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Debate, Autistic Pride Day Symposium 2023
Panellists said inclusion training puts the burden back on the communities it serves
In short
At the 2023 Autistic Pride Day Symposium, panellists who deliver and receive inclusion training questioned whether it changes anything, and who pays the cost of trying.
Read it instead, 4 minutesThe transcript
The story
The doubt about training was raised by people who had been through it and people who deliver it. Late in the closing Q&A of the 2023 Autistic Pride Day Symposium in Melbourne, a panellist who had trained as a teacher said they found the conversation about training really interesting, and thought back to their own. “I had half a day learning about this umbrella disability”, they said, and it was not taught from a disability rights lens at all.
The national rules leave room for that experience. In an answer to a question on notice from the Senate’s supplementary budget estimates for 2015 to 2016, the Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership said that all graduates of initial teacher education programs must meet the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers at the graduate level. One of those standards, 1.6, requires broad knowledge and understanding of legislative requirements and of teaching strategies that support the participation and learning of students with disability. The answer set no minimum number of hours and no separate course in disability, and did not say how much teaching a program must give to the standard.
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Sources the story draws on
- A Meta-Analytical Integration of Over 40 Years of Research on Diversity Training Evaluation (opens in a new tab), Psychological Bulletin (record at eCommons, Cornell University)
- Question on notice SQ15-000863: Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership (opens in a new tab), Parliament of Australia, Senate Education and Employment Legislation Committee (Supplementary Budget Estimates 2015 to 2016)
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