Boundaries and Structures of Normality

Boundaries and Structures of Normality: 

Boundaries and Structures of Normality Antti Teittinen Finnish Association on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities

Starting Points: 

Starting Points The number of special needs pupils in compulsory schools has increased steadily from the 1990s to the 2000s in Finland In 1995 the 2,9 percent of all pupils were in some form of special teaching and 2005 7,3 percent

Slide5: 

Over 4 percent increase cannot be explained enough with too many pupils in schools classes, problems with families who have children or some other social problems The aim is to give new possibilities to interpret the increase of special teaching from the viewpoint of structuration of educational policy Methods of special teaching and individual needs of special teaching are not on the focus

Research Setting: 

Research Setting How to define the boundary between normal and pathological The aim is to open structural dimensions to interpret the boundary between normal and pathological What kind of social theoretical frame is represented in the ideology of special education and teaching

Slide7: 

Normal and Pathology as a Theoretical Frame of Special Education This dichotomy means that things are possible to define as normal, but they have their pathological forms too Normal and pathology have not ever been opposites of each other in the history of ideas. They are different tendings of the same phenomenon (Comte, Durkheim)

Slide8: 

This way normal and pathology are linked to values, status and multi-cultural issues Can a normal phenomenon change to pathology, if this original normality does not represent the most common manifestation any more?

Slide9: 

Normality is a tool of societal stability Boundaries of normality are the outcomes of political actions in modern society Political action includes political programmes (politics) and action plans (policy) to realise political aims

Governmental Practice: 

Governmental Practice The boundaries of normality need their social structure Bio-politics is the most essential practice to govern in modern society (Foucault) People are classified in financial management categories based on the natural science, it denotes power technologies (Foucault)

Slide11: 

Practical social policy is linked to the use of power technologies (see Eräsaari) Power technologies are the tools of bio-politics in modern society The boundaries of normality are in this process as a bio-political structure (Zola) The aim and uphold of societal stability is realised by control (Foucault)

Slide12: 

The Role of Special Education in Educational Policy Needs of special teaching or a professional mission Part of generations of pupils are selected as special needs pupils: What are the criteria of selection Critics of diagnostics (Vehkakoski) Critics of system (Saloviita)

Slide13: 

Diagnosis process of disabled child is phased by functional development Functional development is based on the evaluation of functioning The selection process is medicalised, i.e. bio-politics

Slide14: 

Does special teaching need special education to authorise its functions? Does special education need special teaching to authorise its function? Educational system though includes the opportunity of special teaching Ideological discussion of integration, segregation, inclusion, exclusion, empowerment etc.

Natural and Human Sciences with Special Education: 

Natural and Human Sciences with Special Education

Conclusion: 

Conclusion The number of disabled persons has not changed, what does it indicate? Have the boundaries of normality been narrowed? The changes of societal ethos, neo-liberalism Schools as one of the traditional controlling institutions

Slide17: 

Bibliography Auguste Comte, Cours de philosophie positive 1855, Plan des travaux scientifiques nécessaires pour réorganiser la société 1822 Emile Durkheim (1895), Sosiologian metodisäännöt. Helsinki, Tammi 1982. Risto Eräsaari, Yhteiskuntapolitiikan aika? Janus 1/2004 Michel Foucault, The History of Sexuality. Vol. I: An Introduction. London, Penguin Books 1979. Timo Saloviita, Erityisopetuksen oikeuttaminen ja vammaishuollon mallit. Teoksessa Vammaisuuden tutkimus (toim. Antti Teittinen). Helsinki, Yliopistopaino 2006 Tanja Vehkakoski, Leimattu lapsuus? Vammaisuuden rakentuminen ammatti-ihmisten puheessa ja teksteissä. Jyväskylä studies in education, psychology and social research 297. 2006 I.K. Zola, In the name of health and illness. On some socio-political consequences of medical influence. Social Science and Medicine Vol. 9. 1975, 83-87.