Dis/orientating Autism, Childhood, and Dis/ability : Developing Social Theory for Disabled Childhoods

This book considers the many ways autistic lives have been dominantly storied historically, politically, socially, and culturally. Using a range of transdisciplinary theory, the author develops a theoretically rich approach termed dis/orientation, which breaks new ground for autism researchs understanding of everyday life, and everyday childhoods. The book uses stories of everyday life to provoke new analyses of what it means to talk about, live with, and become, an autistic child: these stories of schooling and education highlight what is done to autistic bodies, what is done by these bodies, and what becomes between them. This offers a way in to the theoretical work of dis/orientation; a practice and an ethic, that means remaining ever watchful for single orientations towards (and away from) autism and childhood, and the children living those childhoods. This leads to new disciplinary grounds, a reconceptualisation of the terrains of research and practice, not of the disordered and disembodied autistic mind, but of the embodied, lived, and everyday. Jill Pluquailec is Senior Lecturer in Autism at Sheffield Hallam University, UK. Her research involves work with disabled children and their families. Her work sits within social justice, the social, cultural and political constructions of autism, and the development of more diverse ways we can move towards honouring difference in all aspects of life. Although situated within Education, much of her work is transdisciplinary drawing heavily on Sociology and Critical Disability Studies Acknowledgements 6 Preface 8 Book Overview: Stories as Both Process and Product 8 A story of a project finding its place 11 The Gaze and Dis/orientation in the Book 16 Contents 24 List of Figures 28 1: Contextualising the Terrains 29 A Guide for Traversing the Terrains 30 Route A to B: The History of Autism and Childhood 31 Returning to the Start and Taking the Scenic Route 34 The Scenic Route: A Wondering and Wandering through the Terrains of Autism and Childhood 36 Terrains of Autistic Scholarship 38 References 44 2: Introducing a Theoretical Travel Guide 48 The Making of the Child through the Technology of Schooling 51 Psychologisation, Pathologisation and Familialisation 53 Neoliberal Technology of Self-Governance: Neuroscientism 54 Autism Is White. Autism Is Male. Autism Is Straight 57 Language 60 Autism Advocacy in North America 65 Parents’ Literature: A Specific Terrain 68 References 71 3: Theorising Dis/orientation 77 Disability and the Human 82 A Story to Introduce the Dis/child 86 Towards Theorising Dis/orientation 87 An Aside: Mums on 3rd of July 92 References 94 4: An Auto/ethnographic Story of Working Through Method/ology 98 ‘Talking’ 100 Recruitment 104 Introducing the Families 106 The Connors 107 The Goodwins 108 The Collective 109 ‘Being’ 110 ‘Becoming’: Creative Analytic Practice 119 Moving Forward: Between Methodology and Ethics 122 References 122 5: The Ethics of Advocacy and Consent 127 Consent and Advocacy 128 Consent as Embodied and Ongoing 133 Joe’s Reminder of Risk 136 Advocating Otherwise 137 Stories Left Untold 139 Moving Forward: Ethics in Analysis/Ethical Analysis 142 References 143 6: Talking: The Rhizomes of Everyday Autism 146 More Than a Single Orientation, a Rhizome 148 Talking of Autism as Brain-Centred 150 Talking of Autism as Emotional Labour 155 Talking of Autism as a Mother’s Work 158 A (Temporary) New Entryway to Rhizome: Intervention 161 Collective Talk of Autism: Meeting Producing Autism 164 Talking of Autism as Biosocial 167 References 172 7: Being with/in Bodies 176 Being in Education 181 The Dis/child in Education 182 Policy and the Dis/child 185 Being and Ways of Knowing 189 Disembodied Play 191 Embodied Play: Den Building 194 Dis/orientating Play 196 Sharing Through Embodiment 201 A Nursery Trip: Slipping Back to Disembodiment 202 Window-Licking 203 Challenging Behaviour and Imagined Futures 204 Dis/orientating Window-Licking 206 References 207 8: Becoming: Towards a Critical Analysis of Autism, Childhood and Dis/ability 213 Biting in the Classroom 218 Collapsing Emotion into Behaviour: Autism and Challenging Behaviour 221 Dis/Orientating Emotion through Autism 223 Autism Marking Bodies 224 Inhuman Emotions (Impossible Emotions) 227 Dis/Orientating: Biting Otherwise 231 Saturday Morning Ballet Class 232 What Is Done by Bodies 234 Dis/Orientating: Contesting a Knowable Body 235 References 238 9: Take-home Messages from a Dis/orientated Terrain 242 Take-home Message 1: A New Research Agenda 243 Non-pathologising Autism Research 243 Autism Research and Childhood 246 Autism Research as Embodied 248 Take-home Message 2: A New Agenda for Education 250 For Educators of Autism 250 For Education Policy and Practice 253 The End 255 Postcards from Neitherherenorthere (Figs. 9.1, 9.2, 9.3 and 9.4) 257 References 262 Index 265