People with disabilities teaching at higher education institutions

Allowing people with intellectual disabilities to become teachers at institutions of higher education is an overall aim of a three-year project in Kiel in Germany. The project“Inclusive Education” will firstly train people with disabilities to gain the necessary qualifications in teaching and consequently, support these trainees to give classes at the institutions of higher education about disability and inclusion.

Many organisations are required to make inclusion happen. However, for the staff of these organisations, many questions remain unanswered, such as how to implement inclusive approaches in everyday practice or how to make their professional behavior more inclusive. Professionals often feel that they lack the knowledge and adequate information needed to make inclusion happen. To overcome this, ‘inclusion’ needs to be part of formal and life-long learning education. The strength of this project lies in allowing future professionals to learn directly from persons with disabilities about their needs and life experiences.

Lead by the Drachensee Foundation, the project has started with training of six persons with disabilities. After completing the training course, they will share their life experiences with future professionals and managers at higher education institutions. The project targets students of social work, pedagogy and special education. In the long-term, it aims to establish this model as an integral part of German educational landscape.

Project objectives

Qualification: To prepare people with intellectual disabilities for teaching, they must pass a two-year full-time training to acquire pedagogical skills and learn to share their experiences in a professional manner.

Inclusion into educational system: The project is based on the principle ‘nothing about us without us’ and the UN Convention on Rights of Persons with Disabilities. The project team collaborates closely with educational institutions as well as the Ministry of Education and Science of Schleswig-Holstein.

Creation of sustainable job places: In the long-term, the project aims secure sustainable workplaces for lecturers with disabilities. This entails provision of adequate and continuous support. To make this happen, a number of legal and financial questions need to be addressed.

The project counts on a wide support of public administration of Schleswig-Holstein, disability organisations, universities and the institutions of higher education which created a networking forum to provide different insights and expertise.

More information about the project can be found at www.inklusive-bildung.org.

Source: Lebenshilfe Germany