Abstract

Working within a frame of an ‘ethic of discomfort’ (Foucault, 1994), this paper conducts a ‘reparative reading’ (Sedgwick, 1997) of a confessional narrative. This narrative was developed from the transcript of a research team meeting in which one of the primary school teacher participants describes the difficulty of attending to difference in terms of physical ability in the day-to-day running of the classroom. In this narrative, the anxiety in and around discourses of inclusion is articulated and a lack of willingness to attend to that area is admitted. If inclusion ultimately signals respect for difference and diversity, then it is clear that this confessional narrative demonstrates one example of counter discourses to the discourse of inclusion that is officially sanctioned by a number of New Zealand government policies and recommendations where specific reference is made to the education rights of students with disabilities. The intention is not to single out one particular teacher, rather I suggest that it is not uncommon to find this position represented in New Zealand schools. By conducting a reparative reading of a text that draws upon deficit discourses and discourses of anti-political correctness, I seek to conduct a more generous critique that will open up spaces where educators might practice the Foucauldian ethics of ‘care of the self’ in which educators can work on themselves and become the ethical selves they aspire to be.