From ideal to reality: Challenges to training in inclusive education in Cambodia Maya Kalyanpur, PhD University of San Diego Professional Social Work in South East Asia: Education and Qualification July 21-22, 2015, Phnom Penh, Cambodia

From Ideal to Reality

Whose Ideal? Whose Reality?

International Standards 1994: Salamanca Statement on Principles, Policy and Practice in Special Needs Education and a Framework for Action to promote inclusive education (UNESCO) 2000: Education for All by 2015 (World Bank, Millennium Development Goal) 2004: International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) and community-based rehabilitation (WHO) 2008: UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities

1994 Salamanca Statement Principles, Policy and Practice in Special Needs Education and a Framework for Action to promote inclusive education (UNESCO) “as part of the emerging consensus that children and youth with special educational needs should be included in the educational arrangements made for the majority of children (and) accommodated within a child- centered pedagogy capable of meeting these needs” (p. 15).

Inclusive education emerges from a historical context of institutions and segregated schooling in the west The Context for the Emerging Consensus

Doctors are in charge

Parent movement Parents start to protest and refuse to put their child into an institution; start demanding that their child has the right to go to school instead Parents become major change agents

The context of rights in the west The Civil Rights movement, 1950s Institutions are closed, 1970s 1975: first law guaranteeing education for children with disabilities Parents have legal rights The Context for the Emerging Consensus

Children with disabilities start to go to schools from 1975 onwards. Schools are separate from typical children. This parallel system creates a cadre of specialized professionals and a well-developed infrastructure of curricular and instructional resources.

Professionals who work with Children with Disabilities School nurse Audiologist Special education teacher School social worker General education teacher Speech/language therapist School counselor School psychologist Educational interpreter Orientation and mobility specialist Physical or occupational therapist Para-educators

The “social model” Medical focus switches to educational; recognition of environmental and social factors The old way: “medical model” Push for inclusion starts in 1990s

The Context for the Emerging Consensus Inclusive education emerges from a historical context of institutions and segregated schooling in the west This parallel system creates a cadre of specialized professionals and a well-developed infrastructure of curricular and instructional resources. So when the push for inclusive education began in 1990s, there was an existing corpus of human and material resources

Training in Inclusive Education in Cambodia

Inclusive Education in Cambodia No history of institutions Very limited trained professionals and material resources, so the responsibility for inclusion falls on the general education teachers

Is the medical model applicable? Translation of terms: “medical model” vs. “social model” “impairment” vs “disability”

The Standard for Inclusive Education Children with disabilities educated in schools and classrooms with typical children Children with disabilities receive whatever supports they need to get best benefit of this education. Supports can include trained personnel, equipment and curriculum. Children with disabilities have a right to education.

What do you think? Is inclusive education being implemented according to the international standards for inclusive education?

Implications for Higher Education As members of higher education and/or as consultants in international development, we have a responsibility for recognizing the strengths of the local culture and the limitations of applying international standards West may NOT be best

Healing practice or child abuse? ko k’chawl, whereby a warmed coin is rubbed briskly over an ailing child's body until redness occurs, is a common, routine folk remedy. One side of audience: Cambodian family Other side of audience: social worker trained in the US

References Kalyanpur, M. (in press). Cultural reciprocity in home-school collaboration within international contexts. In E. C. Lopez, S. G. Nahari, & S. L. Proctor (Eds.) The Handbook of Multicultural School Psychology. New York: Routledge. Kalyanpur, M. (2014). Distortions and dichotomies in inclusive education for children with disabilities in Cambodia in the context of globalization and international development. International Journal of Disability, Development and Education, 61(1), 80-94, DOI: / X Kalyanpur, M. (2011). Paradigm and paradox: Education For All and the inclusion of children with disabilities in Cambodia. International Journal on Inclusive Education, 15(10), DOI: / Davis, R.E. (2000). Cultural health care or child abuse? The Southeast Asian practice of Cao Gio. Journal of the American Academy of Nurse Practitioners 12(3), DOI: /j tb00173.x Fadiman, A. (1997). The spirit catches you and you fall down: A Hmong child, her American doctors, and the collision of two cultures. New York: Farrar, Straus, & Giroux.