Get Them Out of My Way! Autoethnography of the Support Teacher’s Experience in Italian Primary School

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Abstract

This work examines my experiences as primary teacher for SEN pupils in Italy. The data comes from a larger qualitative research project, based on an autoethnography, realized in two public primary schools. Symbolic boundaries, practical classifications and stigmatization processes, of the pupil and 'his teacher', are sociologically investigated (Graham, Slee 2008, Haegele, Maher 2023). The delegitimization of the special needs/support teacher is a decisive element that can block inclusive teaching strategies, partially limiting their design and nullifying their results. A status quo is maintained that goes even beyond mere intra-occupational hierarchies and concerns the cultural ways and tools through which we think and approach diversity.

Author

• Anna Uboldi, Università di Milano