Multiculturalism, Religion, and Disability: Implications for Special Education Practitioners

Religious beliefs permeate many aspects of culture. Often, however, educators are reluctant to discuss religious beliefs when working with children with developmental and intellectual disabilities and their families. Ignoring the salience of religious teachings about the nature and meaning of disabilities as they relate to both individuals and society, however, limits the opportunity to fully understand the experience of living with disability. Discussion of religious beliefs, traditions, and practices should be incorporated into teacher education, and should be part of the zeitgeist of working with children and families. This article examines images of and teachings about disabilities in three major world religions widely practiced in the United States; Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Spirituality and religion are important to millions of individuals across all cultures. Until recently, however, the spirituality of people with disabilities has been largely ignored by both communities of faith and secular social service and educational systems. (Avery-Wall, 2006; Rogers-Dulan, 1998; Stolberg, 2008) Neglecting the importance of religious belief and experience in the lives of many individuals with disabilities and their families, may imply a view of their innate humanity that is incomplete or less complex than other people (Swinton, 1997). Spiritual beliefs may greatly influence perceptions of people with disabilities, of themselves, others, and the world (Dellassoudas, 2000). Multicultural education and programs designed to build cultural competence must necessarily include instruction in religious practices and spiritual beliefs (Richards, Browne, & Forde, 2007). There is a growing body of literature in the helping professions around training practitioners to consider and understand the influence of religion on people with disabilities and their families as part of a system of care (Benjamins, 2005; Forster, McColl, & Fardella, 2007; Hurst, 2007; Selway & Ashman, 1998). Unfortunately, special education has thus far largely neglected considering religion as part of an evolving commitment to multicultural practice, and building cultural competence among students in teacher education programs. Religion in the Modern World Only recently has science advanced to the point where humans have a reasonably broad ability to mediate and manage the impact of the natural world in ways that are predictable and stable. People in the so-called developed world tend to believe that they have a fairly high degree of control over their health, lives, and destiny. We now know that vitamin A deficiency can cause blindness and that diet can prevent it. We know that the cognitive impact of phenylketonuria can be avoided through dietary manipulation and control. Technologies now allow 50 year old women to give birth to healthy babies and people without legs can be competitive runners (Robinson, 2008). Prior to the time when the degree of control that we can now exert over the natural and physical world was possible, people largely understood the world only as controlled by unseen, supernatural forces. Religion served to explain many of the mysteries of the natural world. The power to explain the unknown is also the power to control behavCorrespondence concerning this article should be addressed to Brooke Blanks, University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Department of Specialized Education Services, P. O. Box 26170, Greensboro, NC 27462-6170. Education and Training in Developmental Disabilities, 2009, 44(3), 295–303 © Division on Developmental Disabilities Multiculturalism, Religion, and Disability / 295 ior. Religious teaching often defines what people should believe to be true about the world around them, and it prescribes how people should act in accordance with these beliefs (Goldberg, 2006). Religious beliefs have been the foundations of civilizations. Public and private behaviors were usually governed by the codes of conduct described in religious law. It is relatively impossible to parse religious and civil leadership in ancient (and not so ancient) cultures. Even today despite public discourse around the need to maintain a secular, civil society in this country and elsewhere in the world, it is naı̈ve to underestimate the extent to which religious thought influences thinking on a wide variety of issues, including disability. To deny or ignore religious influences on conceptualizations of disability is to overlook a profound aspect of the human experience and our understanding of what it means to have and live with a disability. As special educators and researchers we are just beginning to explore the relationships between the influence of religion on cultural and personal understandings of disability.