Segregated and yet inclusive? the application process for upper secondary school in Iceland for students labelled as disabled through the lens of social justice

ABSTRACT

Inclusive education is affirmed in Icelandic laws and regulations although, at upper secondary school level, schools can apply to establish special programmes for students who have been labelled as disabled. The application process for these programs differs from the one in the mainstream regarding arrangement and time. In this article, special attention will be paid to the application process for Icelandic students with intellectual disabilities at upper secondary level. We use Alecia Jackson’s and Lisa Mazzei’s methodology of thinking with theory by ‘plugging’ Iris Marion Young’s philosophical concepts of oppression regarding social justice into the text, and vice versa. This approach reveals a discriminatory application process where cultural imperialism has the upper hand causing a denial of group differences. Students are being marginalised based on their support needs which can, among other things, result in systemic violence.

KEYWORDS:

• Thinking with theory
• plugging in
• iris Marion Young
• oppression
• social justice
• upper secondary education of students with disabilities

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. The first author started collecting data soon after she entered her PhD studies hence the time span in data collection.