Through the ratification of the United Nation’s Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), diversity, inclusion, and inclusivity have been elevated to one of education’s central ideals (cf. Neuhaus & Vogt, 2022); as a central agent of the educational system as well as contemporary societies (cf. Powell, 2015), schools have tremendously been addressed by the inclusivity and diversity agenda.

Simultaneously, inclusion and inclusivity have oftentimes been considered fuzzy concepts as they appear to be - depending on the organizational, geographical, cultural, and temporal context - ambiguous and thereby underdefined. However, inclusion and diversity can be considered part of a larger development or framework which aligns itself with central normative demands articulated, primarily, by Western present-day societies (cf. Reckwitz, 2019). As such, inclusion is the latest cipher for a struggle that has prior been negotiated under the label of freedom, democracy, or participation (cf. Boger et al., 2021, p. 9).

Following this reasoning, the specific realization of a given school setting, which - due to normative pressure - represents a central part of modern-day (Western) society, will always fall short of the ideal. This is particularly true for the ideal of diversity and inclusivity. Yet, failure cannot be confessed in public as this would shatter the trust not just in the educational system but, by association, also in central societal claims. Taking this as a starting point, this panel wants to address the issue by presenting a philosophical concept labeled as ‘Verdeckung’ (engl. cloaking, masking, concealment) (cf. Vogt & Neuhaus, 2021) which can be read as a response to the aforementioned tensions. The dynamic(s) of ‘Verdeckung’ will be outlined by three studies as presented in the symposium - the first will outline core ideas related to ‘Verdeckung’ and connect these to further theories, the second presentation investigates (with a historical focus) the unarticulated processes in the identification of deviant children, and the third talk focuses on current-day occurrences in the field of physical education. After having approximated a tentative concept of ‘Verdeckung’ and having enriched it with tentative research outputs, it will be attempted to synchronize these dynamics with ethnographic research results (presentation 4) which have described similar dynamics in classroom interactions as “masking” (cf. Ludwig, 2022) or “cloaking” (Schäffer-Trencsényi, 2023, forthcoming). The papers will look at this topic from an international comparative perspective with material and data from Germany, the UK, Italy, and Canada. By approaching the tensions stemming from inclusivity’s demands and the limitation of the actual world as well as the suspected responses from different perspectives and with diverging national backgrounds, this panel hopes to develop an innovative figure of thought which could be transferred to further settings, dynamics, occurrences, and disciplines as - and this is the key thesis of the panel – ‘Verdeckung’ is a constitutive mechanism of a plethora of processes. Yet, before being made fruitful for different discourses, ‘Verdeckung’ needs to be further specified regarding its workings, employed mechanisms, aims, and actors. This panel hopes to provide such a first mapping (cf. Deleuze & Guattari, 1974) of ‘Verdeckung’ as well as related concepts. This makes ‘Verdeckung’ highly compatible with ECER’s general theme as processes of ‘Verdeckung’ might thus undermine and prevent a targeted and overarching reflection on diversity in the context of inclusion and hinder its implementation.

Boger, M.-A., Bühler, P., Neuhaus, T., Vogt, M. (2021). Re/Historisierung als Re/Chiffrierung. In M. Vogt, M.-A. Boger & P. Bühler (Eds.), Inklusion als Chiffre? (pp. 9–19). Klinkhardt. Deleuze, J. & Guattari, F. (1974). Rhizom. Merve. Ludwig, L. (2022). „Genau, er ist Deko“ – De-Thematisierungs- und Maskierungspraktiken im Unterricht eines inklusiven Gymnasiums. Zeitschrift für Pädagogik, 827–845. Neuhaus, T. & Vogt, M. (2022). Between Competence-Based Learning and Inclusive Pedagogy: A (Historical) Reflection of the German Developments within the Teaching Methodologies from 2001 onwards. In K. An-dersen, V.S. Novais & B.T. Ferreira da Silva (Eds.), Education, Culture and Public Policies (pp. 79–100). Appris Edition. Powell, J. J. W. (2015). Behinderung in der Schule, behindert durch Schule? Die Institutionalisierung der "schulischen Behinderung". In A. Waldschmidt & W. Schneider (Eds.), Disability Studies, Kultursoziologie und Soziologie der Behinderung (pp. 321–343). transcript. Reckwitz, A. (2019). Das Ende der Illusionen: Politik, Ökonomie und Kultur in der Spätmoderne. Suhrkamp. Schäffer-Trencsényi, M. (2023). Diskursive Praktiken des Erinnerns und Erwartens: Eine ethnographische Studie zu Subjektpositionierungen in unterrichtlichen Differenzierungspraktiken. Doctoral dissertation. Göttingen University. Vogt, M. & Neuhaus, T. (2021). Subject-based didactics oscillating between the demands of competence-based learning and inclusive pedagogy? Zeitschrift für Grundschulforschung, 14, 113–128.