Uppeldi og menntun - 01.07.2014, Page 93

Uppeldi og menntUn/icelandic JoUrnal of edUcation 23(2) 2014 93
Kristín Björnsdóttir, dan goodley & hanna Björg sigUr jónsdóttir
Looking back I realized that I had seen Stella through the lens of cultural stereo-
types that portray women with intellectual disabilities as both childish and asexual.
These widely held societal assumptions and beliefs are firmly grounded in the indi-
vidual deficit model of thinking which locates the ‘problem’ within the individual
(Atkinson, 1997; Shakespeare, 1996; Sonnander, 2005; Tideman, 2005). Although we
were the same age, and I was a young mother and wife at the time, I did not expect
Stella to have access to the same roles in life as I did as a mother and sexual being.
This is in accordance with Jean Baker Miller (1978) and Wolf Wolfensberger (1972)
who have described how the most highly valued roles in society are connected to the
dominant groups and it is taken for granted that devalued people would not be able
to carry them out.
This story is a good example of how the social construction of disability takes place
in the relations between different individuals (Gustavson, Tøssebro & Traustadóttir,
2005). My reaction reflects the prevailing negative cultural stereotypes of how people
with intellectual disabilities are affected by the way they are seen and treated; further,
it demonstrates how disabling the dominant discourse can be. And through the lenses
of the social understanding of disability I was able to understand the role of society or
dominant discourse of shaping Stella’s life and experiences as well as my interactions
with her as a woman labelled as having intellectual disabilities.
The disrupted story
This story is another account of Kristín’s interactions with participants in her doctoral
research (2006–2007). Anna, like Gunnar, is a nationally accomplished swimmer and
I was very interested in her stories about travelling to different places with her swim
club, but Anna only wanted to talk about her high school years. When we started our
collaboration I knew beforehand that she was an athlete. I was looking forward hear-
ing about her participation in various sporting events, but Anna told me different and
unexpected stories instead (Cary, 1999).
Narrative research is constructed through the interactions between the narrator
and the interviewer and by telling her story the narrator reconstructs her life and
identity (Denzin, 1984b). Anna resisted my questions and probes about sport meets
and kept returning to the topic of her upper secondary education. I was not interested
in issues concerning education and tried to persuade her to tell me the story I want-
ed to hear. Fortunately, Anna was not easily persuaded, and I finally ‘allowed’ her
to tell me her story and as it turned out it had much to do with my initial question
about her participation in sporting events. At the special school she did not take any
English classes. She was upset about that because her poor English skills limited her
opportunities to participate in many social activities. For example, she could not go
to the movies if the film had a complicated plot1 and she could not use the Internet
since most of it is in English. Anna also had difficulties communicating with people
from different countries at all the international sporting events she had participated
in. She could not understand them and felt embarrassed and disappointed because
these events are not merely about competing it is also about socializing – meeting new
people and making new friends.