Full Description
This book presents an ethnographic case study of the personal motivations, advocacy, and activation of social capital needed to create and sustain the Immortelle Children's Centre, a private school that has served children with disabilities in Trinidad/Tobago for four decades. Based on narratives by parents from the 1980's, current parents, teachers, community advocates, and the author, who was the founder of Immortelle in 1978, the study views the school within the context of a nation standing in a liminal space between developed and developing societies. It argues that the attainment of equity for children with disabilities will require an agenda that includes a legal mandate for education of all children, increased public funding for education, health and therapeutic services, and an on-going public awareness campaign. Relating this study to the global debate on inclusion, the author shows how the implementation of this agenda would have to be adapted to the social, cultural, and economic realities of the society.
Contents
1. Chapter 1 Historical and Cultural Influences on Education Policy and Disability Services.- 2. Chapter 2 The Immortelle: Planting, Nurturing, and Growing.- 3. Chapter 3 Original Parents' Stories: From "Something not right here" to "She's wonderful!".- 4. Chapter 4 Forty Years Later: Current Parents - From "Something not Right Here to "We Need Systems!".- 5. Chapter 5 "Trinidad is Nice, Trinidad is a Paradise": Navigating negativity and creating love.- 6. Chapter 6 Sustaining the Immortelle: "You Have to Love What You Do".- 7. Chapter 7 Building a Community of Advocates: Seeking Unity in Diversity.- 8. Chapter 8 Health and Education: Seeking an Explicit Place on the Agenda.- 9. Chapter 9 Trinidad and Tobago in a Liminal Space.
