Abstract

Research has long demonstrated the exclusion and Othering experienced by young people with disabilities in education. This paper presents findings from an ethnographic study conducted in an ‘elite’ sixth-form college in England, set against the backdrop of a shifting social, political, and cultural landscape, where neo-liberal discourses of dis/ability and healthism—centring on mental health and wellbeing—are becoming further embedded in educational policy. Drawing on theoretical work by Bourdieu and Foucault, we demonstrate how the students in this study appeared able to re-make disability as a liberal intellectual identity marker and use it as a form of capital within the bounded college sub-field. However, we argue that these empowered disabled subjectivities were strongly middle-classed and precarious. The findings have implications through advancing current understandings of young people’s complexifying relationships with disability in education, of enduring inequalities around disability, and how social class is implicated in this.

摘要

长期以来的研究表明，残疾年轻人在教育中经历了排斥和他人化。本文介绍了在英国一所“精英”六年级学院进行的一项民族志研究的结果，该研究的背景是社会、政治和文化格局不断变化，其中新自由主义关于残疾/能力和健康主义的论述——集中于心理健康和福祉正在进一步融入教育政策。借鉴布迪厄和福柯的理论工作，我们展示了这项研究中的学生如何能够将残疾重新塑造为一种自由主义知识分子身份标记，并将其用作有界大学子领域内的一种资本形式。然而，我们认为这些被赋予权力的残疾人主体性是强烈的中产阶级和岌岌可危。研究结果具有重要意义，有助于加深人们对年轻人在教育中与残疾的复杂关系、残疾方面持久的不平等以及社会阶层如何与此相关的理解。