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Fieldwork and disabled students: discourses of exclusion and inclusion
Author(s) -
Hall Tim,
Healey Mick,
Harrison Margaret
Publication year - 2002
Publication title -
transactions of the institute of british geographers
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.196
H-Index - 107
eISSN - 1475-5661
pISSN - 0020-2754
DOI - 10.1111/1475-5661.00050
Subject(s) - inclusion (mineral) , inclusion–exclusion principle , perspective (graphical) , sociology , disabled people , pedagogy , gender studies , learning disabled , psychology , political science , learning disability , developmental psychology , visual arts , law , art , life style , demography , politics
Disabled students form a significant but under represented minority in higher education in the UK. Participation appears to be particularly low in disciplines that contain a fieldwork component. Fieldwork has been recognized as a barrier to the participation of disabled students. This paper emphasizes a critical perspective on fieldwork, highlighting the way in which fieldcourses as currently conceived, enacted and experienced, can exclude disabled students. It discusses a survey of the experiences of providing learning support to disabled students undertaking fieldwork in geography, earth and environmental science departments in the UK. It also considers the various ways in which the images, spaces, practices and cultures of fieldwork may exclude or marginalize disabled students and the different ways in which fieldwork may be made more inclusive.