Childhood Disability and Ability: (Dis)ableist Geographies of Mainstream Primary Schools

Abstract

The ideological and material location of disabled children's school education has shifted in many nations, in light of recent international initiatives, such as the Salamanca Statement (UNESCO, 1994). Within the context of the United Kingdom (U.K.), children with mind-body differences are increasingly educated within mainstream schools (Special Educational Needs and Disability Act, DfES, 2001a). These changes have led to a spatial convergence of the "special" and "general" education institutions. In this paper, empirical findings are presented from a qualitative study of two "physically inclusive" mainstream primary schools. It is shown that the education institution is underpinned by normative assumptions of "appropriate" childhood development, whereby childhood is viewed as a period of preparation for "productive", conforming adulthood. Such norms are (re)produced through the everyday spaces of the school. Children who do not concur with these expectations are frequently "Othered". Importantly, this paper demonstrates that these norms of childhood development are socio-spatial constructions, which vary between schools. Consequently, children with similar mind-body characteristics are differently diagnosed as (dis)abled within the two schools. These findings challenge biologically reductionist understandings of "disabled" and "non-disabled" identities; stressing that space is integral to which children are diagnosed as "disabled".