Boundary-making between mainstream and special education: a posthuman ethnographic investigation of materialities of schooling and Danish teachers’ imaginaries and practices around ‘middle forms’

Abstract

This article explores production of divisions and belonging between mainstream and special education needs students in Danish primary education. The article analyses the boundary-making practices produced by teachers and materialities of schooling between mainstream education students and those with mild to moderate special needs whose schooling is divided between the mainstream classroom and special provisions within the walls of the mainstream school. The article is based on ethnographical fieldwork in two Danish public schools with teachers from 4th to 6th grade in mainstream education. Using artefacts such as empty chairs, missing names, and lavatories for specific groups of students, the analysis shows how nonhuman mundane materialities of the school and classroom do performative work in enacting divisions and belonging in mainstream education. Besides the focus on materialities, teachers’ statements on students with special needs offers insights into teachers’ imaginaries and perspectives on their responsibilities (or lack thereof) concerning students with special needs. Despite intentions to enhance opportunities for students with special needs to participate in mainstream classroom activities, this study’s main findings suggest a strong segregation between the two groups and that teachers and materialities are reinforcing and reproducing this segregation through artefacts, (dis)placements, counterproductive imaginaries, and discursive statements.