Facing a Globalized Future:

Rehabilitation International Competence through Networked

Citizenship

Dr. Alan BruceULS Dublin

NCRESpring Conference

Newport Beach, CaliforniaApril 2016

Understanding linkage

• Critical role of partnerships, linkage and strategic joint ventures in global higher education and rehabilitation

• Opportunities and challenges in global rehabilitation• Changing role of rehabilitation professionalism in global

operation• Moving to rights based approaches• Operating internationally - three key issues:

• strategic planning • business model of partnership/mutual learning • importance of capacity building

• What do we need and how do we get there?

Partnerships• Partnership characterized universities from the beginning• Linkage for shared common interest• Research strategy often demands partnership• Student and faculty exchange• Pervasive change now driving this• Education and learning and economies of scale• Innovation and technology• Need for quality linkage• European dimensions

Global dimensions of rehabilitation structures

• International Labor Organization (1919) – promotes rights at

work, encourages decent employment and social protection

• Rehabilitation International (1922) - worldwide network of

people with disabilities, service providers, government agencies, academics,

researchers and advocates working to improve the quality of life of people

with disabilities

• World Health Organization (1948) - useful forums for the

development of rehabilitation and disability related best practice

• United Nations (1949) - Convention on the Rights of Persons with

Disabilities 2008

UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities• Both a development and a human rights

instrument• A policy instrument which is cross-

disability and cross-sectoral• Legally binding• Ratified 2008• US has not ratified

Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities

A Paradigm Shift

• The Convention marks a ‘paradigm shift’ in attitudes and approaches to persons with disabilities.

• Persons with disabilities are not viewed as objects of charity, medical treatment and social protection - rather as subjects with rights, who are capable of claiming those rights and making decisions for their lives based on their free and informed consent as active members of society.

• The Convention gives universal recognition to the dignity of persons with disabilities.

Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities

What is Disability?

• The Convention does not explicitly define disability• Preamble of Convention states:

Disability is an evolving concept, and that disability results from the interaction between persons with impairments and attitudinal and environmental barriers that hinders full and effective participation in society on an equal basis with others

• Article 1 of the Convention states: Persons with disabilities include those who have long-term physical, mental, intellectual or sensory impairments which in interaction with various barriers may hinder their full and effective participation in society on an equal basis with others

United Nations High Level Meeting on DisabilityGeneral Assembly, 23 September 2013

• First ever UN General Assembly high-level meeting on disability

• Commitment to global disability inclusive development agendas

• Urgent action to improve health care, rehabilitation, and strengthen data

Global situation

• Around 150 million adults experience significant difficulties functioning

• Disability prevalence is increasing

• Disproportionately affects vulnerable populations: women, older people and poor households

Global learning links: threat or opportunity?

• Defining policy goals and aims – shaping strategy

• Strategies for connection

• Standards, quality and assessment

• Balancing academic excellence with new needs

• Addressing adaptability and curiosity• Responding to the digital universe

Disabling barriers: widespread evidence

• Inadequate policies and standards

• Negative attitudes / discrimination

• Lack of provision of services

• Problems with service delivery

• Inadequate funding

• Lack of accessibility

• Lack of consultation and involvement

• Lack of data and evidence

Resourcing innovation

• Talent management initiatives• Accurate forecasting of future skill needs• Linkage with leading universities• Human Capital• Organizational Capital• Network CapitalTransfers of economically useful scientific knowledge from universities to industry generates substantial economic growth as the experiences of classical high technology regions (e.g. Silicon Valley) and emerging new technology centers around the world demonstrate

ListeningLinkageLeading

EU Contexts

EU thematic Objectives (2014-20)

• Research and innovation

• Competitiveness for SMEs

• Employment and labour mobility support

• Social inclusion and combating poverty

• Education, skills and lifelong learning

• Institutional capacity building.

Additional Funding

• Community Initiatives (operated by EACEA)• NOW – addressing needs of women in the

labour force• HORIZON and INTEGRA – addressing needs

of citizens with disabilities• Leonardo da Vinci – vocational training• ADAPT – enhancing change, upskilling and

learning in workplaces• EQUAL (2001-07).

ESF Priorities

• Improving human capital• Improving access to employment• Increasing adaptability• Improving social inclusion of

disadvantaged people • Strengthening institutional capacity• Advancing reforms in regards to

employment and inclusion.

Framework Programmes for RTD

• Advanced ICT support• Innovation and sustainable research• Budget of FP7 (2007-13): €50,5

billion• Budget of FP8 (2014-20): over €80

billion

Europe 2020

The five key priorities now are:• Raising the employment rate of adults• Improved investment in research and

development• Reduction in greenhouse gas emissions• Reduction of early school leaving and

increased rates of completed third level education

• Reduction of poverty levels by 25%.

Open Discovery SpaceLargest single project ever funded by the European UnionCreation of a vast digital repository of OERs

Themes of UDL

1. Inclusive learning environments (assistive technologies/interventions, mobile environments, access, ergonomics)

2. Resources (educational resources, development of inclusive school, accessible educational resources, Universal Design of Online Courses)

3. Teachers' and school leaders' competences (curriculum design, applying UDL to Lesson Design, inclusive teaching strategies - game based approaches, independent living principles)

4. Examination of barriers and identification of opportunities (learning difficulties/needs of students - learning styles, barriers/challenges in classrooms of all types, UD policy and legislation, raising awareness)

Authentic global learning

• Creating shared meaning in uncertain times• Providing support and inclusion• Valuing difference as a critical advantage• Maintaining creative evidence• Demonstrating research capacity• Breaking out of boundaries• Learning: emancipatory not a supply chain• Shaping futures not reacting to them

Education: from Newman to KerrJohn Henry Newman (1873) The Idea of the University

1. Primary purpose of a University is intellectual and pedagogical2. Range of teaching within University is universal; it encompasses all branches of knowledge, and is inconsistent with restrictions of any kind.3. The University prepares students by allowing them to learn about "the ways and principles and maxims" of the world4. True education requires personal influence of teachers on students.

Clark Kerr (1963) The Uses of the University

1. Modern university is diversified – a multiversity2. Serves needs of society, economic and cultural3. Think tank – essential to progress4. Master Plan for Higher Education (1960) in California

Education as business• Terry Eagleton: The Slow Death of the University (April 2015)• Packaging knowledge• Destroying arts and the humanities• Teaching less vital than research – research brings in he

money• Vast increase in bureaucracy, occasioned by the flourishing

of a managerial ideology and the relentless demands of the state assessment exercise

• Professors are transformed into managers, as students are converted into consumers

Towards Global Citizenship

Education must fully assume its central role in helping people to forge more just, peaceful, tolerant and inclusive societies. It must give people the understanding, skills and values they need to cooperate in resolving the interconnected challenges of the 21st century.

United Nations: Global Education First Initiative (2012)

Contested citizenship

• Membership of a political community• Belonging and engagement• Rights and entitlements• Duties and responsibilities• Constrained by legacy of nation-state• Cultural minorities and migrants• Disputed access

Post-national citizenship

• Shaped by globalizing process• Greater access to knowledge, information

and values• Digital media• Mobility and migration• Climate change• International governance bodies• Accelerated interdependence• Respect for pluralism and diversity

UN Thematic Learning Outcomes• Awareness of the wider world and a sense of own role

both as a citizen with rights and responsibilities, and as a member of the global human community.

• Valuation of the diversity of cultures and of their languages, arts, religions and philosophies as components the common heritage of humanity.

• Commitment to sustainable development and sense of environmental responsibility.

• Commitment to social justice and sense of social responsibility.

• Willingness to challenge injustice, discrimination, inequality and exclusion at the local/national and global level in order to make the world a more just place.

A Global Citizen… (Oxfam 2006)

• Is aware of the wider world and has a sense of their own role as a world citizen

• Respects and values diversity• Has an understanding of how the world works• Is outraged by social injustice• Participates in and contributes to the community at a range of levels

from local to global• Is willing to act in order to make the world a more equitable and

sustainable place• Takes responsibility for their actions

UNESCO Global Citizenship Education (2007)Transformative education requires transformative pedagogy that: 1) encourages learners to analyze real-life issues critically and

to identify possible solutions creatively and innovatively 2) supports learners to critically revisit assumptions, world views

and power relations in mainstream discourses and consider groups systematically underrepresented or marginalized

3) respects differences and diversity 4) focuses on engagement in action to bring about desired

changes5) involves multiple stakeholders, including those outside the

learning environment in the community 6) educators need additional training and support to implement

and deliver such pedagogy.

Future directions

• Training of trainers and CPD• Multilingualism• Developing skills – competence transmission• Developing attitudes – securing motivation• Developing buy-in – loyalty and commitment• Autonomous learning• Risk taking• Review, evaluation and research

Responding to change• Flexibility• Digital learning• Learning outcomes, added value• Sustainability• Sugata Mitra:

Comprehension/Communication/Computation

• Social capital and inclusion• Visions of excellence

Policy opportunities for Global Learning and Citizenship• Engaging with diverse communities• Developing massive outreach to sectors• Community empowerment• Legislative foundations• New technologies – mobile telephony• Shared learning and linkage to other universities• Linking disability and rehabilitation to other

rights based issues• Developing an emancipatory mosaic

Crisis impact: system change

Conclusions

• Rehabilitation education at a crossroads: both structure and process

• Global focus is on mobility, skills and innovation• Global citizenship model offers significant

opportunities• Transnational action is the only viable method in a

globalized world• All rests on vision and passion for community needs• Innovative learning demands imagination and

vision• Moving from advocacy to action

Thank you

Dr. Alan BruceULS Dublin

abruce@ulsystems.com

Associate Offices: BARCELONA - HELSINKI - SÃO PAULO - CHICAGO