The silenced discourse: Students with intellectual disabilities at the academy of music in Sweden

Abstract

In this article, based on a larger research project, the ambition is to critically discuss the first collaboration between students with intellectual disabilities and the Academy of Music in Sweden. The article presents an analysis of video observations of lessons in rhythmics, related to an encounter between the students with intellectual disabilities and a group of student teachers. The theoretical and methodological framework emanates from post-structuralist and social constructionist theories. The results show that the silenced discourse, the unspoken, is constructed from the fact that the students with disabilities both are insufficiently skilled for the task as leaders in rhythmics, and less skilled than the student teachers. Finally, the silenced discourse is discussed, where assumptions of normality and issues of inclusion are addressed as well as a hegemonic discourse in the Swedish politics of education.