Chapter 2

Researching Special Schools: A Poststructuralist Approach

Bronwyn Davies and Cath Laws

Abstract

This work involves developing the capacity to apply poststructuralism in a place where other discourses are dominant. I examine the educational practices used in a special school for those students who are read as unmanageable and too violent to be maintained in mainstream/regular schooling. In this chapter, I examine ways of collecting data in a poststructural frame, and ways of making the discursive practices of the special school more visible. I discuss the difficulties of working in a poststructuralist way and examine issues of anonymity for the students who were part of my study. I then discuss the theoretical framework, which is particularly informed by the work of Foucault. During the period of my study, I was the principal of the school in which the study was undertaken.

Total Pages: 3-26 (24)

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