DISABILITY IN THE CURRICULUM
Chris Osborne
and benefit of making public transport accessible. They
could study housing, barrier-free design, and the urban
from the
environment.
Non-subject based learning
Children’s
Recent Children’s Society research found that
schools also use other non-subject based methods to
Society discusses
get the message across. In a sample of 97 primary
and 83 secondary schools, four-fifths of those that
how disability awareness
teach disability equality reported that assemblies and
collective worship include this element, while 34 per
cent incorporated it into social activities, like school
can be raised in schools
trips and joint sports days with special schools.
Involving disabled pupils and their peers in the
development, implementation and monitoring of their
ESEARCH FROM the Children’s school’s Disability Equality Scheme is another practical
R
Society has found that under a third way to engage pupils in learning about disability.
of the 11,000 children sampled have Those pupils who highlighted the importance of
learned about disability in the past
year. Children reported that they
had not been taught about disabled
people and those with learning
difficulties, and worryingly also expressed limited
Promoting
learning about prejudice to effectively tackle it offered
some perspectives on what they considered to be good
approaches to teaching in this area. These included
references to taking a real approach (“they should tell it
like it is – don’t hold back, give situations”), spending
interest in lessons on this subject. more time on exploring issues using contemporary
Only 14 per cent said that they would like more
lessons about disabled people, despite the majority of
pupils seeing anti-prejudice and anti-discrimination as
subjects of value to themselves and society.
It is, of course, a school’s duty under the Disability
equality
resources and involving people who had experienced it.
Critical to achieving good practice in this area is
a whole-school inclusive approach, with staff teams
that are knowledgeable, skilled and committed. This
includes links with disabled people in the school and
Discrimination Act 2005 to promote disability equality. local community, the promotion of positive images of
An integral part of the duty is to promote positive disability across the school, and challenging the use of
attitudes, and the teaching of the national curriculum disablist language.
offers an opportunity to do this. whole range of curriculum subjects. Some examples
History
A designated member of staff responsible for the
So how can disability equality be taught in schools of subject-based learning about disability could include Teachers could explore the treatment, experiences and co-ordination of disability equality content and teaching
in a way that is both fun and interesting, and which the following. activism of disabled people through the ages. Topics in the curriculum would be valuable and may assist
promotes well informed attitudes to disability. that could be discussed include the consideration of schools to achieve the above.
Within the framework of the national curriculum,
Literature / English
the treatment of disabled people by the Greeks and Promoting well informed attitudes to disability is
schools are free to plan and organise teaching and Children’s fiction offers the opportunity to promote Romans; the witch hunts of 1480 to 1680 and the impact central to securing the right to equality for all disabled
learning in the way that best meets the needs of their positive images and attitudes towards disability. It also on disabled people; the Industrial Revolution and the people. Schools are ideally placed to proactively inform
pupils. has the potential to reinforce negative stereotypes, exclusion of disabled people from the workforce; and and raise awareness among their pupils, including by
This means that they have a great deal of flexibility so it is important that teachers are aware and able to the Poor Law Relief. teaching disability equality across the curriculum in
– schools can introduce other experiences and subjects critically evaluate the representation of disability and new and more inventive ways. SecEd
to meet the needs and interests of their pupils once disabled people to consider its impact.
Geography
they are satisfied that they are meeting the statutory A good starting point for schools is to audit the Students could look at the global distribution of • Chris Osborne is a Children’s Society policy advisor.
requirements of the curriculum. content of the stories and novels that they use to identify impairments (injuries from land mines, polio, or
A key recommendation of our research was for if they include positive images of disabled people, or if malaria, for example), or at the Third World and the
Further information
disability equality to be integrated into areas of the they reinforce negative stereotypes. lack of resources to eradicate 80 per cent of impairment The Children’s Society report, Disability Equality:
curriculum other than simply citizenship and PSHE. One suggested idea is that traditional stories that that is preventable. Promoting Positive Attitudes Through the Teaching
Citizenship and PSHE are natural places for the feature disabled characters (such as Rapunzel, Hansel They could explore the ecological consequences of of the National Curriculum, is available at
teaching of disability as they focus on rights, equality and Gretel, Rumpelstiltskin, Snow White and the Seven pollution in terms of the impairment of populations. www.childrenssociety.org.uk/research
and discrimination. However, in order for the teaching Dwarves) should be read and discussed, before being They could consider the built environment, The charity has also produced a resource for teachers
of disability to be broadened and maximised, it is rewritten or retold so that the disabled characters are and undertake access surveys of the school, local on disability equality: www.childrenssociety.org.uk/
important that teachers include this teaching within a not stereotyped. environment and shopping centres, or look at the cost resources/documents/Research/11532_full.pdf
Notes and jottings Independent thinking
Let’s have some real culture The surreal world of education
I’M AT an education conference run by the Have you discovered Cambridge University’s WE LIVE in interesting times, as the Chinese might after the age of 14. Now the European Commission
Westminster Education Forum. The rather grandiose Millennium Maths Project (http://mmp.maths.org)? say. Teachers can only wonder as bankers enjoy has announced that 80 per cent of all EU secondary
title is “Vocation or Inspiration? Cultural Provision It aims to sex up maths by developing strategic massive bonuses and stratospheric pensions, and students ought to be learning two European languages
and the Creative Industries”. thinking and stimulating mathematical curiosity. leading politicians continue to deny any responsibility by 2020. Apparently, only 45 per cent of English
The place is swarming with MPs and people Susan Hickman-Pinder, schools liaison officer, for the economic crisis which is affecting us all. secondary schools have the capacity to teach more
in charge of this and that “creative” or “cultural” takes a roadshow out to schools. It involves a whole Common sense used to be a much praised quality; it than one modern language.
body and I’m half-alarmed, half-amused to see that or a half-day of hands-on mathematical puzzles, is no longer fashionable and is becoming increasingly Meanwhile, the government has stated that they
the main speaker is Mick Elliott of the Department games and activities, and there’s a package of rare. Surrealism has surreptitiously insinuated itself would like between 50 and 90 per cent of all
of Culture, Media and Sport. His extraordinary, downloadable follow-up material for later. Schools into every aspect of our lives, especially for those secondary school pupils to gain a GCSE
Orwellian job title is “Director of Culture”. How such as Valentine’s in London and Simon of us working in the education world. A few in one foreign language. A strikingly
can you direct culture? If we have someone Langton (the girls’ school) in Canterbury recent examples have caught my eye. broad target! Imagine telling your
trying to manage or control it, then are full of praise for it. Let us begin with a recent Ofsted local authority that you were aiming
perhaps it explains a lot... It also offers a Risk Roadshow for report about ICT. Ofsted has expressed for 50 to 90 per cent of your pupils
Meanwhile, I am much cheered key stage 3 and upwards: Why do concern that fewer pupils are taking achieving five A* to Cs. As for the
by two year 12 students – Roberta coincidences happen? What risks A levels in ICT, in spite of the subject’s EU hope of 80 per cent learning
Shand and Mikaela Wilson – from do we face? How do we make importance in adult working life. two languages – another case of
The Marsh Academy at New sense of what newspapers say? Well, many adults have no surrealism?
Romney in Kent. Their school is The idea is to show pupils how qualifications in ICT, but use it for many The EU has featured in another
part of one of the 10 Pathfinder to apply maths to the real world hours every day of their lives – surely surreal education story lately.
groups in government’s Find Your of risk, probability, chance and the real problem is that we are sleep- Amazingly, up to 70 per cent of the
Talent scheme. Both girls are studying uncertainty. Beats trigonometry, or it walking into a world where we can all use EU students who come to English
art and destined for art-related subjects certainly would have done when I was WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get). universities and take out student loans
at university. a 15-year-old bored rigid by maths. In other words, we can click on icons and use through the student loan company
“We think that there’s a lack of respect applications, but have absolutely no idea of (SLC) don’t repay them. Indeed it
for arts subjects and especially art,” they Last year I attended a fine the programming behind them. would appear that the SLC has no way
declared to the conference. “It should performance of Gilbert and Sullivan’s We need highly skilled mathematicians of tracking them, or indeed British
get the same attention that maths and Iolanthe at Haberdashers’ Aske’s and computer scientists to develop future graduates, once they leave the country.
science do!” Hatcham College in London. One programmes, but also more of us need Those applying for loans have to
Roberta and Mikaela also explained of the now-obscure Victorian topical greater awareness of how computers provide a permanent address, such as
that New Romney is very isolated. jokes was replaced by a reference actually work; otherwise we may end up their parents’ address, but the SLC does
Tucked down at the “far end” of the to Dr Who with the female chorus with a few villainous characters taking not use these addresses as “it might be a
Romney Marsh they are 20 miles from dreamily holding up pictures of David over the world, just like in James Bond! breach of data protection rules”.
Ashford (and the nearest railway station): Tennant. There’s no doubt the 46-year- However, this was not the point which Every year a greater proportion of
“We need funding to bring artists into old programme reaches parts which other the Ofsted inspectors were making; rather, UK university places are being given to EU
school or arrangements to get us out to meet television dramas don’t. they observed that many pupils were taking students and they are entitled to the same
them and we’d like a decent room of our own Accrington and Rossendale College in qualifications of “doubtful value”. Their loans as home students. Funding for university
where year 7s can’t come in and wreck our Lancashire recently themed a construction report revealed that increasing numbers of degrees is becoming ever more squeezed and
work,” they added. and motor engineering careers event on Dr pupils have been taking vocational qualifications harder to obtain, but the system for reclaiming the
Their real point was that the movers and shakers Who. Around 350 year 11 students from 15 local in ICT, worth four GCSEs, rather than GCSE and then loans from thousands of EU graduates is absolutely
in education should be listening to students much secondary schools spent a day together on skills- A level ICT. How astonishing! Schools have been ineffectual and risible. Perhaps some of our bankers
more. And their style was like a breath of fresh air. based challenges such as decorating a Tardis or entering more pupils for a qualification which Ofsted would care to pay on behalf of the “disappeared” EU
I visited their school, incidentally, a while back devising a K9 robot race. The daleks were there too, describes as offering “limited challenge”, but which students?
and it is the only school I have been to which has, of course. The idea was to get the pupils to think is worth four GCSEs in the dreadful league tables, Three extraordinary stories, all with detrimental
near its foyer, an art gallery – with exhibits by local about post-school choices. Imaginative stuff. than for a more academically stretching qualification. effects on our young people’s future education and
professionals and amateurs. According to Mikaela So, can you bend Dr Who to your purposes? Ofsted concluded that this situation is serious. It may prospects – whatever happened to common sense?
and Roberta, the gallery is still there but not used be serious, but is this report not also surreal?
educationally for students in the school. Sounds like • Susan Elkin is a freelance education journalist and As we all know, the government has removed • Marion Gibbs is headmistress of the independent
a missed opportunity to me. former teacher. the necessity for pupils to study modern languages James Allen’s Girls’ School in London.
SecEd • March 12 2009 7
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