Special Education in New Zealand: Disability, Politics and Empowerment

RECENT CHANGES in educational administration in New Zealand have been premised on an economic model of schools as providers and parents as consumers. At the same time, laws relating to education have been changed toward establishing the right of all children, irrespective of ability or disability, to education in state schools. Both moves have the potential to empower parents seeking integration into mainstream classrooms for their children who have disabilities. Recognition of the rights of Maori as the indigenous people of New Zealand is a further context within which educational and disability issues can be interpreted in terms of the social, cultural and political beliefs that underlie our concepts and actions.