Unit rationale, description and aim
Teachers inevitably encounter diverse beliefs, expectations and attitudes about disability in schools and community settings. Understanding how these attitudes are shaped, expressed and enacted is essential for responding constructively to stigma, stereotyping and exclusion, and for supporting equitable participation. This unit explores the socio‑cultural, historical and political influences that shape public and professional attitudes toward disability, highlighting how these attitudes affect the everyday experiences of children, young people and their families, and the implications for inclusive and socially just educational practice.
Preservice teachers will engage with contemporary research, case studies, media representations, policy frameworks and lived experiences to investigate how attitudes influence inclusion, belonging and access to opportunities. Learning activities emphasise critical reflection, collaborative dialogue and application of theory to real‑world examples across school, community and digital contexts. Through guided analysis and discussion, students build confidence in identifying how attitudes are formed, reinforced and challenged, and how these processes impact educational engagement.
The aim of this unit is to strengthen pre‑service teachers’ understanding of how attitudes toward disability develop and persist, and to support the development of informed, ethical and responsive approaches that promote inclusion, belonging and advocacy for children and young people with disability and their families.
Campus offering
No unit offerings are currently available for this unit.Learning outcomes
To successfully complete this unit you will be able to demonstrate you have achieved the learning outcomes (LO) detailed in the below table.
Each outcome is informed by a number of graduate capabilities (GC) to ensure your work in this, and every unit, is part of a larger goal of graduating from ACU with the attributes of insight, empathy, imagination and impact.
Explore the graduate capabilities.
Describe key factors that shape attitude formation...
Learning Outcome 01
Analyse contemporary attitudes toward people with ...
Learning Outcome 02
Apply relevant research, legislation, policy and e...
Learning Outcome 03
Evaluate the impact of socio‑cultural attitudes on...
Learning Outcome 04
Content
Topics will include:
· Contemporary and historical attitudes and language about people with disabilities, including Bourdieu’s’ social capital theory
· Attitudes within and towards families with a disability, including Bowen’s Family Systems’ theory
· Family and sibling relationship dynamics, including strategies that build relationships
· Negotiating the ‘advocacy expectation’, including how parents/carers consult for reasonable adjustments
· Shame and stigma for marginalised people and strategies for safe and supportive school and classroom spaces, specifically with reference to disability
· History and influence of policy, legislation on disability-specific activities (international to local) and shifts in attitudes, including Bronfenbrenners’ ecological theory
· History and influence of media and arts portrayal of people with disability, including Bandura’s social behaviour theory
· Intersectionality and the compounding impact of attitudes on racism, poverty and disability
· Socio-historical overview of post-colonial attitudes toward land and housing and the impact on marginalised and First Nations’ communities, including Maslow’s hierarchy of need
· Attitudes towards disability, including the Inclusion Movement, advocacy, self-advocacy, and language favoured by disability organisations and individuals
· Attitudes towards schooling practices for children with disabilities, including home-schooling, online, satellite classes, mainstreaming and full integration
· Attitudes towards students with challenging behaviours and disability
· Attitudes towards marginalised peoples include the elderly, fragile health, mental health and disability
Assessment strategy and rationale
The assessment strategy in this unit is designed to develop preservice teachers’ capacity to understand how attitudes toward disability are formed, how they influence schooling and community participation, and how they can be shifted through informed, ethical and inclusive practice. Assessments are sequenced to build from analysis of public attitudes to the design of inclusive school‑based responses, allowing preservice teachers to deepen their understanding while applying theory, legislation and research.
In Task 1, preservice teachers will examine media representations of disability to evaluate how public attitudes are shaped and how these impact children, young people and families. They then apply this understanding in Task 2, through a scenario‑based project that requires the design of an inclusive school or community initiative that responds to attitudes influencing participation.
Each task assesses all four learning outcomes to ensure a comprehensive demonstration of knowledge, analysis, application and evaluation. The use of generative AI is supported through scaffolded learning activities that model ethical use, transparency, and appropriate attribution.
To pass this unit, preservice teachers are required to complete both assessment tasks and achieve a minimum overall passing grade of 50%.
Overview of assessments
Assessment Task 1: Media Analysis of Attitudes To...
Assessment Task 1: Media Analysis of Attitudes Toward Disability
50%
Assessment Task 2: Inclusive School or Community...
Assessment Task 2: Inclusive School or Community Project
50%
Learning and teaching strategy and rationale
Learning in this unit is supported through an integration of cognitive, behavioural and social constructivist approaches to help students analyse the formation and impact of attitudes. Preservice teachers engage with online lectures, readings and case studies to build foundational knowledge before applying this understanding in tutorials through discussion, collaborative tasks, simulations and problem‑solving activities.
Teaching strategies prioritise active learning and reflective practice, enabling students to interrogate assumptions, examine real‑world scenarios and practise communication approaches for working with families, colleagues and community agencies. Learning experiences incorporate scaffolded opportunities to develop culturally responsive, disability‑aware professional practices.
The unit is designed to support diverse learners by offering multimodal content, structured support for complex concepts and inclusive, low‑stakes opportunities to practise skills. These strategies enable students to apply theoretical knowledge to practical contexts and to critically examine how attitudes influence educational participation and wellbeing.
Representative texts and references
Recommended Texts and References
Australian Government, Department for Education (2022). Family-School Partnerships
Australian Government. Family-Schools Partnership Framework: https://www.education.gov.au/supporting-family-school-community-partnerships-learning/family-school-partnerships
Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership (2011). Australian Professional Standards for Teachers. https://www.aitsl.edu.au/standards
Recommended References
Aas, H. K., Uthus, M., & Løhre, A. (2023). Inclusive education for students with challenging behaviour: development of teachers’ beliefs and ideas for adaptations through Lesson Study. European Journal of Special Needs Education, 39(1), 64–78. https://doi.org/10.1080/08856257.2023.2191107
Garcia-Melgar, A., Hyett, N., Bagley, K., McKinstry, C., Spong, J., & Iacono, T. (2022). Collaborative team approaches to supporting inclusion of children with disability in mainstream schools: A co-design study. Research in Developmental Disabilities, 126, 104233–104233. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ridd.2022.104233
Kim J, Cho K, Hwang YY, et al. Beliefs and attitudes of family caregivers of People with dementia toward advance care planning: A Q methodology study. Dementia. 2025;0(0). doi:10.1177/14713012251326463
Lalvani, P. 2015. Disability, stigma and otherness: Perspectives of parents and teachers. International Journal of Disability, Development and Education 62 (4): 379–393.
Law, S., Stergiopoulos, V., Zaheer, J., & Nakhost, A. (2024). “It feels terrible that people are making decisions for me”: Reflections and experiences of individuals with psychiatric disability who have substitute decision makers for treatment. Psychiatric Rehabilitation Journal, 47(2), 117–128. https://doi.org/10.1037/prj0000592
Mann, G., & Gilmore, L. (2023). Barriers to positive parent-teacher partnerships: The views of parents and teachers in an inclusive education context. International Journal of Inclusive Education, ahead-of-print(ahead-of-print), 1–13. https://doi.org/10.1080/13603116.2021.1900426
Mann, G., N. Hodge, K. Runswick-Cole, L. Gilmore, S. Mavropoulou, and K. Fleming (2020). Developing productive partnerships with parents and carers. In Graham, L. (Ed.). Inclusive Education in the 21st Century: Theory, Policy & Practice, 336–357. Allen & Unwin.
Walton, E., Carrington, S., Saggers, B., Edwards, C., & Kimani, W. (2022). What matters in learning communities for inclusive education: A cross-case analysis. Professional Development in Education, 48(1), 134–148.
Wüthrich, S., Lozano, C.S., Lüthi, M. et al. Changing students’ explicit and implicit attitudes toward peers with disabilities: Effects of a curriculum-based intervention programme. Soc Psychol Educ 27, 935–953 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11218-023-09837-4
Zundans-Fraser, L., & Bain, A. (2016). The role of collaboration in a comprehensive programme design process in inclusive education. International Journal of Inclusive Education, 20(2), 136–148. https://doi.org/10.1080/13603116.2015.1075610