Inclusive education, where, how and for whom? : A qualitative analysis of discourses of inclusion and disability among Swedish podcasts

Abstract: The complex and ambiguous understanding of the concept of inclusion of children with disabilities in mainstream schools in Sweden as well as internationally results in a frustration for both teachers, parents and mainly, the children themselves due to excluding practices where the right to education is not fulfilled. This study builds on previous research and contributes to the understanding of the concept of inclusion and its struggle of fixing the meaning. Our aim with this study is to contribute to the knowledge of inclusion by searching for how different professionals in Swedish podcasts understand and interpret the concept of inclusion in relation to the school environment and what discourses of inclusion and disability that are (re)produced. Nine Swedish podcasts have been selected in this study and are analysed with a combined method of thematic analysis and discursive theory with inspiration from Laclau and Mouffe. According to the results of our study, inclusion was defined in relation to what it is not, not just about physical placement, and defined rather as a sense of belonging and participation in the educational environment as well as relational. The discourses of inclusion and disability were articulated around certain themes that had a dominant status in the partial fixation of meaning and consisted of the nodal points of ‘inclusion’, ’problem as obstacles’, the identity of ‘disabled children/students’ and the theme ‘responsibility’. The overall conclusion of the study is that inclusion is an ambiguous concept consisting of different articulations of problems around it but the ideological understanding that inclusion is necessary in order to combat discrimination in society is still agreed upon.