Inclusion, Power, and Community:Teachers and Students Interpret the Language of Community in an Inclusion Classroom

Abstract

To illuminate the processes of creating learning communities, this study investigated the social context of an inclusion classroom by examining (a) how teachers established a community ethos, (b) how students responded with regard to the positioning of students with disabilities, and (c) how macro discourses possibly shaped interactional processes. Teachers used discourse and participation frameworks in whole-class lessons to encourage participation and collective responsibility for “helping.” Nevertheless, the teachers’ inclusive language was manipulated to harass and exclude in small-group contexts. Benhabib’s conceptions of “general” and “concrete” selves and Cornelius and Herrenkohl’s aspects of classroom power—assigning ownership, creating alliances, engaging in persuasion—frame a discussion of contexts of inclusion and exclusion.