Radical inclusion: Students with disabilities’ professional learning in South African higher learning

Abstract

Inclusion of all in learning and workplace spaces has continued to be an urgent agenda for democratic governments and relevant stakeholders in higher learning, globally and in South Africa particularly. However, whilst the focus is on this, the original idea of inclusion has been lost, resulting in different versions, which stakeholders "tick off" as meaning inclusion. By virtue of a misconstrued idea of inclusion, students with disabilities in higher learning contexts are individually accommodated rather than included. This empirical article isolates what the key stakeholders supporting disability at a specific institution of higher learning in South Africa, consider as inclusion and how students with disabilities are fitted into the system, rather than a total institutional transformation, in which all students are included in their diversities. The article recommends a radical inclusion as a re-invention that can recapture the original idea and discourse of inclusion, which has been lost.

Review of Ai in Education: Transforming Learning Environments in Africa

“…Although the quality of education and the quantity of well-equipped schools and teachers have steadily increased since the onset of the colonial period, there are still numerous inequalities in the existing educational systems based on region, economic status, and gender (Obiagu, 2023). The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has been working with African governments to improve access to education and the quality of education in the region (Ndlovu, and Woldegiorgis, 2023). The organization has identified several challenges that need to be addressed, including inadequate funding, poor infrastructure, and a lack of qualified teachers (Elfert, and Ydesen, 2023).…”