Journal of Research in Special Educational Needs doi: 10.1111/1471-3802.12179
Volume 16
Number s1
2016
786–788
“ONE STEP AHEAD AND TWO STEPS BACK”: MEETING SPECIAL EDUCATION AND INCLUSIVE CHALLENGES IN THE CONTEXT OF POVERTY (CASE STUDY IN THE CONTEXT OF REPUBLIC OF MOLDOVA) Liya Kalinnikova Magnusson €vle, Sweden University of Ga
Key words: Poverty, family resources, inclusion, segregation, special education.
The research experience is based on outputs from the international project «Human resources in poverty and disability: family perspective (Moldova and Ukraine): 348-2011-7346 [2012-2014]», funded by the Vetenskapsr adet, Sweden. During the last 20 years, Moldavian and Ukrainian societies have been developing inclusive infrastructures, being under complicated transformative changes. There are two main tendencies of the current situation for children with disabilities. The first one is that the inherited system of internat special schools is rapidly changing its functions, expanding, due to work with children from marginal families. In this case, economic polarisation forms a specific family strategy to protect their children from family economic problems, intentionally putting their children in these special school internats. The second strategy is directed towards deinstitutionalisation of the system of special school internats, the development of inclusive infrastructure and involvement the non-profit organisations, etc. This paper discusses these tendencies, through a case study approach.
Introduction In many ways, the development of special education has taken different forms in different countries. However, as many researchers stressed internationally, the development of special education has never been a linear process. Last century, the main drivers of this dislinearity were contradictory relations between social content (based on satisfaction of basic needs approaches) and special education (based on approaches of empowering) in understanding how to reach ‘normalisation’ of those with special educational needs/disabilities. Both of the contexts were
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functioning in closed social conditions and were ideologically defined as a ‘social norm’. Nowadays, both of the contexts, in all the countries involved in the research network, are recognised and under critical discussions (the main difference is the historical timeframe scale [1]). Implementation of the ‘social model’ of disability is marking the current Inclusive theory and practice [1]. Soviet Ideological and scientific shape of special education [5] Socio-cultural context of special education in Moldova and Ukraine has strong roots in the Soviet ideological and scientific history. Ideology used different mechanisms of control and legitimisation of the appropriate practices [3], so, ideologically, special education was shaped on the principle of socialist humanism (from the first decades after the October Revolution, 1917 till the Perestroika). Scientifically, Defectology as a main pedagogical/educational discipline has built the knowledge and institutional practice for children with disabilities in former Soviet countries. The defectological educational model has solidified in the form of ‘the defectological square’ [8] until the early 1990s of the 20th century. Embodied in the structure of the limitations (by size and forms) and segregated by its institutional practices nature, ‘social exclusion’ was normalising attitudes to the ‘weak’, designing the context of the life image of these children, adults and their families as a context of deprivation, where the human capital was impoverished and devaluated. Special education, being implemented in the context of segregation and exclusion, played a crucial role in shaping the social and cultural inequalities. Critically assessing the defectological educational model, we emphasise that it was formed gradually. The theory and practice of it were polished by the historical and cultural context of the Soviet period. ‘The defectological square’, became a symbolic result of the unrealised ‘utopia’. In the new post-
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Journal of Research in Special Educational Needs, 16 786–788
Perestroika societies and the new economic circumstances, influenced by liberal political principles, the defectological educational model was no longer viable [1; 6]. New social-economic conditions and extra burdens for families Moldova and Ukraine during the last 20 years have gone through the transition in independence, which created economic problems. Special education, traditionally being an area for the most vulnerable group of citizens, was affected by these problems. It is a well-known fact that problems of health are accompanying not just the extra economic burdens for children and members of the family [7], these problems refer to the constant need in a well-functioning infrastructure, including different types of social and educational services [6]. It means that in the situation of economic disaster and crisis, through which the way to the independence was experienced, has constructed new visions for understanding and overcoming social problems. Recognition of the ‘double poverty’ in the families with children with disabilities became a strong research and practical arena of the awareness [4] of the phenomena. Trajectories of special education development formed other paths for these transformative processes and visions. If to refer to the statistical data, for example, about 18% of the Moldavian population lives on the poverty level (the more adequate percentage is rather higher). The most impoverished areas are rural. If to take for consideration that the vast majority of the Moldavian population lives in rural areas, where the economic opportunities are very limited, the child population from these areas is living under vulnerable circumstances and exposed to social risks [9]. The percentage of these children is about 85. About 20% of the children in the Republic of Moldova is at the poverty limit. In this situation, children with special educational needs are under strong insecure circumstances. Research methodology The aim of the undertaken research was to describe how family poverty conditions are creating barriers to inclusion and causing the families to lead their children to segregation. The research question is to understand why parents from the context of poverty are ‘intentionally putting’ their children into special internat schools? What are the reasons, which are making parents from the context of poverty immovable in the face of inclusion? The research methodology was based on Husserl’s phenomenological life world case study approach. A semistructured interview with a mother, intentionally accommodating her daughter in a special school internat (for children with mental retardation), and phenomenological hermeneutical interpretation analysis of the transcribed text of the interview were conducted. The narrated ‘life world’ story was perceived as holistic and completed. ª 2016 NASEN
The events of the ‘life world’ experience of the mother intertwined through temporal and spatial extent. The perspective of time and place was the motive for the interpretation of the experience and became a kind of matrix for the study. It allowed us to see the life world of the respondent in the context of the family history, personal history and the intended motives to put the daughter in the special school internat. In this short introduction to the research will be discussed two main themes of the mother’s ‘life world’ experience. All of these themes were meaningful for the answer to the research questions. Findings The life world experience was told by a lonely mother, upbringing her 14 years old daughter. The daughter was accommodated in the special school internat for children with mental retardation, where she was spending 5 days a week, returning home for the weekends. The mother herself was graduated from the same special school internat and she thinks that the everyday conditions of this school are safe for her daughter. The lack of the economic resources in the family and extra resources in ‘special education institution’ This theme permeated the life world experience of the mother. She was unemployed, and the family was living on her temporary irregular incomes. She was satisfied that the daughter got regular food in the school and clothes, that school took care of the different children’s everyday activities, leisure time, holidays, etc. The mother was happy that her daughter was good in sportive achievements and could participate in different competitions on the behalf of the special school internationally. She was sure that ‘good’ teachers at school and a smaller number of students in the classroom created optimal conditions for learning. ‘I don’t have extra money to pay for the extra trainings because of her learning problems. . . in the internat she gets individual support from teachers, and I don’t need to look for and think about extra money for that’. Professional training which her daughter was getting because of the special school internat support, gave the girl opportunity to get a job in the future (hairdo master). Reproduction of segregation and reproduction of life conditions The ‘life world’ experience of the mother had an intergenerational perspective. She, herself, was growing up in a working-class family, which had two children (she and her sister), living in the suburbs of Chisinau. She had finished the same special school internat as her daughter was staying at. Her parents died, when they were in their 50s. She and her sister have inherited a small two rooms flat and divided the rooms between them, where two families are living now. None of the two sisters can afford to pay electricity, so the flat is absolutely without heating during the winter, and life conditions of the flat are extremely inhuman. 787
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Discussion Here, we have a double/sided situation for discussion. On the one hand, a mother with several limitations shows us clearly that she is capable of strong individual choices and that she builds her choices on her own experiences and knowledge and that she feels a strong moral responsibility for her child. On the other hand, she is totally dependent on the frames of experience given her by society and has very small possibilities to go outside her own experiences to make them wider and stronger. The old structure owns her thinking. This is another way of looking upon the conflict between ‘old’ and ‘new’ and an example of why inertia is present even though people make strong choices based upon self/awareness. The case for extended information and education is clear. The political agenda of the changes is aiming to build an open society of equal rights for each citizen, meeting circumstances of deep economical polarisation and poverty. It means that ‘old Soviet’ ideological heritance is becoming a focus for reflexive, constructive scientific and practical thinking. Institutional practice, where special boarding schools/internats formed the main construction of the ‘Soviet special educational body’, was strongly embedded into the welfare system ideologically, meaning full state responsibility for basic social and educational needs of children with disabilities. In the context of poverty, the ‘old’ is representing stability and protection. This fact should be analysed when the ‘new social order’ takes place. Conflicts of interest The author declare no conflict of interest.
Address for correspondence Liya Kalinnikova Magnusson; Ph.D. in special education, senior lektor i specialpedagogik Akademi för utbildning och ekonomi - AUE Högskolan i Gävle, 801 76, Gävle room: 31:226; telephone: 026- 64 8761 m/tel: +4676- 250 5750; e-mail:
[email protected].
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Bibliographic References Poverty Report of the Republic of Moldova: 2010-2011. Chisinau: Ministry of Economy of the Republic of Moldova, 2012, pp. 44–6. Kalinnikova Magnusson, L. (2015) Development of special education: international experience in for countries. Application to Vetenskapsr adet. Ans€ okan: 2015-05933, 2015. «Human resources in poverty and disability: family perspective (Moldova and Ukraine): 348-2011-7346 [2012-2014]», funded by the National Scientific Council of Sweden (Vetenskapsr adet). Foucault, M. (2003) ‘Governmentality.’ In P. Rabinow & N. Rose (eds) The Essential Foucault: Selections from Essential Works of Foucault 1954–1984. London: The New Press. Kalinnikova Magnusson, L. Crucial factors behind poverty in families with children with disabilities (preunderstanding situation in the republic of Moldova and Ukraine). Bulletin of Yerevan University. Sociology and Economics. Vol. 1, pp. 42–57, Armenia. Kalinnikova, L. & Trygged, S. (2014) ‘Retrospect on care and denial of children with disabilities in Russia.’ Scandinavian Journal on Disability Research, 16 (3) pp. 229–48. Klainnikova, L. (2013) “Bednie vdvoine”: chelovecheskie i semeinie resursi [“Double poor”: human and family resources]//Vestnik of the Northern Arctic Regional Federal University, N6, 126-134. http:// vestnik.narfu.ru/en/archive/?ELEMENT_ID=147208 Lukemeyer, A., Meyers, M. K. & Smeeding, T. (2000) ‘Expensive children in poor families: out-of-pocket expenditures for the care of disabled and chronically ill children in welfare families.’ Marriage and the Family, 62, pp. 399–415. Malofeev, N. (1998) ‘Special education in Russia: historical aspect.’ Journal of Learning Disabilities, 31 (2), pp. 181–5. doi:10.1177/002221949803100208.
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