primary school education for students with disabilities. The formation of the inclusion committee followed a member-driven process for identifying barriers to educational access for students with disabilities, prioritizing the needs within their local context, determining a plan of action to address these needs within existing community resources, and gaining access to new resources. Recognizing access to equitable education as a universal human right supported by local and international legislation, this paper works within the tensions that exist between Western constructs of education and how they are applied in post-colonial countries in the global South. Our findings suggest that establishing diverse participation among stakeholders led to even more inclusive representation; that inclusion committee actions led to local and national level involvement with the initiative; and that community-driven progress toward inclusive education presented both strengths and challenges in terms of sustainability. Finally, we discuss implications for under-resourced schools, including those in the global North.

 

Disability & the Global South (DGS), 2016, Vol. 3 No. 1

Disabling streets or disabling education? Challenging a deficit model of street-connectedness

CORCORAN, Su Lyn
2015

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Current interventions aiming to assist street-connected children in making the transition from the street, prioritise a return to mainstream primary education. In so doing, implementing organisations equate their ideas of a normative childhood with school attendance. This article challenges the appropriateness of such priorities by exploring the experiences of teachers in four Central Kenya primary schools and examining Kenyan education policy related to street-connected children. The paper argues that teachers’ belief in their inability to support the learning of street-connected children alongside the linguistic loopholes within the wording of educational policy to allow for alternative education systems, formal education can further compound processes of marginalisation. Findings further indicate that current education policy and practice can fail to effectively incorporate street-connected children and to some extent be described as disabling.

 

Disability and the Global South (DGS), 2015, Vol. 2 No. 2

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