Support as a double-edged sword: a social-relational understanding of teaching assistants’ support to young people with dwarfism in secondary schools

Abstract

Although teaching assistants’ support has been described as central for the inclusion of disabled students in mainstream schools, disabled students’ insights into such support indicate they have mixed feelings towards it. This paper explores the ambiguity young people with dwarfism feel towards support in secondary schools in the United Kingdom, drawing on the qualitative accounts of fourteen participants. Utilising a social relational understanding of disability, this paper aims to indicate how teaching assistants’ support reinforces and/or removes barriers to doing and barriers to being, which are the outcome of disability and impairment respectively. Participants’ stories highlight the psycho-emotional toll support can have and the hidden labour disabled students put to navigate such barriers. The complicated relationship between support and independence is also considered, with participants drawing on various understandings of independence. The paper concludes by discussing what a social relational analysis has to offer in our understanding of support and how this could translate into inclusive support.