My contribution to a paper session will deal with the requirements for successful inclusive educational institutions like kindergartens or schools. Focussing particularly on the input of the Human Rights Model and of international Disability Studies, I will show that the Human Rights Model of Disability also enriches the discussion of educational processes. Hereby I strengthen the perspective of regarding each human body as fragile referring to the idea of “normal bodies” as only temporarily able-bodied – as explained by Lennard Davis and other Disability Studies scholars.

My presentation will contribute to the discourse of how to deal with diversity in educational institutions. Disability as part of human diversity should be regarded as a basic concept for inclusive education. Hereby I refer especially to Degener´s explications of a Human Rights Model of Disability and her conclusions how the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) should be implemented. As Disability Studies provided the theoretical background for the shift from the Medical Model to the Social Model of Disability the Convention offers the new perspective for a Human Rights Model of Disability.

I would like to discuss the question of the potential surplus for the educational system resulting from the Human Rights Model of Disability if every body is regarded as fragile. From this viewpoint diversity is elaborated in depth. Referring to the body as ”fragile “ – discussing why it is constituted as fragile or vulnerable as described by Tervooren in the German discourse or Zola or Davis in the Angloamerican discussion – I would like to point out its significance for the educational system.

For a long time, the body has been a “blind spot” in education but in the context of inclusive education it becomes evident that it must be acknowledged as an important component constructing society and being constructed by it. As individual body, social body and body politic, the body is the link between individual and society regarding questions of individual education and the educational system, especially inclusive education. Explaining the concept of the fragile body, I will illustrate the consequences for the education of children in educational institutions. One consequence is that it enables the increased participation of children with chronic diseases and disabilities in general educational institutions, and their right on reasonable accommodation as individually necessary prerequisites. Finally, I will try to draw conclusions regarding the concept of the fragile body as a means to vitalize the Human Rights Model of Disability, especially referring to the right to education.

Theoretically, education of disabled and non disabled children has been discussed for several decades within special education but the fragility of the body has often only been focused regarding deficits and not as a general characteristic of the human being. In the paper session I want to put forward in how far a disability studies and especially human rights perspective can contribute to a fruitful discussion on the education of children. Through this approach I want to shed some light on an area that is often neglected, as the construction of normal bodies in educational arrangements along the allegedly non-disabled majority, and to contrast this with a theoretical framework of inclusion that values difference.

The paper concludes with open questions and desiderata how to operate the concept of the fragile body – based on the Human Rights Model of Disability - for educational institutions as schools and kindergartens.

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