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The invisible minority: why do textbook authors avoid people with disabilities in their books?

JENSEN, Magne Skibsted
HERREBRØDEN, Marte
ANDREASSEN, Ulf Rune
2021

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Representation of disability in school textbooks may influence pupils’ knowledge and perceptions of people with disabilities. The aim of this study was to investigate representation of people with disabilities in school textbooks. The study employed a mixed-methods approach. Quantitative frequency analysis was used to investigate the extent of representation of disabilities in texts and pictures in 78 Norwegian textbooks for Grades 5–10. Regarding texts, the results showed that people with disabilities were represented in less than half of these textbooks (49%). Concerning pictures, people with disabilities were even less represented, appearing in only 29% of the textbooks. These quantitative findings were supplemented by a qualitative survey of textbook authors, who were asked to explain the marked absence of disability references in their own books and in school textbooks in general. The two most frequent explanations were that textbook authors had either overlooked people with disabilities, or that the Norwegian National Curriculum (Kunnskapsdepartementet 2006. Lærerplanverket for Kunnskapsløftet (LK06) [The Norwegian National Curriculum]. https://www.udir.no/lk20/overordnet-del/) did not explicitly mention this minority. We discuss these explanations as expressions of conscious considerations rather than unconscious omissions.

Teachers talk on student needs: exploring how teacher beliefs challenge inclusive education in a Norwegian context

AAS, Hanne Kristin
2019

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This study explores teacher talk in the early phase of a project in a Norwegian elementary school where Lesson Study is used as a method for professional development. The study focuses on inclusion and aims to explore what beliefs about student needs and teacher role and responsibilities become evident, and how these beliefs can challenge development towards a more inclusive practice. To this end, content analysis is applied to audio recordings of teacher teams’ planning meetings. Despite an overall positive attitude towards inclusion, and inclusive structures in the school, findings point at factors in teachers’ beliefs that can challenge the inclusion process. These factors are: student needs understood as individual problems, adaptation understood as individualised and laborious and a limited view on teacher role, where their responsibility mainly regard academic learning.

Including alternative stories in the mainstream. How transcultural young people in Norway perform creative cultural resistance in and outside of school

DEWILDE, Joke
SKREFSRUD, Thor-André
2016

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The development of an inclusive pedagogy takes on new urgency in Norwegian schools as the student body has become increasingly culturally and linguistically diverse. Traditionally, the Norwegian school has been dominated by homogenising and assimilating discourses, whereas alternative voices have been situated at the margins. In response to this tendency, we present two transcultural students’ autoethnographic stories produced in alternative spaces to the Norwegian mainstream, that is, in a transition class for newly arrived students and on Facebook. Both spaces are perceived as contact zones in the sense that they are culturally and linguistically complex. This article illustrates how the students perform cultural and linguistic resistance towards dominant homogenising discourses as the transition class and Facebook seem to offer opportunities for constructing alternative stories. Moreover, we contend that these alternative stories offer important knowledge for conventional education contexts since they represent stories of competence in contrast to the assumed limitations of these students.

Inclusion of youth with disabilities: The business case

INTERNATIONAL LABOUR ORGANISATION
January 2014

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This is a how-to guide for companies interested in integrating youth with disabilities into their workforce. "This guide is based on initiatives that are currently tried out by ten companies to employ youth with disabilities in eight countries (Brazil, Chile, China, India, Norway, Republic of Serbia, Singapore and the United States). Good practices and useful insights are identified and explained through first-hand accounts. First, the business case for employing youth with disabilities is made. This section will highlight how two companies benefited from initiatives to employ youth with disabilities. Next, four reoccurring good practices that were cited in the featured cases are given particular consideration:

  • partner with an organization that specializes in disability services;
  • provide (when necessary) disability-accessible skills training;
  • offer recruitment and job placement services;
  • embrace a policy of inclusion and non-discrimination"

Gendering prevention practices : a practical guide to working with gender in sexual safety and HIV/AIDS awareness education

LEWIS, Jill
2003

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This manual lays out eight sessions, each with an array of diverse learning activities, for capacity building to help participants grasp the implications of working with gender in HIV prevention. The session themes are: Perceptions of gender, Ways of Understanding Gender, Key aspects of Gender for HIV prevention, Sex as a Gendered Activity, Gender and HIV, Embodying Change, A Sense of Working Together, Reviewing Gender issues in Context

Mobilising gender issues : report from the Living for Tomorrow project on youth, gender and HIV/AIDS prevention

LEWIS, Jill
2002

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[Publisher's abstract] This is an overview of what this gender-focused, youth HIV prevention project undertook, the concerns it had to consider, and what issues it had to navigate. It discusses wider and more specific challenges faced in developing a strong educational focus on gender issues; describes the implementation of different stages and dimensions of the work - its vision, planning, building, designing and different actions undertaken to achieve its ends. It discusses outcomes and learning processes that came into focus. The report could be of interest for exploring the significance of gender HIV/AIDS and sexual safety work with young people. Appendices include documents used in project, that illustrate concrete strategies (Capacity Building, Youth Workshops, evaluation etc.)

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