Search results

The field of Professional Development Schools (PDS) continues to evolve with promising implications. As part of advancing practice, the National Association for Professional Development Schools has updated its nine essential guiding principles, which now includes an explicit expectation for all PDS partners to advance equity, anti-racism and social justice. This article is a call for critical professional development work which infuses Disability Critical Race Theory (DisCrit) practices into achieving the Nine Essentials.

In this call-to-action article, the authors argue that it is imperative for the whole of PDS work to establish a priority for inclusive practice that recognizes and responds to all aspects of diversity in education from the outset, including disability. The authors suggest that PDS work must be guided by an intersectional approach that is operationalized to achieve equity in education by dismantling both racism and ableism in education. The authors use an action-based example from our PDS work to exemplify these elements in practice.

In this article, the authors put forth two arguments that they urge their PDS colleagues to consider. First, the authors call for practices within PDS to give attention to improving student learning in ways that specifically address disability and intersectional considerations related to disability. Second, the authors urge that PDS work must be conceptually and practically inclusive in order to achieve the social justice impact put forth in the comprehensive mission of the Nine Essentials.

There is a growing body of literature around PDS that addresses theory to practice research and best practices in PDS settings. While some recent publications address inclusive PDS practices, the authors were not able to identify any works related to DisCrit in the PDS literature to date.

Evidence-based rehabilitative treatment is constrained due to limited knowledge about disability and its related factors among individuals with schizophrenia across West Africa. This study aims to investigate the pattern of disability, and the associated factors among individuals with schizophrenia. One hundred consecutively recruited consenting participants were subjected to designed questionnaire to inquire about their demographic and illness-related variables. This was followed by the administration of Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV-TR Axis I Disorders and Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale to confirm the diagnosis of schizophrenia and rate severity of symptoms respectively in them. In addition, the World Health Organisation Disability Assessment Scale II (WHODAS-II) was used to assess for disability in all participants. Different degrees of disability based on WHODAS-II mean score of 27.02±3.49 were noted among individuals with schizophrenia, and affectation of domains of disability like self care, getting along with others, life activities and participation in the society among others were observed. In addition, high level of disability was significantly associated with younger adults in the age group 18-44 years (P=0.007), unemployment status (P=0.003), remittance source of income (P=0.034) and ethnicity (P=0.017); conversely, less number of children (P=0.033), less amount spent on treatment (P<0.001) and lower BPRS score (P<0.001) correlated negatively with high level of disability. In spite of clinical stability following treatment, individuals with schizophrenia were disabled to varied degrees, and socioeconomic as well as illness-related factors constituted important correlates. Integration of rehabilitation along with social intervention into treatment design to reduce disability is implied, and further research is also warranted.

The purpose of this paper is to shed light on co-creative approaches for place innovation in an Arctic town, based on the relocation of Kiruna’s city center in northern Sweden. Three cases of co-creative innovation processes in Kiruna are investigated and compared: an R&D project about local perceptions and visions of attractive urban environments; an R&D project about norm-creative design principles for inclusive and attractive urban design; and an R&D project about cross-industrial synergies for city center attractiveness.

The study’s research design encompasses a comparative and participatory approach. The comparative approach implies investigation and comparison of three cases of co-creative innovation processes in Kiruna. The participatory approach implies joint development of new knowledge by researchers and local actors. The data consists of participatory observations of workshops and qualitative interviews with local actors.

The study reveals that the studied processes have harnessed the city center relocation as an opportunity to make Kiruna more attractive to residents and visitors, by using the co-creative approaches of Living Lab, Now-Wow-How and Norm-creative design. These approaches have enabled experts and local actors to jointly identify excluding patterns and norms in the relocation process and to envision inclusive and attractive (re-)configurations and (re-)conceptualizations of the future Kiruna.

The results add to the academic strand of inclusive urban transformation, by providing insights into co-creative approaches for re-imagining an Arctic town in times of industrial and social change. New insights are provided regarding how the geographical, industrial and cultural identity of an Arctic town can be harnessed to envision new configuration, content and communication that is attractive and accessible for a diversity of residents and visitors.

The results highlight the potential to harness Arctic and rural characteristics in the promotion of urban attractiveness and public well-being, especially when combined with co-creative identification and transformation of excluding norms and patterns.

The results provide new insights into how co-creative approaches may facilitate innovative and inclusive renewal of towns and cities in the Arctic and beyond.