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Chapter 8 - Partnerships for Autism in the Zimbabwean Inclusive Education System

By
Jabulani Mpofu
Edited by
Dikeledi Mahlo ,
Mary G. Clasquin-Johnson  and
Michel Clasquin-Johnson
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Summary

Abstract

Partnerships in Inclusive Education span a range of options, supports and activities including with special populations. An increasing prevalent population is learners with ASD. This chapter will address issues around partnerships in the identification of learners with ASD in the Zimbabwean education system, inclusive support options for them, their families and communities. Early identification of learners with ASD is crucial as it facilitates the process of early intervention such as curriculum adaptation. Learners with ASD who experience friendly learning environments perform better as their environments will be responding to their educational needs. Levels of support for which partnerships are needed and the prospects for their availability and implementation in the Zimbabwean Inclusive Education system will be discussed. The chapter will also address challenges that are being met by inclusive community partners in the Zimbabwean education system in their endeavour to create conducive learning spaces of learners with ASD.

Theoretical framework

This chapter adopts the systems theory to explain autism and issues related to partnerships for ASD in the Zimbabwean Inclusive Education system. The systems theory was adopted for two main reasons:

  • • It looks at an individual with ASD from a community point of view, which is consistent with the philosophy of Inclusive Education practices worldwide. The theory does not view poor learning outcome in learners with ASD as the problem of their condition, but rather as the symptom of a problem in the education system as a whole (Shora, 2004).

  • • It views ASD from a social model perspective, which is again in line with globally accepted trends of disability and health (Mpofu & Oakland, 2010; WHO, 2004).

The next section provides an overview of the systems theory.

Systems theory

Systems theory was proposed in the 1940s by the biologist Ludwig von Bertalanffy, and further developed by Ross Ashby (1950). Von Bertalanffy was both reacting against reductionism and attempting to revive the unity of science. He emphasised that real systems (Makore-Rukuni, 2003) are open to, and interact with their environments, and that they can acquire qualitatively new properties through experiences, resulting in continual evolution (Makore-Rukuni, 2003).

Type
Chapter
Information
Autism
Perspectives from Africa Volume 1
 , pp. 107 - 118
Publisher: University of South Africa
Print publication year: 2020

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