Browsing by Subject "http://www.yso.fi/onto/yso/p17168"

Positive pedagogy is a pedagogical approach that has gained popularity in recent years. In this thesis, I research how the culture of abledness appears in the discourses of the positive pedagogy guide Huomaa hyvä! - Näin ohjaat lasta ja nuorta löytämään luonteenvahvuutensa. I connect the increased popularity of positive pedagogy to the rise of therapeutic ethos in education, which includes for example the popularisation of interventions in mental health and wellbeing as well as the way societal issues are located in individuals as disorders. My aim is to understand how abledness is discursively constructed and how these developing definitions of abledness support special education in its goal to improve equality. I examine discursive conventions in the context of disability studies (and especially crip theory), using the concept of compulsory able-bodiedness by Robert McRuer. In the analysis I follow critical discourse analysis. I categorise three intertwined discourses from the material: the discourses of natural potential, becoming fully human, and abled happiness. Abledness is linked to being human in all three discourses. The meaning of abledness is mostly found in being dynamic – abledness essentially means to become more abled. I identify that compulsory able-bodiedness does not extend to everyone in the material – it’s compulsiveness is limited. The naturalised responsibility to improve one’s character strengths only applies to those who are able enough to begin with.