Search

Background: In the past few years several reports have indicated a high prevalence of intimate partner violence (IPV) among women with disabilities (WWDs), but there is limited research on access and utilization of IPV services among this population. Methods: Using qualitative in-depth data obtained from WWDs, our current study soughtto identify factors that hinder WWDs from accessing and utilizing IPV services. Results: Findings from this study showed barriers at different levels. At the individual level, the identity category of disability, not knowing about certain forms of violence, and being better off silent were the main explanations for not using IPV services. The role of personal connections was the main factor that influenced the utilization of IPV services, at the interpersonal level while at the organizational level, a lack of effective communication, power imbalances, inadequate resources, and failures to follow response standards were identified as the major barriers to using IPV services. Societal incompetence, as exemplified by treating violence as a taboo and the lack of regulations criminalizing psychological violence, was the main barrier at the societal level. Conclusions: Our findings suggest that improving access to IPV services requires interventions that address barriers at different societal levels. This should include early interventions that target WWDs, as well as others, to promote violence recognition among service providers, improve the quality of services, and establish policies and programs that are not only directed to women with disabilities but also to interpersonal, organizational, and societal levels.

Collaborative case-based virtual learning was used with special teacher education students from Finland (N = 94) and Sweden (N = 59). The case was about consultation and was tailor-made to fit thei ...

The purpose of this study is to analyze the planned development of sport practice regarding children’s rights through project applications from Swedish sports clubs within the Lift for Sport progra ...

The main purpose of this study is to investigate whether self-efficacy in children with disabilities could be strengthened through targeted and adapted physical activities led by specially educated...

Focusing on a rural municipality in northern Finland, the aim of this study is to investigate educators’ thoughts and experiences with co-teaching. The data from 40 teachers were collected via an electronic questionnaire, and a mixed-methods approach was used. In the quantitative responses, the teachers positioned themselves as spokespeople for co-teaching, even though they had little experience with this teaching method. The written responses were condensed into four main themes: requirements, interpretations, inclusion and joy. Various requirements, such as more time for planning, better facilities to teach in and more training, were required before co-teaching could be executed. However, those who had co-taught expressed joy and improved wellbeing at work compared with their time teaching alone. Finally, the various themes of teachers’ experiences in relation to co-teaching are discussed.

Drawing on the Foucauldian concept of governmentality and with a discourse analytic approach, the purpose of this study was to describe and analyse how wheelchair basketball (WCB) players governed ...

"I do not compete in disability" : How wheelchair athletes challenge the discourse of able-ism through action and resistance

In this article, we discuss the views of 117 special education student teachers related to their oncoming profession in the framework of ecological theory. Together, 68 students from Sweden (26 special teachers and 41 SENCo students) and 49 from Finland responded to a questionnaire. We compared the respondents’ thoughts about their future work content, the focus areas of special education and inclusion. According to the expectations, the main task for these future special educators is to work with pupils and adults at school. The focus areas of their future work included co-operation and consultation, more so in Sweden. In addition, excellent interaction skills were central. The Swedish respondents supported full inclusion to a greater extent than the Finnish respondents. Finally, no critical aspects of resource allocation or conditions to ensure the child’s right to adequate support within the existing school systems were emphasised by the respondents. The results and the differences among the various respondents are discussed. Keywords : special education, expectations, special teacher, SENCO, ecological model (Published: 3 March 2015) Citation : Education Inquiry (EDUI) 2015, 6 , 24329, http://dx.doi.org/10.3402/edui.v6.24329

Political programming of sport has become the new orthodoxy in many countries where the strive for a more healthy and civically engaged population is intertwined with an ambition to encourage and make responsible individuals and organizations for meeting societal goals. Although much effort has been put into studying this phenomenon, there is still a shortage of understanding of how, why and with what results sport policy programmes are made and implemented. To address this shortage this article reports on a study of the largest government intervention in sport in Sweden with the purpose of exploring processes of responsibilization and self-regulation at play in the relationship between the government and sport as well as between sport organizations on different levels. Results show how sport has received a more salient position on the government agenda, where more instrumental goals have been accompanied by increased resources to aid in their attainment. This process has assisted in the ambitions to modernize sports organizations by encouraging development through self-regulation. The sports organizations involved have embraced the new goals and resources. However, instead of self-regulating in the desired direction, each organizational level in the sports system has forwarded the responsibility for development to the next level below. This process has left the sports clubs with the full responsibility of meeting the government goals, a responsibility they have not accepted. Understandings of these phenomena and processes are discussed by pointing to the specific institutional landscape and tradition of Swedish sport. Published online: 31 Jul 2014

People with disabilities seldom get a chance to voice their opinions on their sport experiences. A deeper understanding of the context-related experiences of sport is a prerequisite for teachers and leaders to be able to provide adequate, inclusive and meaningful activities. The aim of this qualitative case study was to examine how young people with disabilities made sense of sport, within both the compulsory school system and the voluntary sports movement. The study involved 10 young adults (aged 16 to 29 years) with disabilities, five males and five females. All the participants had rich experiences of sport. An inductive approach to qualitative content analysis of semi-structured interviews was used to enable individuals to explain and give meaning to their experiences of sport including those pertaining to gender and inclusion. The findings illustrated that dominating gender and ability norms influenced the interviewees’ understanding of themselves in relation to sport; as a consequence, some of the female interviewees had a more diverse, sometimes contradictory experience of sport than the male interviewees. The basic premise of this study is that researchers can develop more insightful understandings of inclusion by studying the subjective meanings that are constructed by people with disabilities in their sport experiences.

For an athlete to participate in the Olympics is a sign of supreme achievement. The same could as well be the case for those who participate in the Paralympics, the equivalent of the Olympics. The way elite female wheelchair athletes talk about themselves and their sport and their ecperience of being positioned by others and the way position themselves will be discussed in this paper.