Uncharted Futures:

The Voice of Rehabilitation in a

Transformed World Dr. Alan Bruce

ULS Dublin

RCC EventUniversity of MemphisMemphis, Tennessee17 September 2016

A time of questions

• What is really going on in our world?• What will an uncertain future bring?• Where does digital end?• Where does human begin?• What are we learning?• How are we learning it?• Why are we learning it?• What do we value……..?

Setting the Scene

1. Educational change and globalized innovation

2. Impact of socio-economic transformation

3. Global citizenship for global learning

4. Open horizons and strategic vision for rehabilitation

Understanding linkage

• Critical role of partnerships, linkage and strategic joint ventures in global higher education and rehabilitation

• Opportunities and challenges in global rehabilitation• Changing role of rehabilitation professionalism• Moving to rights based approaches• Operating internationally: three key issues:

• strategic planning • business model of partnership/mutual learning • importance of capacity building

What do we need and how do we get there?

Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities 2008

What is Disability?

• The Convention does not explicitly define disability• Preamble of Convention states:

Disability is an evolving concept, and that disability results from the interaction between persons with impairments and attitudinal and environmental barriers that hinders full and effective participation in society on an equal basis with others

• Article 1 of the Convention states: Persons with disabilities include those who have long-term physical, mental, intellectual or sensory impairments which in interaction with various barriers may hinder their full and effective participation in society on an equal basis with others

1. Educational change and globalized innovation

• Globalized realities• Contours of pervasive change• Crisis, challenge and the impact of growing

inequality• Education and learning in a transformed

world• Innovation and technology• Embedding excellence through global

learning

Anticipating the future (OECD 1994)Future learning and employment needs (Jobs Study)• Policy change• Flexibility• Entrepreneurship• Internationalization• Technology

The future is now…

• Potential provision of universal schooling now realized• Internationalization is norm• Technology pervasive but unevenly

accessible • ‘Flexibility’ and ‘adaptability’• Policy: shaping or copying?• Death of the job• AI and continual learning

UNESCO Global Education Monitoring Report 2016

2030 Agenda: Sustainable Development Goals• Environmental sustainability• Values & skills: minority cultures and diversity• Inequality and violence

Defining directions

• Excellence• Innovation • Leadership• System change• Reform• ‘The chemistry of widespread

improvement’ (Michael Fullan)

Comparative analysis (McKinsey 2010) – 20 countriesKey interventions:1. Revise curriculum and standards2. Set appropriate pay for teachers/principals3. Enhance technical skills for teachers4. Improve student assessment systems5. Quality data systems6. Improve policy and laws

Student demandUNESCO 2009

Change dynamics

• Sustained and systemic• Accelerating• Multidimensional and simultaneous• Structural incapacity to incorporate required

adjustments• Deep uncertainty in terms of future options• Unprecedented levels of challenge

Global and Open Learning

• Understanding the concept of Open is critical for future educational policy• Open often deeply contradictory• Open exists in changing, conflicted world• Not enough to be passive observers –

must engage

The Innovation Mantra

• Innovation supporting learning• Innovation supporting work• Re-evaluation of traditional methods and structures• Changing needs and creativity• Responding to impact of globalization• Change without changing – ‘innovation with

precedents’• Facing new realities – using evidence, connecting

issues, thinking outside the box

Resourcing Innovation

• Talent management initiatives• Accurate forecasting of future skill needs• Linkage with leading universities• Human Capital• Organizational Capital• Network Capital

Transfers of economically useful scientific knowledge from universities to industry generates substantial economic growth as the experiences of classical high technology regions (e.g. Silicon Valley) and emerging new technology centers around the world demonstrate

• Listening• Linkage• Leading

2. Impact of socio-economic transformation

• Globalization – accelerating and pervasive• Crisis and re-structuring since 2008• Stratification and inequity – issue of social justice• Labor market transformation• Issues on inclusion – token or real?• Access, quality and innovation in education• Generational demographics

Globalized realities

• Patterns of constant change• Permanent migration mobility• Outsourcing• Obsolescence of job norms: flexibility and adaptability• Knowledge economy• Ecological pressures• Diversity as the norm• Impact of pervasive ICT and instantaneous communications

Refugee realities

Learning in Age of Uncertainty• End of linear models of learning• Cognitive dissonance: what is needed is

not being provided• Alienation in a changing world• Labor market flux and the loss of

autonomy• Adaptability and innovation as norm, not

exception• Globalized paradigms/fractured community

Education as business• Terry Eagleton: The Slow Death of the University (April 2015)• Packaging knowledge• Destroying arts and the humanities• Teaching less vital than research – research brings in the

money• Vast increase in bureaucracy, occasioned by the flourishing

of a managerial ideology and the relentless demands of the state assessment exercise

• Professors transformed into managers, as students are converted into consumers

The bottom line…

An assumption of stable work patterns and linear economic development is no longer possible

Learning systems must innovate and respond accordingly

3. Global citizenship for global learning

• Engaging with diverse communities• Community empowerment• Outreach, access and validation • Legislative foundations• New technologies – mobile telephony• Shared learning and linkage to other

universities

Education and Global CitizenshipTo enable learners

• To develop sense of shared destiny through identification with their social, cultural, and political environments.

• To become aware of challenges posed to development of their communities through an understanding of issues related to patterns of social, economic and environmental change.

• To engage in civic and social action in view of positive societal participation and/or transformation based on a sense of individual responsibility towards their communities.

Sobhi Tawil (2013)

Towards Global Citizenship

Education must fully assume its central role in helping people to forge more just, peaceful, tolerant and inclusive societies. It must give people the understanding, skills and values they need to cooperate in resolving the interconnected challenges of the 21st century.

United Nations: Global Education First Initiative (2012)

Contested citizenship

• Membership of a political community• Belonging and engagement• Rights and entitlements• Duties and responsibilities• Constrained by legacy of nation-state• Cultural minorities and migrants• Disputed access

Inclusive global citizenship in learning systems• Changes produced by globalization process shape how global

education addresses learning communities previously excluded by reason of prejudice, discrimination or remoteness. 

• Critical importance of innovation and vision as key priorities to develop learning to combat socio-economic marginalization.

• Pervasive globalizing process means intercultural learning strategy needs parallel international understanding of how cultural diversity impacts learning needs of populations undergoing unprecedented levels of change.

Embedding learning

• Sense of community (threatened by growth of social dysfunction, racism, violence and despair) best preserved in contexts where people learn and develop at their own pace knowing that their development feeds into processes of creativity and innovation for all.

• Global citizenship as concept and method offers a viable way to liberate education and its associated technologies to serve learning needs in ever more creative and innovative ways.

UN Thematic Learning Outcomes• Awareness of the wider world and a sense of own role

both as a citizen with rights and responsibilities, and as a member of the global human community.

• Valuation of diversity of cultures and of their languages, arts, religions and philosophies as components the common heritage of humanity.

• Commitment to sustainable development and sense of environmental responsibility.

• Commitment to social justice and sense of social responsibility.

• Willingness to challenge injustice, discrimination, inequality and exclusion at the local/national and global level in order to make the world a more just place.

Future directions

• Training of trainers and CPD• Multilingualism• Developing skills – competence transmission• Developing attitudes – securing motivation• Developing buy-in – loyalty and commitment• Autonomous learning• Risk taking• Review, evaluation and research

4. Open horizons and strategic vision for rehabilitation

• Creating shared meaning in uncertain times• Providing support and inclusion• Valuing difference as a critical advantage• Maintaining creative engagement• Demonstrating research capacity• Breaking boundaries• Learning: emancipatory not a supply chain• Shaping futures not reacting to them

Global dimensions of rehabilitation structures

• International Labor Organization (1919) – promotes

rights at work, encourages decent employment and social protection

• Rehabilitation International (1922) - worldwide network

of people with disabilities, service providers, government agencies,

academics, researchers and advocates working to improve the quality of life

of people with disabilities

• World Health Organization (1948) - useful forums for the

development of rehabilitation and disability related best practice

• United Nations (1949) - Convention on the Rights of Persons with

Disabilities 2008

UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities• Both a development and a human rights

instrument• A policy instrument which is cross-

disability and cross-sectoral• Legally binding• Ratified 2008• US has not ratified

Rehabilitation: from Wright to CACREP

Total rehabilitation1. Structured linearity – stability and progress2. Towards a full life3. Expectation of paid employment4. Integration and access5. From charity to rights

Complexity and regulation6. Cost reduction, control and regulation7. Uneven impact of legislation8. Accreditation and licensure9. Inadequate CPD10. Coping with change or adjusting to existing system?11. Absence of strategy and international perspective

Global situation

• Around 150 million adults experience significant difficulties functioning

• Disability prevalence is increasing

• Disproportionately affects vulnerable populations: women, older people and poor households

Disabling barriers: widespread evidence

• Inadequate policies and standards

• Negative attitudes / discrimination

• Lack of provision of services

• Problems with service delivery

• Inadequate funding

• Lack of accessibility

• Lack of consultation and involvement

• Lack of data and evidence

Planning a vision

• University Stakeholders are wide-ranging, both internal and external

• Pressures on corporate and academic worlds are similar

• To survive, universities must be relevant and adaptable

• Universities are now businesses• Disability is a business

Responding to change• Flexibility• Digital learning• Learning outcomes, added value• Sustainability• Sugata Mitra:

Comprehension/Communication/Computation

• Social capital and inclusion• Visions of excellence

Transformative learning

• Planning for constant change• Learning to learn and un-learn (Toffler)• Fostering innovation and creativity• Moving beyond purely econometric

targets• Three Cs:• Critical reflection• Courage• Curiosity

Quality and leadership

• Designing for quality• Engaging stakeholders: specialists, researchers,

providers• Thinking and acting imaginatively• Lateral thinking: migrants, minorities and

contested spaces• Credibility, validity, authenticity, results: global

learning as a stepping stone to competence and excellence

Opportunities – approaching best practice

• Impact of Universal Design• University revolution – from distance

learning to MOOCs• Consultancy on Inclusion• Technological revolution pioneers• From psychology to engineering – the

altered environment• Shaping the mind – struggles with attitudes

Crisis impact: system change

Conclusions

• Rehabilitation education at a crossroads: both structure and process

• Global focus is on mobility, skills and innovation• Global citizenship model offers significant

opportunities• Transnational action is the only viable method in a

globalized world• All rests on vision and passion for community needs• Innovative learning demands imagination and

vision• Moving from analysis to advocacy to action

D’où venons nous?Que sommes nous?Où allons nous?

Thank you

Dr. Alan BruceULS Dublin

abruce@ulsystems.com

Associate Offices: BARCELONA - HELSINKI - SÃO PAULO – CHICAGO - ATHENS