Disability as a Line of Difference in the Context of Heterogeneity-Sensitive Teacher Education: Concept and Goals

Abstract

While disability in everyday life is often still attributed to the affected group of people individually, relational perspectives on disability have been increas-ingly developed in special needs and inclusive education since the 1970s. This is demonstrated in the “International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health”. According to this, disability arises in processes of interaction between the person and the social and material environment and is thus a feature of a situation or constellation. As a result, processes of exclusion can occur due to the restriction of social participation. Based on the social dimension, this article will place the con-struct of disability in an educational-scientific context and derive perspectives for teacher education, primarily oriented to the discourses of special needs education and inclusive education. Currently, disability is understood in these discourses as a social barrier that leads to stigmatisation and exclusion due to deviations from the norm and is thus also of particular relevance in a school for all. The goal of maximising participation opportunities for people with disabilities or impairments requires a redefinition of responsibilities at all levels of teacher education, correlating with the process of opening up regular schools. For university teacher education, this process means that prospective teachers must be prepared for the challenges of shared learning situations so that they can (later) become involved in shaping a heterogeneity-sensitive and inclusion-sensitive school and teaching culture.