Hard-hitting Ideas, delivered with sweetness!
Laura (Mole) Chapman
THE BOOKS
I'll be honest I do not enjoy writing. However I love the accomplishment, and hope others will enjoy these books.
A Different Perspective on Disability Equality
Set to provide more exciting insights in an easily accessible format to busy professionals. Hot on the heels of A Different Perspective on Equality, the first in our Different Perspective Series, we hope it will prove an equal success. For years, many organisations have tried to implement the theory of disability equality. However, many of you have told us that applying the theory to daily practice is a major challenge. This book aims to make change both possible and practical.
"Your handbooks allow equality issues to be real and current which is what people need when they are being trained in something so complex." Carrie James, Case Manager for Health Transition, Walsall Children's Disabilities and Long Term Condition Services Child Development Centre.
A Different Perspective on Equality
A long awaited companion to our basic courses in Equality & Diversity. This book is a real achievement in terms of accessibility and synthesis. We hope it will provide a robust and challenging resource for many practitioners in the years to come.
The leading theme is that everyone has something to give to his or her community. This ability to contribute to shared prosperity is a fundamental part of what it means to be alive. However, too many still face a situation where their contribution is not recognised. Therefore, we need to understand that every individual has a right to be heard: their strength demands recognition, their experience must be valued, and their knowledge deserves public appreciation. Recognising the significance of contribution is the first step to achieving greater equality. Sharing a sense of belonging, participating in joint activity and finding meaning in common purpose all adds up to a sense of community life that enhances our wellbeing.
“In writing this handbook Laura Chapman has developed a resource that is personally, professionally and organisationally challenging. Her approach is detailed, systematic and very clearly and helpfully structured - and at the same time remorseless in its focus on the fundamental issues of equality and fairness. Definitions are detailed and comprehensive and taken together they provide a rich and clear vocabulary to support meaningful dialogue on the central issue of making organisations work for all their members, not just the privileged few.” John West-Burnham.
Education and Social Justice: Achieving wellbeing for all Chapman, L. and West-Burnham, J.
This book aims to help people understand a number of aspects with regard to wellbeing. It will help people think about their practice with regard to creating strategies to help achieve greater social fairness by creating individual and local solutions that also match up to national policies and strategies.
The book is a detailed critique of the prevailing system and offers strategies for increasing equity in education. Typically, inequality is approached from a deficit perspective focusing on the needs of the few, a response that entrenches commonly held negative feelings about difference. By contrast, our book addresses the problems caused by inequality and offers a positive approach to improving wellbeing for all young people.
“Education for Social justice embodies a major piece of contemporary thinking in the area of philosophy and theory of education within the framework of its moral and social purpose” David Waxman - Improvement Magazine Summer 2010.