Browsing by Subject "ableismi"

In this study the focus is on the meanings of schooling that are constructed in the speech of students in special classes or special schools. The study also focuses on the subjectivities that are made possible to these students in the discourses enabled and limited by the practices of education. The theoretical background of the study is in feminist post structural studies and critical ability studies. The history of special needs education in Finland is examined as the background of the special education practices and the inclusion objective that affect more and more students at present. 15 students with special educational needs aged 11-16 years that went to school on a special class or in a special school were interviewed. Theme interview was chosen as the method of interview. The data was analyzed using discoursive-deconstructive reading, by which the discoursive meanings of schooling, possibilites of subjectification and dicothomic relations in the students' speech were examined. I approached the phenomenon by using the concept ableism in the process of deconstruction of the discoursively constructed meanings. Schooling in special class or special school appeared in the data as something that led to spatial and temporal differentiation from mainstream schooling and limited the possibilites of social relations. The silence regarding special educational needs was seen as difficulty to speak about these differentiating namings, but also as resistance to these namings. Meanings in which the students positioned themselves as studying in vocational schools after the comprehensive education were prominent in the data, and going to a vocational school appeared as self-evident in the students' speech. In the students' speech being bullied and the threat of it was closely connected to studying in a special school or special class. The students also repeated parts of professional statements about their educational difficulties as part of their subjectivity. Mainstream education was described as representing the ideals of ability. Students in special classes or schools were therefore forced to repeat the inadequaty in relation to these ideals of ability in school, which led the inadequaty to be a part of the subjectivites available to these students. Based on the results I suggest that in order for all students to be seen as normal, deconstruction of the ableist structures is needed. By this process of deconstruction, an onthology that is inviting to all can be formed.