A small but significant shift in focus can be discerned in how issues related to and the analyses of identity are being approached by students in the human sciences. Understandings related to human practices, communication and interaction from post-structural points of departure can be seen as framing this recent shift. The study presented here contributes to this body of work where the situated nature of meaning making and human identities are viewed as being central. A sociocultural perspective on human communication, learning and identity frame the questions raised and the analysis in the study. In addition, this study is inspired by the literature that focuses issues of school success and failure in terms of being socially constructed and interactionally defined.

 

The study is based upon observations and informal discussions as well as video taped data from entire school weeks conducted during one school term in the late 1990’s in grade 7 of a Swedish secondary school. We present analysis of everyday life and interactions between different constellations of adults (different class teachers and one assistant) and pupils (a school class of seeing and one blind) both inside and outside classroom settings. The empirical data consisted of videotaped material complemented by field notes and informal discussions with members of grade 7.

 

Results presented here focus upon the following questions: In what ways do classroom practices (co)constitute human identities and roles (adult, pupil, seeing, blind) in school settings? What ideas vis-à-vis inclusion and communication can be discerned in local school documents and in the operationalisation of normative ideas regarding inclusion and communication when everyday practices are focused? In other words, how can we understand processes that shape and situate identities in and through different communicative arenas in educational settings? The findings are presented in terms of what mundane communication, interaction and integration looks like in a secondary school grade where one of the pupils is blind and all other members (adults and pupils) are seeing.

 

Results highlight aspects of participation and non-participation in different types of settings in schools (both inside and outside classrooms). Both implicit and explicit differences can be seen as arising in the participation structures inside and outside classroom practices for the pupils. Membership categories evolve within the framework of pair and group constellations and are shaped within these structures. They are, in other words, not static or simply individually owned. Learning and understanding who one is and what membership roles are open or closed, what is sanctioned and preferred in different settings occurs in the mundane flow of interactions in different school practices both inside and outside the classroom. The results also highlight challenges that adults face when they adapt their everyday routines for a pupil who is functionally disabled. Issues regarding control and the distribution of resources (time, material, membership of smaller group constellations, etc) by adults exemplify some of these challenges. The assistant’s role in making these resources available is particularly focused. The results present a glimpse of the everyday life routines of a 13 year old blind boy, his classmates and the adults who they collaborate with in different school settings. In addition, the results raise issues related to how adults and pupils shape each another’s identities and particularly the opportunities the functionally disabled pupil has access to for participating in different types of activities.

 

At a more general level, these types of results raise issues concerning the social construction of identities and the situatedness of learning for all pupils. The study also calls attention to the paucity of research that focuses the very processes through which identities are shaped and the concomitant need to focus upon interactional spaces in order to understand inclusion, human identities and learning.