/library/oar/handle/123456789/38899 2025-12-23T12:07:01Z 2025-12-23T12:07:01Z Maric, Liliana /library/oar/handle/123456789/53760 2020-04-12T05:11:43Z 2020-01-01T00:00:00Z

Title: Making disabled people’s voices vulnerable Authors: Maric, Liliana Abstract: This paper attempts to utilise creative writing to contribute to discourse in the fields of critical disability studies and inclusive education. Twelve semi-structured interviews were carried out with young disabled adults with different physical and/ or sensorial disabilities who followed or were following courses at further and higher education levels. Research findings that show day-to-day experiences that disabled persons live are presented in short poems to reveal their presumed struggles. The evidence espoused that inclusive education is a process and a way of living. Support from parents, peers, administrators and lecturers are key to individual and community building. Self-help strategies are crucial in developing agency which, with a washback effect would transform society into a more democratic one. However, disabled persons need to be given the opportunity by eradicating the deficit mentality in society towards disability and disabled persons. The discussion unveils how society makes the voices of disabled persons disempowered and vulnerable. It is suggested that in Malta, wider opportunities for disabled persons to pursue their education at further and higher education levels and to enter the employment sector are needed to promulgate inclusive communities. Entities need to emulate a positive and proactive attitude towards social inclusion and cohesion. The contribution of this paper is to create awareness about the dire need for social praxis in fostering emancipation and social justice from a rights-based standpoint in favour of disabled people.

2020-01-01T00:00:00Z Maric, Liliana /library/oar/handle/123456789/38490 2019-01-17T02:43:17Z 2018-01-01T00:00:00Z

Title: The struggle of adolescents with physical and sensorial disabilities at further and higher education levels Authors: Maric, Liliana Abstract: The Maltese anti-discrimination legislation stipulates that it is unlawful that an educational authority would discriminate against a person on the grounds of disability. The experience of young disabled persons with physical and sensorial disabilities attending further and higher educational institutions in Malta (and Gozo) was explored to understand the disabling barriers and enabling factors of inclusive education. The study stemmed from Dewey’s theory of experience. Pragmatism was utilised as the main philosophical paradigm since lived experiences where considered essential for critical reflection on the experienced (the what) and the experiencing (the how) of experience. This paper focuses on the findings obtained from a narrative inquiry that was developed over two years with four female adolescents while attending a course at a further education institution and the University of Malta. The findings indicated that inclusive education is a social construct. The participants experienced an acceptable level of inclusive education. However, they unveiled an underlying struggle to overcome environmental, social and educational disabling barriers. It is recommended that in implementing quality inclusive education, the principles of democracy and social justice would stem from a rights-based rather than a charity-based approach.

2018-01-01T00:00:00Z