Education as a Human Right - Semantic Scholar

Education as a Human Right

Inclusion and Social Justice

Saint Paul Edeh

MA Thesis University of Iceland School of Education

Education as a Human Right Inclusion and Social Justice

Saint Paul Edeh

MA thesis in International Studies in Education Thesis supervisor: ?lafur P?ll J?nsson Faculty of Education Studies

School of Education, University of Iceland February 2012

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Education as a Human Right: Inclusion and Social Justice

This thesis is a 40 credit final project towards the MA degree in International Studies in Education, School of Education, University of Iceland. ? 2012 Saint Paul Edeh No part of this material may be reproduced without permission of the author.

Printing: H?sk?laprent Reykjav?k, 2012

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Preface

This research paper is my final project submitted for the completion of my Masters (MA) degree in International Studies in Education in the school of Education at the University of Iceland. This research based project accounts for 40 ECTS credit units. In the project, I investigated the struggles of disabled people in schools and societies, how far states have afforded the disable members of their community, their social justice, equality, and human rights, through their respective education legislations, school systems, and social policies. And also, to what extent these societies as signatories to international treaties have respected their binding obligations to international conventions on various rights of the disabled people. The small welfare state of Iceland served as my starting point in this research.

The views of the disabled members of the schools I visited in Iceland for data collections, few selected parents, exclusive and inclusive school teachers and philosophical and other academic documents connected to disability, social justice, equality, democracy and human rights, all helped to shape the views expressed in this project.

My supervisor was Dr. ?lafur P?ll J?nsson, Associate professor of Philosophy at the School of Education and Chairperson of the Education Studies and coordinator of the International Studies in Education at the University of Iceland. I would like to use this platform to thank him for his guidance and assistance during my intensive research work. Initially I also received inputs from Dr. Hafd?s Gu?j?nsd?ttir, and Dr. Allyson Macdonald, professors at the School of Education, University of Iceland, and I wish to thank them for their valuable comments and insights.

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In addition, I would like to thank Dr. D?ra S. Bjarnason, professor of Sociology and Disability studies and chairperson of the newly formed research centre on inclusive education, for her insights into the world of disability and the struggles of disabled people to gain social capital, not least for bringing me into closer contacts with many of my participants during her course on Inclusive education in which I was her student. My heartfelt gratitude goes to parents of those disabled children, for allowing me to probe into their sensitive lives and those of their beloved children. I also want to thank Anh-Dao Tran, a doctorial student at the School of Education, University of Iceland for proofreading and for her valuable assistance and advices. My special thanks to Almighty God, for making all this possible. Last but of course not the least, I want to thank my golden sons, Daniel, Gideon and David, for their much welcomed distractions which kept me sane from the intensity of this project.

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