Aims of the paper:

This paper is designed to investigate a central question - What is required in order to fully include all children and young people with recognisable or hidden disabilities and or differences in the educational and social life of their local community? - through a research framework that includes reading, writing, discussing, investigating and reporting. The question this paper poses will be addressed through consideration of a variety of academic and non-academic sources and approaches.

Central to the nature of these circumstances is the idea that physical and/or social adaptations will be needed in order for children with recognisable and/or hidden disabilities/differences to be able to 'fit in' well. What does 'fitting in' mean? Why are some children and young people in this group at more at risk of 'not fitting in' than others? This paper is designed to explore both these questions through the concept of Abelism.

The perspective taken on this course:

In many areas Teachers, family/whanau members, social service workers and Non Government Organisations, managers and policymakers in NZ continue to rely on the outcome of international studies to provide best-practice commentary about what should be happening regarding the development of inclusive practice settings in this country. As a result, often local voices, when heard, can also be discounted. This paper provides a space for local voice conversations to be had and ideas to be debated.

This paper is taught over a 12-week semester and is divided into a number of topics focusing on exploring what skills may be required for including children, young people and adults with disabilities in the educational and social life of their local community. The paper is taught fully online. The online forum consists of lecture content; recommended or additional readings and online discussions which all students are expected to contribute to each week.

This paper utilises weekly readings found in the online reading list and from time to time additional material related to the paper content will be made available online for you to access. Your weekly readings should provide a base of content that will be further explored in the whiriwhiri -ā- rōpū / online discussions and assignment work.

You will be expected to:

Participate in all online discussions;

Participate in group online activities, and the sharing of ideas and experiences;

Read in advance the relevant readings from the text, as indicated in the paper outline; and

Complete and submit all assessment tasks by the due date.

This paper is fully internally assessed. Please take the opportunity to ask questions about assessment tasks in your question and answer forum in Moodle. If you need additional help with assignments, please use the contact details provided in our Moodle space for Student Learning and all Support Staff.

What you are expected to do in your online discussions:

* Contribute to every discussion, at least twice (throughout the week)

* Keep each contribution to around 150 words maximum

* Use discussion to clarify understandings and to engage critically and deeply with the theme, theory and issues presented in the paper

* Relate discussion to your current discipline

What you should avoid doing:

* Please do not avoid the discussions, or post once and then disappear. These breach the intent of a discussion, indicate a lack of regard for our class community and fall short of the minimum attendance and participation requirements for this paper

* Similarly, do not double post (2 consecutive posts, or posts very close together - these should be spread out during the course of the week such as Monday, Wednesday or Friday leaving your weekends free for work - life - balance. Posting your contributions over the weekend often limits the opportunity for reflection and response from others

* Do not post lengthy contributions or without firstly reading what others have written, or your own writing before posting

What to expect from your lecturers in our online discussions:

Lecturers aim to join in each discussion, meeting similar expectations to the students. In short, we aim to:

• Be there.
• Be brief.
• Respond.
• Share our own stories.
• Promote deep and critical thinking (at times, we will play 'Devil's Advocate' in order to probe differing viewpoints).
• Keep the fires burning.

Feedback on discussions will be given within the discussion so look out for lecturer comments on how the discussion is progressing.

This paper is an online paper and is supported by Moodle as a teaching space. All communication, lecture material, discussions, supported readings, assignment briefings, assignment feedback and all miscellaneous material will all be via the Moodle site. All written assignments must be submitted through Moodle too.

Each week the site will be updated with information about the week’s topics and any supplementary readings. You should check your Moodle site on a regular basis.

You can use the Moodle site for general questions, for giving feedback on how things are going and for contacting the teaching team. Any issues can be discussed with the paper convenor through the Private Conversation forum on Moodle.

University ICT self-help services are available. Log into the system here https://www.waikato.ac.nz/ict-self-help/home