At this year’s meeting of pedagogues for pupils with physical disabilities, taking place at Oldenburg Carl von Ossietzky University from September 3rd – 5th, 2012, 34 scientists and practitioners in the field of “Physical and motor skills development” from Germany, the Czech Republic and Switzerland discussed the perspectives of this discipline in the inclusion context.
Prof. Dr.
Zieger’s opening talk gave an insight into potential cooperation between
educational and medical sciences for people with physical and motor skills
impairment within the framework of the inclusive process.
Simultaneously the talk covered the field of extracurricular scopes of
education for people with physical disabilities, which appeared in many facets
during the meeting. Participants dedicated themselves to working on the focal
theme of “inclusion” in four study groups, supported by heads of schools, SEN
teachers for physical and motor skills as well as a trainee who works for an
information centre for people with disabilities.
Consequences and perspectives for support centres and schools, profiles of
qualification in education as well as inclusion in extracurricular areas of
life and the particular situation of pupils with complex impairment were the
main subjects discussed.
Further talks
deepened the subject of inclusion particularly considering the field of
“Physical and motor skills” and highlighting several research projects.
“Inclusion and the Convention on the rights of people with a disability applied
to pupils with a need for assisted communication as percept by parents” and
“Inclusive media education for pupils with a physical disability” were just two
of the focal themes.
The discipline’s international perspective was revealed in
“Ethno-methodological studies: war-wounded and traumatised people in Iraq” and
the Czech talk “Integration of people with disabilities in the operating
process: results of a census”.
The annual meeting serves - in addition to analysis and discussion of content–
an exchange between particular research groups and teachers, concerning current
difficulties, challenges and the development of the discipline.
This area has progressively gained significance, especially over the last
couple of years, due to an increasing structural change of pupils at SEN
schools for physical and motor skills.
It became clear in many a discussion that an occupation as educational
university staff is little appealing to graduates of SEN teaching courses.
Thus it has become difficult not only in this discipline to train young
academics and to win them over for an academic career.
Therefore the possibilities of junior staff development were discussed and
future perspectives for the purposes of inclusion were discovered. A study group was set up to deepen the
acquired operational fields, which among other topics will be intensely concerned
with the design of a specified interdisciplinary conference. Additionally, a
specific post graduate colloquium was initiated, which will take place for the
first time in Münster next year.
The next meeting of the discipline will be held at Berlin Humboldt University
in September 2013.
Marianne Irmler, Carl von Ossietzky University Oldenburg
Translation: Ruth Stang
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