Advances in Special Education Research and Praxis in Selected Countries of Africa, Caribbean and the Middle East

Edited by:
Kagendo Mutua, University of Alabama
Cynthia S Sunal, University of Alabama

A volume in the series: Research on Education in Africa, the Caribbean, and the Middle East. Editor(s): Cynthia S Sunal, University of Alabama. Oluseyi Matthew Odebiyi, Arizona State University. Kagendo Mutua, University of Alabama.

Published 2012

This edited volume explores various issues pertaining to the education of children with disabilities in Africa, the Caribbean and Middle East. As a group, persons with disabilities have been subjected to social, cultural and educational exclusions of various forms and for various socially-scripted reasons. In education, for instance, individuals with disabilities have been altogether excluded from educational participation in many parts of the developing world or they have been excluded from pursuing meaningfully beneficial higher levels of education in developed countries like the United States. One of the social responses/remedies to the widely-acknowledged exclusionary practices experienced by learners with disabilities has been the widespread implementation of inclusive practices in the education of individuals with disabilities across countries, in the west and the developing regions of the world. A distinctive marker of difference in the way inclusive practices have been enacted in western countries versus those in the developing world has primarily stemmed from the fact that majority of western countries operate under funded mandates that also regulate the provision of education to persons with disabilities. While the ideal of inclusion has been highly desirable, many of countries in the developing world have floundered in their implementation due to lack sound legislative framework to guide implementation coupled with socio-cultural factors related to negative perceptions of disabilities and limited funding sources. Chapters in this volume explore inclusive education from a variety of perspectives.

CONTENTS
Contributors. Introduction: The Limits of Policy and Praxis: Critical issues in Inclusive Education in Selected Countries of Africa, Caribbean and the Middle East, Kagendo Mutua & Cynthia Szymanski Sunal. PART I: SPECIAL EDUCATION RESEARCH AND PRAXIS IN AFRICA. Early Intervention Programs in the Southern African Region, John Charema. Special Education in Nigeria: Shifting Paradigms, Festus E. Obiakor, Michael Eskay, and Michael O. Afọláyan. Challenges Facing Pupils and Staff at Botswana Community Junior Secondary: Schools The Student Teachers’ Perspective, Gareth Dart. Rapid Changes and Challenges in a South African Paradigm, Joan Jafthas. Education for Students with Intellectual Disabilities in Kenya: Challenges and Prospects, Gathogo Mukuria. Contextualizing Inclusive Education in Tanzania, Filiz Polat. Defining the Disabled Person: An Analysis of the Continental Plan of Action for the African Decade of Persons with Disabilities, Bethsaida Nieves. PART II: SPECIAL EDUCATION RESEARCH AND PRAXIS IN THE CARIBBEAN. Special Education in the Caribbean: Teachers’ Attitudes Toward Inclusion in Barbados, Cayman Islands, Grenada, Jamaica, St. Lucia, and St. Vincent, Junnie O. Lynch, Clara Wolman, and Judy Harris-Looby. Children with ADHD in Turkey: Inclusion, Research, and Practice, Selda Ozdemir. Special Education Advances in the State of Qatar: Research and Implications, Asma Al Attiyah and Brenda Belson Lazarus. Current Special Education Programs in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, Mohammad AL Jabery, Jamal AL Khateeb, and Marshall Zumberg. The Saudi Early Intervention Services: Current Challenges and the Vision for Revision, Haniah M. Merza. Epilogue, Mara Sapon-Shevin.