Lived Experience of Black/Global Majority Disabled Pupils and their Families in Mainstream Education

This research is about the lived experiences of Black/Global Majority Disabled pupils, aged 11-16 and their parents about schooling. It explores experiences of mainstream school placement, participation, support and attitudes of school staff.
The research found that there is inadequate support for Black/Global Majority Disabled pupils and their families in terms of advocacy, peer support to share information and provide clarity on entitlement, help to empower them and protect children’s right to mainstream education.

Children and young people told us that they would like;
• To have better choice and control over their support, so as to be better able to join in and participate in the range of school activities and opportunities.
• An end to the separation of Black/Global Majority Disabled pupils and recognition of their proud intersectional experiences, not ones based on deficit.
• To have a say in writing school rules and policy, to coproduce practise and build a sense of belonging.

Parents highlighted their concerns to us in terms of;
• That they feel they have little support and limited or no choice about where and how their children are educated.
• An excessive use of disciplinary procedures and practices of surveillance towards Disabled pupils and Black children that result in negative consequences or exclusion.
• Difficulties navigating an education system that is complex and often overlooks intersectional experiences of disability and race.

The current lack of support makes it hard to address any tensions around the intersections between disability and race when navigating the education system. To address these issues, we make the following six recommendations.

Recommendations:
• Improve understanding and recognition of intersectional experiences. Increase the representation of Black/Global Majority Disabled pupils within the education setting and social justice work.
• Tackle the trauma experienced through grouping and separation. Encourage work in schools to address the effects and trauma caused by segregation on all pupils. Promote independence, choice and control in EHCPs.
Develop advocacy support to ensure EHCPs achieve independent living and human rights of Black/Global Majority Disabled pupils.
• Challenge negative attitudes and promote positive representation. Diversify the teaching workforce, profile more diverse experiences in school and promote learning about intersections of disability and racial justice.
• Expose harmful disciplinary procedures and surveillance. Build a campaign between disability and racial justice organisations to highlight and end disciplinary procedures that lead to exclusion and discrimination of young people.
• Challenge segregation, promote participation. Highlight school intake discriminatory practices affecting Black/Global Majority Disabled pupils, showcase practical and applied solutions that demonstrate how inclusive education can and does work elsewhere