Unit name | Including Students' Voices |
---|---|
Unit code | ACHSM0003 |
Credit points | 20 |
Level of study | M/7 |
Teaching block(s) |
Teaching Block 1 (weeks 1 - 12) |
Unit director | Professor. Abbott |
Open unit status | Not open |
Pre-requisites |
None |
Co-requisites |
None |
School/department | School for Policy Studies |
Faculty | Faculty of Social Sciences and Law |
Within the field of special and inclusive education, the importance of listening to disabled students has been strongly and consistently emphasised in the policy and research literature. The overall purpose of this unit is to explore the issues involved in listening to disabled students and including disabled students in decision making. The unit's focus on involving students may be a relatively unfamiliar concept for some students (e.g. those from certain international contexts). Material will be presented in such a way that all students can engage with the 'reality' of this development, e.g. by inviting disabled adults to teach aspects of this unit and by participants sharing their experiences of listening to the voice of children/young people. The unit will be explicitly based on a social model of disability and disabled people will co-present selected sessions. There will be an emphasis on exploring the implications of research findings and participants will be encouraged to explore how research can impact on people with learning disabilities themselves. Tutors will refer to and include issues relating to Further and Continuing education, as well as the various contexts in school-age education.
By the end of this unit students will have:
Guided reading, lectures, seminars, and presentations across 21 contact hours in the University. Aspects of the unit will be taught by young disabled people from their own experience.
The assessment for the unit will consist of a small practical or library-based investigation into an aspect of including students’ voices (4,000 words or equivalent). The main issues and challenges associate with including disabled children and young people’s views should be outlined and discussed with reference to the research literature and in relation to one of the following topics: