Disability Studies in Education: Opportunities and Challenges of Interdisciplinary Approaches

The phenomenon of disability, traditionally associated primarily with medicine, psychology and special education, which has resulted with medicalization of education of people with disabilities is now becoming the subject of interest of various disciplines. The emergence of social model of disability in the early 1980s resulted in the development of Disability Studies and Disability Studies in Education, which refers to the socio-cultural processes of constructing disability, drawing attention to previously overlooked or marginally treated aspects of experiencing limited ability. The purpose of this article is to reconstruct the emergence and assumptions of Disability Studies in Education in the context of various social ontologies of disability. It will allow to point out both some paradoxes of inclusive pedagogical practices and the opportunities offered by the development of activities based on combining theory, practice and research in accordance with the postulate of taking into account the perspectives of all involved subjects of education.