Team

• Junior Professor Dr. Désirée Laubenstein
• Prof. Dr. Christian Lindmeier
• Kirsten Seutter-Guthörlein
• Stefan Belting

Duration

Fall 2011 to fall 2014

Cooperation partner

• Ministry of Education, Science, Further Education and Culture (MBWWK - Mainz)
• Supervisory and Service Directorate (ADD - Neustadt/Weinstr.)

Brief description

The research project"Successful conditionsfor joint teaching at special schoolsin Rhineland-Palatinate"(GeSchwind) is currently investigating inclusive education at special schools in the federal state. As an evaluation research project, the team aims to investigate the gradual development of an inclusive education system based on the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UN CRPD) ratified by the Federal Republic of Germany in 2009. As a measure for the implementation of the state's action plan presented in March 2010 to realize these steps, the external evaluation refers to the form of special school that has been available since the 2001/2002 school year.

In agreement with the monitoring office of the German Institute for Human Rights (DIM), we assume that the UN CRPD substantiates the right to education at the individual level as a right to inclusive education (Art. 24 para. 1 and 2 UN CRPD in conjunction with Art. 13 para. 2 UN Social Covenant). According to Art. 24 Para. 2 UN CRPD, this right to inclusive education states that "no person shall be excluded from the general education system on the grounds of disability" (DIM 2010, 4). An integral part of the right to inclusive education is the concept of "reasonable accommodation" (Art. 2 para. 4 UN CRPD), which is particularly relevant "when it is necessary to overcome individual barriers in individual cases and to adapt the environment to the needs of a person with a disability" (DIM 2010, 5).

The individual right to inclusive education represents a human rights concept of education and educational justice, whose structural elements of availability, accessibility, acceptability and adaptability form the cornerstones for the realization of an inclusive school system (primary and secondary levels I and II).

Against this background, the external evaluation is intended to clarify how the concept of the focus school must be further developed in order to make a substantial contribution to the design of an inclusive school system in Rhineland-Palatinate.

Research question