Zdzisława Janiszewska-Nieścioruk

(Im)maturity of pro-inclusive changes in the education of people with disabilities

Taking into consideration the need for discourse of the current issues of inclusion of people with disabilities into the education system, the article attempts to identify and critically analyze the changes carried out, so far, in this field, and on this basis justify the thesis that in order to make them satisfactory for those people, especially in the times of promoting inclusive education, it is primarily expected that its main implementers – teachers – are competently prepared. Even more so that such expectations resounded in the postulates of the participants of this education – pupils and students with and without disabilities – discussing its qualities and weaknesses during the international youth hearings.

W treści artykułu wskazano na te słabości czy utrudnienia w przestrzeni ogólnodostępnej edukacji, które proces społecznej inkluzji osób z niepełnosprawnościami czynią ciągle problematycznym. Kwestie, na których się skupiono, to przede wszystkim brak działań na rzecz budowania kapitału społecznego w szkole, jako niezbędnej bazy do praktykowania w niej wzajemnej, opartej na zaufaniu i szacunku współpracy, otwartej na możliwość włączania w nią rodzin uczniów i lokalnej wspólnoty. Za równie istotny i dlatego domagający się szybkich rozwiązań uznano problem ubóstwa, które zbyt często jest powodem wykluczania i marginalizowania uczniów nim dotkniętych przez pełnosprawnych rówieśników i szkolny personel. To podwójne wykluczenie dzieci z rodzin ubogich obliguje wszystkie angażujące się w ich edukację i wspieranie podmioty do działań zorientowanych na kompensacją przez szkołę socjalizacyjnej funkcji rodziny. W tekście podjęto tak że, zbyt rzadko w kontekście inkluzji edukacyjnej analizowany wątek, jakim jest nuda w szkole i jej destrukcyjny wpływ na uczniów i proces ich włączania.

On the still unresolved problems of public education obstructing the process of inclusion of students/people with disabilities

The article presents weaknesses and difficulties in the area of public education, in which the process of social inclusion of people with disabilities is still problematic. The main focus of this paper is the lack of measures needed to build the school's social capital, which remains a necessary base to practice simultaneously, based on the cooperation of both trust and respect, open to the possibility of including the pupils' families and the local community. The issue of poverty, which often becomes the reason of exclusion and marginalisation of students by their non-disabled peers and school staff, is equally important. This double exclusion of children from poor families obliges all ntities involved in their education and support to actions aimed at the school's compensation, through the socializing function of a family. The article also delineates a very rarely analyzed, in the context of educational inclusion, thread of boredom at school and its destructive impact on pupils and the process of their inclusion.

On application of ICF in diagnosis as a foundation for providing help to people with disabilities. Between policy, scientific knowledge and practice

The theoretical framework and the ICF methodology often contribute practitioners’ hopes and expectations to use ICF in everyday work. Particularly they affect expectations concerning the understanding of ICF’s theoretical basis, as well as those concerning knowledge about the model of this type of diagnosis and its importance in organizing rehabilitation (regarding both possibilities and drawbacks). The presented analysis is focused on the potential uses of the ICF proposed by: the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Health, and the Ministry of Family, Labor and Social Policy, as well as the knowledge and understanding of the entities, responsible for organizing help and other models of diagnosis. This inquiry has led to believe that the postulate of using ICF in rehabilitation, including everyday practice work with students with disabilities at schools, usually faces numerous obstacles. An objective assessment must include a subjective conviction expressed by a person with a disability. Conjunction of both perspectives allows the functioning of an interactive model of diagnosis, which should be implemented in the rehabilitation, however, bringing it into practice might be significantly impeded by the top-down approach of a diagnosis, regarded with a functional approach. A personal perspective of disability of people involved in helping and their approach towards diagnosis often differs significantly from the theoretical framework the interactive model is based on. Often it also differs from the interpretation adopted by the ICF classification itself. Traditional scientific knowledge usually dominates the way of thinking about disability of people involved in helping, including teachers. That frequently brings those standpoints to “naive” beliefs. The practice of diagnosing reveals that the institutional knowledge and “common knowledge” often dominates the scientific one.

The problems connected with the pro-bolognian education of pedagogues and teachers in Poland

We consider the pro-bolognian changes that are being introduced in the fields of education of pedagogues and teachers to be highly problematic and controversial. These problems and controversies, in our view, are mainly related to the negative consequences of the modification of the model and scholastic-pedagogical curriculum, appointed by expected learning outcomes that are mandatorily adopted for implementation. No less important we consider the issue of limitations of the graduate’s competences, whose current scope and nature can be a hidden blocker for the development of science and research in subdisciplines of pedagogy. In the context of identified weaknesses, we will attempt to outline proposals for new, flexible solutions in the pro-bolognian education of pedagogues and teachers in Poland.

The school’s role in the process of lifelong education of people with intellectual disabilities

The dissemination of pro-inclusive changes in the system of Polish education promotes the flexibility of its existing offer - organizational, programmatic, and in terms of support, making it more adequate towards the needs and abilities of the people with intellectual disabilities. However, there are some weaknesses present in their implementation, where their elimination or at least limitation could improve the quality and effectiveness of the integrative education of these people. These weaknesses and, at the same time, priority tasks for the school are primarily associated with the need to “fit” program arrangements to the life needs, expectations, and experiences of students and graduates of pro-inclusive forms and the reorganization of the existing school work and its functioning in the local environment as a (self-) learning organization. Therefore, to avert a shutdown of including (and already included) people with intellectual disabilities into the educational space, we should monitor the pro-inclusive changes taking place, in which the school as an educational and (self-) learning institution will be one of the vital links of this multidimensional process.