Education of students with intellectual disabilities at the upper secondary school level in light of theories of inclusive education and social justice

Abstract

This dissertation contributes to discussion about inclusive education and social justice. Inclusive education is the official school policy in Iceland which was legislated in 2008. Regardless of that, students with intellectual disabilities are not educated within general education at the upper secondary level, instead they apply for and are educated within special programs for disabled students. In this article-based dissertation, focus is placed on programs for disabled students within upper secondary schools. The purpose was to examine the challenges, contradictions and opportunities surrounding the education of students with intellectual disabilities in Icelandic upper secondary schools in relation to inclusive education and social justice. To accomplish this the subject was approached in three steps, which are reported in three independent articles. The first step involved analyzing the discourse of official documents in relation to the education of students at upper secondary level. The second step involved analyzing interviews that were taken with different stakeholders within system. The third step shifted the study’s focus into student’ spaces within school, where the data consists of students’ narratives of their experiences in school. The study is framed within disability studies in education (DSE) which rests on the foundation of disability as a social construct. It views disability as an instinctive form of human variations and thus challenges medical and psychological models of disability. The theories and concepts that inform data analysis stem from Foucault’s theories of discourse, power, power relations, and resistance; Deleuze and Guattari’s theories about line of flight and becoming; and Young’s theories of five faces of oppression and social justice. Findings show that, although stated as inclusive, the structure of the Icelandic education system resembles more of an integrative system than an inclusive one. Furthermore, through its structure, the system produces and reproduces inequality and social injustice that does not only affect students with intellectual disabilities, but a larger group of students. Official discourse indicates that ableism is inherent in the system, and that the structure constructs students with intellectual disabilities as different and less able. This is further manifested in the way the system responds to students by labeling them through medical diagnosis and segregating them based on their support needs. Student narratives unravel multiple power relations that students are caught up in within the discursive field of special iv education. The narratives further unpack knowledge about their experience and how, through everyday resistances, they act against or try to escape the oppressive label that restricts their potential to be regarded as members of an inclusive education system. The findings also confirm earlier findings of a conceptual confusion about what inclusive education is and that the concept of support is both inconspicuous and poorly defined. The thesis suggests that to move the Icelandic education system towards more inclusive education and social justice for all students, measures need to be taken to reconceptualize inclusive education within which diversity is consciously accounted for. Furthermore, defining support and identifying ways through which support can be implemented within general education would be valuable.

Doktorsritgerðin er framlag til fræða um inngildandi menntun og félagslegt réttlæti. Í ritgerðinni er sjónum beint að starfsbrautum fyrir fatlaða nemendur innan framhaldsskóla. Tilgangurinn var að kanna áskoranir, mótsagnir og tækifæri í tengslum við menntun fatlaðra nemenda í íslenskum framhaldsskólum með hliðsjón af fræðum um inngildandi menntun og félagslegt réttlæti. Viðfangsefnið var nálgast í þremur skrefum. Fyrsta skrefið fólst í því að greina orðræðu í opinberum skjölum varðandi menntun nemenda á framhaldsskólastigi. Annað skrefið fólst í því að greina viðtöl sem tekin voru við mismunandi hagsmunaaðila innan framhaldsskólakerfisins. Í þriðja skrefinu var reynsla nemenda skoðuð. Rannsóknin er unnin innan fötlunarfræða í menntun sem álítur fötlun vera félagslega mótað fyrirbæri og hluta af mannlegum margbreytileika. Við greiningu gagna voru kenningar Foucault um orðræðu, vald, valdatengsl og viðnám nýttar. Einnig voru kenningar Deleuze og Guattari um flóttaleiðir og „að verða“ notaðar sem og kenning Young um fimm andlit kúgunar og félagslegt réttlæti. Niðurstöður gefa til kynna að uppbygging íslenska framhaldsskólakerfisins, þegar kemur að menntun nemenda með þroskahömlun, eigi meira sameiginlegt með hugmyndafræði um blöndun en inngildandi menntun. Enn fremur skapar og viðheldur kerfið, eins og það er byggt upp, ójöfnuði og félagslegu óréttlæti sem hefur ekki aðeins áhrif á fatlaða nemendur, heldur stærri hóp nemenda. Orðræða í opinberum skjölum bendir til þess að kerfið grundvallist á hæfisma og yfirleitt er litið á fatlaða nemendur sem öðruvísi og getuminni. Þetta birtist einnig í því hvernig skólakerfið bregst við nemendum með því að merkja þá með læknisfræðilegri greiningu og greina þá frá öðrum á grundvelli stuðningsþarfar hvers og eins. Frásagnir nemenda varpa ljósi á ólíkar leiðir þeirra til að reyna að losna undan oki stimpilsins sem fylgir læknisfræðilegu greiningunni og festir nemendur í sessi sem staðlaða „sérdeildanemendur“. Niðurstöðurnar staðfesta jafnframt fyrri niðurstöður um mikilvægi þess að skilgreina þurfi betur stefnuna um inngildandi menntun. Að auki þarf að skilgreina stuðning og hvað í honum felst með tilliti til margbreytileikans.