Representations of disability: School and its cultural effects

Abstract

School plays a significant role in cultural production where representations of difference and disability are very important: educational and pedagogical practices (implicit and explicit) help to form cultural and social representations of the world and, consequently, to confirm some stereotypes too. In this regard the study of social representations linked in with disability assumes some importance: in fact disability becomes a difference excluded from educational and social dynamics as well as from full participation in citizenship. This research will try to draw some dominant social representations about differences and disability, through analysis of young university students stories and memories. © 2010 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.