Abstract
Individual self-determination and civic engagement are key resources in the life of every individual. All the more so in the case of individuals with an intellectual disability (ID), who are frequently prevented, voluntarily or passively (for example through the failure to promote favourable conditions for learning), from implementing the resources that are required for acquiring and developing these skills. The importance of being able to apply these skills in everyday life is however acknowledged and encouraged by the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (2006). This article presents and analyses the conditions for vertical and horizontal collaboration (Greenhalgh et al., 2004), which have contributed to the successful introduction of an educational approach to self-determination and active citizenship in a social care establishment for individuals having a mild to moderate ID. The research was conducted over two years (2014-2016) within the framework of a partnership between the establishment concerned and academic researchers. The principal stakeholders involved in the research, including 16 individuals with an ID, 13 educational care professionals, 4members of the managerial staff and 4 research workers, worked together to promote the adoption of principles of self-determination and civic engagement within the establishment, and designed a training programme aimed at individuals with an ID and professional support staff. The effectiveness of the intervention mechanism applied by this team has been verified and validated using a pre- and post-test evaluation, the results of which have appeared in a separate publication. A qualitative analysis of the collaboration conditions indicates, and on first sight this may appear paradoxical, that individual self-determination and its implementation are most successful when supported by a close-knit community, based on meaningful interdependence and mutually dependent relationships.
Highlights
Individual self-determination and civic engagement are key resources in the life of every individual
The principal stakeholders involved in the research, including 16 individuals with an intellectual disability (ID), 13 educational care professionals, 4members of the managerial staff and 4 research workers, worked together to promote the adoption of principles of self-determination and civic engagement within the establishment, and designed a training programme aimed at individuals with an ID and professional support staff
The operational objective of our research was firstly, to develop training resources designed to promote the exercise of self-determination and civic engagement in individuals having an ID in an institutional environment and to test the effectiveness of these resources; secondly, to pinpoint the contextual and didactic conditions that favour this practice in the place where people live
Summary
The collaboration that took place during the phase covering the launch of the research was by no means insignificant or of secondary importance when it came to contributing to the project’s potential for success. The vertical endorsement was achieved at various levels: international (UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, 2006), national (ratification of the Convention by Switzerland in 2014), institutional (support from the Council of the Eben-Hézer Foundation) and at the level of the establishment (expectations and commitment of the management and senior staff of the social care establishment) Once these stages had been accomplished, the process of joint development of the training programme for self-determination and active citizenship could begin. The groups of individuals with an ID made a direct and indirect contribution to the development of the content covered, the material used, as well as the proposed didactic conditions throughout the training Their reactions, their comments, their difficulties and their opportunities, constantly encouraged the research team to evaluate, question and fine-tune the training programme that had been designed originally. We would like to emphasise the importance of this type of process which inspires and motivates the participants, and suggests that the various phases of the implementation need to be designed in a spiral motion, going back and forth between information, persuasion and decision-making etc., rather than a linear process with successive, clearly limited stages
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