Introduction
IEAG has produced a short film of each 10 young people talking about how school was for them. Teaching Resources sit alongside and help to unpack the films. The young people’s stories and perspectives and the films provide the basis of the Voices Project and Teaching Resources. The Resources are written and relevant for children and young people, families – whānau, educators, teacher educators, advocates, inclusive education facilitators, researchers and writers.
The young people’s stories and experiences contain many powerful lessons about human rights and inclusive education. The films and resources provide educators and others with the opportunity to listen to disabled students, reflect on their own understandings and practices and to grow inclusive school communities.
Between November 2015 and June 2016, a group of young disabled people were filmed as they talked about their experiences of schooling in New Zealand. The project was initiated by the Inclusive Education Action Group with support from the Todd Foundation and IHC. The Project approached access to a quality education as a basic human right. The Voices Project sought the voices of young disabled people in New Zealand so that their stories can be listened to and can inform inclusive ways of working for all people. They are intended to inform and transform both policy and practice.
The young people’s stories and experiences contain many powerful lessons about human rights and inclusive education. The films and accompanying resources provide educators and others with the opportunity to listen to disabled students, reflect on their own understandings and practices, to start conversations about some of the key issues for young disabled people in New Zealand schools and to grow inclusive school communities. The resources are linked to each other and to the films. The resources are designed to be used flexibly. They can support teacher professional development, classroom teaching, and reflection. The may be dipped in and out of or used over a period of time.
The design is intended to support the ongoing development of this work.
Please watch the short introductory film where the concept of Voice is shared.
Rights
Six documents, agreements and obligations that frame and underpin inclusive education, and the content of this project are:
- Treaty of Waitangi 1840
- Universal Declaration of Human Rights 1948
- United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child 1989
- New Zealand Disability Strategy 2016
- United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities 2007
- United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples 2007
