Between hopes and possibilities. (Special) educational paths, agency and subjectivities

ABSTRACT

The article explores educational paths of disabled young people in Finland. Our approach is life-historical: we are interested in how individual paths are formed by historically and culturally specific discourses and practices, and in the cultural understandings concerning disability and educability these carry. We also focus on questions of subjectivity and agency by asking how individuals positioned in these practices build an understanding of themselves, and of the possibilities and obstacles in their educational path. Two life-history interviews are analysed in detail. Our analysis highlights the persistence of stereotypical cultural narratives of disability in the life stories. In addition, it suggests that disability rights discourse has provided an important counter discourse for disabled young adults – a new way of conceptualizing self and one's educational path.

KEYWORDS:

• Disabled young adults
• educational paths
• life-history
• agency
• subjectivity

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Anna-Maija Niemi is currently working as a postdoctoral researcher at the Department of Teacher Education, University of Helsinki, Finland.

Reetta Mietola is currently working as a postdoctoral researcher at the Department of Social Research, University of Helsinki, Finland.

Notes

1. In Finland, the concept of inclusive education mainly refers to the organization of special needs education, and not to the wider aim of developing inclusive educational cultures (with regard to multiple minority groups). Also, the concept is commonly used only in relation to students with mild learning difficulties, while students with more severe and multiple disabilities are typically considered to be ‘beyond inclusion’, and thus study in segregated arrangements.

2. These names are pseudonyms.

3. Pasi identified himself as a sign language user in the interview. While his narration makes visible that at school, he was rather considered as ‘hard of hearing’ student than deaf, we consider this identification significant.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the European Union as a part of the Equality is Priority 2 (YES) Project (Finnish Ministry of Interior), The Finnish Multidisciplinary Doctoral Training Network on Educational Sciences (FinEd) and Academy of Finland under the projects Citizenship, agency and difference in upper secondary education (SA 131548, 2010–2013) and Profound Intellectual and Multiple Disabilities and a Good Life (SA 275988, 2014–2018).