Intensives

This interactive workshop is planned to facilitate a discussion of disablement in and by education and consider strategies for its elimination.

Despite decades of rhetorical flourishes promising inclusion for students with disabilities, legislative and policy reform, signatory status to Article 24 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (and the clarification of General Comment 4 of Article 24) and multiple state, territory, and commonwealth Reports students, their caregivers and advocates continue to experience ableism in education.

In England the Conservative government released The Special Education and Disabilities (SEND) and Alternative Provision Plan (DfE, 2023a) in March of this year. It promises “33 new special schools to add to the 49 already in the pipeline” as part of a £2.6 billion five-year investment to increase special school and alternative placement capacity. This promise is advanced in the name of inclusion and choice.The move towards separation of students with disabilities is not isolated to England.

This workshop will encourage participants to reconsider inclusive education policies, programmes and practices. This reconsideration proceeds from a restatement of principles of inclusion and a determination to bridge an enduring divide in education.

Curriculum content can often be caught moving from one catastrophe to the next: from natural disasters to poverty, to conflict, to extinction, and so on. How might we bring lenses of hope to these tough topics and what can we take action on about them in our schools?

This hands-on workshop will introduce educators to two new learning scaffolds from Cool: the Hope and Act Frameworks. These resources are designed to support teachers in navigating tough topics and framing approaches to help students understand different perspectives and work towards addressing big challenges

Participants will collaborate on their own chosen curriculum themes through scaffolded activities and leave with planning strategies they can implement straight away. They will be further supported by a suite of examples from Cool’s own resources that support teachers to address sustainability effectively, such as disaster resilience.