DISABILITY AND INCLUSIVE EDUCATION IN ZIMBABWE

This chapter examines the historical and contemporary events influencing disability spaces for learning, teaching and administration of education in Zimbabwe. We reconceptualise and operationalise related practices from a power, knowledge and social difference perspective, projecting social policy driven agendas increasingly inclusive of organisation of and for people with disability. We propose an education community participation that is driven from a democratic citizenship education perspective, rather than one of inclusive education as accommodation, to best represent the development of inclusive learning spaces for learners with disabilities. Concepts from a democratic citizenship education perspective are directly linked and relevant to understanding the history or evolution of inclusive education spaces in the Zimbabwean education system. Applying democratic citizenship education perspectives, we consider the extent to which spaces for learning are welcoming places for all, driven by need rather than [disability] label. This approach shifts the focus away from the service providers to learners making education participation choices or enacting their school community citizenship rights. Prospectively, a rights oriented approach to inclusive education following the UN Conventions on disability rights as human rights will make for more inclusive learning spaces in the Zimbabwean education system, although the government is yet to ratify the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and Optional Protocol, a cornerstone for inclusive education.