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Contribution
The purpose of this study - as a part of "The National Strategic Research Program of Welfare", which main emphasis is special needs education in the Danish schools - is to investigate the current special needs education of pupils with minor learning or social disabilities. The study includes identifying the logics, the construction of categories and dominating understandings that the teachers articulate in relation to creating a more including school.As part of the study, semi-structured qualitative interviews with teachers in eleven schools and analyses of documents and web-sides has been conducted. This part of the study, which focuses on teachers' construction of meaning are based on Enesto Laclau's Discourse Theory.ResultsAccording to the interviewed teachers, pupils with minor disabilities should be included in the "normal classroom" in order to preserve the children's social lives. The teachers seem to put more emphasis on the pupils' possibility of taking part in the social life of the "normal classroom" rather than to their educational progress. Simultaneously they articulate that including these pupils could be at the expense of their educational progress. In relation to pupils with stronger disabilities - normally children with diagnoses - special needs education should be offered and take place in special needs teams or by professionals special needs teachers, according to a majority of the interviewed teachers. Further, the children's learning difficulties make it necessary to focus on their educational progress at the expense of account of their social life in the normal classroom. In general, the teachers do not seem to find it appropriate to include this category of children in the normal classes.In general, the teachers seem to construct at least two categories of children - the one with diagnoses and the one without diagnoses. It seems obvious to the teachers to include the children without diagnoses in order to preserve the children's social life. Simultaneously, most of the teachers find it necessary to exclude the children with diagnoses in order to secure their educational progress as well as to secure the educational progress of the rest of the class.Conclusion According to the teacherso The children with minor difficulties should be included in the classroom in order to preserve their social life o The teachers do not articulate inclusion as a better educational solution to these children's educational progress than the traditional special needs education. On the contrary they articulate that inclusiveness could be at the expense of these pupils educational progress o The limit for inclusiveness seems to go along with diagnoses. Children with diagnoses should not be included in the "normal classroom" because special needs education is a better offer to these pupils in order to preserve their educational progress According to the teachers, creating a more inclusive school seems to be a social and pedagogical project rather than an educational project. If teachers are interested in teaching and being a good teacher rather than in social and pedagogical issues, the teacher's construction of meaning in praxis could be an important challenge in order to succeed in creating a more inclusive school.Burr V. 1995:"An Introduction to Social Constructionism", Routledge, London Hacking, I.1997:"On Being More Literal about Construction" in Irving Velady and RobinHacking, I. 1999:"The Social Construction of What?" Harvard University Press Knorr-Cetina 1993:"Construction and Fiction: the Prospect of Constructionism in the Study of Science and beyond", Danish Yearbook of Philosophy Kvale, S. 1996:"Interviews", SAGE Publications Laclau, E. and C. Mouffe 1985:"Hegemony and Socialist Strategy", Verso, London Laclau, E. and C. Mouffe 1987:"Post-Marxism without Apologies", New Left Review nr. 166 Laclau, E. 1990:"New Reflections on the Revolution of Our Time", Verso, London Laclau, E. 1993: "Discourse", in R.E. Goordin and P. Petitt (red.): "A Companion to Contemporary Political Philosophy", Blackwell, London Laclau, E. 1996: "Deconstruction, Pragmatism, Hegemony", in C. Mouffe (red.): "Deconstruction and Pragmatism", Routledge, London Laclau, E. 1996a: "Emancipation(s)", Verso, London Latour B. 2000:"When Things Strike Back", British Journal of Sociology, nr. 51 Rasmussen, J. 2002:"Textual Interpretation and Complexity - Radical Hermeneutics", Paper at the American Educational Research Conference, USA National journal
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