To solve the global challenges of the present society, contemporary scholarship requires that all diverse social groups are included in knowledge production through education. Professionalisation is one way in which diverse social groups can engage in knowledge production in higher education. While all kinds of professionalisation produce citizens who can contribute to the social, political and economic development, the teaching profession is foundational as most people have come through the hands of teachers from basic to higher education.
Teaching has been referred to as the noblest of professions because it does not only require acquisition of knowledge and skills, but high levels of professionalism, dignity, honour and the ability to lead by example. While inclusion of all diverse social groups is topical after attainment of independence in African countries largely and in South Africa particularly, professionalisation of students with disabilities into the teaching profession and in settings for integrated learning, has received little attention from scholars in the disability field.
Professionalisation of Students with Disabilities into the Teaching Profession in South African Higher Education critically reflects on what affordances and challenges face students with disabilities in professionalisation into the teaching professions and on how students are socialised to identify with the profession. It does so from the lived experiences of students with disabilities, the academics who teach them, the support staff and the authorâs nuanced understanding of the professionalisation, the teaching profession, and transformation to include all in the South African context of higher education.
Sibonokuhle Ndlovu, Ph.D. (2017), University of the Witwatersrand, is a lecturer at Ali Mazrui Centre for Higher Education Studies, at the University of Johannesburg. She has published numerous articles on disability inclusion in higher education, with focus on students with disabilities, and has edited two book volumes on the topic of disability inclusion and on teaching and learning in higher education.
Preface
Acknowledgements
About the Author
Introduction
1 Disability and Continued Exclusion in the Global South
â1 Introduction
â2 The Global Perspective of Exclusion of Students with Disabilities in Higher Education
â3 Exclusion of Students with Disabilities in South African Higher Education
â4 Education of Students with Disabilities: From Pre- to Post-Apartheid South Africa
â5 Exclusion of Students with Disabilities during the COVID-19 Pandemic
â6 Positionality of Author
2 The History of Professions
â1 Introduction
â2 What Is a Profession?
â3 Professions and Colonialism
â4 Professions and Knowledge Monopoly
â5 Professions, Gender and Social Class
â6 Professions, Ethics and Moral Principle
â7 Professions and Professional Bodies
â8 Professions and Change
â9 Professions and Disability
â10 Contestation of a Profession in Contemporary South Africa
3 Educate a Teacher, Educate a Nation! The Professional Programme of Education in Higher Education in South Africa
â1 Introduction
â2 The History of the Education Programme in South Africa
â3 Shortage of Teachers in South Africa
â4 Contestation of Education as a Professional Programme
â5 Professional Knowledge
â6 Professional Knowledge in Education
â7 Disciplinary/Subject Matter Knowledge
â8 Pedagogical Knowledge
â9 Situational Knowledge
â10 Fundamental Knowledge
â11 Practical Knowledge
â12 Critique of Professional Knowledge for Education
â13 Professionalisation as a Concept and a Process
4 Policy and Exclusion of Students with Disabilities in Higher Education: Exclusion Starts with the UN Convention to Policy in South Africa
â1 Introduction
â2 The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and Disability Inclusion
â3 Steps in the Right Direction: Starting from the Constitution and Legislation
â4 Politics of Policy: Disjuncture between Policy, Practice and Implementation
5 Inclusive Education and Teacher Education in South Africa
â1 Introduction
â2 Perspectives on Inclusive Education
â3 Inclusive Education in Schools
â4 Inclusive Education Programme in Initial Teacher Education
â5 Students with Disabilities and Inclusive Education at the Institution
â6 Decolonisation of Inclusive Education
6 Socialisation into the Teaching Profession: Teachers Who Look for Other Jobs While They Teach!
â1 Introduction
â2 Socialisation into the Teaching Profession
â3 Socialisation as Part of Professionalisation into the Profession
â4 A Teacher in the Classroom Looking for Another Job!
â5 Socialisation, Teacher Identity and Accountability
â6 Lack of Teacher Professionalism and Accountability
â7 Dynamism of the Socialisation Process
â8 Socialisation in Higher Education
â9 Socialisation at the Settings for Integrated Learning
â10 Socialisation of Students with Disabilities into the Teaching Profession
â11 Socialisation and African Indigenous Knowledge
7 Theoretical Framework: Decolonial Theories
â1 Introduction
â2 Coloniality of Being
â3 Coloniality of Power
â4 Coloniality of Knowledge
â5 Decolonisation
â6 Decolonisation of Disability
â7 Decolonisation of Disability Support Services in Higher Education Institutions
â8 The Decolonisation Project
â9 Critical Disability Studies as a Complimentary Theory
â10 Proponents of the Critical Disability Studies
â11 Critical Disability Studies and Critique of Mainstream Disability Conception
â12 CDS and Power Dynamics in the Global South
â13 Critical Disability Studies and Critique of Human Rights
â14 CDS and Shifting from the Dominant Eurocentric View of Disability
â15 Critical Disability Studies and Intersectionality
â16 Critical Disability Studies and Ableism
â17 Systematic Ableism
â18 Institutional Ableism
â19 Ableist Micro-Aggression
â20 Two Eyes Are Better Than One!
8 Professionalisation into the Teaching Profession: Experiences of Students with Disabilities and the Disability Unit Staff Members
â1 Introduction
â2 Opportunities for the Professionalisation of Students with Disabilities
â3 Limiting Professionalisation of Students with Disabilities
â4 Participation in Policy at the Institutional Level
â5 Institutional Transformation
9 Professionalisation of Students with Disabilities at the Integrated Settings of Learning: More Sweat in Training, Less Blood in the Battle !
â1 Introduction
â2 Opportunities for Acquiring Practical Knowledge and Application
â3 Conducive Environment in Mainstream Schools
â4 Teaching Practice during Teaching Experience
â5 Critique of Professionalisation at Settings for Integrated Learning
â6 Intersectionality and Professionalisation
â7 Graduating into the Teaching Profession at the Institution
10 Then Came COVID-19 Impact of the Pandemic on Professionalisation: It Made It Worse for Students with Disabilities
â1 Introduction
â2 Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic in South African Higher Education
â3 Exclusion of Students with Disabilities in Learning during the COVID-19 Pandemic
â4 Experiences of Professionalising Students with Disabilities during the COVID-19 Pandemic
â5 Institutional Support
â6 Inequitable Access to Pedagogy and Perpetuation of Inequalities during the COVID-19 Pandemic
â7 Critique of Professionalisation of Students with Disabilities during the COVID-19 Pandemic
â8 Ableist Micro-Aggressions towards Students with Disabilities
â9 Interplay of Intersectionality in Professionalisation
11 Putting Heads Together for Solutions: The Way Forward
â1 Introduction
â2 Nothing about Us without Us: Systemic Transformation
â3 Proposition for Transformation by Advocacy at the Institution
â4 Proposition for Improvement in the New Normal by the Academics
â5 Propositions for Improvement: Hospitality of Ideas
â6 Proposition for Hybridity: Policy Issues and Learning from the UK
â7 Decolonisation of the Process of Professionalisation
â8 Professionalisation into the Teaching Profession: Lessons from Germany
â9 Learning from Germany to Improve Inclusive Education in Teacher Education
â10 Universal Design in Learning: Lessons from America
â11 Conclusion
Index
This book will be of interest to students with disabilities in higher education, academics and leaders in higher education, decolonial scholars in the Global South, teachers in special and mainstream schools, educational psychologists, and occupational therapists.