Mennesker med utviklingshemning - med kroppen i verden : en drøftning av erfaringsbasert kommunikasjon som sympatisk resonans og gjenklang

Oppgavens problemstilling Mennesker med utviklingshemning – med kroppen i verden. En drøftning av erfaringsbasert kommunikasjon som sympatisk resonans og gjenklang har en åpen formulering. Dette er et bevisst valg. Et kvalitativt arbeid basert på fenomenologisk tenkning vil aldri kunne gi et endelig svar. Oppgaven fremstår snarere som en uavsluttet dialog mellom mine kilder og meg. Det å definere hva kroppslige erfaringer kan bety for mennesker med utviklingshemning og deres kommunikasjon har aldri vært mitt mål. Ved å definere kroppens erfaringspotensiale som endelig ville både dialogen og tankeprosessen stoppet opp. I arbeid med mennesker med utviklingshemning vil et syn på kommunikasjon som en kognitiv prosess preget av innkoding og avkoding av budskap, gjøre at de som har kognitive vansker tildeles en rolle som mindreverdige i kommunikasjon. Kommunikasjon kan imidlertid forstås i et annet perspektiv. Maurice Merleau - Ponty fremmer et syn på kommunikasjon hvor grunntanken er at ethvert inntrykk vil strebe etter å finne sitt uttrykk. Kroppslige erfaringer vil kunne skape gjenkjennelse i senere situasjoner. Slik sett vil erfaringsbasert kommunikasjon også fremme intersubjektivitet, ved at tidligere erfaringer kjennes igjen i nye situasjoner. Metode og materiale Problemstillingen søkes besvart ved hjelp av kildegranskning som metode. Filosofisk hermeneutikk og fenomenologi danner den vitenskapsteoretiske rammen for oppgaven. Fire litterære hovedkilder er valgt. Disse belyser på hver sin måte forskjellige perspektiver på kropp, kommunikasjon og utviklingshemning. Presentasjon av kildene og drøftning av funn struktureres gjennom Reinhard Stelters syv punkter for førstepersonserfaringens betydning. I denne strukturen belyses sammenhengen mellom utviklingshemning, kropp og kommunikasjon som sympatisk resonans og gjenklang. Resultat Leseren av oppgaven vil ikke finne en avsluttende konklusjon om den kroppslige erfaringens betydning for kommunikasjon hos mennesker med utviklingshemning. Funn fra kildene som bidrar til å belyse sammenhenger mellom hovedbegrepene, presenteres som et debattinnlegg for å fremme kroppens betydning for mennesker med utviklingshemning. Innlegget er rettet mot det spesialpedagogiske fagmiljøet ved Universitetet i Oslo, men kan også være av interesse for dem som interesserer seg for kroppen som erfarende og kommuniserende, uavhengig av kognitivt og adaptivt funksjonsnivå. Konklusjon Kroppen er fra fødselen av alle menneskers port til erfaringer. Inntrykk gjennom erfaringer vil i et perspektiv hvor kommunikasjon oppfattes som sympatisk resonans og gjenklang naturlig strebe etter å komme til uttrykk. Merleau - Ponty danner oppgavens filosofiske bakteppe. Hans kommunikasjonsbegrep vil kunne sette forståelsen av den erfaringsbaserte kommunikasjonen hos mennesker med utviklingshemning i nytt lys. Erfaringer kan innebære alt fra små variasjoner innen et kjent tema til store, grensesprengende erfaringer. Oppgavens tematikk og teoretiske forståelsesramme fremmer ikke et entydig svar på problemstillingen. Besvarelsen må heller ses på som et debattinnlegg som ønsker å belyse et tema som er mer påbegynt enn avsluttet i spesialpedagogisk sammenheng

Phenomenology of Professional Practices in Education and Health Care: An Empirical Investigation

In this article a group of professionals working in education and health care explore professional practices and interactions from a phenomenological perspective, drawing on Max van Manen’s conceptualization of the phenomenology of practice and his knowledge interest in understanding and furthering sensitive, caring professional practice. Posing the question what is the meaning of interaction in encounters within education and health care, we look at practice experiences drawn from close observations and interviews during research concerning special needs education, physiotherapy and weight loss programs. Three anecdotes are offered as a way to ‘show,’ rather than interpret, the processes involved. Each anecdote is followed by reflections in which we draw on van Manen’s notion of pathic knowledge and Nancy’s ideas about co-existence to develop phenomenological insights about temporal, embodied and relational qualities of the phenomenon of interaction in professional practice. Such interaction seems to involve continuous negotiation. It emerges as a process of exchange, a movement back and forth between supporting and letting oneself be supported; between confronting and being confronted; between pushing and being pushed. Moments of active engagement give way to periods of waiting for the other to act. The experience is one of continuous back and forth movement in the relational space in-between.Phenomenology of Professional Practices in Education and Health Care: An Empirical InvestigationpublishedVersio

“I bow down in awe of them…”: Sports awards for Paralympic athletes and Olympic athletes

Paralympic athletes receive less media attention than Olympic athletes. Further, Olympic athletes are honoured for athletic achievements, whereas Paralympic athletes have been described as victims, suffering or heroic. Following researchers who have approached normativity and compulsory able-bodiedness in the light of hegemony and sub-hegemony, the current study explores whether sports media are sluggish when presenting athletes with disabilities, or if the picture is a more nuanced one. The context studied was the Norwegian Sports Awards (2001–2018). All introductions to the awards of the following categories were transcribed: Best male athlete, best female athlete, best Paralympian (2002–2012)/best male Paralympian and best female Paralympian (2013–2018). A six-step reflexive inductive thematic analysis was used to analyse the data (Braun & Clarke, 2019). The results indicated that the introduction of elite athletes with disabilities had some prominent hallmarks. Athletes with disabilities (‘they’) are different from those living without disabilities (‘us’). Athletes with disabilities are inspiring. Achievements of athletes with disabilities are placed in the shade, while disabilities are placed to the fore. An overall hegemony shows when best male and best female athlete are introduced: Female athletes are, to a large degree, described as developing and joked about in sexual manners, whereas male athletes are world-leading. This study provides the opportunity to learn from examples that balance the recognition of elite athletes with disabilities experiencing challenges in daily living with recognition of their athletic achievements. Thus, we suggest that this study adds nuance to the previous research within this context

“I Guess that the Greatest Freedom ...”: A Phenomenology of Spaces and Severe Multiple Disabilities

This paper expresses wonder about how bodies in motion can lead towards an understanding of lived meaning in silent lifeworlds. In such lifeworlds, expressions are without words, pre-symbolic, and thus embodied. To address the wonder, phenomenological philosophy and phenomenological methodology were employed to frame an approach that acknowledges lives with disabilities as qualitatively different from, and yet not inferior to, nor less imbued with meaning than, lives without

“He is not crying for real”: severe, multiple disabilities and embodied constraint in two special-needs education units

Students with severe and multiple disabilities are, according to official Norwegian policies, to be included in ordinary school settings. Yet usually their schooldays are organized differently from those of their non-disabled peers. In this paper the authors aim (1) to identify how embodied meaning unfolds when students with severe and multiple disabilities are fastened in assistive technical devices and (2) to identify how staff respond when students make gestures. Applying the phenomenological philosophy and the phenomenological methodology the authors acknowledge movement as fundamental for the students’ possibilities to express their perspective. Their empirical material describes how possibilities for making gestures are severely limited when students are fastened in devices. To shed light on the staff’s recognition and response as fundamental for interactions when students are under embodied constraint, they have applied Goffman’s interactionism

Golden Paper, a Chain and a Bag: A Phenomenology of Queer Things in a Special Needs Education Unit

Children naturally play with things in both expected and unexpected ways. A stick, a spoon, or a chain of pearls may each seem to contain a goldmine of possibilities for the individual child. Every child encounters an object according to their own predilections and abilities. Some children, due to severe and multiple disabilities, are restricted in their possibilities to approach certain things. In this paper, we explore the existential meaning of “queer things” as a way to understand how two children with disabilities reach out to objects in an educational space, where they relate to themselves, to things, as well as to others

Phenomenology of Professional Practices in Education and Health Care: An Empirical Investigation

In this article a group of professionals working in education and health care explore professional practices and interactions from a phenomenological perspective, drawing on Max van Manen’s conceptualization of the phenomenology of practice and his knowledge interest in understanding and furthering sensitive, caring professional practice. Posing the question what is the meaning of interaction in encounters within education and health care, we look at practice experiences drawn from close observations and interviews during research concerning special needs education, physiotherapy and weight loss programs. Three anecdotes are offered as a way to ‘show,’ rather than interpret, the processes involved. Each anecdote is followed by reflections in which we draw on van Manen’s notion of pathic knowledge and Nancy’s ideas about co-existence to develop phenomenological insights about temporal, embodied and relational qualities of the phenomenon of interaction in professional practice. Such interaction seems to involve continuous negotiation. It emerges as a process of exchange, a movement back and forth between supporting and letting oneself be supported; between confronting and being confronted; between pushing and being pushed. Moments of active engagement give way to periods of waiting for the other to act. The experience is one of continuous back and forth movement in the relational space in-between

Phenomenology of Professional Practices in Education and Health Care: An Empirical Investigation

In this article a group of professionals working in education and health care explore professional practices and interactions from a phenomenological perspective, drawing on Max van Manen’s conceptualization of the phenomenology of practice and his knowledge interest in understanding and furthering sensitive, caring professional practice. Posing the question what is the meaning of interaction in encounters within education and health care, we look at practice experiences drawn from close observations and interviews during research concerning special needs education, physiotherapy and weight loss programs. Three anecdotes are offered as a way to ‘show,’ rather than interpret, the processes involved. Each anecdote is followed by reflections in which we draw on van Manen’s notion of pathic knowledge and Nancy’s ideas about co-existence to develop phenomenological insights about temporal, embodied and relational qualities of the phenomenon of interaction in professional practice. Such interaction seems to involve continuous negotiation. It emerges as a process of exchange, a movement back and forth between supporting and letting oneself be supported; between confronting and being confronted; between pushing and being pushed. Moments of active engagement give way to periods of waiting for the other to act. The experience is one of continuous back and forth movement in the relational space in-between

Phenomenology of Professional Practices in Education and Health Care: An Empirical Investigation

In this article a group of professionals working in education and health care explore professional practices and interactions from a phenomenological perspective, drawing on Max van Manen’s conceptualization of the phenomenology of practice and his knowledge interest in understanding and furthering sensitive, caring professional practice. Posing the question what is the meaning of interaction in encounters within education and health care, we look at practice experiences drawn from close observations and interviews during research concerning special needs education, physiotherapy and weight loss programs. Three anecdotes are offered as a way to ‘show,’ rather than interpret, the processes involved. Each anecdote is followed by reflections in which we draw on van Manen’s notion of pathic knowledge and Nancy’s ideas about co-existence to develop phenomenological insights about temporal, embodied and relational qualities of the phenomenon of interaction in professional practice. Such interaction seems to involve continuous negotiation. It emerges as a process of exchange, a movement back and forth between supporting and letting oneself be supported; between confronting and being confronted; between pushing and being pushed. Moments of active engagement give way to periods of waiting for the other to act. The experience is one of continuous back and forth movement in the relational space in-between