<p>Internationally, the rights of persons with disabilities to participate as full members of society through inclusive education has become a high priority with the adoption of the first legally binding treaty, the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (2006). In keeping with our culture of acknowledging the rights of all, South Africa has already made great strides towards fulfilling these rights and is in the implementation phase of Education White Paper 6: Building an Inclusive Education and Training System (Department of Education, 2001). In spite of this, the practicability of implementing inclusive education is questioned by many. The inclusion of learners who are blind in neighbourhood schools, as opposed to &lsquo / special schools&rsquo / , is a particularly daunting task. However, the more local cases we have from which to draw insights, the better our chances of making inclusive education both practicable and widely accessible across a range of local contexts. A public, mainstream neighbourhood school that included two learners who are blind was therefore investigated to learn more about how the learners who are blind were physically, socially and academically included in the local school community. Qualitative data collection methods including semi-structured interviews and observations were used to uncover useful strategies, challenges and enabling factors that contributed to their successful inclusion. The findings revealed that the participants in this study had very little knowledge or experience in building an inclusive educational setting at the outset, but engaged in the process with open minds, creativity and trust. By adopting a collaborative approach and an attitude of &lsquo / failing forward&rsquo / , the objective of social and academic inclusion was to a great extent achieved in the school.</p>

<p>Internationally, the rights of persons with disabilities to participate as full members of society through inclusive education has become a high priority with the adoption of the first legally binding treaty, the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (2006). In keeping with our culture of acknowledging the rights of all, South Africa has already made great strides towards fulfilling these rights and is in the implementation phase of Education White Paper 6: Building an Inclusive Education and Training System (Department of Education, 2001). In spite of this, the practicability of implementing inclusive education is questioned by many. The inclusion of learners who are blind in neighbourhood schools, as opposed to &lsquo / special schools&rsquo / , is a particularly daunting task. However, the more local cases we have from which to draw insights, the better our chances of making inclusive education both practicable and widely accessible across a range of local contexts. A public, mainstream neighbourhood school that included two learners who are blind was therefore investigated to learn more about how the learners who are blind were physically, socially and academically included in the local school community. Qualitative data collection methods including semi-structured interviews and observations were used to uncover useful strategies, challenges and enabling factors that contributed to their successful inclusion. The findings revealed that the participants in this study had very little knowledge or experience in building an inclusive educational setting at the outset, but engaged in the process with open minds, creativity and trust. By adopting a collaborative approach and an attitude of &lsquo / failing forward&rsquo / , the objective of social and academic inclusion was to a great extent achieved in the school.</p>

Magister Educationis - MEd / Internationally, the rights of persons with disabilities to participate as full members of society through inclusive education has become a high priority with the adoption of the first legally binding treaty, the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (2006). In keeping with our culture of acknowledging the rights of all, South Africa has already made great strides towards fulfilling these rights and is in the implementation phase of Education White Paper 6: Building an Inclusive Education and Training System (Department of Education, 2001). In spite of this, the practicability of implementing inclusive education is questioned by many. The inclusion of learners who are blind in neighbourhood schools, as opposed to ‘special schools’, is a particularly daunting task. However, the more local cases we have from which to draw insights, the better our chances of making inclusive education both practicable and widely accessible across a range of local contexts. A public, mainstream neighbourhood school that included two learners who are blind was therefore investigated to learn more about how the learners who are blind were physically, socially and academically included in the local school community. Qualitative data collection methods including semi-structured interviews and observations were used to uncover useful strategies, challenges and enabling factors that contributed to their successful inclusion. The findings revealed that the participants in this study had very little knowledge or experience in building an inclusive educational setting at the outset, but engaged in the process with open minds, creativity and trust. By adopting a collaborative approach and an attitude of ‘failing forward’, the objective of social and academic inclusion was to a great extent achieved in the school. / South Africa

Σκοπός της παρούσα διπλωματικής εργασίας είναι η μελέτη της ακαδημαϊκής και κοινωνικής ένταξης των κωφών μαθητών που φοιτούν σε σχολεία γενικής αγωγής δευτεροβάθμιας εκπαίδευσης. Μελετώνται επίσης οι παράγοντες που την επηρεάζουν καθώς και οι μεταξύ τους συσχετίσεις. Αρχικά γίνεται ανασκόπηση της βιβλιογραφίας που σχετίζεται με την κοινωνική και ακαδημαϊκή ένταξη των κωφών μαθητών που φοιτούν στα γενικά σχολεία της δευτεροβάθμιας εκπαίδευσης και των παραγόντων που την επηρεάζουν. Δείγμα της ερευνάς αποτελέσαν 57 εκπαιδευτικοί γενικής αγωγής που έχουν έστω έναν κωφό μαθητή. Το ερευνητικό εργαλείο που χρησιμοποιήθηκε ήταν ερωτηματολόγιο. Η ανάλυση των δεδομένων έγινε με το στατιστικό πρόγραμμα SPSS (Πρόγραμμα Στατιστικής Επεξεργασίας Δεδομένων Κοινωνικών Επιστημών). Μέσα από την ανάλυση των δεδομένων προέκυψε το συμπέρασμα πως τόσο η κοινωνική όσο και η ακαδημαϊκή ένταξη των κωφών μαθητών στα σχολεία γενικής αγωγής της δευτεροβάθμιας εκπαίδευσης δεν έχει επιτευχθεί. Παρόλα αυτά υπάρχουν παράγοντες, όπως ατομικά χαρακτηριστικά των μαθητών, οι οποίοι επηρεάζουν το βαθμό της ένταξης και είναι καθοριστικοί για την επιτυχία της ή όχι. Επιπλέον, το πλαίσιο της ένταξης και πιο συγκεκριμένα ο χρόνος παραμονής του μαθητή στην γενική τάξη και η υποστήριξη που πιθανά έχει είναι καθοριστικοί παράγοντες για την επιτυχία της. Αξίζει να σημειωθεί ακόμα ότι η ακαδημαϊκή ένταξη αποτελεί ένα βασικό παράγοντα για την επιτυχία της κοινωνικής και αντίστροφα. Τέλος είναι επιτακτική η ανάγκη διεξαγωγής αντίστοιχων ερευνών οι οποίες θα διαφωτίσουν ακόμα περισσότερο τα παραπάνω ζητήματα. / The purpose of this dissertation is to study the academic and social inclusion of deaf and hearing impaired students (D/HH) who study at secondary general education schools. The factors which can affect them are carefully studied along with the different relationships between each factor. In the first part of this work we review the related literature in the area of academic and social inclusion of deaf students from secondary general education schools and the factors that affects them. This study is based on data collected through a questionnaire from 57 different high school teachers of the mainstream schools who had in their class at least one deaf student. The results revealed that both academic as well as social inclusion of D/HH students in secondary, regular schools have not been achieved. Despite this however, there are factors, such as personal student characteristics, which affect the degree of inclusion and which also determine success or failure. Other factors which include the framework of inclusion and, more specifically, the amount of time the student spends in regular classes and their support they receive in them are related to their successful inclusion. Furthermore, academic inclusion is an important factor that determines social inclusion and visa-versa. Finally, it is of critical importance that more studies are done in the area of inclusive education of secondary school students in order to determine all the critical factors and issues related to this important subject.

Made available in DSpace on 2015-04-16T15:23:21Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 arquivototal.pdf: 2565602 bytes, checksum: 1287d4cae804672906d58ad619f8d721 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2012-03-30 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior - CAPES / The present paper aims to elucidate the informational actions used for the attendance of the social and informational needs of blind students at Campus 1 of the Federal University of Paraíba, identifying their informational needs and barriers more pertinent in the search and use of information. The methodology used Bardin s Analysis, by means of the categorization process based on Sense Making model of Brenda Dervin which, by means of meaning construction, intends to apprehend how users make sense through a subjective perspective. The obtained results revealed that there are some barriers, among them, informational, attitudinal and technical ones. Also, these barriers are not only for the blind student, but also among professors, in relation to the inclusive process, and the own University in the role of manager of possibilities, because it does not enable the usability of assistive technologies as a factor of digital inclusion in the entire educational context. The conclusion is that there is lack of pedagogical (in)formation of professors to change their social and educative praxis, as well as it suggests the realization of new researches about this problematic which reflects in the formation of professors and in the noiseless positioning of universities in relation to people with special needs. / Este trabalho tem como objetivo esclarecer as ações informacionais utilizadas para o atendimento das necessidades socioinformacionais dos universitários cegos do Campus 1 da Universidade Federal da Paraíba (UFPB), identificando as suas necessidades informacionais e barreiras mais pertinentes na busca e uso da informação. A metodologia utilizada foi a análise de Bardin através do processo de categorização embasada no modelo Sense Making de Brenda Dervin, que através da construção de sentido visa apreender como os usuários fazem sentido através de uma perspectiva subjetiva. Os resultados obtidos revelaram que existem algumas barreiras, entre elas, as informacionais, atitudinais e técnicas, não só para o universitário cego como também entre os docentes, em relação ao processo inclusivo, como da própria Universidade por ser gestora de possibilidades, em não viabilizar a usabilidade das tecnologias assistivas como fator de inclusão digital em todo o seu contexto educacional. Conclui que falta (in)formação pedagógica dos docentes para mudar sua práxis educativa e social, assim como sugere a realização de novas pesquisas voltadas para essa problemática que se reflete no aspecto sociocultural da formação do educador e no posicionamento silencioso das universidades diante dos portadores de necessidades especiais.