Inklusion – muligheder og begrænsninger for deltagelse belyst gennem børns perspektiver på deres skoleliv

Abstract

The article is a rewritten and extended version of the defense speech I gave at my PhD. defense. The dissertation deals with children’s participation in school practice with an interest in exploring the situations in which children experience difficulties. The aim of the dissertation is to develop knowledge about what school troubles seem to be about, and how the organizational forms of schools interact and influence how the children’s participation difficulties develop. Based on an analysis of children’s participation in relation to situational interactions and institutional conditions, the dissertation contributes to develop the concept of inclusion and the understanding of how multiple relationships interact and affect whether the opportunities for participation over time are expanded or limited.

This article is a presentation of the main points from my dissertation and a clarification of the theoretical concepts that have influenced my approach and analytical focus. I present how children and adults must conduct their school life in contradictory conditions in a school with historical agendas and dualities. The contradictions are thus inherent in school practice, and one of the key analytical points in the dissertation is that schools have different conditions for handling contradictory cases and working with the situations where children are in school difficulties.