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 language | English |
---|---|
Pages (from-to) | 503-516 |
Number of pages | 14 |
Journal | Disability and Society |
Volume | 24 |
Issue number | 4 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - 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