Social representations of inclusion and stratification: Ethnographic research within two Israeli elementary schools

Smadar Tuval, Emda Orr

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

8 Scopus citations

Abstract

Based on 'Social representations theory', this ethnographic research examines the processes by which two Israeli elementary schools represented some children, but not others, as 'weak' students and in need of remedial teaching. This approach differs from most current research regarding children with disabilities, which mainly deals with the opposite process of how to include, as equal school partners, those who have already been represented as in need of some kind of special education. Our findings show that school life is founded on a representational dichotomy: while inclusion is the declared school ideology, daily discourse and school activity mainly serve stratification. This dichotomy is tolerated partly because the meaning of this activity is incorporated within school routine and ignored and partly because it is represented as a response to a supposedly self-evident reality of the unequal intellectual potential of students.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)503-516
Number of pages14
JournalDisability and Society
Volume24
Issue number4
DOIs
StatePublished - 1 Jun 2009

Keywords

  • Elementary school
  • Ethnography
  • Exclusion
  • Inclusion
  • Israel
  • Social representations
  • Stratification

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Health(social science)
  • General Health Professions
  • General Social Sciences

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