Inclusive education and the cultural representation of disability and Disabled people: recipe for disaster or catalyst of change? An examination of non-disabled primary school children's attitudes to children with disabilities

Abstract

Problematic, I would suggest, is that the government's inclusion strategy document (DfES, 2004) seemingly indicates they believe that the simple placement of children with disabilities into mainstream schools, coupled with successful learning experiences, will lead to non-disabled children's attitudes to disability becoming more positive. Johnstone (2001, p. 20) accounts the social model of disability: * recognises the interaction of structural and attitudinal variables that create disability in society; * recognises the voice/ opinion of the disabled person; * acknowledges the political processes which oppress and deny civil rights to disabled people; and, * begins to put power/ information within the control of disabled people and their organisations.\n Despite this limitation, it is notable that other research studies (see Bunch and Valeo, 2002; Roberts and Zubrick, 1993; Townsend et al., 1993) are supportive of such a correlation.