Transcript Inclusive classrooms need inclusive literature’

The DEEPS Project, Centre for
Disability Studies, School of
School of something
FACULTY OF OTHER Sociology and Social Policy.
Findings and Initial Conclusions
Working Paper 2: Promoting positive attitudes
towards disabled people – the views of schools and
teachers
© Angharad Beckett*, Lisa Buckner, Sam Barrett, Nick Ellison (University of
Leeds) & David Byrne (Durham University).
*Author for correspondence.
Email: [email protected]
The DEEPS Project, Centre for
Disability Studies, School of
School of something
FACULTY OF OTHER Sociology and Social Policy.
We are most grateful to the ESRC for their financial
support for this study (ESRC Ref. RES-062-23-0461).
Should you wish to quote from this presentation, please cite as
follows:
Beckett, A.E., Buckner, L., Barrett, S., Ellison, N. and Byrne, D. (2009)
‘Promoting positive attitudes towards disabled people – the views of schools
and teachers’, DEEPS Project Working Paper 2, School of Sociology &
Social Policy, University of Leeds.
http://www.sociology.leeds.ac.uk/research/projects/deeps/ (date viewed).
Research Questions for
this stage of the project
What, if anything, are schools currently doing
to raise disability awareness amongst nondisabled children and promote positive
attitudes towards disabled people?
What, if anything, do teachers think that they
ought to teach non-disabled children about
disability and the lives of disabled people?
What challenges do teachers face?
DEEPS Project’s own doll and toy wheelchair – sourced from:
http://www.theequaloppshop.co.uk/
• Following the introduction of the
Disability Equality Duty in 2006, by
December 2007 ALL primary
schools were required to have a:
Disability Equality Scheme
DCSF guidelines for schools stated
that this should include plans to:
Eliminate harassment (bullying)
Promote positive attitudes
towards disabled people
"Clip art licensed from the Clip Art Gallery on DiscoverySchool.com"
The Policy Context
Intro. to the survey
Questionnaire was sent out to schools January –
April 2008 (second sending to all schools that did
not respond to initial mailing).
Schools had already been required to produce a
Disability Equality Scheme by December 2007 –
this was an official ‘deadline’. So our
questionnaire was sent out AFTER this deadline
had passed.
500 schools surveyed. 136 responses. 27.4%
response rate (this is an ‘acceptable’ response
rate to a social survey, from a methodological
perspective, although one always wishes for a
higher rate of response!)
Intro. to the survey
schools
No statistically significant differences were
found between responding and
non-responding schools, so the sample of
responding schools is considered to
be ‘representative’ of English Primary
Schools (or as near as possible).
Disability Equality
Schemes
8% had a DES but didn’t include the ‘promote +ve
Schools with a high proportion of pupils who
attitudes’ dimension
have ‘special educational needs’ (‘SEN’) were less
14% were preparing
and were
include
likely atoDES
already
havegoing
or betopreparing
a disability
this dimension
equality scheme.
3% were preparing a DES but were not going to
include this dimension
16% were preparing a DES but did not respond to the
question about promoting +ve attitudes
24% did not have a DES & were not preparing one
Other varied responses:
5%.
98.5% of responding
schools answered the
question about Disability
Equality Schemes.
This example of an inclusive image was found on the web at:
http://www.cornwall.ac.uk/images/cc/disability_small.gif
Only 30% schools had a Disability Equality Scheme
(DES) that mentioned promoting +ve attitudes
Teaching about ‘race’,
gender and disability
Schools were asked whether they
taught/discussed ‘race’, gender and
disability with their pupils and if they
did, to rank these in order of
frequency taught.
The most common responses were to
rank ‘race’ first, then ‘gender’ and
then ‘disability’ OR ‘race’ first, then
‘disability’ and then ‘gender’.
56% of those that responded to this
question ranked race first. Schools
with high proportion of pupils from
minority ethnic groups were
especially likely to rank ‘race’ first.
Picture from:
http://www.bradyprimaryschool.co.uk/brady.asp?textpage=wkp&
mainpage=wkp This is NOT one of our sample schools. We
found this image on the web and include it here because we
think it is a really positive image of inclusion!
Number of responses
When, if at all, is teaching for disability equality/awareness likely to
take place within your school?
E.G.?
Special focus assemblies/
140
weeks; school councils; visiting
120
126
theatre
groups/speakers; extra119
116
115
100
curricular events (Saturday
104
clubs)
80
60
60
40
35
20
16
0
PSHE
Across
School-
During
During
Part of
subjects
wide
assembly
'circle'
SEAL
initiative
Informally
Other
N.B. This is a frequency table and does not
show percentages, but numbers of responses
from schools.
How important do you believe it is to engage in formal (planned) teaching
that is designed to promote positive attitudes towards disabled people?
133 of the 136 schools answered this question (98%), of those responding:
47% said it was very important
39% said it was fairly important
8% said it was neither important nor unimportant
5% said it was fairly unimportant
1% said it was unimportant
I.e. 14% of responding
schools did not think
that it was ‘important’
Do you think sufficient attention is given to teaching about
disability equality/awareness in your school?
I.e. 57% of
all schools
in survey
80
77
Number of responses
70
60
50
40
47
30
20
10
6
4
0
Yes
No
We could do more
I'm not sure
N.B. This is a frequency table and does not
show statistics, but numbers of responses.
Do you think that there is sufficient time/scope within the existing teaching
framework (curriculum) to allow you to teach about disability
equality/awareness?
60
59
60
Number of responses
50
40
30
20
44.6
%
45.4%
10
Schools
Schoolswith
that asaid
high
level
‘yes’ofwere
pupils
statistically
eligible formore
free
likely
school
to teach
mealsabout
were
disability
statistically
across
lessa
range
likely of
to subjects
respond
(i.e.
‘yes’
embedded
to time toin
the
teach
curriculum)
disability.
13
0
Yes
No
Not sure
97% response rate to this question
Further comments
upon ‘time’ issue…
Not enough time…
Teacher: “Staff anxious enough
about not having enough time to
teach curriculum – would feel it
would be something more/else they
would have to deliver.”
Teacher: “(Only enough time) if we
throw something else out”.
Need to be ‘creative’…
Teacher: “We bend the rulesofficial framework…you have
to be creative to achieve
what is right for
children/community/future.”
Teacher: “It is how you plan
and prioritise that dictates
content.”
Views re. training
Have staff received training or
development opportunities that
specifically prepare them to teach
about disability equality?
Do you think staff would feel
more confident about teaching
in this area if they had
more/further training?
There was no evidence that schools in particular LAs
had received more training than others.
There was no evidence that training and development
were linked to type of school (or any other factors).
Yes: 24%
No: 76%
97% response rate to this question
Yes: 48%
No: 8%
Perhaps: 44%
99% response rate to this question
Resources
21% of schools said that they
had no resources to support
teaching/learning about
disability.
Schools with a disability
equality scheme (including
those in preparation) were
more likely to have some
resources, particularly books.
Example poster from: http://www.kidslikeme.co.uk/
Schools with a high proportion of pupils who have ‘SEN’ were
less likely to have any resources. Several teachers stated that
they felt that their ‘best resource’ was their disabled pupils.
Teacher quote: Two Children here who have disabilities are our biggest
“resource”.
Teacher: I suppose we haven’t
invested in videos, books et al - we
have the “real thing” and we get on
with it –VERY WELL!
Whether the presence of a disabled child in a school means
that no further intervention/effort is required to promote
positive attitudes towards disabled people, is uncertain –
further investigation is required here…but we are somewhat
sceptical with regard to this type of statement.
Teacher: We have a V.I. child here he does much to help raise
awareness in every class...Before we
got our V.I. child, many children
assumed he could not go to school,
play, talk…He has really helped them
to learn differently! He has done more
to help disability awareness than any
amount of training!
Several other teachers in schools where there are no disabled children stated
that this was a major challenge in terms of raising disability awareness
amongst non-disabled pupils.
Teachers responded as follows to the question – what, if
any, challenges do you face in terms of promoting positive
attitudes towards disabled people?
Teacher: “Our pupils actually meeting other children with disabilities.”
Teacher: “Very few children in our school have first hand experience of being
with somebody with a disability.”
Inclusive/inclusion
books
32% of schools that responded to a question about books
said that they had no books that were either about disability
or included a disabled character/theme
Teacher: (I have) just set
up an emotional literacy
library section but I am
not aware of any specific
books which relate to
disability.
Teacher: Getting
good quality, positive
resources (is our
major challenge).
79% response rate
to this question
Harter, D. 2000. The Animal Boogie. Barefoot Books
.
Action packs for
teachers
Question: does your school have any action packs or other
resources (e.g. lesson plans) for teachers that help them to teach
about disability or to devise ways of encouraging children to
develop positive attitudes towards disabled people?
76% of schools that responded to a question about ‘action packs’
had no such action packs/resources….
Teacher: We would welcome a carefully
planned series of lessons (age specific)
which could be used at appropriate
times with our pupils, but which would
require “reasonable” teacher research!
84% response rate to this
question
Yet there are
many lesson
plans available,
e.g. from…
Qualitative Responses
Semi-structured interviews were undertaken with teachers in 6 case
study schools – 9 teachers in total. In most cases the interviews
were with the Headteacher (5 schools). But we also spoke to two
SENCOs and two classroom teachers.
Interviews lasted between 15mins – 52 mins, most often around 30
mins.
We are also including qualitative responses to the questionnaire in
this section, where appropriate/relevant.
CASE STUDY SCHOOLS
Using data from the Annual School Census, English primary schools were
clustered into 3 types (for details of clustering technique please contact
Angharad Beckett).
Cluster 1: Large schools, high poverty (measured by numbers of children in
receipt of free school meals FSM), high numbers of children from
minority ethnic groups & high numbers of children who have ‘SEN’.
Cluster 2: Small schools, very high poverty, average numbers of children
from minority ethnic groups, very high numbers of children who have ‘SEN’.
Cluster 3: Average sized schools, low/er numbers of children in receipt of
FSM, low numbers of children from minority ethnic groups, low number of
children who have have ‘SEN’.
We chose two schools from each cluster. Areas encompassed: London; W.
Midlands; Lancashire; Cheshire; N. Yorkshire; W. Yorkshire.
CASE STUDY SCHOOLS
2 schools per cluster
Cluster 1 schools: B and D
Cluster 2 schools: E and F
Cluster 3 schools: A and C
Question: What, if anything, do teachers think
that they ought to teach children about disability
and the lives of disabled people? What’s the
‘right message’?.....
School C
“By the time they finish and they leave
us we would hope that our children
would understand that real disability
comes through how other people treat
you and that impairment is
about…something that doesn’t work
properly, that you will be working to
overcome. But it’s about the attitudes
of other people, that makes you a
disabled person.”
HT, School C.
“We’re not going to produce people in
society who are just going to sit on their
bums and just ‘accept’ everything. We are
here to produce people who are going to
challenge society and say – you know –
whatever perspective you come from…or if
you’ve got a different religious viewpoint,
how you’re treating each other is…what it’s
all about…We talk to them (and say –
ed.)…Jesus has got no hands today, except
for the hands that are on your body. What
would Jesus do? Would he stand there
laughing at people? Would he go up to
them and ‘feel sorry for them’? Or was he
proactive?” HT, School C.
A positive response that
demonstrates an understanding of
social model type thinking.
What did teachers think that they
ought to teach children about
disability and the lives of disabled
people? Other responses…
HT School B explained how she was
uncertain what is the best message to
convey to non-disabled children – she
said that she wanted to avoid making
disability into a ‘spectacle’, but also to
avoid the ‘these are special people’
route. Later in her interview she then
stated:
“I would like them to think that whoever
they met, they would not be looking for
what the person looked like…that they
would in fact recognise that they could
get beyond that…that the person looks,
in their terms, ‘frightening’.”
Further explanation for her use of
this term: some of her pupils had
been upset by
story that was
Suggestion:
it isa important
to be circulating…
aware of the
challenges that teachers
face in termsthe
of Muslim
promoting
“Sometimes
children
attitudes
towards
willpositive
come in
with stories
of children
disabled
people
alsopeople
being
turned
into whilst
disabled
remaining
culturally
because
they’ve
done something
sensitive.
wrong.”
HT School B.
For these children disability
therefore = something to be
feared.
Some uncertainties that
teachers highlighted…
Behaviour problems…
Learning difficulties…
Challenge for teachers is what the
‘positive’ & ‘right’ message is here
AND what approach to take...
“There’s still an attitude that lots
of children carry that: ‘there’s a
table of children in the
corner…who aren’t that bright (to
be politer than no doubt the
children who be!)’ and that’s
about as far as their
understanding (of disablity – ed.)
would go a lot of the time. (…)
How do we alter perceptions of
those children?”
SENCO, School D.
“(we approach it by helping)
everybody else to get over it…and
make allowances for it and be very
I.e. the importance of
forgiving…you don’t do that
‘modelling’ behaviour is
through discrete teaching
being stressed
sessions…you
do thathere
every day
through the examples you set and
by praising the examples of people
that you see around you.” HT
School C.
Teacher’s views
continued…
Most teachers interviewed, although agreeing that promoting positive
attitudes towards disabled people is important, did not think that it was
necessary to establish a formal plan for bringing disability into the
curriculum. One teacher said that they could not see how disability fitted
into the curriculum and that he would value advice about this:
“There’s not a point that it might come…into the curriculum
or into a school year I don’t think. (…) if someone offered
training on ways…to help your children in your school have
a better attitude towards disability, ways to incorporate that
into the curriculum or to resource things…I’d be very
interested and would attend.”
SENCO, School D.
The exception was School
C, where they are taking a
more proactive approach…
Teacher’s views
continued…
Three teachers expressed a concern that drawing attention to the issue of
disability ran the risk of ‘reinforcing difference’ (particularly where there are
disabled children present in the school) and of drawing non-disabled children’s
attention to something that was previously a ‘non-issue’. One respondent to the
survey also mention this.
“I really believe that
children see other
children as children, they
might later then realise
there’s something
different about them, but I
don’t think children
initially notice it.”
HT, School A.
We have had several disabled children here
whom the children accept and naturally include in
play and class activities…Our children do not
have negative attitudes towards disability…I do
feel strongly, however, that…all these awareness
schemes for disabilities are simply highlighting
difference instead of allowing people to accept
disabilities for what they are and therefore
treating them with the respect and consideration
they would accord anyone.
Teacher. Survey response.
What challenges do
teachers face?
Lack of information regarding the
‘positive attitudes’ dimension of the
DED: Schools D & E raised this and
school F seemed rather unaware of
this dimension.
Absence of ‘good’, easily
accessed resources. Schools C,
B and D raised this.
That said, one teacher did admit that they
don’t always use the resources that they do
have:
“I went on a course and we were given a big
story board…with sort of magnetic
characters…and there were children that
were disabled as part of the characters… But
it was so many years ago that, kind of, it had
it’s day and then it got put in a cupboard…”
Classroom teacher, School B.
And in another school where
they had bought some books
‘recommended by Richard
Rieser’ (positive step!), when
asked whether the nondisabled children used and
liked them, said: “ I don’t
know if they do or not, to be
honest.” SENCO, School D.
HT School C also said she was concerned that younger or less experienced teachers
might lack the confidence to adapt resources to make them ‘work’ for their schools.
What challenges do
teachers face?
Positive Encounters
Ensuring that non-disabled children
have ‘positive encounters’ with
disabled people. All teachers
interviewed stated that they
believed this was *essential*. In
some schools where there were
higher numbers of disabled
children (School F in particular),
teachers felt that this happened
naturally…but other schools
struggled with this & how best to
achieve it.
“I think that we do have a special
school (locally – ed.)…so maybe
a starting point would be to make
links there. Sort of ‘outreach’
maybe. (…) It’s the only way,
because it’s concrete examples
isn’t it?” HT School A.
“What they need is more opportunities to
have these positive encounters…what we
need is time & opportunity to have these
very normal things. It’s not rocket science
is it, for people…to meet and chat and
get to know one another?…but there
aren’t sufficient opportunities to do it. HT
School E.
What challenges do
teachers face?
Levels of confidence
Knowing that we’re saying & doing the
‘right thing’: several teachers
expressed a concern about this.
“Language, I find this quite confusing. I mean obviously it’s
quite clear you don’t talk about…’retarded people’. But I’m
sure a few years ago, to talk about someone ‘with a
disability’ was…the way to go. And then I went on a course
a couple of years ago and you have to say ‘a disabled
person’ and that’s a more positive way to view people. I
find this really difficult…I would think ‘with a disability’ is
less discriminatory.” SENCO, School D.
“I think staff training is another thing,
because they need to be comfortable with
dealing with it, and to be comfortable that
what they’re saying is the right thing. (…) I
think a lot of people are not comfortable
with the terminology…the terms are
changed every so often and something’s
not politically correct, therefore you run
the risk of saying it wrong, when you don’t
mean any offence.” Classroom teacher,
School B.
After brief explanation of
Social Model & how language
relates to this:
“Right! I’ve never had it
explained quite like that.
That does make sense.”
SENCO, School D.
HT School E: in answer to question ‘how aware do you feel about
disability politics’ and the ‘message’ that the disability movement might like
conveyed to non-disabled children?
“I don’t think I’m unaware…I think there’s maybe more that I could find out,
you know, if I was in a position to need to.”
Implied: I’m not sure that I do need to know about this…
Whilst it was clear from the interview as a whole, that this teacher was not
at all opposed to the idea of promoting positive attitudes towards disabled
people, there were moments (for example his use of the term
‘handicapped’) that suggest that he may not be as familiar with current
thinking regarding disability politics as he believes.
What challenges do
teachers face?
Levels of confidence
Teachers stated that they need and
would value more advice from
disabled people and their
organisations…
“I think some people are worried as well…that you’re going to offend somebody
- if you put a child (non-disabled – ed.) in a wheelchair, that it’s somehow
offensive to a disabled person. If I was disabled, I’m afraid I would say… ‘if
sitting in that wheelchair for 5 minutes helps you to understand what it means
for me, then get on with it!’ But other staff, they might feel that’s not the right
thing to do. So I think there needs to be an establishing of what is acceptable
to people, that’s got to come through the organisations that work on behalf of
disabled people, to help us understand what does offend or doesn’t (…) In
order for people who are disabled to help educators it would be useful if the
organisations representing disabled people thought about how they could offer
training or help to people…come to us and explain what it’s like (to be a
disabled person – ed.). If you could teach our children, then what would be
useful to you (disabled people – ed.)?”
HT, School C.
Conclusions…
1. Teaching about ‘Race’ is ranked above disability and gender (though
disability can rank above gender in some cases) – so there is a
hierarchy in terms of teaching about ‘difference’.
2. While there is nothing surprising about this finding, it provides
evidence of the scale of the task facing the Disability Movement,
practitioners, policy makers and others who want to enhance children’s
awareness about disability and promote positive attitudes towards
disabled people.
Conclusions…
Embedded teaching?
Our evidence suggests that disability issues are not well embedded
within the teaching curriculum but distributed across PSHE, assembly,
circle time, etc. Does this degree of spread risk diluting the ‘message’?
– this will depend upon how often, and in what ways, disability issues
are considered during these activities.
That said, there is an awareness amongst a large number (57%) of the
schools that responded to the survey, that they ‘could do better’ –
suggesting that there is a willingness to address disability issues, but…
Some schools were unclear about how disability awareness could be
fitted into the curriculum, and some teachers believe it is wrong/risky to
highlight ‘difference’.
Conclusions…
School attitudes
As stated, the fact that 57% of schools stated that ‘we could do more’ is significant.
However, there is a difference between those schools that saw teaching for disability
equality/awareness as a challenge but also an opportunity, and those who perceived it (often for
understandable reasons) as an additional pressure.
Slide 12 provides a snapshot of differing attitudes to this issue – one teacher suggests that there
is need to be creative to achieve what is right for children, another feels that s/he doesn’t have
sufficient time – an additional burden
Generalised to School level, it is clear that a number of factors are at work:
Schools with high levels of children in receipt of FSM are statistically less likely to respond ‘yes’
to having sufficient time to teach disability (probably because teachers are feeling stretched in
other ways – this is not surprising).
Our findings also indicate that schools with high proportions of pupils who have ‘SEN’ are less
likely to have resources dedicated to disability equality/awareness. (That relevant resources are
not available for children who have ‘SEN’ is of concern because it is likely these children would
benefit from the greater availability of inclusive materials, which include images/stories about
children/people ‘like me’).
Conclusions…
Resources are an issue. Although schools with Disability Equality
Schemes in place or in preparation were more likely to have resources
(i.e. books),
76% of schools said that they have no action packs or other dedicated
resources to support teaching about disability
32% said that they had no books about disability or books that included
a disabled character
21% of schools said that they had no resources at all to support
teaching and learning about disability.
Conclusions…
thoughts for policy makers
The key policy implication is that schools will require more formal support from
government and local authorities if they are to raise the quality of teaching about
disability issues.
‘Support’ can involve incentives to stock school libraries with relevant
books/videos; visits and support from disabled people’s organisations as part of
general awareness-raising about disability issues; provision of extra training for
SENCOs and Head-teachers etc. We are sure that this is not an allencompassing list!
Perhaps OFSTED might consider reviewing levels of resource and the
approach taken to promoting positive attitudes towards disabled people, as part
of general school inspections? If the government brings in its ‘MOTs for
teachers’, might teachers’ level of confidence when it comes to teaching about
disability become a part of this ‘check-up’?
Conclusions…
thoughts for the
Disability Movement
Our research indicated a degree of lack of confidence amongst teachers and a feeling
that they might somehow be ‘getting it wrong’ in the eyes of the Disability Movement.
For example, fears about using the ‘wrong’ terminology about disabled people were
expressed by some respondents. It may be that this lack of confidence leads some
teachers to shy away from incorporating disability awareness into their teaching – using
lack of resources, time and fears of highlighting difference as reasons for not tackling
key issues.
So there are, we suggest, some questions here for the Disability Movement, in terms of
how to provide the right sort of support and information for teachers – how best to instill
the confidence that will allow teachers to embrace disability issues in an ‘un-defensive’
manner. Expectations of what hard-pressed teachers (who are known to be under
many pressures including league tables, an ‘over-stuffed’ curriculum etc.) can achieve
also need to be realistic. Further, it may be that there is a need to mortgage a bit of
‘delicacy’ around terminology, in order that teachers are not so preoccupied with
language that they lose track of the importance of promoting a positive
message/sentiment and one that reflects Social Model thinking.