Browsing by Subject "yhdenvertaisuussuunnitelmat"

The purpose of this master's thesis is to examine the discourses of disability in the equality plans prepared in primary schools. The aim is to find out the meanings of disability in the material, as well as the positions and possibilities offered to a disabled student in discourses. Although disability is a fairly widely studied phenomenon, previous research on disability in the context of equality plans is not available. In this master's thesis, the construction of disability in inclusive educational documents was examined critically, recognizing that the educational equality of students with disabilities cannot be considered to have been achieved in the Finnish education system. The material used in the dissertation consisted of thirty equality plans drawn up in primary schools. The material was approached using the perspectives of discourse analysis. The concept of discourse refers to the relatively established use of language in a particular field or situation. With the help of discourse analysis, it is possible to study both the organization of the text and the consequences of language use. Disability was constructed in the research material in four different discourses, which were named the discourses of support and need, accessibility, difference, and health status. The discourses describe disability in a predictable and culturally established way. The positions offered to a student with a disability appeared to be limited and narrow. On the other hand, a student with a disability remained in the material as invisible, which appears to be problematic in the documents that are supposed to describe the inclusiveness in the education.