Openness to difference: Inclusion in sports occupations for children with (dis)abilities

ABSTRACT

This study explores inclusion in sports occupations for children with (dis)abilities, told as stories of action. Using a life-mode interview, we gathered data from the mother of a boy with (dis)ability. Using a narrative approach to analysis, we focused on sport as an occupation and interpreted its meaning within a broader socio-cultural context of sports occupations. The boy’s experience and his interactive play are understood through the lens of agency and power, emphasising the power exhibited in interactions between people as enacted and not as a given. Using stories, in this case a mother’s stories about inclusion, the analysis is attentive to what goes on between people. Their interaction is viewed as meaningful in contextualising the stories as both individual choices and socio-cultural practices related to children’s sports occupations. The findings illuminate how differences in capacity can be accepted, encouraged and appreciated, and that (dis)ability is related to knowledge and context.

KEYWORDS:

• Children
• (dis)ability
• sports occupations
• inclusion
• agency
• power