Can Education Be Therapeutic?An Exploration of the TherapeuticNature of Inclusive Education in

Classrooms with Diverse LearnerNeeds.

Ms. S’mangele Mayisela.University of Witwatersrand,Johannesburg , South Africa

S’mangele.Mayisela@wits.ac.za

STRUCTURE OF THEPRESENTATION Aim of the Presentation Research Questions Background Wits – B. Ed honors Programme on

Emotions Students view on the questions of

therapy and education Therapeutic pedagogical practice as

used in the mainstream classroom withreference to three examples.

Conclusion

TEACHERS’ VIEWS ONTHERAPEUTIC EDUCATION

A part of class activity in the B. EdHonours, offered at the Wits School ofEducation at Wits University, Issues inPrimary Education which primarilyaddresses issues of Emotions inEducation, Prof Karin Murris wasobserved working with her students onthe topic of Therapy and Education.She posed the question to her students;“Can education be therapeutic?”

TEACHERS VIEWS ONTHERAPEUTIC EDUCATION The teachers who have an average of about 10years

teaching experience believed that education cannottherapeutic.

Education is about giving knew knowledge and haslittle to do healing and rehabilitation.

Therapists in a school should focus on learnerstherapeutic needs while they (teachers) focus onteaching and facilitating new knowledge.

These teachers have an experience of teaching inschools with support specialist is on site, wherelearners consult the specialist on an pull out system.

The students, who did not have teaching experience,trained in post-apartheid era believed that educationcan be therapeutic.

TEACHER REFLECTIONS AFTERTHE SEMESTER

Student 1: has no teaching experience, justqualified as a teacher.

“... the topic that I am now researching in myresearch project; is Therapy and Education. Ibelieve therapy involves the promotion of selfand I believe education supports the samegoal. At this point in the course I realised thatthis course was made for me as it addressesthe topics I am interested in. It had been sointeresting to learn how to teach a learnerusing different methods and differenttechniques. This course has confirmed myopinion that an inclusive way of teaching isthe best way of teaching”

Student 2: 10 years teaching experience

“Education and therapy was quite an interestingthought processing for me. I have alwayslooked at these two ideas as being separateyet interlinked. What I have found incredibleto look back on as we progressed together asa group of people is that we all have differentviews on this matter and I find that it stronglypertains to our age and the way we wereeducated to become teachers”

TEACHER REFLECTIONS AFTERTHE SEMESTER

AIM OF THE PRESENTATION

This paper seeks to explore thetherapeutic nature of education by

discussing three therapeuticpedagogical practices as applied ina mainstream inclusive classroomwith the purpose of educating andaddressing diverse learner needs.

RESEARCH QUESTIONS

Can education be therapeutic?What is meant by therapeuticeducation?

In which way can pedagogicalpractices have a therapeuticimpact on learners?

THERAPY AND EDUCATION Therapy – a medical term for treatment

of diagnosed physical andpsychological conditions

Education – concerns itself with the total development of an individual

The goals of therapy andeducation – totalwellbeing of aperson

THERAPEUTIC EDUCATIONTherapeutic Education refers toclassroom education practicesthat enhance individual learners’development through therapeuticsocial interactions, curriculumcontent, learning supportmaterials, teaching strategiesand a healthy and safe learningenvironment.

INCLUSIVE EDCATION – A SOUTHAFRICAN PERSPECTIVEApartheid Era – Traditionaleducation

Post –Apartheid Era – InclusiveEducation

Racial, economic, ability, specialneed and segregation

Racial, economic, ability and specialintegration

Disability viewed as an objectiveand scientific construct

Disability is viewed both as amedical and a social construct –from Ecosystemic view.Teacher and curriculum centred

educationOutcomes based educationcompatible to inclusive education

Dual education system of “ordinary”and “special” education.

Integrated system of both - withfocus on right of all learners

Using a medical framework indealing with impairment anddifference

Using social framework

The focus is on placement oflearners into special needs

Developing adaptive and supportivestrategies in regular classroom

CASE STUDY

12

1988. Gloria, 16years old, grade 8, mild cerebralpalsy.

She is limping, her mouth and eyes twitch when shespeaks, she speaks slower, her voice is squeaky butaudible when the listener listens attentively, she canwrite but she is slower that the rest in her class, asher hand is shaking her writing is not so legible

Average intellectual ability New school, new environment, coming from primary

school. Her class is on 2nd floor, takes time to reach there

but she usually early Her teachers are sensitive, are sending her to a

special school – even when she refuses.

THERAPY : A MEDICALCONCEPT? Does therapeutic education subscribe to

a Medical model of addressing diverseneeds in education?

The Medical model as was used – itdescribes impairment as disability,disability is seen a objective andscientific, meant exclusion from societyand economic activity, needing charityand support.

Medical model integrated with Socialmodel in an Ecosystemic approach –creating a therapeutic system.

THERAPEUTIC CLASSROOMSTRATEGIES

CURRICULUM AS ATHERAPEUTIC TOOL Curriculum Addressing fantasy and imagination through knowledge acquisition Created a point where fantasy and reality meet Prevents anxiety of not knowing as depicted in Laing’s poem.

CURRICULUM AS ATHERAPEUTIC TOOL

There is something I don’t knowThat I am supposed to know.I don’t know what it is I don’t knowAnd yet I’m supposed to know,And I feel I look stupidIf I seem both not to know itand not know what is it I don’t knowTherefore, I pretend I know it.This is nerve rackingSince I don’t know what I must pretend to

know.Therefore, I pretend to know everything

Excerpt from ‘Knots’quoted fromStoll, Fink and Earl (2003)

Pre-grade learners

5-6years

Grade 1 learners

6-7years

Your heart stops beating and you are

unable to wake up

Someone who is sleeping with eyes closed

When you are shot with a gun When you disappear and they cannot find

you, you are dead

It means you are dead When someone has their eyes closed

When a person is unable to walk Sleeping person

Death means you have been murdered When someone has been murdered

When a person’s heart has stopped When someone has been hit by a car

Is to faint A person who can’t speak

It means a person cannot wake up A person who has been murdered

When a person is bleeding and sleeping

Responses to the question: what is death?DISCIPLINE, BEHAVIOURMANAGEMENT AND CONTAINMENT

Containment – a psychoanalyticconcept.

Winnicott’s view - containment as bodyand mind in unison, whereby frominfancy the dwelling of the psycheremains in the child’s body.

From conception, skin is formed, womb,mother’s arms, blanket – all form limitingmembrane to contain the psyche.

Later, family rules, social rules,classroom rules used to contain andembody the psyche.

DISCIPLINE, BEHAVIOURMANAGEMENT AND CONTAINMENT

Family and social rules

Mother’s arms andblanket

Mother’s womb

Foetus and its membrane

BIBLIO-THERAPY

To assist learners to deal with lifechallenges that are emotionallycharging, and abstract concepts andmoral and social justice concepts likedeath, emotions, corruption, etc.

Children’s books are therapeutic, duepictures which can used as projectiveidentification by learners.

The author serves as therapeuticobserver, non intrusive reflections

COMMUNITIES OFENQUIRIES

A pedagogical methodology used inPhilosophy for Children (P4C) – pioneered byMatthew Lipman.

Is a structured dialogue on a particularconcept

With community rules, it develops self-control,respect for others, logical thinking skills,language processing skills

It facilitated inclusion promoting communitycitizenship by shared values andacceptance

difference in pinions.

CONCLUSION Considering the willingness of teachers to engage

therapeutically with learners as evidence in thereflection of B. Ed Honours, student in the courseon Emotions, there seem to be a need in teachereducation to raise this consciousness in teachers.

This paper has demonstrated how education isinherently therapeutic if good teaching strategiesare used in a healthy and socially inclusivelearning environment.

It is assumed that many other pedagogicstrategies, when examined ,can be found totherapeutic for all involved in education.