The Impact of culture on disability : a Somali perspective

Thesis (M.S.W.)--University of Melbourne, Faculty of Education, 2004The researcher has been a Principal for six years at a special school for children with severe multiple impairments. The researcher's interest in culture and its impact on disability was prompted by the presence of a Somali child at the school and her growing awareness that the school was not meeting the family's needs and that the family were not fully engaged in the family centred approach practised by the school. Literature, specifically on Somali views of disability was scarce and this research was seen as an important way of beginning to redress this lack of knowledge and understanding. The key focus was to learn more about Somali culture, religion, understandings of disability and education and to explore the implications of this knowledge for teachers working with disabled children in cross cultural settings. Somalia has traditionally had an oral culture so a qualitative methodology was chosen as the most appropriate; through a series of semi-structured, in-depth individual and group interviews ten participants discussed with the researcher their experience of disability and their beliefs and understandings about disability. The participants included Somali community leaders, workers in welfare and education and Somali parents. The "will of God" quickly emerged as a key theme in explaining the cause of disability but as each interview progressed, other causes and beliefs about disability slowly unfolded to reveal a more complex and diverse picture. A duality or tension emerged between the Islamic or "public" thoughts about disability and each participant's "private" untold thoughts, feelings and experiences of disability. Grief and the birth of a baby with a disability usually go hand in hand. This research exposed the disenfranchised grief associated with the birth of a baby with a disability where the parents and especially the mother, are denied the freedom to publicly grieve for their child due to religious and cultural beliefs. The recommendations for educators of Somali children with a disability centre on the educator understanding their own cultural influences and perspectives before they can sensitively embrace and understand the culture of their Somali students, the provision of information in formats other than the written word, clear realistic educational goals being discussed with the family and the opportunity for the family to discuss their child's strengths and weaknesses as they see them