RSI Alumna, Dr. Gail Teachman featured in The Globe and Mail

In a recent article published in The Globe and Mail entitled, “When it comes to creating inclusive classrooms, there is no cookie-cutter approach”, former RSI student Dr. Gail Teachman shares that one important finding from her recent PhD research was the number of young people who said that they felt they were often treated as if they weren’t even human in social interactions.

Providing the perspective of several personal accounts, the article takes a look at how young people with disabilities experience inclusion and exclusion, especially through schooling. It presents the debate of how effective mainstream classrooms vs. segregated classrooms are on children with disabilities.

Though Dr. Teachmen’s research found that several young people didn’t want to interact with “normal” kids because of negative experience, she emphasizes that she’s not advocating for the return of segregation, nor does she propose any easy fixes.

Instead, she cautions that inclusion is often more complicated than we assume.

“Some forms of inclusion actually perpetuate exclusion when we fail to put enough thought into our goals and to consider the perspectives of those we’re aiming to include” she says.  

“It’s at the social level that we want to promote change because families and children with disabilities shouldn’t have to work this hard.” – Dr. Gail Teachmen

To read the full article and more on Dr. Teachmen’s research, visit The Globe and Mail website.