Training Institute Workshops (UK)
present
Four one-day events : July 17 - 20, 2000
given by
Wolf Wolfensberger
(and Associates)
* Understanding the Impact of Social Exclusion
* Changing People - Re-examining the Fundamentals
* Historical Expressions of Learning Disability in Language
and Art -
Implications for Our Times
* Signs of the Times - Implications for Social Exclusion
See overleaf for details
TRAINING INSTITUTE WORKSHOPS (UK)
PRESENTS
A series of four oneday workshops on
SOCIAL EXCLUSION
Given by
Professor Wolf Wolfensberger and Associates
Monday 17 July to Thursday 20 July, 2000
Professor Wolf Wolfensberger was born in Germany and emigrated
to the US in
1950. His PhD is in Psychology,
specialising in Mental Retardation. In 196263 he held a postdoctoral
fellowship at the Maudsley Hospital in London under Drs Tizard and
O'Connor.
He held clinical, research, teaching, and administrative positions in
several US states and Canada. He was a leading initiator of the
Normalization and community living reform movements in the late
1960s and
early 1970s. He reformulated Normalization into Social Role
Valorization in
the 1980s. He worked closely in, and with, parent and citizen action
groups
in Nebraska and across Canada, designing the Citizen Advocacy
schema which
is used in the US, Canada, the UK and Australasia. Since 1973,
Professor
Wolfensberger has been a Professor of Education at Syracuse
University, New
York where he is Director of the Training Institute for Human Services
Planning, Leadership and Change Agentry. He has published widely
and in 9
languages.
Susan Thomas has been an associate of the Training Institute for
many years
and holds degrees in Psychology and Special Education. She is
author of
several articles on Normalization and Social Role Valorization and is
coauthor with Professor Wolfensberger of the PASSING evaluation
tool and
other publications.
WORKSHOPS
1. Understanding the Impact of Social Exclusion 17 July 2000, 9am
5pm. This
workshop describes the common experiences of people who have
been socially
excluded and the contribution Social Role Valorization theory makes
to
addressing this.
2. Changing People Reexamining the Fundamentals 18 July 2000,
9am5pm.
This workshop explores crucial principles and techniques for
influencing,
teaching, and changing people.
3. Historical Expressions of Learning Disability in Language and Art
Implications for Our Times 19 July 2000, 9am5pm. This workshop
examines how
historical and contemporary perceptions and understandings of
people with
learning disabilities are revealed through language and art.
4. Signs of the Times Implications for Social Exclusion 20 July 2000,
9am5pm. The concluding workshop examines a number of crucial
social trends
that have a major impact on social exclusion.
Location of workshops: Castle Leazes Halls of Residence, University
of
Newcastle upon Tyne, Spital Tongues, Newcastle upon Tyne NE2
4NY.
Accommodation: may be reserved in Castle Leazes Halls of
Residence phone
Fiona Livingstone, on 0191 2226318.
Cost of workshops: Single workshops are £100 per person.
Discounts are
available for every subsequent workshop as follows: any 2nd
workshop £85;
any 3rd workshop £70; the 4th workshop £15. The total cost for 4
workshops
is £270.
ENROLMENT FORM
Training Institute Workshops (UK), 48 Wingrove Avenue, Newcastle
upon Tyne,
NE4 9AL
NAME
ORGANISATION................................................................
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ADDRESS.....................................................................
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PHONE FAX ..........................................
Please tick alongside the workshop/s you wish to attend.
Workshop 1 Understanding the Impact of Social Exclusion
.......
Workshop 2 Reexamining the Fundamentals .......
Workshop 3 Historical Expressions of Learning Disability .......
Workshop 4 Signs of the Times .......
I enclose payment of £ ......... for .... Workshop/s.
I require invoice made out to:
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Dietary requirements/support needs:
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Return Enrolment Form to Ruth Abrahams at the above address.
Phone 0191
2725005 for further information.
UNDERSTANDING THE IMPACT OF SOCIAL EXCLUSION
The wounds of societally devalued people & Social Role Valorization
as a
response to social devaluation
When one party, a person, group or class devalues another, the
devaluers
will generally not try to promote good things for those they devalue;
instead, they will usually do things that are hurtful. These hurtful
things
can be called the "wounds" of devalued people. When a class of
people is
widely devalued by much of its society, then these wounds are
systematically
inflicted on them and tend to characterize and shape their lives. The
first
part of this presentation reviews how these common wounds are very
harmful
to people's development, mentalities, life circumstances, and even
their
longevity especially if they are impaired in some way.
The second part of the presentation is devoted to a brief overview of
Social
Role Valorization (SRV) as one very high-level response to the
realities of
social devaluation and the wounding of devalued people. SRV grew
out of, but
is not the same as, the principle of normalization. SRV posits that
the more
people fill roles which are valued by their society, the more they will
be
accorded the good rather than the bad things of life, and the less
they are
likely to be excluded.
Realities about social roles are presented, how people's roles affect
the
social value they are accorded by others, how roles affect whether a
person
is likely to be afforded the good or the bad things in life, and some
major
strategies by which people's roles can be enhanced (valorized) in the
eyes
of others.
CHANGING PEOPLE - RE-EXAMINING THE FUNDAMENTALS
A review of the most powerful techniques ("pedagogies") for
influencing,
teaching and changing people
Child-rearing can be thought of as essentially trying to influence and
teach
a child to develop into a well-functioning adult. In the same way, all
sorts
of human services involve efforts to change the people they serve - for
example, to enable them to be more competent, self-sufficient,
independent,
healthier, more able to conduct themselves well in the community,
etc. Other
strategies - some of them related to human services - attempt to
change the
opinions and behaviours of members of the public toward societally
disadvantaged classes, as via attitudinal change.
There are strategies or tactics for influencing or changing people that
actually accomplish the opposite of their intended outcome because
they
violate sound principles that are here called "pedagogies". Amongst
those
that do work as intended, some are much more effective than others,
and
these pedagogies will be presented, with attention to aspects likely
to lend
power of impact to such techniques. It will be argued that hardly any
of
these techniques are new, most having been known since the
ancients. How
these techniques can be applied to people with different identities and
conditions, and in different types of services and settings, will be laid
out. Overall, what the pedagogies are, is usually more important than
who
the people are, to whom they are applied.
The event will also describe what happens when people do not know
these
techniques, but are expected to do something to influence people's
behaviour. In the modernistic context in which materialistic
technology is
seen as the answer to all sorts of problems, it is argued that people in
human services will often turn to ineffective material technologies; to
whatever they do know even if that too is ineffective; and to the
"crazes"
that happen to be popular at the moment on the human service
scene.
HISTORICAL EXPRESSIONS OF LEARNING DISABILITY IN
LANGUAGE AND ART -
IMPLICATIONS FOR OUR TIMES
A review of how historical and contemporary perceptions and understandings
of people with learning disabilities are revealed through language and art
At all times and places, certain people have been identified as not very
bright, or even outright stupid. In our own century, this phenomenon has
been given names such as idiocy, mental deficiency, mental retardation,
mental subnormality, intellectual disability, mental handicap, learning
difficulty, and learning disability. Not only has this condition always been
present, but so too have people always had ideas about what this condition
is and means, and what people are like who live with it. These concepts and
images were often deeply embedded in the language, idiom, literature, and
mythology of a culture, and were also expressed in a once well-understood
iconography in the visual arts, such as drawings, paintings and sculpture.
This presentation will examine major recurring concepts about low native
mentality, as well as their continued expression in language and art. The
history of many terms referring to low mentality will be traced back, and
compared across different languages. It will be shown that many such terms
in the European languages had roots in the common Indo-European ancestral
language thousands of years ago. It will also be shown that visual messages
of low mentality by artists largely reflected linguistic and historic
notions. This part of the event will be lavishly illustrated by slides. At
the end, the lessons to us of these thousands of years of history will be
spelled out. For instance, it will be argued that it is very unlikely that
current efforts to "label away" or suppress such deeply embedded - virtually
archetypal - images and associations will succeed. The presentation will
also emphasize the importance of addressing the imagery of unintelligent
persons so as not to reinforce deeply embedded problematic stereotypes about
them.
The presentation is relevant not only to those with an interest in
intelligence and human beings, but also to those with an interest or
background in linguistic/philology, in art, and/or in art history.
____________________________________________________________________________
__
SIGNS OF THE TIMES - IMPLICATIONS FOR SOCIAL EXCLUSION
A number of crucial social trends of our day and age, and their implications
for societally devalued people
Any period in the history of a culture has certain characteristics, and
usually ongoing developments, that mark its identity and augur its future.
One can call these the "signs of the times" for that culture in that era. In
our own Western society today, there are also a number of developments that
can be characterized as "signs of the times" and this one-day presentation
will look at them.
There will be an orientation to reading one's time and one's society for
their distinctive signs, and a review of twenty such signs. Examples are:
dramatic changes in societal values; previously unimaginable technological
developments; increasing complexity of literally everything; the development
of a world-wide culture, facilitated by mass communication and travel;
sophisticated means of mass mind-control; tremendous powers of surveillance
and control; warfare against nature; the development of multiple means to
end all higher life on earth; a growing consensus that it is legitimate and
even desirable to end the lives of all sorts of devalued people.
It will be shown how these developments affect society in general,
and lowly
and societally devalued people especially, including the influence
these
developments have on services to devalued people. The material
presented has
many ties to the discipline known as futurism. After the review of the
signs
and trends of the times, there will also be a discussion of some
measures
that can be taken, in response, by people who are concerned about
them.
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