Reading the Signs: A Semiotic Perspective of Inclusive Practice

Abstract

This conceptual paper illustrates how applied semiotics can uncover hidden assumptions of school practices for students with disabilities. These school practices or 'microtechniques' (Foucault, 1980) represent language as a multiple sign system that serves to empower or disempower students in inclusive settings. An awareness of language as a multiple sign system allows teachers to view intervention strategies as dynamic processes rather than static structures to be learned and remembered. Thus, teachers learn how language connects people through symbolic means, inviting some members into the larger community while marginalising others.