”Jag var liksom svår att hantera” – elevers upplevelse av inkludering och identitetsskapande i gymnasiesärskolan

Sammanfattning: Recent research show that young people with mild intellectual disabilities are raising complaints against the society´s demand for categorization in order to provide the right amount of support (Ineland, Molin & Sauer 2013, Tideman 2012). This study’s purpose is to find out if and how students attending a senior high school for people with intellectual disability, are affected by their school attendance in their identity making. With focus on finding out:1.What situations within the school prove specific importance in relation to students’ identity making?2.How are the students identity making limited or enabled by their attendance at the school for students with intellectual disabilities? 3.How are the students identity making affected by being included or excluded?The theoretical framework is inspired by theories based on social constructionism. The author has chosen to adopt an intersectional analysis that claims that different power relations in society affects and reinforce each other. Another important theory is social identity theory and representations theory. These theories explain how social identity is created in the relation between the individual and the social world that she exists in. The empirical material was collected through interviews with six students currently attending a senior high school for people with intellectual disability, “gymnasiesärskola” in Swedish. The results show that the specific situations that proved importance for the student’s identity making were: When they were not being able to make choices. How other people, especially teachers, were relating to them combined with the social climate in groups they belonged to. And the overall sense of not being “normal” and having a diagnosis. Results that appeared to be new compared to other studies were that the students interpreted their diagnosis as a school issue and not something that was connected to their own person.