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victims have been blamed for being the cause of the violence. The saying is that “Girls who are blind easily fall in love”. Thus the attitudes and prejudices within the community are a disabling factor, a restriction of capabilities for a group of persons who are already disadvantaged because of their personal characteristics. As another, visually impaired, girl, Zufan, states: “I am afraid of being raped. I am a woman. This often happens…. I do not want to stop my education but if somebody would rape me I will no more be able to think properly and I will no more continue my education.” Hence it is neither her sensory impairment nor a lack of resources or opportunity to attend school, but the cultural-environmental obstacles that limit Zufan’s capabilities to continue her education. These demonstrated individual life situations of disabled persons in Ethiopia give rise to considering the Capability Approach as a theoretical framework to rethink education that would address the individual needs of students. In the Capability Approach, disability may be analyzed at two different levels, as a deprivation of capabilities, or as a deprivation of functioning. At the level of personal characteristics the concept of impairment is preferred to the term disability, where impairment is defined as a physiological, mental or anatomical loss. In terms of capabilities and functioning, deprivation results from the interaction among the resources available to the person, personal characteristics (e.g. impairment, age, and gender) and the environment. Furthermore a distinction is made between: a) Potential disability (capabilities), implying that whether the individual is actually disabled depends on whether the impairment places any restriction on the individual’s functioning; and b) Actual disability (functioning), implying that an individual is disabled if he or she cannot do or be the things he or she values doing or being. Such assessment would be substantially subjective. A person may change the way he or she values functioning and may well consider himself or herself as disabled right after the onset of impairment but not five years later, or from a different perspective. The causes for disability result from (a) the nature of an impairment and other personal characteristics (gender, race, etc); (b) the resources available to the individual; and (c) the environment. An impairment is a prerequisite to disability, but it is only one of the 46
factors, along with the person’s other characteristics (gender, race, age), and the resources available, and the environment, that lead to capability or functioning deprivation – in other words, disability. If disability is defined in terms of a deprivation of capabilities (or functioning), then one needs to select a set of relevant capabilities (or functioning) to form an evaluative space. This selection of relevant functioning will be influenced by societal norms and expectations. The Capability Appraoch (CA) Commodities (e.g. food) Characteristics Environmental (physical, social, economic, cultural, political) Capability of a Person to Function (practical opportunities) Functionings (actually achieved) 47 Personal charateristics (e.g. age, impairment) Choices (Mitra 2006, p.240) First, the Capability Approach allows disability to be differentiated at two levels: at the capability level, or as a potential disability; and at the functioning level, or as an actual disability. The language of capabilities is designed to leave room for choice, and to communicate the idea that there is a big difference between pushing persons in ways their environment considers valuable and leaving the choice to them (Nussbaum 2003, p.40). Second, there is considerable interpersonal variation in the link between a given impairment and the disability resulting from a variety of factors. Finally, among the many factors that influence disability, the Capability Approach encompasses an economic dimension of disability through an account of the economic burden and the economic environment of the person with impairment. The social model recognizes that poverty is disabling. Under the Capability Approach, poverty is seen as a factor that interacts with the individual’ s characteristics and environment, leading to disability. For the ICF to be a faithful application of the Capability Approach, as noted earlier, it would need to be modified to account for the economic constraints and the economic environment of the person, as well as personal characteristics such as gender. The Capability Approach thus provides a theoretical framework that establishes an important starting point to rethinking the quality of
Page 1 and 2: The Comparative Education Society o
Page 3: Comparative Education Bulletin No.
Page 6 and 7: of editing the journal for four yea
Page 8 and 9: Prehistory Before the establishment
Page 10 and 11: from Columbia University to Toronto
Page 12 and 13: international isolation (Manzon, 20
Page 14 and 15: new lease of life from teacher educ
Page 16 and 17: (see: Mundy et al., 2007) creates a
Page 18 and 19: Bergh, A. & Soudien, S. 2006. The i
Page 20 and 21: Nayą, L.M.; Ferrar, F. & Martinez,
Page 23 and 24: 香港與內地高校雙語教學
Page 25 and 26: 學的開展和深化,內地教育
Page 27 and 28: 的大學生英語聽力能力不
Page 29: 參考文獻 [1] Baker, C. (1993),
Page 32 and 33: (二)獨立的評鑒機構,體現
Page 34 and 35: 臺灣社會深受西方的影響,
Page 36 and 37: 座談會”、“審複製度”
Page 38 and 39: 表1:我國大陸產業結構演變
Page 40 and 41: 費投入卻非常有限,1996 年
Page 42 and 43: 水準相對較低,高職教育的
Page 45 and 46: Can the Capability Approach Provide
Page 47 and 48: these children need to be identifie
Page 49: of shame and being a burden for oth
Page 53 and 54: 20 世紀 90 年代: 美國基礎
Page 55 and 56: 了錯綜複雜的影響,某些影
Page 57 and 58: 並沒有提供相關的服務,比
Page 59 and 60: 策前洞察所有結果,政策執
Page 61 and 62: New CERC Publication CERC Studies i
Page 63 and 64: New CERC Publication CERC Studies i

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