Can Education Be Therapeutic?

An Exploration of the Therapeutic

Nature of Inclusive Education in

Classrooms with Diverse Learner

Needs.

Ms. S’mangele Mayisela.

University of Witwatersrand,

Johannesburg , South Africa

S’mangele.Mayisela@wits.ac.za

STRUCTURE OF THE

PRESENTATION

Aim of the Presentation

Research Questions

Background

Wits – B. Ed honors Programme on

Emotions

Students view on the questions of

therapy and education

Therapeutic pedagogical practice as

used in the mainstream classroom with

reference to three examples.

Conclusion

AIM OF THE PRESENTATION

This paper seeks to explore the

therapeutic nature of education by

discussing three therapeutic

pedagogical practices as applied in

a mainstream inclusive classroom

with the purpose of educating and

addressing diverse learner needs.

RESEARCH QUESTIONS

Can education be therapeutic?

What is meant by therapeutic

education?

In which way can pedagogical

practices have a therapeutic

impact on learners?

THERAPY AND EDUCATION

Therapy – a medical term for treatment

of diagnosed physical and

psychological conditions

Education – concerns itself

with the total development

of an individual

The goals of therapy and

education – total

wellbeing of a

person

THERAPEUTIC EDUCATION

Therapeutic Education refers to

classroom education practices

that enhance individual learners’

development through therapeutic

social interactions, curriculum

content, learning support

materials, teaching strategies

and a healthy and safe learning

environment.

INCLUSIVE EDUCATION – A

SOUTH AFRICAN PERSPECTIVE

Apartheid Era – Traditional

education

Post –Apartheid Era -

Racial, economic, ability, special

need segregation

Racial, economic, ability and special

integration

Disability viewed as an objective

sand scientific construct

Disability is viewed both as a

medical and a social construct

Teacher and curriculum centred

education

Outcomes based education

compatible to inclusive education

Dual education system of “ordinary”

and “special” education.

Integrated system of both - with

focus on right of all learners

Using a medical framework in

dealing with impairment and

difference

Using social framework

The focus is on placement of

learners with special needs

Developing adaptive and supportive

strategies in regular classroom

THERAPY : A MEDICAL

CONCEPT?

Does therapeutic education subscribe to

a Medical model of addressing diverse

needs in education?

The Medical model as was used – is

described impairment as

disability, disability is seen a objective

and scientific, meant exclusion from

society and economic activity, needing

charity and support.

Medical model integrated with Social

model in an Ecosystemic approach –

CASE STUDY

10

1988. Gloria, 16years old, grade 8, mild cerebral

palsy.

She is limping, her mouth and eyes twitch when she

speaks, she speaks slower, her voice is squeaky but

audible when the listener listens attentively, she can

write but she is slower that the rest in her class, as

her hand is shaking her writing is not so legible

Average intellectual ability

New school, new environment, coming from primary

school.

Her class is on 2nd floor, takes time to reach there

but she usually early

Her teachers are sensitive, are sending her to a

special school – even when she refuses.

INCLUSIVE EDUCATION

Inclusive education as a therapeutic

form of education in addressing

segregation according to

race, disabilities and gender differences.

Inclusive education draws all

communities to participate in the

transformation process.

Gives the majority of people an

opportunity to redress issues of past

racial inequities.

In the classroom, it calls for the

TEACHERS’ VIEWS ON

THERAPEUTIC EDUCATION

A part of class activity in the B. Ed

Honours, offered at the Wits School of

Education at Wits University, Issues in

Primary Education which primarily

addresses issues of Emotions in

Education, Prof Karin Murris was

observed working with her students on

the topic of Therapy and Education.

She posed the question to her students;

“Can education be therapeutic?”

TEACHERS VIEWS ON

THERAPEUTIC EDUCATION

The students, who did not have teaching

experience, trained in post-apartheid era believed that

education can be therapeutic.

The teachers who have an average of about 10years

teaching experience believed that education cannot

therapeutic.

They believe that education is about giving knew

knowledge and has little to do healing and

rehabilitation. They asserted that therapists in a

school should focus on learners therapeutic needs

while they (teachers) focus on teaching and

facilitating new knowledge.

These teachers have an experience of teaching in

schools the support specialist is on site, where

learners consult the specialist on an pull out system.

TEACHER REFLECTIONS AFTER

THE SEMETER

Student 1: no teaching experience, just qualified

as a teacher.

“We then moved to the topic that i am now

researching in my research project; Therapy and

Education. I believe therapy involves the

promotion of self and I believe education supports

the same goal. At this point in the course I

realised that this course was made for me as it

addresses the topics I am interested in. It had

been so interesting to learn how to teach a

learner using different methods and different

techniques. This course has confirmed my

opinion that an inclusive way of teaching is the

best way of teaching”

Student 2: 10 years teaching experience

“Education and therapy was quite an interesting

thought processing for me. I have always looked

at these two ideas as being separate yet

interlinked. What I have found incredible to look

back on as we progressed together as a group of

people is that we all have different views on this

matter and I find that it strongly pertains to our

age and the way we were educated to become

teachers”

TEACHER REFLECTIONS AFTER

THE SEMETER

Student 3: 13 years teaching experience

“The link between therapy and education is not

clear cut as I thought it was. There is a definite

overlap or link between the two and in the reading

I was surprised at the amount of educational

practices that are used or found in the therapy

sessions. At the same time, if education has the

therapeutic practices why isn’t the system more

nurturing or beneficial to the learner? The need to

perform and deliver the National Curriculum is so

overwhelming that educators and learners are not

benefitting at all.”

TEACHER REFLECTIONS AFTER

THE SEMETER

CLASSROOM THERAPEUTIC

STRATEGIES

CURRICULUM AS A

THERAPEUTIC TOOL

Curriculum

Addressing fantasy and imagination

through knowledge

acquisition

Created a point where fantasy

and reality meet

Prevents anxiety of not knowing as

depicted in Laing’s poem.

CURRICULUM AS A

THERAPEUTIC TOOL

There is something I don’t knowThat I am supposed to know.I don’t know what it is I don’t knowAnd yet I’m supposed to know,And I feel I look stupidIf I seem both not to know itand not know what is it I don’t knowTherefore, I pretend I know it.This is nerve rackingSince I don’t know what I must pretend to know.Therefore, I pretend to know everything

Excerpt from ‘Knots’quoted fromStoll, Fink and Earl (2003)

Pre-grade learners

5-6years

Grade 1 learners

6-7years

Your hear stops beating and you are unable

to wake up

Someone who is sleeping with eye closed

When you are shot with a gun When you disappear and they cannot find

you, you are dead

It means you are dead When someone has their eyes closed

When a person is unable to walk Sleeping person

Death means you have been murdered When someone has been murdered

When a person’s heart has stopped When someone has been hit by a car

Is to faint A person who can’t speak

It means a person cannot wake up A person who has been murdered

When a person is bleeding and sleeping

Responses to the question: what is death?

BASIC COUNSELLING SKILLS

AND COMMUNICATION SKILLS

Basic counselling skills are life skills

Manage learners emotions and help

develop problem solving skills

Uses five basic skills:

observation, listening, reflection, pa

raphrasing then problem solving.

DISCIPLINE AND BEHAVIOUR

MANAGEMENT AND CONTAINMENT

Containment – a psychoanalytic

concept.

Winnicott’s view - containment as body

and mind in unison, whereby from

infancy the dwelling of the psyche

remains in the child’s body.

From conception, skin is formed, womb,

mother’s arms, blanket – all form limiting

membrane to contain the psyche.

Later, family rules, social rules,

classroom rules used to contain and

BIBLIO-THERAPY AND

COMMUNITY OF ENQUIRIES

To assist learners to deal with life

challenges that are emotionally

charging, and abstract concepts and

moral and social justice concepts like

death, emotions, corruption, etc.

Children’s books are therapeutic, due

pictures which can used as projective

identification by learners.

The author serves as therapeutic

observer, non intrusive reflections

COMMUNITIES OF

ENQUIRIES

A pedagogical methodology used in

Philosophy for Children (P4C) – pioneered by

Matthew Lipman.

Is a structured dialogue on a particular

concept

With community rules, it develops self-control,

respect for others, logical thinking skills,

language processing skills

It facilitated inclusion promoting community

citizenship by shared values and

acceptance

difference in pinions.

CONCLUSION Considering the willingness of teachers to engage

therapeutically with learners as evidence in the reflection of B. Ed Honours, student in the course on Emotions, there seem to be a need in teacher education to raise this consciousness in teachers.

This paper has demonstrated how education is inherently therapeutic if good teaching strategies are used in a healthy and socially inclusive learning environment.

It is assumed that many other pedagogic strategies, when examined ,can be found to therapeutic for all involved in education.