Karma and human rights: Bhutanese teachers’ perspectives on inclusion and disability

ABSTRACT

The Sustainable Development Goals call on countries to ensure that all children, especially the most vulnerable, are included in education. The small kingdom of Bhutan has made attempts to embrace inclusion in education at the policy level. However, research on inclusion and disability in this context is limited, and there are few studies focusing on the perspectives of Bhutanese teachers. The study presented here was led by the question ‘how are Inclusion and Disability understood by teachers in Bhutan?’ The research aims were to (a) explore the above concepts from the perspective of participants and (b) construct these concepts in a way that is contextually relevant to Bhutan. Data collection comprised qualitative interviews with 15 Bhutanese teachers. Findings revealed that participants saw disability predominantly from a ‘medical model’ perspective, but at the same time held conflicting views as to what inclusion means. They moreover mentioned lack of teacher training as an obstacle to the implementation of inclusion in Bhutan, and some believed that the country is not yet ready for inclusion. We argue that our findings call for Bhutan to strengthen the preparation of its teachers for inclusive education in order to narrow the current gap between policy and practice.

KEYWORDS:

• Inclusion/inclusive education
• disability/special educational needs
• teacher understanding
• Bhutan
• South Asia

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Dr Leda Kamenopoulou is a Senior Lecturer in Special and Inclusive Education at the University of Roehampton, in London, UK. Over the past 20 years, she has held various research and teaching roles in UK and overseas Universities. She has published articles on Disability/SEN and Inclusive Education in high quality national and international peer reviewed journals. Leda's current research is centred on the implementation of inclusive education within different contexts, and she is the editor and co-author of a book on inclusion and disability in countries of the global South (forthcoming).

Dawa Dukpa is Associate Lecturer in Special and Inclusive Education and Educational Psychology at the Paro College of Education, the Royal University of Bhutan. He joined Paro College in 2010 and he is currently the Programme Leader for Inclusive Education at the College. He has published several articles on inclusion, disability and education in peer reviewed national journals. His current research interests are centered on inclusion, disability and teacher education.