Educational Law and Students with Disabilities: A Critical Pedagogy Perspective
Educational Law and Students with Disabilities: A Critical Pedagogy Perspective

Summary/Abstract: In Poland, systematic efforts have been undertaken to create conditions conducive to the optimal development of children and young people with disabilities, as well as to overcome unfavourable stereotypes associated with disability. In the implementation of these objectives, law is increasingly used as an instrument shaping social relations and educational practices. The aim of this article is to provide a critical analysis of Polish legal regulations governing the education of students with disabilities within the education system. The study is qualitative in nature and is based on an analysis of binding legislative and executive acts. The analysis was conducted from the perspective of critical pedagogy and focused on selected analytical categories, including the subjectivity of students with disabilities, access to inclusive education, forms of educational support, and mechanisms of educational selection and segregation. The results of the analysis indicate a significant discrepancy between the principles of equality, inclusion, and student subjectivity declared in educational law and the manner in which they are institutionally implemented. Inclusive education does not function as a guiding principle of the system, but rather as an option dependent on administrative decisions and institutional resources. Forms of support, despite their declared universal character, are largely compensatory in nature and tend to shift the responsibility for adaptation onto the student. The analysis leads to the conclusion that Polish educational law with regard to students with disabilities implements a model of conditional inclusion, which stabilises existing structures of the education system rather than contributing to its transformation. The article highlights the need to redefine inclusive education as a principle organising the education system and to strengthen the real subjectivity of students with disabilities in the educational process.

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