I will, in this presentation, discuss both conceptualizations of inclusion-as-action, and issues regarding the didactics-of-representation. In my presentation I will argue for the need to shift the focus (i) from the marginalized Other to the non-marked Norm, and (ii) from the center to the boundaries that are (re)created in everyday actions and that give rise to the Other. I will illustrate how human identity and diversity, including an “imaginary community” (Andersson 1991), plays a decisive role for society’s planning of and support in the work that is done for integration, inclusion and equality. I will specifically discuss identity and the conceptualizations or metaphors related to the dominating dichotomized positions – “inclusion/mainstreaming” and “exclusion/segregation” – we have inherited, live with and that (re)create possibilities or frameworks for children, young people and adults in different institutional settings (Wertsch 2002). Taking an overarching critical humanistic, socially oriented framework that includes a sociocultural perspective and a decolonial position on human communication and identity, I will draw upon studies from different ethnographic projects at the CCD research group at Örebro University, Sweden (www.oru.se/humes/ccd). Taking the field of deafness research, including work in the areas of gender and ethnicity as illustrations, I will introduce a third position or “alternative voices” (Husnain et al 2013) in conversations about human collectives and communities-of-practices. This third position, highlights spaces for the didactics-of-representation and inverted-inclusion, allowing for new conceptualizations, including institutional strategies with regards to one-society-for-all, one-school-for-all, a-culture-for-all or in other words, one-for-all.

References:

Anderson, B. (1991). Imagined Communities. Reflections on the origin and spread of nationalism. London: Verso.

Hasnain, I., Bagga-Gupta, S. & Mohan, S. (Eds.) Alternative Voices: (Re)searching Language, Culture and Identity... Newcastle-upon-Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.

Wertsch, J. (2002). Voices of Collective Remembering. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.