This research is based on three case studies, each of which involved a critical examination of how early childhood centres responded to children with disabilities. The first case study involved gathering information at seven full-day workshops undertaken at seven locations in the North and South Islands of New Zealand. The early childhood teachers, other professionals and parents who attended these workshops provided information on centre policies with regard to children with disabilities and on their own views about issues in this area. The second case study involved participant observation and interviews in a kindergarten across ten months. In this setting, I was actively involved in the daily programme, looking at how the kindergarten responded to Craig, a child with severe disabilities, and his family. The third case study involved participant observation and interviews in a childcare centre across ten months. In this setting, I looked at how the centre and its community included Peter, a child with Down Syndrome, and his family. In each of the case studies I was interested in understanding how children with disabilities may be included in early childhood settings and how some children with disabilities may experience exclusion from such centres.
The data from the three studies were theorised from a social constructionist position that suggests that our understandings of the world are made evident in the way in which we name and talk about issues. Within this theoretical position, it is through discourse that knowledge and meaning about a phenomenon are formed and produced. Discourses function as a system of rules giving authority to what may be said and thought in relation to a particular subject. In the present case, the focal subject was disability. From the case studies it was evident that two particular discourses had significant and contrasting implications for policy and practice in early childhood education. A medical-model discourse that saw disability as a condition of an individual child in need of "special" education and treatment was related to children with disabilities experiencing discrimination and exclusion. A discourse of inclusion in which disability was viewed as part of a continuum of human experience was related to policy and practice that was focussed on the elimination of barriers, and to full participation in early childhood settings. The thesis suggests that removing barriers to participation is consistent with a social justice approach to disability that acknowledges the need for both redistributive justice through resource allocation, and respect for differences through justice as affirmative cultural recognition.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ADTP/217466 |
| Date | January 2006 |
| Creators | Purdue, Kerry Ellen, n/a |
| Publisher | University of Otago. Faculty of Education |
| Source Sets | Australiasian Digital Theses Program |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Rights | http://policy01.otago.ac.nz/policies/FMPro?-db=policies.fm&-format=viewpolicy.html&-lay=viewpolicy&-sortfield=Title&Type=Academic&-recid=33025&-find), Copyright Kerry Ellen Purdue |
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