This thesis reports a collective case study of the school educational experiences of five severely and profoundly deaf students who were enrolled in regular schools in rural areas of New South Wales. The students ranged in age from 6 to 18 years. Three issues were examined: (1) The impact of the philosophy of inclusive education and the question of why students with high degrees of deafness and high support needs were enrolled in regular schools in rural areas; (2) The specific linguistic an educational support needs of deaf students; and (3) The ability of the regular schools and teachers to cater for the educational needs of the deaf students in those settings. The case studies revealed that to considerably varying extents in different situations, the students were afforded inclusive educational opportunities. The extent of inclusiveness of students’ educational experiences was shown to vary according to a number of variables. The variables identified included: the type and quality of communication with the deaf student, teaching style, accessibility of content, particular lesson type, and the type and extent of curriculum adaptations employed. As a result of the analysis of the data from the five cases, a number of generalistions were possible. These generalisations were that (a) students with the ability to access spoken communication auditorily were more easily included than students using manual communication; (b) reduction of linguistic and academic input occurred as a response to student inability to access class programs because of reduced linguistic capabilities, resulting in the deaf students receiving different and reduced information to the hearing students; (c) communication between a deaf student and his or her class teacher needed to be direct for the most successful inclusion to occur; (d) teaching style needed to be interactive or experiential for successful language learning and literacy development to occur; (e) curriculum adaptations needed to involve provision of visual support for lesson material to be highly effective; (f) lessons/subjects easily supported by visual means, such as mathematics or practical subjects, when taught hierarchically, going from the known to unknown in achievable steps, meant teaching style could be either transmission or interactive, for lesson activities to be considered inclusive; (g) students with poor literacy skills were unable to successfully access an intact (i.e., unaltered and complete) high school curriculum; (h) the teaching style of the class teacher impacted on the support model possible for the itinerant teacher; (i) an interactive class teaching style allowed for cooperative teaching between class teacher and itinerant teacher who could then assist the class teacher with both the linguistic and academic needs of the deaf student; (j) a transmission style of teaching resulted in various levels of withdrawal for the deaf student unless the subject matter could be represented visually; (k) when curriculum content or expected outcomes were reduced, the deaf students did not have the same access to information as their hearing counterparts and consequently could not develop concepts or understandings in the same manner; and (l) language and literacy development were most facilitated when interactive teaching opportunities were established proactively for the deaf students rather than through the reduction of content as a response to their failure to successfully engage with the complete curriculum. The conclusions suggest an alternative support proposal for deaf students in rural environments. The model of support proposed involves the targeting of specific preschools and primary schools with the provision of teachers identified to teach collaboratively and interactively. Under the proposed model several students with impaired hearing would be located within the one school with the itinerant teacher position becoming a full-time appointment in that school. Such a model would enable coenrolment, co-teaching, co-programming, creative grouping, and the provision of demonstration opportunities and support for other teachers within the school and district that had deaf students enrolled. Finally, interactive teaching, based on a clearly defined theoretical model of language acquisition, development, and learning, is recommended for students with impaired hearing in such environments. It is argued that the support of linguistic development and academic learning could be facilitated concurrently, thus ensuring that by the time students had reached high school they would possess sufficient literacy skills to access a regular high school program successfully. / PhD Doctorate

Frauen*rechte beschreiben Grund- und Menschenrechte, die für Frauen* und Mädchen* besonders relevant sind, wie beispielsweise das Recht auf politische Partizipation, auf Bildung, auf Gesundheit oder auf körperliche sowie sexuelle Integrität. Bemühungen um und die Konzeption von Frauen*rechten sind sowohl auf inter- als auch auf nationaler Ebene von Frauen*rechtsbewegungen beeinflusst. Trotz des strukturellen male bias des Rechts kennen sowohl das internationale Menschenrechtsregime als auch nationale Rechtsordnungen Gewaltschutzmechanismen, Geschlechterdiskriminierungsver- oder Gleichstellungsgebote. Kritik gegenüber Frauen*rechten wird aus kulturrelativistischen, universalistisch-feministischen, postkolonialen und queer-feministischen Perspektiven geübt.

Mit dem Begriff Diskriminierung wird der benachteiligende, herabsetzende oder abwertende Umgang mit Personen, die (imaginierten) gesellschaftlichen Gruppen zugeordnet werden, beschrieben. Diesem gehen psychologische Dynamiken der Stereotypisierung sowie historisch komplexe soziale Prozesse und Strukturen der Differenzierung und Hierarchisierung voran. Aufgrund sozialer, politischer und wissenschaftlicher Auseinandersetzungen ist Diskriminierung mittlerweile nicht nur als (Menschen-)Rechtsverletzung anerkannt, sondern permanent Gegenstand von Kontroversen über die (Il-)Legitimität von (Un-)Gleichbehandlung.

Racial and gender inequality, as well as other forms of discrimination has been a part of the South African, American and Indian histories for a very long time. Even today racial disparity is still very evident in the South African and American societies whilst discrimination based on caste is still prevalent in the Indian society. This is illustrated by continued racial discrimination and the remaining signs of societal segregation. Due to continuing disparities amongst the people, it became necessary to implement affirmative action programmes. Focusing in particular on education and jobs, affirmative action policies require active measures to be taken to ensure that blacks and other minorities enjoy the same opportunities for career advancement and school admissions that had been the nearly exclusive province of whites in SA and the USA, or for the forward castes in India. Affirmative action has been both praised and denounced, as an answer to racial inequality. One of the key issues that arise when affirmative action is discussed is whether or not affirmative action in fact promotes equality and atones for past prejudices. Another concern is whether the current affirmative action policy is the right policy to use. The issues surrounding affirmative action seems to be universal as are the circumstances. Perhaps the most widespread similarity among the programmes in these very different countries has been that group preferences and quotas are almost always discussed. The debate on affirmative action exists because it is a very divisive issue and it affects different groups of people in different ways, and some groups or persons seemingly benefit more from affirmative action than other persons or groups. In addition, it causes people to be classified into groups, and at the same time, strives to break down group barriers. It is an issue that is difficult to resolve because people have varied ideas about how the problems of racial inequality and historical discrimination should be addressed / Jurisprudence / LLD

Racial and gender inequality, as well as other forms of discrimination has been a part of the South African, American and Indian histories for a very long time. Even today racial disparity is still very evident in the South African and American societies whilst discrimination based on caste is still prevalent in the Indian society. This is illustrated by continued racial discrimination and the remaining signs of societal segregation. Due to continuing disparities amongst the people, it became necessary to implement affirmative action programmes. Focusing in particular on education and jobs, affirmative action policies require active measures to be taken to ensure that blacks and other minorities enjoy the same opportunities for career advancement and school admissions that had been the nearly exclusive province of whites in SA and the USA, or for the forward castes in India. Affirmative action has been both praised and denounced, as an answer to racial inequality. One of the key issues that arise when affirmative action is discussed is whether or not affirmative action in fact promotes equality and atones for past prejudices. Another concern is whether the current affirmative action policy is the right policy to use. The issues surrounding affirmative action seems to be universal as are the circumstances. Perhaps the most widespread similarity among the programmes in these very different countries has been that group preferences and quotas are almost always discussed. The debate on affirmative action exists because it is a very divisive issue and it affects different groups of people in different ways, and some groups or persons seemingly benefit more from affirmative action than other persons or groups. In addition, it causes people to be classified into groups, and at the same time, strives to break down group barriers. It is an issue that is difficult to resolve because people have varied ideas about how the problems of racial inequality and historical discrimination should be addressed / Jurisprudence / LLD