ISaR Projekt

This article interrogates the mechanisms of spatialisation (Imrie, 1996; Armstrong, 2003) and rationalisation (Foucault, 1977; Foucault, 1980; Foucault, 1982) as applied to disabled students within the Italian policy of integrazione scolastica (school integration). It is argued that a spatial reading of an integration policy in mainstream schools may require a type of analysis distinct from the one used for a spatial reading of a policy of special schooling in segregated settings. This is because within mainstream settings, spatialising processes and rationalisation procedures are of a different type, and segregation practices are often invisible or less detectable. This argument is substantiated through an unconventional reading of integrazione scolastica that seeks to go beyond a traditional debate that opposes integration to segregation practices and that investigates the theoretical premises in which the Italian policy is embedded. Evidence of how the use of space and place in schools may contribute to the reproduction of forms of micro-exclusion is provided with examples drawn from the findings of two research projects conducted in lower secondary schools in Italy.

(Source: Abstract)