Summary of Publications by Professor Monica Dowling
Professor Dowling has been instrumental in attracting the research funding from UNICEF for the doctoral studentship described below.
She was the Network Coordinator for Eastern Europe on the original 2005 UNICEF research and wrote the qualitative section of the report:
UNICEF, and Dowling, Monica and Foy, Joy and Fajth, Gaspar (2005) Children and Disability in Transition in CEE/CIS and Baltic States. UNICEF Innocenti Research Centre, Florence, Italy.
UNICEF Report: Children and Disability in Transition in CEE/CIS and Baltic States
Dowling, Monica (2005) To understand the meaning of disability for children, parents and providers in Bulgaria, Latvia and Russia. In: Proceedings Childhoods 2005 Oslo Conference: Children and Youth in Emerging and Transforming Societies, 2005, University of Oslo, Norway.
Dowling, Monica and Dolan, Linda (2001) Families with children with disabilities - inequalities and the social model. Disability & Society, 16 (1). pp. 21-35. ISSN 1360-0508
Families with Children with Disabilities (9.56MB)
Majda Becirevic, a Bosnian PhD student at the OU’s Faculty of Health and Social Care, is currently undertaking research into inclusive policies for children with disabilities in two countries of the former communist east: Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Bulgaria. Her research project originated as a result of a large-scale study of 27 Eastern European countries conducted by UNICEF in 2005, entitled ‘Children and Disability in Transition in CEE/CIS and Baltic States’. This study revealed that the practice of institutionalizing children with disabilities is very much present, whilst children’s rights to education, appropriate health care and family life are often limited.
A number of cross-European studies exist that examine inclusion but there are few qualitative studies that seek to discover the complexity that lies beneath the concern for inclusion. The strength of this new OU research project lies in its methodology, as it is based on intensive fieldwork conducting interviews and focus groups with officials, practitioners and families in both countries, underpinned by analyses of policy documents. Becirevic’s research project uses qualitative techniques to explore the course of inclusive policies for children with disabilities in the aforementioned countries, and compares change in each country’s social and political context since the 2005 UNICEF report.
On the basis of the research findings, a series of recommendations will be developed that will assist these countries in developing a more integrated society for children with disabilities and their families. In doing so, the study will contrast and compare the research findings with the principles set out in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989) and UN Convention on the Rights of the Persons with Disabilities (2006).
The results are expected to inform international organisations who are involved in policy making in the region and policy makers from the two countries, while UNICEF is expected to use the results of the study to aid their policy actions. The findings may also be of value to other governments and other international non-governmental organisations, some of whom have already expressed interest in using the research for their own advocacy and fundraising activities.
The project is jointly funded by UNICEF and the OU and involves academic collaboration with Dr Ian Buchanan, University of York, and Dr Diana Tsokova, an external supervisor from Sofia University.
Professor Monica Dowling, who was involved in writing the qualitative part of the 2005 UNICEF report, and her colleague Janet Seden are project supervisors.
Majda Becirevic (left) and Monica Dowling (right)
