Papers by Josefine Wagner
Quality Assurance in Education, 2024
Purpose-The purpose of this study is to highlight a paradox between inclusion/exclusion at the le... more Purpose-The purpose of this study is to highlight a paradox between inclusion/exclusion at the level of the organisation and classroom practices, as well as between general and disability/special educational needs (SEN)-specific approaches to diversity in the classroom. The authors recommend better alignment between school policies and teaching practices to offer all students an equal chance to benefit from inclusive pedagogies. Design/methodology/approach-This study analyses a school that has gained public reputation as
Even though receiving newcomer pupils in schools is not a new phenomenon, many education systems ... more Even though receiving newcomer pupils in schools is not a new phenomenon, many education systems grapple with finding adequate schooling arrangements that foster belonging and inclusion. Over the years, policy-makers and school practitioners seem to echo recurring dilemmas in terms of what language support models may promote optimal inclusion, and whether and how to support the language of schooling while also building on students' cultural and linguistic repertoires. In this article, we present classroom observations from two Austrian primary schools that implemented German language support in two distinct ways. School 1 implemented pull-out classes, whereas School 2 used a model of individualized learning for all students in the mainstream classroom. Utilizing the cultural-linguistic aspects of 'belonging' in pedagogical enactments, we analyze how teachers' instructional strategies to organize curricular learning for newly arrived migrant pupils set conditions for pedagogies of (un)belonging in the classroom. Findings show that pedagogies of (un)belonging seemed to be formed via chains of patterned interactions, activities and utterances based on three key logics: marking students' 'fitness' to the mainstream classroom, creating cultural (in)visibility, and as creating language hierarchies. While the two classroom practices remarkably differed in how they enabled German language learning and fitting to mainstream pedagogical norms, both seemed to uphold monolingualism and monoculturalism. Recommendations are given in order to expand narrow notions of belonging in educational policy and practice.
Von April bis Juli 2018 besuchte ich regelmäßig den Unterricht an einer deutschen Grundschule und... more Von April bis Juli 2018 besuchte ich regelmäßig den Unterricht an einer deutschen Grundschule und führte abschließend Interviews, u. a. mit der Sonderpädagogin, die mit einigen Kindern aus der Klasse in getrennten Kleingruppen gearbeitet hatte. Als wir über das Arbeitsverhältnis zwischen ihr und ihren Lehrerkolleg*innen sprachen, schilderte sie mir folgende Einsichten: "Sie [eine Lehrkraft] hat die Kinder gut voran gebracht, aber sie hat dann auch erwartet, dass ich ihre Hilfslehrerin bin. Und das bin ich nicht. Das musste ich bei einigen Kollegen sagen: Nee, nee, so geht es nicht. Nein. Manchmal habe ich da schon gedacht. So schwierig das zum Beispiel in der Alice Salomon-Schule 1 war, auf der Sonderschule, aber da hatte ich meine eigene Klasse und da konnte ich so arbeiten, wie ICH das für richtig halte. […] Natürlich habe ich hier, ich habe mir selber meine Rolle gewählt nur als Sonderpädagogin und da muss man das natürlich auch aushalten, dass man da also nicht so ganz, dass es eben nicht wie als Klassenlehrer.
Zeitschrift für Disability Studies, 2023
This is a conference report that presents ethnographic field notes on the experiences of roaming ... more This is a conference report that presents ethnographic field notes on the experiences of roaming the hosting city of the 2022 annual meeting of the American Anthropological Association. Seattle has one of the largest unhoused populations in the United States and presents a case study in an "unsettling landscape"-the overarching conference theme. Everyday moments of struggle and kindness among people on the bus and in the cityscape, raise questions as to when and whom is granted "disability expertise" (Hartblay, 2020), humanizing some folks and criminalizing or erasing others. The text focuses on the intersection of homelessness and disability and wonders about the relationship between "hostile architecture" (de Fine Licht, 2017) and accessibility measures (Chellew, 2020).
Conatus, 2019
According to Vera Moser, the first professorship of healing pedagogy, Heilpädagogik at the Univer... more According to Vera Moser, the first professorship of healing pedagogy, Heilpädagogik at the University of Zürich in 1931, established pedagogy of the disabled as an academic discipline. Through the definition of the smallest common denominator for all disabilities, which Heinrich Hanselmann called “weakness of the soul,” a connecting element of “imbecility, deaf-mutism, blindness, neglect and idiocy” was established. Under Nazi rule, school pedagogy advanced to völkisch, nationalist special pedagogy, shifting from the category of “innate imbecility” to a broader concept of disability. As an outcome of these programs and policies, 300,000 people with disabilities were killed as a part of the “T4 Aktion.” Within just a few decades after World War II, special pedagogy expanded its sphere of influence through professionalization and institutionalization in West and East Germany and across Europe. This paper explores how special pedagogy aligned itself with the Nazi regime’s discourse and...
Upon ratification of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities (200... more Upon ratification of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities (2009), Germany shifted from a school system segregated on the basis of disability toward an inclusive classroom policy. Teachers must now put these changes into practice, but they must also change the way they think about children with disabilities in the mainstream classroom. Against an outline of current theoretical concepts of disability, this paper explores and theorizes interviews with practitioners who only recently started teaching inclusively. Teachers express their views on questions of changing teacher identities, constructions of the child with a disability, and frustrations with the current challenges. My ethnographic research reveals how teachers are responding to new policy changes with great uncertainty and on a trial-and-error basis, which unfortunately often proves detrimental to children with disabilities, leading to stigmatization rather than inclusion.
This paper attempts to present an edifice of the concepts and discourses engaged in defining tran... more This paper attempts to present an edifice of the concepts and discourses engaged in defining transformative teacher learning (TTL) within European educational space. To address this goal, we developed three open questions: 1) The definition of teacher learning in the 21st century, 2) transformative dimensions of teacher learning in the 21st century, and 3) the relevance of transformative teacher learning in 21st century education in Europe. Inductive content analysis was applied to interpret the perception survey-based data. Though inconsistently perceived, the most agreed-upon notion was that as a complex and dynamic process, TTL is a knowledge, skills and ability development process that exists in response to changes and challenges associated with the emerging dynamics of education. The relevance of TTL as a transformative approach is in response to the changes associated with the Common European Framework, having its niche in national and transnational education.
Center for Educational Policy Studies Journal, 2018
At the intersection of disability and migration experience, vulnerable bodies are easily construc... more At the intersection of disability and migration experience, vulnerable bodies are easily constructed that become subjected to specialised care, harming individuals rather than enabling them to access free, quality, primary, and secondary education. In 2006, the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UN-CRPD) put forward a social-constructivist understanding of the term 'disability' that focuses on barriers to participation in society, instead of individuals' limitations and the medical gaze on the 'disabled' body. Ratified by the European Union (EU) in 2010, the UN-CRPD has become instructive to EU Member States, since regular monitoring reports issued by UN committees hold countries accountable for realising acts, such as: 'State parties shall ensure that [...] (b) Persons with disabilities can access an inclusive, quality and free primary and secondary education on an equal basis with others in the communities in which they live; [...]' (2006, article 24.2b, p. 17). Limiting special education and channelling more and more students with disabilities and special needs into mainstream education has led to increased diversity in classrooms, even more so in those countries with considerable migration populations. Alienating as it might seem to some teachers at first, all students have the right to the education that has been available to able-bodied classmates of the dominant cultural group. Boxing students into categories does not foster the bond that creates a community of students. Where there is no relationship between teacher and students as well as among students, and where there is no respect for the unique ways students learn, there will be no progress, neither content-wise or socially.
Anthropology and Education Quarterly, 2022
I draw on ethnographic data from a German school to explore discursive practices of educators tha... more I draw on ethnographic data from a German school to explore discursive practices of educators that rationalize the illiteracy of 10-year-old, multilingual Ada. I juxtapose various moments of school life that "thickened" Ada's learner identities and find that special needs labeling often rested on pragmatic considerations of resource management and that cultural stereotyping reinforced a medical diagnosis. I also show that social learning was a way to counteract and reshape Ada's identity as a reader. [special needs education, school ethnography, DisCrit, literacy, inclusion] The Reading Party Last year in July [2017] we held an amazing reading party for Ada. 1 All of us were excited that Ada had finally learned how to read and write. Everyone who helped her came to the party. Together Ada and I wrote the invitation letters to everyone who supported her-which meant everyone in the class, her family, the teachers who helped her-and it was beautiful. Each child brought something along, but that wasn't needed because Ada's family had prepared a whole buffet. You cannot imagine it! There were dances and games, and every teacher who had practiced reading with Ada gave her a book. I still get goosebumps thinking about it. It was a wonderful celebration.
Flags, crucifix, and language regimes: space-marking in three primary schools, 2021
Multi-sited ethnographies allow for a cross-cultural qualitative reading of schooling spaces. Fla... more Multi-sited ethnographies allow for a cross-cultural qualitative reading of schooling spaces. Flags, crucifix and language regimes are sociocultural and political symbols that set the tone for narratives of belonging inside and outside of the classroom. Transclusion (Biesta 2019) provides a fruitful concept to dissect and interpret how authority over space, language and resources is shared in schooling communities. Drawing on Biesta’s functions of education (qualification, socialization, subjectification), the three case studies give insights into the ways that space-marking indicates how schools prioritize one function of education over another. Central European schools exist within the complex history of the continent and must be locally contextualized to understand how the “ruinations” (Abu El-Haj 2020) of the myth of monoethnic (Poland), segregated migrant labor districts (Germany) or multicultural communities (Austria) play out in the everyday lives of schools.In the German-speaking schools, efforts were made to embrace diversity but the German language bias remained an uncontested site of power, achievement and discipline. At the Polish site, emphasis on homogeneity and competition favors passive learning settings and renders diverse student needs invisible.
Purpose: Against the backdrop of a global policyscape of inclusion, this paper investigates how three primary schools (Poland, Austria, Germany) mark entry halls and classrooms with state and religious symbolism and grant presence or absence of multilingualism.
Design/methodology/approach: This multi-sited school ethnography investigates how EU educational policy projects on social justice and inclusion are appropriated and negotiated in the spaces of three Central European schools (Abu El-Haj et al. 2017; Levinson, et al. 2018). I build on Gert Biesta’s concept of “transclusion” (2019) to interpret how school spaces appropriate EU inclusion policies and create a shared sense of community and belonging.
Research limitations: Findings must be treated with caution as these are snapshots into the everyday life of three schools and cannot serve as general claims. Findings: Monoethnic expressions of religious faith (cross), national symbolism (flag) and language regimes co-construct national narratives that draw a line between those who belong and those who do not. Strong national narratives, communicated through entry hall decorations and classroom practices, allow little space for peripheral identities, i.e. migrant students, to claim voice and participate in the classroom and other shared spaces (Poland). Where there is less overlap between entry hall and classroom discourses (Austria), on the other hand, students receive mixed messages when it comes to their acceptance as Austrians. Blank spaces (Germany) presume a possibility to create shared spaces of communication and decision-making that students playfully engage in. However, in both Germany and Austria the ambivalence around space-marking means that language regimes are the more prominent factor in drawing the demarcation line between insiders and outsiders.
Resisting Performativity Measures through Local Activism: A Critical Exploration of the 2019 Polish Teacher Strike, 2020
In this paper, the 2019 Polish Teachers Strike (PTS), joined by 75 percent of all public schools ... more In this paper, the 2019 Polish Teachers Strike (PTS), joined by 75 percent of all public schools and kindergartens for over three weeks, gives rise to an investigation in teacher professionalism that is grounded in local activism. Reading the Polish Teacher Strike (PTS) as a moment of social upheaval (Buchowski, 2017), I claim that the strike deserves anthropological attention to explore its context and meaning for larger socio-political developments at stake. I offer a deeply contextualized reading of the PTS from two angles. First, I analyze the strike under a framework of teacher professionalism that draws on the works of Judyth Sachs (2000; 2016), Solvi Mausethagen and Lise Granlund (2012) to incorporate a locally-grounded understanding of meaningful teacher engagement in social change. Second, I offer an interpretation of the PTS as an act of resistance against performativity measures as part of a number of policy technologies that teachers have been subjected to since 2017 (Ball, 2003), on the one hand, and the notion of the performative as a vital practice in democratic societies (Matynia, 2009a; 2009b) on the other hand.
'Weakness of the Soul': The Special Education Tradition at the Intersection of Eugenic Discourses, Race Hygiene and Education Policies , 2019
According to Vera Moser, the first professorship of healing pedagogy, Heilpädagogik at the Univer... more According to Vera Moser, the first professorship of healing pedagogy, Heilpädagogik at the University of Zürich in 1931, established pedagogy of the disabled as an academic discipline. Through the definition of the smallest common denominator for all disabilities, which Heinrich Hanselmann called "weakness of the soul," a connecting element of "imbecility, deaf-mutism, blindness, neglect and idiocy" was established. Under Nazi rule, school pedagogy advanced to völkisch, nationalist special pedagogy, shifting from the category of "innate imbecility" to a broader concept of disability. As an outcome of these programs and policies, 300,000 people with disabilities were killed as a part of the "T4 Aktion." Within just a few decades after World War II, special pedagogy expanded its sphere of influence through professionalization and institutionalization in West and East Germany and across Europe. This paper explores how special pedagogy aligned itself with the Nazi regime's discourse and policy on eugenics and race hygiene, leading to the murder and mass sterilization of "disabled" children and adults. It probes questions regarding the extent to which the professionalization of special pedagogy has drawn from the Nazi-era terminology of the deficient and foreign to legitimate the contemporary migrant bias in German and Austrian special pedagogical care.
Struggling for Educational Justices in Disabling Societies: A Multi-Sited School-Based Ethnography of Inclusive Policies and Practices in Poland, Austria and Germany, 2019
Drawing on the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UN-CRPD,
2006), the Euro... more Drawing on the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UN-CRPD,
2006), the European Union (EU) envisions inclusive education as a broad agenda that
also responds to the challenges of multiculturalism and migration, socioeconomic inequalities, and the experience of disability. However, as a discipline with a long tradition, special pedagogy continues to hold a firm grip on the disabled body and successfully upholds segregated special-school facilities, which are de facto illegal under the UNCRPD and the right to free, quality primary and secondary education for all students (Art. 24.2b). To understand how the concept of inclusive education takes shape in European classrooms, to grasp the challenges of hyper-diverse school communities, and to comprehend how these are met by all members of the faculty, I explored primary schools in Poland, Austria, and Germany. In this endeavor, I applied the deeply qualitative
approach of educational anthropology.
Abstract. This paper attempts to present an edifice of the concepts and discourses engaged in def... more Abstract. This paper attempts to present an edifice of the concepts and discourses engaged in defining transformative teacher learning (TTL) within European educational space. To address this goal, we developed three open questions: 1) The definition of teacher learning in the 21st century, 2) transformative dimensions of teacher learning in the 21st century, and 3) the relevance of transformative teacher learning in 21st century education in Europe. Inductive content analysis was applied to interpret the perception survey-based data. Though inconsistently perceived, the most agreed-upon notion was that as a complex and dynamic process, TTL is a knowledge, skills and ability development process that exists in response to changes and challenges associated with the emerging dynamics of education. The relevance of TTL as a transformative approach is in response to the changes associated with the Common European Framework, having its niche in national and transnational education.
abstract: Upon ratification of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of People with Disabil... more abstract: Upon ratification of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities (2009), Germany shifted from a school system segregated on the basis of disability toward an inclusive classroom policy. Teachers must now put these changes into practice, but they must also change the way they think about children with disabilities in the mainstream classroom. Against an outline of current theoretical concepts of disability, this paper explores and theorizes interviews with practitioners who only recently started teaching inclusively. Teachers express their views on questions of changing teacher identities, constructions of the child with a disability, and frustrations with the current challenges. My ethnographic research reveals how teachers are responding to new policy changes with great uncertainty and on a trial-and-error basis, which unfortunately often proves detrimental to children with disabilities, leading to stigmatization rather than inclusion.
Book Reviews by Josefine Wagner
Books by Josefine Wagner
Raum Macht Inklusion, 2023
wollen "Platz schaffen. Inklusive Workshops und Peer-Mediation als Beiträge zur Gewaltprävention ... more wollen "Platz schaffen. Inklusive Workshops und Peer-Mediation als Beiträge zur Gewaltprävention in Institutionen". Praxisbeispiele aus Tagesstrukturen und Wohneinrichtungen zeigen verschiedene Aspekte struktureller Gewalt im institutionellen Alltag und Möglichkeiten zur Gewaltprävention in Institutionen anhand inklusiver Workshops und Peer-Mediation auf. Tomke S. Gerdes befasst sich in "Machtvolle Räume-Räume für Inklusion und Teilhabe am Arbeitsmarkt, reflektiert vor dem Hintergrund sozialer Ungleichheitslagen" mit der wichtigen Frage der sozialen Teilhabe im Lebensraum "Arbeit". Dabei fokussiert die Autorin auf Menschen mit psychischen Beeinträchtigungen, greift jedoch ebenfalls "soziale Ungleichheitslagen" in Form verschiedener intersektionaler Perspektiven auf. Jana York und Jan Jochmaring betrachten "Möglichkeitsräume eines digitalisierten Arbeits-und Gesundheitsschutzes in der Werkstatt für behinderte Menschen" sowie das "ambivalente Setting" einer Werkstatt für behinderte Menschen als (Verun-) Möglichkeitsraum. Sie diskutieren vor diesem Hintergrund die Möglichkeiten eines App-basierten Arbeits-und Gesundheitsschutzes. Katrin Schrooten, Tristan Gruschka und Imke Niediek stellen in ihrem Beitrag "Raum für Teilhabe-Verstehen, Verhandeln und Aneignen des Raumes bei sogenannter geistiger Behinderung" konzeptionelle Überlegungen aus zwei Forschungsprojekten vor, die räumliche Aneignungsprozesse als relationale Phänomene der Beziehungen von Menschen und Dingen betrachten. Zum einen wird der Blick auf das Wohnen in besonderen Wohnformen, zum anderen auf die Mobilität im näheren Wohnumfeld gerichtet. Muriel Schilling analysiert "Zwischenmenschliche Beziehungen von Bewohner*innen gemeinschaftlicher Wohnformen in Zeiten von Corona". Sie kritisiert, dass Menschen mit Behinderungen in der Pandemie im besonderen Maße vergessen und ihre Situation-insbesondere in Wohn-und Arbeitseinrichtungen-nicht angemessen berücksichtigt wurde. Die Fragestellung der Dissertation verdeutlicht sehr anschaulich, anhand von Interviewausschnitten von 4 Personen, die in Wohneinrichtungen für Menschen mit Beeinträchtigungen leben, welche Auswirkungen die Pandemie auf diese Personengruppe haben kann. "‚Warum muss mein Kind hin?' Macht und Selbstermächtigung in der Adressierung von Eltern im Kontext von Flucht und Migration" ist der Titel der Interviewanalyse Susanne Leitners. Darin widmet sie sich anhand von Gesprächssequenzen vor allem der Frage, wie Eltern geflüchteter Kinder adressiert und wie diese Räume des selbstermächtigten Sprechens verschlossen oder eröffnet werden können. Ramona Thümmler rückt in ihrem Beitrag "Zwischen Anerkennung und Marginalisierung-Perspektiven von Lehrkräften der Förderschule auf die Zusammenarbeit mit Eltern aus benachteiligten Lebenslagen." die Eltern als Bildungsparter*innen in den Fokus. Sie betrachtet dabei vor allem den Begriff der Anerkennung als mögliche 4 Danksagung Wir bedanken uns als Erstes bei den Autor*innen, die diesen Tagungsband mit ihren vielfältigen theoretischen, empirischen und praktischen Perspektiven möglich gemacht haben. Ganz besonders danken wir auch den Mitgliedern des wissenschaftlichen Beirats für ihre Sorgfalt und Mühen bei der Begutachtung der eingereichten Beiträge und für ihre differenzierten Rückmeldungen, namentlich Mirjam Hoffmann, Thomas Hoffmann et al.
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Papers by Josefine Wagner
Purpose: Against the backdrop of a global policyscape of inclusion, this paper investigates how three primary schools (Poland, Austria, Germany) mark entry halls and classrooms with state and religious symbolism and grant presence or absence of multilingualism.
Design/methodology/approach: This multi-sited school ethnography investigates how EU educational policy projects on social justice and inclusion are appropriated and negotiated in the spaces of three Central European schools (Abu El-Haj et al. 2017; Levinson, et al. 2018). I build on Gert Biesta’s concept of “transclusion” (2019) to interpret how school spaces appropriate EU inclusion policies and create a shared sense of community and belonging.
Research limitations: Findings must be treated with caution as these are snapshots into the everyday life of three schools and cannot serve as general claims. Findings: Monoethnic expressions of religious faith (cross), national symbolism (flag) and language regimes co-construct national narratives that draw a line between those who belong and those who do not. Strong national narratives, communicated through entry hall decorations and classroom practices, allow little space for peripheral identities, i.e. migrant students, to claim voice and participate in the classroom and other shared spaces (Poland). Where there is less overlap between entry hall and classroom discourses (Austria), on the other hand, students receive mixed messages when it comes to their acceptance as Austrians. Blank spaces (Germany) presume a possibility to create shared spaces of communication and decision-making that students playfully engage in. However, in both Germany and Austria the ambivalence around space-marking means that language regimes are the more prominent factor in drawing the demarcation line between insiders and outsiders.
2006), the European Union (EU) envisions inclusive education as a broad agenda that
also responds to the challenges of multiculturalism and migration, socioeconomic inequalities, and the experience of disability. However, as a discipline with a long tradition, special pedagogy continues to hold a firm grip on the disabled body and successfully upholds segregated special-school facilities, which are de facto illegal under the UNCRPD and the right to free, quality primary and secondary education for all students (Art. 24.2b). To understand how the concept of inclusive education takes shape in European classrooms, to grasp the challenges of hyper-diverse school communities, and to comprehend how these are met by all members of the faculty, I explored primary schools in Poland, Austria, and Germany. In this endeavor, I applied the deeply qualitative
approach of educational anthropology.
Book Reviews by Josefine Wagner
Books by Josefine Wagner
Purpose: Against the backdrop of a global policyscape of inclusion, this paper investigates how three primary schools (Poland, Austria, Germany) mark entry halls and classrooms with state and religious symbolism and grant presence or absence of multilingualism.
Design/methodology/approach: This multi-sited school ethnography investigates how EU educational policy projects on social justice and inclusion are appropriated and negotiated in the spaces of three Central European schools (Abu El-Haj et al. 2017; Levinson, et al. 2018). I build on Gert Biesta’s concept of “transclusion” (2019) to interpret how school spaces appropriate EU inclusion policies and create a shared sense of community and belonging.
Research limitations: Findings must be treated with caution as these are snapshots into the everyday life of three schools and cannot serve as general claims. Findings: Monoethnic expressions of religious faith (cross), national symbolism (flag) and language regimes co-construct national narratives that draw a line between those who belong and those who do not. Strong national narratives, communicated through entry hall decorations and classroom practices, allow little space for peripheral identities, i.e. migrant students, to claim voice and participate in the classroom and other shared spaces (Poland). Where there is less overlap between entry hall and classroom discourses (Austria), on the other hand, students receive mixed messages when it comes to their acceptance as Austrians. Blank spaces (Germany) presume a possibility to create shared spaces of communication and decision-making that students playfully engage in. However, in both Germany and Austria the ambivalence around space-marking means that language regimes are the more prominent factor in drawing the demarcation line between insiders and outsiders.
2006), the European Union (EU) envisions inclusive education as a broad agenda that
also responds to the challenges of multiculturalism and migration, socioeconomic inequalities, and the experience of disability. However, as a discipline with a long tradition, special pedagogy continues to hold a firm grip on the disabled body and successfully upholds segregated special-school facilities, which are de facto illegal under the UNCRPD and the right to free, quality primary and secondary education for all students (Art. 24.2b). To understand how the concept of inclusive education takes shape in European classrooms, to grasp the challenges of hyper-diverse school communities, and to comprehend how these are met by all members of the faculty, I explored primary schools in Poland, Austria, and Germany. In this endeavor, I applied the deeply qualitative
approach of educational anthropology.