Maria Kecskemeti

Learning to value difference and diversity is a central goal of Initial Teacher Education [ITE] professional practice programmes in New Zealand. Yet the authors have continued to struggle to work with their ITE students to move them as a group toward such valuing in both theory and practice. In this article events that lead up to the changes initiated in an ITE inclusive education module in response to tensions arising during tutorial sessions in this paper in three previous years are outlined. A new pedagogical approach consisting of changes to curriculum material, the format of discussions and the tutorial environment itself is introduced. Four examples from participants’ discussions are discursively analysed, uncovering key teaching moments-of-transformation possibilities inherent in the talk. What is revealed is that less confrontational, more productive conversations became possible through the changes initiated. Theorisation of the authors’ experiences of the changes is then provided, drawing on postmodern notions of difference, normalisation, intra-action and affective climates. Finally we suggest that it is important for tutors of such papers to interrogate their practices and where possible to prioritise pedagogies that support an openness to difference and being affected by others as a foundational pedagogical element. 


Key Words: disability, normalisation, teacher education, intra-active pedagogy

Brink, A., Hamilton, C. & Kecskemeti, M. (2014). Othering is normative: A discursive analysis of beginning teachers’ reflections about developing inclusive practices in primary schools in New Zealand  CADAAD (Critical Discourse Analysis Across Disciplines) Conference, 1 – 3 September, ELTE (Eötvös Lóránt University),  Budapest, Hungary

Insights gained from changes in thinking about the nature and function of ‘disability’ have driven calls for equal access, equal rights and social justice for all people with disabilities.1 As signatory to the United Nations’ Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities2 the New Zealand government has mandated that all schools must be fully inclusive by 2014. Yet the legacy of past practices of prejudice, exclusion and lack of accountability remain inherent in our education system.3

Initial teacher training programmes have been targeted as key points of significance in the development of more sophisticated understandings about disabling conditions and inclusive practices.4 Given that social practices of exclusion based on appearance and behavior are ubiquitous in New Zealand,5 and following the conclusion of an attitudinal shift pilot survey, we developed a circle pedagogy to help beginning teachers to engage with and reconcile the exclusionary practices of their social world with what they must now achieve as professionals in their classroom practice.

A Foucauldian-inspired discourse methodology 6,7,8, 9 was employed to analyse the contents of one hundred and seventy reflective journals. These were written by beginning teachers enrolled in a compulsory undergraduate paper in developing inclusive practices in which the three of us teach.

The analysis uncovered a significant ‘we/they’ binary deployed to construct children with disabilities as morally inferior in respect of a normative image of a non-disabled, deserving child. Tensions produced by this binary were deep and pervasive, limiting creative thoughts about how a ‘both/and’ rather than an ‘either/or’ view might assist good practice development. In the wider context in which ‘othering’ is normative 10, this finding was expected. However, the discursive examples found clearly show why teacher educators must openly assist beginning teachers to develop greater reflexivity related to this tension. We will also give work-in-progress examples of how we engage beginning teachers in unsettling practices of othering and in troubling the notion of ‘normal’.










References

1. Oliver, M. (1996). Understanding Disability: from Theory to Practice. London: Palgrave MacMillan.

2. United Nations’ Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities, (2007).
Retrieved from: http://www.un.org/disabilities/convention/ conventionfull.
shtml (Accessed 27 November 2013)

3. Morton, M. and Gordon, L. (2006). Inclusive education in Aotearoa: what are we doing in initial teacher education, professional learning and development? Final report to NZCCS. NZCCS Disability Action. 22pp. http://hdl.handle.net/10092/2580 [Accessed 27th November 2013]

4. Education Review Office (2010). Including Students with High Needs. Retrieved from: http://www.ero.govt.nz/National-Reports/Including-Students-with-High-Needs-June-2010 [Accessed 27 November 2013]

5. Kearne, A. (2008). Barriers to School Inclusion. Retrieved from  mro.massey.ac.nz/handle/10179/876. [Accessed 27 November 2013]

6. Arribas-Ayllon, M., & Walkerdine, V. (2008). Foucauldian Discourse Analysis. In C. Willig & W. Stainton-Rogers (eds.), The SAGE Handbook of Qualitative Research in Psychology (pp. 91–108). London: Sage Publications.

7. Foucault, M. (1981). So is it important to think? In J. D. Faubion (ed.), R. Hurley (Trans.), Power: essential works of Foucault 1954-1984 (pp. 454–458). New York, NY: New Press.

8. Horton-Salway, M. (2001). The Construction of M.E: The Discursive Action Model. In: Wetherell, M., Taylor, S. & Yates, S. (eds.) Discourse As Data: A Guide for Analysis (pp. 147 – 189). London, UK: Sage Publications

9. Taylor, S. (2001). Locating and Conducting Discourse Analytic Research. In: Wetherell, M., Taylor, S. & Yates, S. (eds.) Discourse As Data: A Guide for Analysis. (pp. 5-48). London, UK: Sage Publications

10. Shildrick. M. (2005). The Disabled Body, Genealogy, and Undecidability. Cultural Studies,19(6) pp. 755-770.

The vision of the Ministry of Education is that all schools will demonstrate inclusive practices by 2014. This means that young people with special education will be engaged and achieving in their local school through being present, participating and learning. This idea, first mandated in the Education Act (1989), has yet to be realised in a number of New Zealand schools  twenty-five years later. To answer the question – what more needs to change in order to meet the vision as stated? – this presentation traces the development of the compulsory Inclusive Education paper curriculum taken by year 3 University of Waikato beginning teachers as part of their BTeach degree. Changes made to the paper since 2000 – when the NZ Disability Strategy was adopted – and student responses to them are outlined.  Strategies developed to help align beginning teachers’ attitudes, values and practices to the aspirations of the Ministry of Education and parents/whanau of students with special educational needs are also considered.