Abstract

In 2009, Germany ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UN-CRPD) and committed itself to allow for “the full and effective participation [of people with disabilities] in society” (United Nations, 2006, §3), especially in education (United Nations, 2016, §24). The present article addresses the necessary follow-up question: which patterns of perception university teachers have of students with disabilities? A first project-based qualitative analysis of data from the EU-project “European Action on Disability within Higher Education” has been conducted on the grounds that disability can be described as a constructed sociocultural phenomenon (Tremain, 2005), showing that heterogenous concepts of disability can be reconstructed from the interviews (Aust, Trommler, & Drinck, 2015). In an adaptation of theoretical sampling according to Grounded Theory (Glaser & Strauss, 2010), interviews with teachers were selected for this article. The Explanatory Legitimacy Theory Model by DePoy and Gilson (2004, 2010) served as a pool of ideas for analysis. The four main areas of, 1) effective power of symbols or iconic figures, 2) performativity of attributions of disability, 3) dimension of time for concepts addressed, and 4) perpetuation of the medicine model can be reconstructed. The analysis indicates that the medicine model remains the dominant reference when teachers in higher education speak about disability. In conclusion, conditions that impede the proper implementation of the UN-CRPD in higher education must be identified so that higher education institutions can be further developed as multicultural organisations (Schein, 1984).

Highlights

  • With the adoption of the United Nations (UN) Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UN-CRPD) and its ratification by the German parliament (Bundesministerium für Arbeit und Soziales [BMAS], 2011), the German state committed itself to establishing an inclusive education system

  • The second type, comprising mental impairments and psychological disorders, is invisible at body level, but reportable by the students concerned or can be assumed from their behaviour and may get “my attention, me being their course advisor” (EPwp2_05, 68–69). This means that disability can either be visible on the body level or in the way people appear, i.e. be subject-related, or, they can be invisible and of a cognitive or psychological quality

  • The field of descriptions of disability differs between several relations of opposite meanings: visible-invisible, classic-new, personal-property of others

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Summary

Introduction

With the adoption of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UN-CRPD) and its ratification by the German parliament (Bundesministerium für Arbeit und Soziales [BMAS], 2011), the German state committed itself to establishing an inclusive education system. The main focus was on extracting and processing data on the disabling effects higher education structures have on students with disabilities or on studying with disabilities and to identify best practices of dealing with the needs of students with disabilities. One product of this project is a database of needs of students with disabilities and the requirements for studying with impairments, as well as best practices that could be used to support these students. The interviews with employees where selected on the grounds of their experience with students with impairments or with studying with impairments (Aust et al, 2014, p. 39)

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