| My research seeks to configure a philosophical stance for teaching art to students with disabilities. I conducted research while working in several programs affiliated with the hospitals and clinics of a large Midwestern university. Among the individuals I taught there were children who have communication disorders and learning disabilities, and teenagers with physical disabilities. I also conducted research in public school art classrooms while supervising student teachers. In order to have sufficient data on inclusive educational settings, I investigated the inclusion of Chris, a fourteen-year-old junior high student, in an eighth grade art class. Chris has cerebral palsy and is quadriplegic and nonverbal.;Using Paul Ricoeur's work in hermeneutics as a philosophical framework, my approach to this research is narrative interpretation. I composed stories both about my experiences teaching students with disabilities and my observations of other educators teaching students who are included in art classrooms. I place my stories in a critical dialogue with, among others, the work of Martin Buber to configure a philosophical stance.;Buber's (1958) philosophy of dialogue underpins the philosophical stance needed for the "authentic practice" of inclusion. Fundamental to Buber's philosophy is the possibility of genuine meeting between human beings; an encounter in which there is mutual recognition and confirmation. Mutuality depends upon the fullness of human participation in encounters with others. Inclusion authentically practiced involves this kind of vital encounter. Thus, in an exchange between teacher and student, a sincere dialogue is shared which is guided by the teacher and at the same time entered into by the teacher with the whole of his or her personality (Cohen, 1983, p. 48). Embracing Buber's dialogic consciousness illuminates the rich possibilities present in the encounter between a teacher and a student with disabilities. |
