The education for disabled children during the first decades after the WWII in Czechoslovakia: in the game of big-time politics

Investor logo
Authors

SHMIDT Victoria

Year of publication 2016
Type Appeared in Conference without Proceedings
MU Faculty or unit

Faculty of Education

Citation
Attached files
Description The contemporary issues regarding the education for disabled children in the Czech Rep., evident backlash against deinstitutionalisation and various barriers accompanying the attempts to establish inclusive education, are often explained by the socialist and authoritarian background. Although, this statement remains a sort of cliché preventing one from the reflection of current policies and practices until the retrospective analysis of socialist legacy would develop the thick description related to the composition of driving forces impacting the formation of policies and practices around disabled children. This text aims to explore the role of early socialist period – through the comparative historical analysis targeted to indicating the continuities and discreteness in the policy around disabled children in 1945-1948 (the Third Republic) and the first decade of socialist regime. During these periods, the agenda regarding disabled children directly contracted big-time politics – being built to the concept of resilient nation typical of the Third Republic (1945-1948) and becoming the arena of political struggle between socialist Ministries and civic movements against authorities (1948-1953). Recognising the actors of the policy related to special education, their aims, strategies and mutual contradictions maps the political capital and the role of various discourses in accumulating, mobilising and spending such capital by various actors. We presume that the professionalisation of care for disabled children and racing political capital of various actors were mutually interrelated, what directly impacted the formation of helping professions linking them with eugenic discourse.
Related projects:

You are running an old browser version. We recommend updating your browser to its latest version.