Category: critical disability theory

aaron johannes, advocacy, art, ARTbrain, barb goode, community living, creativity, critical disability theory, disability, education, facilitation, Indigenous, research, Truth and ReconciliationLeave a comment

ARTbrain Cedar Summer – learning about Truth and Reconciliation

Aaron

I think that Truth and Reconciliation is the most important conversation of our times, and full of so many interesting aspects for all of us.  Yet people with disabilities are almost always left out of the conversation.  There are so many parallels to our stories that we think it is important to foster discussion about it.  As Indigenous people were moved into Residential Schools and Indian Hospitals, people with disabilities were hospitalised.  I talked to retired social workers from Woodlands who took Indigenous children out of Indian Hospitals and into Woodlands to keep them “safer.”  The Woodlands Memorial garden contains … Continue reading ARTbrain Cedar Summer – learning about Truth and Reconciliation

aaron johannes, belonging, community, community living, critical disability theory, disability, person centred planningLeave a comment

Stories about access and cognitive dissonance

Aaron

“In A Theory of Cognitive Dissonance (1957), Leon Festinger proposed that human beings strive for internal psychological consistency to function mentally in the real world. A person who experiences internal inconsistency tends to become psychologically uncomfortable and is motivated to reduce the cognitive dissonance. They tend to make changes to justify the stressful behavior, either by adding new parts to the cognition causing the psychological dissonance or by avoiding circumstances and contradictory information likely to increase the magnitude of the cognitive dissonance. “Coping with the nuances of contradictory ideas or experiences is mentally stressful. It requires energy and effort to … Continue reading Stories about access and cognitive dissonance

aaron johannes, critical disability theory, disability, person centred planningLeave a comment

Friendly oppression… in person centred planning

Aaron

Paulo Freire’s Pedagogy of the Oppressed was first published in 1970 – 50 years ago now!  It has had incredible impact in education, community development and social supports and yet few people have actually read it.  In the 80s, studying education I remember my SFU (at that time a hotbed of Marxist theory) profs talking about it in this hushed, kind of sacred, inspiring way and yet it was so difficult to read… but so exciting.  What’s important to me about this text is that Freire gives us a way think about oppression beyond our usual images of pimps and … Continue reading Friendly oppression… in person centred planning