Professionalisation of Students with Disabilities into the Teaching Profession in South African Higher Education: Affordances and Challenges(17 African Higher Education: Developments and Perspectives)

To solve the global challenges of the present society, contemporary scholarship requires that all diverse social groups are included in knowledge production through education. Professionalisation is one way in which diverse social groups can engage in knowledge production in higher education. While all kinds of professionalisation produce citizens who can contribute to the social, political and economic development, the teaching profession is foundational as most people have come through the hands of teachers from basic to higher education. Teaching has been referred to as the noblest of professions because it does not only require acquisition of knowledge and skills, but high levels of professionalism, dignity, honour and the ability to lead by example. While inclusion of all diverse social groups is topical after attainment of independence in African countries largely and in South Africa particularly, professionalisation of students with disabilities into the teaching profession and in settings for integrated learning, has received little attention from scholars in the disability field. Professionalisation of Students with Disabilities into the Teaching Profession in South African Higher Education critically reflects on what affordances and challenges face students with disabilities in professionalisation into the teaching professions and on how students are socialised to identify with the profession. It does so from the lived experiences of students with disabilities, the academics who teach them, the support staff and the author’s nuanced understanding of the professionalisation, the teaching profession, and transformation to include all in the South African context of higher education.

Table of Contents:
Preface Acknowledgements About the Author Introduction 1 Disability and Continued Exclusion in the Global South  1 Introduction  2 The Global Perspective of Exclusion of Students with Disabilities in Higher Education  3 Exclusion of Students with Disabilities in South African Higher Education  4 Education of Students with Disabilities: From Pre- to Post-Apartheid South Africa  5 Exclusion of Students with Disabilities during the COVID-19 Pandemic  6 Positionality of Author 2 The History of Professions  1 Introduction  2 What Is a Profession?  3 Professions and Colonialism  4 Professions and Knowledge Monopoly  5 Professions, Gender and Social Class  6 Professions, Ethics and Moral Principle  7 Professions and Professional Bodies  8 Professions and Change  9 Professions and Disability  10 Contestation of a Profession in Contemporary South Africa 3 Educate a Teacher, Educate a Nation! The Professional Programme of Education in Higher Education in South Africa  1 Introduction  2 The History of the Education Programme in South Africa  3 Shortage of Teachers in South Africa  4 Contestation of Education as a Professional Programme  5 Professional Knowledge  6 Professional Knowledge in Education  7 Disciplinary/Subject Matter Knowledge  8 Pedagogical Knowledge  9 Situational Knowledge  10 Fundamental Knowledge  11 Practical Knowledge  12 Critique of Professional Knowledge for Education  13 Professionalisation as a Concept and a Process 4 Policy and Exclusion of Students with Disabilities in Higher Education: Exclusion Starts with the UN Convention to Policy in South Africa  1 Introduction  2 The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and Disability Inclusion  3 Steps in the Right Direction: Starting from the Constitution and Legislation  4 Politics of Policy: Disjuncture between Policy, Practice and Implementation 5 Inclusive Education and Teacher Education in South Africa  1 Introduction  2 Perspectives on Inclusive Education  3 Inclusive Education in Schools  4 Inclusive Education Programme in Initial Teacher Education  5 Students with Disabilities and Inclusive Education at the Institution  6 Decolonisation of Inclusive Education 6 Socialisation into the Teaching Profession: Teachers Who Look for Other Jobs While They Teach!  1 Introduction  2 Socialisation into the Teaching Profession  3 Socialisation as Part of Professionalisation into the Profession  4 A Teacher in the Classroom Looking for Another Job!  5 Socialisation, Teacher Identity and Accountability  6 Lack of Teacher Professionalism and Accountability  7 Dynamism of the Socialisation Process  8 Socialisation in Higher Education  9 Socialisation at the Settings for Integrated Learning  10 Socialisation of Students with Disabilities into the Teaching Profession  11 Socialisation and African Indigenous Knowledge 7 Theoretical Framework: Decolonial Theories  1 Introduction  2 Coloniality of Being  3 Coloniality of Power  4 Coloniality of Knowledge  5 Decolonisation  6 Decolonisation of Disability  7 Decolonisation of Disability Support Services in Higher Education Institutions  8 The Decolonisation Project  9 Critical Disability Studies as a Complimentary Theory  10 Proponents of the Critical Disability Studies  11 Critical Disability Studies and Critique of Mainstream Disability Conception  12 CDS and Power Dynamics in the Global South  13 Critical Disability Studies and Critique of Human Rights  14 CDS and Shifting from the Dominant Eurocentric View of Disability  15 Critical Disability Studies and Intersectionality  16 Critical Disability Studies and Ableism  17 Systematic Ableism  18 Institutional Ableism  19 Ableist Micro-Aggression  20 Two Eyes Are Better Than One! 8 Professionalisation into the Teaching Profession: Experiences of Students with Disabilities and the Disability Unit Staff Members  1 Introduction  2 Opportunities for the Professionalisation of Students with Disabilities  3 Limiting Professionalisation of Students with Disabilities  4 Participation in Policy at the Institutional Level  5 Institutional Transformation 9 Professionalisation of Students with Disabilities at the Integrated Settings of Learning: More Sweat in Training, Less Blood in the Battle !  1 Introduction  2 Opportunities for Acquiring Practical Knowledge and Application  3 Conducive Environment in Mainstream Schools  4 Teaching Practice during Teaching Experience  5 Critique of Professionalisation at Settings for Integrated Learning  6 Intersectionality and Professionalisation  7 Graduating into the Teaching Profession at the Institution 10 Then Came COVID-19 Impact of the Pandemic on Professionalisation: It Made It Worse for Students with Disabilities  1 Introduction  2 Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic in South African Higher Education  3 Exclusion of Students with Disabilities in Learning during the COVID-19 Pandemic  4 Experiences of Professionalising Students with Disabilities during the COVID-19 Pandemic  5 Institutional Support  6 Inequitable Access to Pedagogy and Perpetuation of Inequalities during the COVID-19 Pandemic  7 Critique of Professionalisation of Students with Disabilities during the COVID-19 Pandemic  8 Ableist Micro-Aggressions towards Students with Disabilities  9 Interplay of Intersectionality in Professionalisation 11 Putting Heads Together for Solutions: The Way Forward  1 Introduction  2 Nothing about Us without Us: Systemic Transformation  3 Proposition for Transformation by Advocacy at the Institution  4 Proposition for Improvement in the New Normal by the Academics  5 Propositions for Improvement: Hospitality of Ideas  6 Proposition for Hybridity: Policy Issues and Learning from the UK  7 Decolonisation of the Process of Professionalisation  8 Professionalisation into the Teaching Profession: Lessons from Germany  9 Learning from Germany to Improve Inclusive Education in Teacher Education  10 Universal Design in Learning: Lessons from America  11 Conclusion Index

About the Author :
Sibonokuhle Ndlovu, Ph.D. (2017), University of the Witwatersrand, is a lecturer at Ali Mazrui Centre for Higher Education Studies, at the University of Johannesburg. She has published numerous articles on disability inclusion in higher education, with focus on students with disabilities, and has edited two book volumes on the topic of disability inclusion and on teaching and learning in higher education.