The impact of media representation of disabilities onteachers’ perceptions

MARIA SAMSEL and PRITHVI PEREPA

The study investigates a link between media portrayal ofdisabilities and its influence on teachers’ perceptions oftheir students. By using semi-structured interviews andquestionnaires, participants (N = 8) gave an insight intotheir perceptions of the impact TV programmes and filmshave on their understanding of disability and teachingstyle. The findings reveal that the participants found themajority of media to sensationalise disability, perpetuatestereotypes and lack appropriate representation ofpeople with disabilities in general. The teachers withinthe sample also acknowledged media as impacting theirunderstanding, awareness and knowledge of disabilitiesand approaches, but they did not see it as impacting theirteaching practices directly.

Key words: media impact, teachers’ perceptions, repre-sentation of disability, television, sensationalism.

Introduction

Despite a variety of factors shaping teachers’ perceptions ofstudents with disabilities having been investigated it appearsthat the media has never been considered, as the lack ofliterature on the subject suggests. However, its impact maybe substantial as many researchers focusing on mediaeffects in other disciplines have argued that it may havestrong implications for the shaping of perceptions amongthe public (see Hartmann and Husband, 1974; Gunter,1994).

It has been argued that teachers’ beliefs may influence theirbehaviour in the classroom, their teaching practice andeventually their expectations from their students (Kagan,1992). There is an accumulation of studies that support thisview in relation to children with disabilities (Clark, 1997;Gibbs, 2007; Brady and Woolfson, 2008). For instance,Clark (1997) found a correlation between teachers’ feelingsof pity towards a student with a learning disability andthe expectation of their failure. Meanwhile, Brady andWoolfson (2008) suggest that teachers who are strongly

sympathetic towards pupils with disabilities may view themas less amenable to change. They further argue that thismay influence teachers’ expectations from these students,which could mean setting fewer goals for them in the class-room, and in turn may have implications for their futureachievements. However, the complexity of the classroomenvironment was not taken into account in their study andthe results should be seen as limited, especially as otherstudies (e.g., MacLean and Gannon, 1995) have reportedopposite results, finding that sympathy appears to be a desir-able emotion when working with pupils with disabilities.

It has been pointed out that the area of research concernedwith teachers’ perceptions relating to disability has in recentyears been overtaken by those studying attitudes to inclu-sion (Sze, 2009). Indeed, the extensive literature (see Taitand Purdie, 2000; Cook, 2001; Mulvihill et al., 2002;Leatherman, 2007) suggests that attitudes to inclusion canbe correlated with attitudes towards students with specialneeds and disabilities, and subsequently may impact onstudents’ experiences. Although our focus here is not par-ticularly on inclusion, the above studies strongly indicatethat teachers’ attitudes do influence their practice, and hencestudents’ experiences of education.

Attitudes are usually a result of one’s perceptions of thesituation and therefore it is important to understand both toget an overall picture of the factors that can influence teach-ers’ work with students with disabilities. Some of thestudies that seem to be directly concerned with teachers’perceptions suggest, for example, that teachers may displaya hierarchy of preference in whom they favour to work with,which might relate to the type of impairment an individualhas (Kataoka et al., 2004). Others point out that such per-ceptions may also impact on some external characteristics,such as hyperactivity, being spotted more often in thosewith a particular condition, such as learning disability(Smith-Bonahue et al., 2009).

In fact, there appears to be a tendency among the researchinto teachers’ perceptions to focus on students with a par-ticular type of condition (Hannah and Pliner, 1983; Marloweet al., 1997; Gilmore et al., 2003; Natof and Romanczyk,2009; Nur and Kavakci, 2010). For instance, research intoperceptions of students with social, emotional andbehavioural difficulties (SEBD) (Soles et al., 2008) stressedthe significance of teachers’ awareness and knowledge in

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providing appropriate support for this group of students inand out of school. Furthermore, Marlowe et al. (1997)revealed that this particular group of children is oftendescribed in negative terms such as ‘hostile’ or ‘unmoti-vated’ which may trigger behaviours and achievementsconsistent with those expectations (Marsh, 2008). In con-trast, a study from Australia that focused on attitudestowards persons with Down’s syndrome (Gilmore et al.,2003) found that this group is much more likely to beattributed positive than negative characteristics, while a lackof recognition of individuality among this group has alsobeen suggested. It could then be argued that sometimesattitudes may be determined by the category of difficultiesor type of impairment. Although the perceptions in thesetwo studies differed, the conclusions made were verysimilar, and it could be suggested that stereotypical atti-tudes, whether positive or negative, may lead to particularexpectations. These, as already suggested, may in turn influ-ence teaching practice. Although the literature that these twostudies are based upon seems outdated, the issues raised arestill very pertinent.

Thus, it is certain that there are various factors that may beinfluencing teachers and the way their beliefs, attitudes andperceptions of students with impairments are shaped, andconsequently their approach to working with these childrencan be affected. It can include attitudes, feelings, pre-conceptions and the level of disability-related knowledgeteachers have, but also external factors; for example, atti-tudes towards people with disabilities among the society caninfluence them (Woolfson and Brady, 2009). Media is one ofthese strong societal factors, yet there is a gap in the litera-ture regarding media impact on such perceptions (Black,2004; Barnes and Mercer, 2010).

Media and teachers’ perceptions of studentswith disabilities

Over the years, media influence on people’s perceptions andattitudes has been studied in a variety of contexts, such as,for instance, the portrayal of ethnic minority communities(Hartmann and Husband, 1974), the impact of violence intelevision programmes on children’s behaviour (Gunter,1994) or the change of political opinion caused by a par-ticular type of news broadcasting (Blumer and Gurevitch,1982). Despite the various theoretical paradigms whichsuggest different explanations of how and to what extent themedia affects the public (see Rubin, 1986; McQuail, 1987;Philo, 1990), and a questionable reliability of researchmethods involved in these types of inquiry (Gunter, 1994),the majority of them conclude that to an extent audio-visualmedia, such as television programmes or films, impact onpeople’s attitudes and perceptions of certain issues. Indeed,for many people media, primarily television, is a source ofexperiencing reality, especially when they lack first-handexperience of an issue presented on screen (Stonewall,2003). As this could be the case when it comes to someteachers’ exposure to disabilities, it seems extremely impor-

tant to investigate the impact that disability portrayal has onthem. Results produced by Ofcom (2005) additionally re-inforce such necessity by revealing that television stands infirst place (46%) as a source that shapes audiences’ percep-tions of disability.

Black (2004) in particular claims that the way people withdisabilities are represented in the media affects teachers’expectations and, hence, influences what happens in theclassroom. Although this was stated in a book aimeddirectly at students in order to raise awareness of the factorsthat could potentially influence their school experience, theargument strongly feeds on the assumption that mediadoes affect teachers and schools. As the media portrayal ofdisability has been heavily criticised (see Morrison andFinkelstein, 1993; Norden, 1994; Darke, 1998; Harnett,2000), it is surprising that the subject has not been investi-gated up until now.

It is this lack of research that this study tries to address byinvestigating the potential link between the portrayal ofdisability in the media and teachers’ perceptions of studentswith disabilities in the classroom. The study focuses on thefollowing three main research questions:

1. What do teachers think of students with disabilities?2. Do they perceive current media portrayal of disability

as accurate?3. Do teachers feel it influences their perceptions and

expectations from students with disabilities?

For the purpose of this study, the term ‘media’ is limited totelevision and film as these are considered to shape people’sattitudes towards disabilities the most (Ofcom, 2005). Themeaning of the term disability is often contextual (Barnesand Mercer, 2010), hence the results of this study are basedon participants’ concepts of disability and may not neces-sarily reflect current legislation.

Method

Due to the complexity of the subject studied, and the impor-tance of incorporating in-depth personal interpretationsof media influence, the interpretive phenomenologicalapproach (Denscombe, 2007) was considered to be appro-priate. It allowed accommodation of participants’ multipleunderstandings of the phenomenon, that is, the influenceof disability portrayal in the media, and an emphasis onpersonal interpretations of the media (see Stake, 1995;Creswell, 2007), as the experiences of no two teachersregarding one programme would ever be exactly the same.Hence, this inquiry does not consider the portrayal of dis-ability as a determinant of the type of perception, but insteadfocuses on teachers’ interpretations of it. The paradigm alsoallows for flexibility in researchers’ interpretations byacknowledging the subjectivity of the data analysis from thestart (Smith et al., 1999).

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A total of eight teachers took part in the project, all currentlyworking in one county in South-East England. As this isphenomenological research focusing on understanding the‘lived experiences’ of teachers with regard to media repre-sentation of disabilities, no efforts were made to limit thesample to a particular age or experience level, as is shown inTable 1. Teachers self-selected from the contacted settingsto participate in the study, and the majority of them, aspredicted, had some interest in the issues investigated,which was reflected in the interviews and consequently inthe data gathered. Some teachers had a clear interest in thesubject of media or disability as can be seen from the typesof position participants were currently holding (see Table 1).However, it was never an intention to extrapolate the resultsof this study to a wider selection of educational profession-als, but only to give an insight into the personal perceptionsof the participants. Therefore, their unavoidable interest inthe issues studied should not undermine the findings of thisresearch.

Criticisms of the research methods often used in the field of‘media effects’ research (Gunter, 1994) were taken intoaccount, and therefore semi-structured interviews and ques-tionnaires were used. These are also in line with otherinterpretive phenomenological inquiries (Riggs and Coyle,2002; Koltz and Champe, 2010). Questionnaires consistedof open-ended as well as closed questions, and gatheredsome demographic data, which gave an overview of partici-pants’ knowledge and opinions. This information was usedto guide the interviews and helped in providing in-depthunderstanding of the teachers’ views. Although all eightparticipants filled out the questionnaire, only seven inter-views were ultimately conducted as one participant’sworkload did not allow for them to take part in the interview.All the interviews were audio recorded, with the permissionof each participant, and transcribed, while some notes werealso taken. The meetings, including the interview and fillingout the questionnaire, lasted between 20 and 45 minutes.

All participants gave informed consent to take part in thestudy and additional consents have been gained for audiorecording of the interviews and for potential publishing ofthe results. A code and later a pseudonym were given to eachparticipant, and were used on questionnaires, interviewschedules and transcriptions so that the risk of confidential-ity breach when handling paper data was minimised, whileany electronically stored data were secured by password.

Additionally, after transcriptions were finished, all record-ings were deleted to protect further the confidentiality andanonymity of the teachers.

Results and discussion

By using a thematic approach within interpretive phenom-enological analysis (IPA) (Smith et al., 1999), a detailedexamination of the seven interview transcripts was con-ducted and consequently correlated with the questionnaires’answers. Shared themes have emerged after collapsing someof the sub-themes. These are organised in relation to theirrelevance to research questions: teachers’ perceptions of thestudents, media portrayal of disability on screen and the linkbetween such portrayal and teaching practices.

Teachers’ understanding of disabilities and theirperceptions of the students

Understanding of disabilities

As part of the questionnaire all participants were asked todescribe their understanding of disability. Most teachersseem to base their understanding on a medical or deficitmodel of disability, as can be seen from some of the followingdescriptions: ‘Something that affects someone’s ability to dosomething. It could be physical or to do with learning orsocial interactions’ (Claire); ‘Something physical or mentalthat hinders your ability to carry out certain tasks’ (Kathy).

The sample did not seem to feel that the school setting,curriculum or their own teaching approaches in any waycontributed to their students’ difficulties. This is particularlyimportant because if they do not see these as contributoryfactors it is likely that they may not make any efforts tochange them.

Students as individuals in their own right

It was surprising then that the teachers also drew attention tothe individuality of students with disabilities whom theyteach or have taught in the past. Perceptions of such indi-vidualism were distinctive as the majority of participantsstrongly emphasised their students’ strengths, weaknesses

Table 1. Participant descriptionsNames(pseudonyms)

Age Gender Teachingexperience

(years)

Current position Type of school

Adam 26–35 M 3–5 Head of media/media teacher SecondaryJoe 46–55 M 3–5 PE coach SecondarySally 36–45 F 9+ Business and IT teacher SecondaryLinda 46–55 F 9+ Science teacher SecondaryKathy 19–25 F 0–2 Humanities teacher SecondaryRhian 26–35 F 3–5 Teacher of KS2 ASD class Special schoolClaire 26–35 F 0–2 Supply teacher PrimaryRobyn 19–25 F 0–2 KS1 teacher Primary

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and differences between them rather than grouping them bythe type of their impairment, as has been expressed here:

‘I mean, you have, maybe two hours of someone going“Right this is autism”. But that doesn’t give you any-thing, because no two autistic kids are the same’ (Adam).

‘But they’re all individuals too, the labels are vaguelyhelpful but for most cases you have to get to know the kidand find out what works for them’ (Linda).

‘Each child has completely different needs and abilities’(Claire).

The recognition of individualism among the students withdisabilities found in the sample does not correlate with otherfindings which discovered a lack of such perception amongteachers (Gilmore et al., 2003). However, this awareness didnot seem to stop the participants from acknowledging thelimitations of their students’ abilities because of their con-ditions. Yet, in contrast with studies showing that such anattitude may decrease teachers’ expectations (Brady andWoolfson, 2008), some of the teachers in this study pointedto the efforts they made to differentiate, encourage, motivateand support their students in order to allow them to achievetheir best. As participants Sally and Joe emphasised:

‘They’re very competent. I never see them as althoughthey’re hearing impaired they should have different setsof work’ (Sally, business and IT teacher, secondary).

‘I mean if I was coaching disabled footballers, I can’t sayI would be any different. Like, I mean there’s an obviouslimitation in what he [one of the current pupils] canachieve, [but] he’ll achieve to his best. It’s the same foryou and I, there is no difference. It’s just that his limita-tions are different, but when he reaches those limitations– success was reached’ (Joe, PE coach, secondary).

By acknowledging the limitations while recognising the per-sonal strengths and abilities of the students, some teachersin this study appeared to have adopted an ‘interactionalmodel’ (Shakespeare, 2006, p. 60) of understanding disabil-ity as has been discussed by Crow (1996) and Shakespeare(2006). Although the implications of using this concept havenot been widely researched, it has been argued to give awider and more balanced understanding of issues facingpeople with disabilities. Therefore, if some of the teachersare following this way of thinking, it could be beneficial totheir practice and can be seen as a positive aspect of theirperceptions.

Perceptions of disability portrayal on TV and in film

The role of media

Most participants agreed that the media plays an importantrole in informing, educating and raising awareness of

disabilities among the public. This in turn can raise theconfidence levels of parents as there are more people whounderstand their child’s condition. The teachers felt that theway disabilities are portrayed influences the audience’s per-ceptions of them, as has also been suggested in the literature(Ofcom, 2005). Some teachers also suggested that becauseof this impact of media more programmes should be madewhich focus on raising peer awareness, so that it is easier forstudents with disabilities to be accepted within a schoolsetting. Teachers in this research seem to prefer two differ-ent kinds of programmes, either having characters withdisabilities as part of the storyline or alternatively havingdocumentaries about specific conditions.

Disability is sensationalised and stereotypedin the media

Having said that, not everyone felt that the media was nec-essarily presenting a truthful picture of people withdisabilities. Most of the sample felt that TV and films tend tosensationalise or stereotype disabilities. Some of them wereof the opinion that the types of disability that the pro-grammes often focus on are being determined by theaudience’s interest in ‘things that you don’t see every day’(Adam) whereby unusual or odd conditions and situationsare needed to maintain that interest. Although the majorityof the sample emphasised the sensationalistic nature of theportrayal of disability on screen, the perceptions of conse-quences of it varied between the participants. It has beenpointed out by some that such programmes carry entertain-ment value: ‘I think that kind of programmes are more aboutthe entertainment really rather than informing people’(Claire); while others perceived it clearly as satisfying theevil aspect of human curiosity:

‘It’s the shock and horror that they want to talk about . . .I suppose it’s just human nature, isn’t it? To some extentthat’s not necessarily good part of it’ (Linda).

Films containing characters with impairments were alsocriticised on the same grounds.

Some also felt that the media tends to amplify the feelings ofsympathy or pity towards a person with disability. As Joe,the PE coach, commented:

‘It’s a great thing, but when they start putting all that sadmusic behind it you know, when they produce it and stuff,that’s awful. There isn’t that many people with disabili-ties that want sympathy do they? I mean, at the end of theday, they just want what everybody else want, which is,just the sort of, to be accepted for what they want toachieve or not’.

And Sally, business and IT teacher, added: ‘I think thatmessage has got to me that, feeling sorry for them, all ofthat, it doesn’t actually help’.

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These statements clearly show that according to these teach-ers the emotions of pity or sympathy towards those withdisabilities may be reinforced by the media. This accusationis not new; indeed it has been claimed in the past by others(Pointon and Davis, 1997; Harnett, 2000). Moreover, if oneconsiders the potential connection of such feelings withteachers’ expectations (Clark, 1997; Brady and Woolfson,2008), it is probable that the media can influence the class-room environment and pupils’ education.

Under-representation of people with disabilities inTV programmes

Although participants agreed that there are more pro-grammes about disabilities than ever before, they perceivedthat general television programmes lack positive represen-tation, or lack representation altogether, of those withdisabilities and special educational needs. They emphasisedthe need to increase the number of characters with disabili-ties in programmes such as sitcoms and dramas, but withoutdisability being presented as a quirk or a defining trait, asLinda states:

‘I’d like to see them being representational so if there isa certain percentage of a population that have a visualimpairment then why doesn’t one of the characters haveit, rather than maybe some big massive storyline like it’sa big deal it should just be part of the wallpaper’.

These teachers felt that having people with disabilities aspart of the storyline is more productive, as Adam furthercomments: ‘I think that is more of a positive role modelwhere it doesn’t, like, define them’. It could therefore beargued that despite the improvements in the prevalence andaccurateness of the portrayal of those with disabilities thathave been claimed by Ofcom (2005), these teachers feel thatthere is still an under-representation, as many researchershave argued in the past (Norden, 1994; Darke, 1998;Harnett, 2000; Sancho, 2003). Moreover, this aspect furtherreaffirms the sensationalism of disabilities on screen,because unless disability is the major focus of a programmeit would not be considered to be of interest to the audience,and consequently is not likely to be broadcasted in such amanner.

Impact of media and teaching practices

Awareness of the wider impact

The majority of respondents claimed that programmes, inparticular those documentaries focusing on a particular con-dition or disability, give them a better understanding ofgeneral issues, such as the home environment, the process ofdiagnosis or insight into personal difficulties which theirstudents may face in day-to-day life. As one of the partici-pants, Adam, remarked:

‘[TV programmes] show you more about their home lifeand, perhaps, the way they are all the time, so shows youmore about getting inside their heads’.

Moreover, such programmes are perceived to be a goodsource of knowledge because they show first-hand experi-ence of an impairment, whether it is that of individualsthemselves or from a parental perspective, which is notoften the case in soap operas, films or sitcoms in whichactors and scripts are used. The documentaries have alsobeen claimed to make some of the participants ‘feel a bitmore comfortable and clearer about what [a particularcondition] is and how that person [who has it] is’ (Kathy).

It is crucial to mention, however, as some methodologicalliterature regarding ‘media effects’ research has suggested(Gunter, 1994), that the perceptions of the programmesvaried between respondents. Indeed one programme wasclaimed to be ‘horrible’ and ‘simplistic’, yet also ‘entertain-ing’ and ‘educational’. Hence, it is fair to conclude that thefactors determining teachers’ perceptions were not personalinterpretations of the portrayal rather than the portrayalitself. At this stage, it is not possible to identify the factorsinfluencing the reasoning behind such interpretations;however, further research into this area would greatlybenefit the field of ‘media effects’ on teachers.

Media as a helpful source

When the teachers were asked directly whether theythought the media influenced their teaching, most of themdid not consider that television programmes or filmsimpacted their teaching practice, as Claire, KS2 teacherfrom a special school, states: ‘I don’t think [the media]has got that much influence on how we teach children withdisabilities’.

Nevertheless, some programmes have been claimed toprovide indirect benefits for teachers such as, for instance,allowing them to see the bigger picture of difficulties stu-dents might face outside the classroom, as mentionedearlier. Moreover, some of the teachers pointed out thatcertain programmes can widen their perspectives, providethem with a starting point or give some ideas of approachesor resources available, as Rhian comments:

‘One of our students . . . we’re trying to get him dogtherapy . . . I’m not saying that the direct thing from that[film] but it gives you another things to think, “oh maybewe could try this”’.

And similarly Sally added:

‘[A TV programme] gave me a huge insight of how youngchildren’s minds are working . . . how it could be forthem in the future, and the barriers; but it’s alsoinformed me how to interact with them, it’s educated me. . . professionally [and] me as a person’.

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One teacher also said that increased media exposure ofdisabilities and raised levels of public awareness help thestaff to feel confident in taking the students into communityplaces. However, in general, the media is not perceived as afactor influencing either teaching practice or expectationsfrom pupils, but as an addition to general knowledge aroundthe subject of disability. Indeed, nearly all participantsunderlined the fact that they never generalise from a pro-gramme into practice. Kathy, a humanities teacher,emphasises this point by saying:

‘Everyone is different and I think it would be stupid tosay, “oh I teach an autistic student and they’re like this,and I’ve see Rainman, and . . .”, you know, just if you’dtry put the two together’.

However, while they feel that their teaching practice is notinfluenced by what they view on television and in films, thevast majority acknowledged that their understanding of dis-abilities was (see Table 2).

This seems to raise a contradiction, as all teachers agreed onthe importance of the media in shaping people’s percep-tions, and therefore attitudes to those with disabilities, andyet they claim that there is no such impact on their ownattitudes or expectations towards their students. It suggeststhat the participants feel that they are being influenced to alesser extent than other people. Such separation would onlybe justified if they considered their knowledge to be greaterthan that of the regular audience, and that the programmeshave never impacted on their understanding of disabilities.However, the data from the questionnaires suggest that thisis not the case for the majority of the respondents. Thisperhaps highlights the different kinds of data that can begathered by impersonal means, such as questionnaireswhere people may feel that they will not be judged andhence can be more honest. It could be that the teachers feltthat accepting that the media influences them in an interviewwould be perceived as a sign of weak character. However, asfurther probing questions were not conducted these can onlybe suppositions.

By admitting that their understanding is to some extentinfluenced by the media but their teaching is not, the teach-ers did not acknowledge the link between their knowledge,perceptions, attitudes and teaching practice, yet researchsuggests that there often is such a link (Kagan, 1992; Bradyand Woolfson, 2008). As a consequence, the participants didnot provide a clear and direct answer regarding media influ-ence on their expectations from students, which was themain focus of this research. It could be speculated, however,

that they do not perceive such influence to take place as theydid not acknowledge the impact on their general teachingpractice.

The main sources that the teachers acknowledged as influ-ences on their practice were training, personal research,books, other people’s anecdotes and other teachers’ stories.All of these findings can be correlated with studies that pointto training (House of Commons, 2006; Ellis et al., 2008;Whitley, 2010), experience (Sadler, 2005) and knowledge(Soles et al., 2008; Nur and Kavakci, 2010) as main factorsshaping teachers’ perceptions, and their ability to provide agood environment for students with disabilities.

Contradictory role of media

Since most of the teachers suggested that current pro-grammes do not help in changing their attitudes andteaching practices they were all asked whether they wouldprefer more directive programmes, such as those shown onTeachers TV. Nearly all the teachers agreed that they wouldprefer more such programmes with helpful teaching hintsbeing telecasted around disabilities and special educationalneeds. However, when asked whether they had seen any ofthose programmes, they all said that they never had for onereason or another. This raises the dilemma of how to reachout to teachers in an accessible way.

Furthermore, on one hand teachers emphasised their disap-proval of the increasing number of documentary-styleprogrammes focusing primarily on disabilities, and wouldprefer to see more characters in fictional programmeswithout their disability defining them or specific pro-grammes with teaching strategies; on the other hand they donot seem to be interested in watching the kind of pro-grammes that they themselves are suggesting. In their ownperception, documentaries are doing a good job in repre-senting those with disabilities and are seen to produce themost appreciative, interesting and valued portrayals. Itindeed confirms the point made earlier that the audience’sinterest seems to be a factor influencing what is being broad-casted and how. Again, more research into this aspect of theresearch is undeniably needed in order to understand thecomplex nature of what shapes current portrayal of disabil-ity on screen.

Limitations and implications

It is clear that the scope of this study did not allow for anin-depth investigation of all the issues surrounding the topic.

Table 2. Selected data from the questionnaires –media Participants/questionnaire data Adam Joe Sally Linda Kathy Rhian Claire Robyn

Programmes/films recognised fromthe list of 15

15 5 8 6 5 15 10 6

Do you think TV programmes/filmshave had an influence on yourunderstanding of disabilities(Y/N)

Y Y Y N Y N Y Y

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Furthermore, due to its small, self-selected sample the find-ings are only a representation of participants’ perspectivesand no generalisations should be made.

In regard to methodology, it is believed that the quality ofthe interviews was lacking in flexibility that would allow formore in-depth exposure of the participants’ perceptions.With hindsight, questionnaires could have provided richerdata if more direct questions focusing on teachers’ percep-tions of media and their influence on teaching practices hadbeen incorporated.

Despite such constraints, the project’s findings are believedto be valid, credible and to have produced valuable evi-dence highlighting several aspects that may be worthinvestigating in greater detail such as: models of under-standing disability among teachers and their implicationsfor teaching practices; the nature of documentary-styleprogrammes’ influence on teachers’ knowledge and per-ceptions of disabilities; and teachers’ awareness of theimpact of personal interests and attitudes on teaching prac-tices, to name a few. Also, further studies of the media’sinfluence on teachers’ perceptions of students with disabili-ties, and indeed on perceptions in general, should beundertaken in order to enrich this potentially very impor-tant, yet neglected, field.

Conclusion

Although the findings of this study cannot be extrapolated,they undeniably uncover some of the controversies that haveappeared within the complex field of media influence onteachers and their perceptions of disabilities. The mediadoes seem to influence teachers to an extent, although theymay not acknowledge its full impact on their own attitudesand practices. There also seems to be a conflict between thedifferent models of disability that the teachers are using andhow this may influence their practice. The complicatednature of this study and its findings seems justified when oneconsiders the diverse nature of the research fields that thisproject has built upon: from ‘media effects’ and disabilitystudies to factors shaping teachers’ perceptions and theirteaching strategies. This study, although it does not provideanswers to all the questions raised, certainly highlights theneed to do more such research.

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CorrespondenceMaria SamselEmail: mariasamsel@gmail.com

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