Mothers as Advocates of Social Inclusion for Children With Communication Disorders

Social inclusion is based on acceptance and belonging irrespective of any status, disability, or disadvantage. The ability to communicate empowers humans in their quest for social inclusion. However, children challenged by communication disorders struggle to form friendships and make inroads into social groups. Mothers, the primary caregivers in most instances, with their intimate knowledge of their children, are considered the best advocates. This study set out to identify strategies that mothers engage in to pave the way for successful social inclusion of children with communication disorders. An online survey was conducted in different geographical locations. Mothers with children aged 6-13 years who had received speech therapy or are currently receiving speech therapy were invited to participate. Data were analyzed using a mixed methods approach. Outcomes suggest that all mothers believe in social inclusion despite facing a range of inclusion and exclusionary practices. Undeterred by these responses, mothers advocate for social inclusion by engaging in a range of strategies.

“Until they fit in.” Maltese educators’ practices and attitudes towards migrant students in middle and secondary schools

Purpose This paper aims to explore the attitudes of Maltese educators towards migrant students and how these attitudes impinge on their practices. Design/methodology/approach A qualitative approach, informed by critical theory, was taken to conduct this study. Nineteen middle and secondary school educators were recruited through snowball sampling. In-depth semi-structured interviews were conducted to collect the data. Critical discourse analysis was used to analyze the data. Findings The presence of migrant students in schools has caught the Maltese education system unprepared. As yet there are no policies to guide educators on practices that would enhance migrant students’ sense of belonging. This paper shows how many of the educators engaged in exclusionary practices and argued that migrant students had to fit in within the present education system. While the language barrier was the greatest bone of contention, the presence of non-Catholic students was also seen as problematic. However, one could also observe accommodating practices and there were educators who embraced this diversity and implemented inclusive practices whenever possible. Originality/value This study, locally new in its field, highlights the need for adequate training both in terms of pedagogies and methodologies that are inclusive, as well as professional development that targets the intellectual growth of educators in terms of exposure to sociological and philosophical theories, to become more conscious of the political implications of their actions and hopefully strive to create a more equitable educational experience for their students.

Inventing Laziness

Neither laziness nor its condemnation are new inventions, however, perceiving laziness as a social condition that afflicts a 'nation' is. In the early modern era, Ottoman political treatises did not regard the people as the source of the state's problems. Yet in the nineteenth century, as the imperial ideology of Ottomanism and modern discourses of citizenship spread, so did the understanding of laziness as a social disease that the 'Ottoman nation' needed to eradicate. Asking what we can learn about Ottoman history over the long nineteenth-century by looking closely into the contested and shifting boundaries of the laziness - productivity binary, Melis Hafez explores how 'laziness' can be used to understand emerging civic culture and its exclusionary practices in the Ottoman Empire. A polyphonic involvement of moralists, intellectuals, polemicists, novelists, bureaucrats, and, to an extent, the public reveals the complexities and ambiguities of this multifaceted cultural transformation. Using a wide variety of sources, this book explores the sustained anxiety about productivity that generated numerous reforms as well as new understandings of morality, subjectivity, citizenship, and nationhood among the Ottomans.

Normative Exclusion of Students with Disabilities and Enforced Isolation of Healthy Adults during the COVID -19 Pandemic: A Thought-Provoking Lesson

ABSTRACT Due to the Corona virus 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, the world in year 2020 experienced a significant upheaval in the lives of many. This study aimed at drawing parallels between the enforced isolation of healthy adults during the COVID-19 pandemic and the systemic exclusion of students with disabilities in educational systems around the world. Moreover, it presents an opportunity for people who have faced isolation during the pandemic, to better understand the feelings of students with disabilities. In this study, a sample of 22 people without disabilities from Saudi Arabia were interviewed to disclose their experiences and feelings during the COVID-19 pandemic and the impact of quarantine on their social and psychological lives. Their responses were compared to many experiences of students with disabilities obtained from a systemic review involving many related studies. The main findings of this study reveal some isolating, psychological and social effects. This may lead stakeholders in legal and educational matters to rethink their perspectives on exclusionary practices that face many students with disabilities.

Tracing Professor Fox in South Africa’s Competition Jurisprudence

This chapter identifies several locations where one might look to trace how Professor Eleanor Fox has contributed to the South African competition regime. Choosing one of those, her contributions to its published jurisprudence, we survey decisions of the competition authorities to find those referring to Professor Fox and her work. Those decisions include ones in the areas of extraterritorial jurisdiction and anticompetitive exclusionary practices. Discussing several prominent cases in those areas, we observe that Professor Fox has been part of the debates within South African jurisprudence from their beginnings, and that her work is considered highly and cited effectively as authority in itself. We argue that, while she has never held the formal position of a litigant or an adjudicator, South Africa’s competition regime is the richer for Professor Fox’s participation and engagement.

Rescuing the map from the nation

Tania Rossetto and Laura Lo Presti seek to rescue the national map from nationalism. Or at least from that nationalism characterized by reactionary, tradition-bound, and exclusionary practices and imaginaries. The authors provide readers with an insightful and challenging article on reimagining what national maps are, how they function, and what they could be if recast through the perspective of those often excluded and/or marginalized from the nation. Their article is both a critique of the manner in which national maps have typically been understood in the literature and an invitation to rethink national maps through everyday cartographic practices and vernacular mappings. But what is the national map in the first place? What counts as vernacular? And why is mapping privileged as the site for cultivating progressive imaginaries?

Editorial

The discourse on inclusion and exclusion in contemporary cities goes beyond the mere physical manifestation of the various dimensions of inclusivity and exclusivity. While it is acknowledged that this discourse has been raging for years in the history of cities, its conceptual and physical manifestation has also been changing in line with societal dynamics. It is an undeniable fact that forces at work in contemporary cities are driven by power, race and class (among other factors) which in turn provide a platform for calculated and coordinated practices that contribute towards inclusion and exclusion. There is therefore need to consistently and progressively interrogate this phenomenon in order to create a dialogue that is responsive to contemporary cities in the 21st century. While conceptual, theoretical and epistemological frameworks might not provide instant solutions to challenges under consideration, their articulation of contemporary issues provide deeper insight and understanding which contributes towards achieving sustainable solutions. Would it be fair to interrogate the manifestation of inclusionary and exclusionary practices in contemporary cities without taking a nip from the past? The reality of the matter is that there are underlying perculiarities which provide continuous meanings – thereby offering comparative gazes for diagnosis, understanding, elaboration and which allow for subverting inclusionary tendencies, attitudes and practices. Therefore, those historical “moments” of action can be instrumentalised into plans of action for the new agenda in the creation of inclusive cities. However, contemporary cities are made up of a multiplicity of activities – therefore, it is this diversity which equally impact on inclusivity and exclusivity.