The Outsider’s Story

This thesis presents perspectives upon how inclusion is experienced from the point of view of the individual. It seeks to compliment contemporary discourse by interpreting the concept as a fundamental human activity. In this way acting as a counterpoint to narrower interpretations which are often characterised by a deficit discourse or exclusionary sentiment. The research is therefore underpinned by an emancipatory drive aligned to elements of critical pedagogy. The implication of this for practice is the acknowledgement that inclusion does not just apply to those children who stand out, who are labelled in some way, not an obvious minority or indeed marginalised, but to all children in the institutional space. In this study the concept of the Outsider is used as a motif for what is both universal and subjective. Such a literary device recognises the important subjective factors that underpin the existential nature of inclusion. The study views narrative and the stories people tell of their lives as a rich source of data. Ten individuals who are new to the teaching profession participated in the study and it is their stories that form the basis of the subsequent interpretation and analysis. The research was aligned to an interpretative paradigm seeking ideographic insight. The data generated was analysed both textually and aurally through a careful iterative and inductive process of analysis. The themes of the findings suggested the nature of inclusion to be underpinned by subjective and dynamic processes. Such processes linked to the notions of familiarity, application and adaptation that are used by the individual to facilitate aspects of their inclusion in dynamic and creative ways.