Kehitys- ja vaikeavammaisten henkilöiden hallinta ja kansalaisuus vammais- ja koulutuspolitiikassa sekä ammatillisen erityisoppilaitoksen arjessa

This study analyses citizenship and governmentality concerning persons with learning disabilities. It contributes to academic debates in disability studies and educational sociology by analysing the educational and societal positioning of persons with learning disabilities. In addition, the study participates in social policy research debates concerning social services for and living conditions of persons with learning disabilities. The dissertation consists of four academic articles and a summary. The articles analyse Finnish national and international disability and education policy from the early 1990s to the end of the 2010s as well as everyday education practices of the vocational programme called “Preparatory education and training for work and independent living” (the training programme) at a vocational special education institution. The summary discusses and scrutinizes the themes and findings of the articles in their historical context. The research data consists of (1) national and international policy documents, (2) interviews conducted with nine experts in vocational special needs education, and (3) ethnographic fieldnotes and interviews from fieldwork conducted in a vocational special education institution during the school year in 2015–2016. The concept of governmentality and theory on the relation between normalcy and disability form the theoretical framework for this study. Utilizing these theoretical perspectives, the analysis focuses on various technologies and rationalities by which persons with learning disabilities are governed as citizens. The analysis of disability and education policies shows that since the 1990s the main objective of these policies has been to improve the socio-economic situation of people with learning disabilities and their opportunities to participate in society. In line with these policy objectives, in the last few decades persons with learning disabilities have had more opportunities for social participation, especially in education. Since the late 1990s, persons with learning disabilities have had the right to participate in both basic and post-compulsory education within the general education system. This however intersects with neo-liberal rationalization becoming mainstream in political reasoning. The neoliberal reasoning of self-sufficiency and economic independence has altered the legitimization of social and educational provision for persons with learning disabilities. Analysis of the interviews with vocational special needs education experts and the ethnographic data from the training programme shows how segregated educational arrangements are legitimized and how persons with learning disabilities are governed within these arrangements. The training programme does not lead to vocational qualifications. Instead, its societal function is to guarantee students who are not seen as able to cope with vocational education an opportunity to participate in post-compulsory education. Therefore, the training programme is legitimized though its societal function; participation in it is considered as societal participation per se. In contrast to this view, the analysis of the content of the programme makes visible how the students are actually guided to social services and trained to live as self-sufficiently as possible within these settings. By historizing both the expansion of educational options for persons with learning disabilities and the mainstreaming of neoliberal reasoning in disability and education policy, the study shows how disability and education services have been separated during the last decades. This separation has depoliticized the connection between social services and education. Through depoliticization, the educational objectives and practices of the training programme are defined as an educational matter, and therefore, as both unquestionable and reasonable. It is argued that this change has affected the societal positioning of persons with learning disabilities as deserving poor citizens since the 1990s. Väitöskirjassa analysoidaan kehitys- ja vaikeavammaisten henkilöiden hallintaa ja kansalaisuutta. Tutkimus koostuu neljästä tieteellisestä artikkelista ja yhteenvedosta. Tutkimuksen artikkeleissa analysoidaan kansallista ja kansainvälistä vammais- ja koulutuspolitiikkaa 1990-luvulta 2010-luvun lopulle sekä kehitys- ja vaikeavammaisille opiskelijoille suunnatun työhön ja itsenäiseen elämään valmentavan koulutuksen (TELMA) arkea ammatillisessa erityisoppilaitoksessa. Yhteenvedossa artikkelien teemoja ja tuloksia tarkastellaan niiden historiallisessa kontekstissa. Tutkimuksessa hyödynnetään kolmea aineistokokonaisuutta: (1) kansallisia ja kansainvälisiä vammais- ja koulutuspoliittisia asiakirjoja, (2) ammatillisen erityisopetuksen asiantuntijoiden haastatteluita sekä (3) ammatillisessa erityisoppilaitoksessa tehtyyn etnografiseen kenttätyöhön perustuvaa aineistoa. Analyyttis-teoreettisen viitekehyksen muodostavat kriittisen vammaistutkimuksen teoretisoinnit vammaisuuden ja normaaliuden suhteesta sekä hallinnan analytiikan ja hallinnallisuuden tematiikan käsitteellistykset vallan harjoittamisen käytännöistä. Eri hallinnan tasoilla liikkuvassa analyysissä katse on moninaisissa hallinnan tekniikoissa ja järkeistämisen tavoissa, joissa kehitys- ja vaikeavammaisten henkilöiden kansalaisasemaa muodostetaan. Tutkimuksessa esitetään, että 1990-luvulta lähtien yhteiskunnalliseen integraatioon ja osallisuuteen tähtäävä vammais- ja koulutuspolitiikka on muuttanut tapaa, jolla kehitys- ja vaikeavammaisten henkilöiden kansalaisasema vammaispalveluverkostossa ansaitsevina autettavina jäsennetään. Kehitys- ja vaikeavammaisten henkilöiden elämää edelleen käsikirjoitetaankin pitkälti palvelujärjestelmän ehdoilla.