{"id":2336,"date":"2024-10-21T15:53:24","date_gmt":"2024-10-21T14:53:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.ac.uk\/sioe\/?p=2336"},"modified":"2024-10-21T15:53:24","modified_gmt":"2024-10-21T14:53:24","slug":"educating-kemi-resisting-negative-narratives-around-neurodiversity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.ac.uk\/sioe\/2024\/10\/21\/educating-kemi-resisting-negative-narratives-around-neurodiversity\/","title":{"rendered":"Educating Kemi: resisting negative narratives around neurodiversity"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n

The Tory leadership contender, Kemi Badenoch, has recently made some \u2018stigmatising\u2019 and confused remarks concerning autistic people.<\/a> This is just the latest chapter in what has become an ongoing spectacle of socio-cultural posturing within what the media often calls the “culture wars.” Not content with vilifying asylum seekers and trans people, Badenoch is now targeting disabled people, specifically autistics who have had the audacity to assert their rights under the Disability Act.<\/p>\r\n

To say that Badenoch has formed an argument here would be generous. Her criticism of autistic people is incoherent and disconnected from her broader tirade against bureaucracy. It’s difficult to discern how autism links to her complaints about governmental red tape<\/a> because, frankly, it doesn’t. Her statements suggest a fundamental lack of understanding, not just of autism, but of the basic tenets of neurodiversity, and disability more broadly. Neurodiversity, for instance, is not a diagnostic label; it’s a sociocultural and political term<\/a>. Many people, including Badenoch, conflate neurodiversity with specific medical diagnoses, which only serves to muddle the conversation further. In her previous remarks about trans people, Badenoch has similarly conflated biological and cultural concepts, reflecting a deep misunderstanding of the issues she speaks on.<\/p>\r\n

The socially produced crisis
If, in some convoluted way, Badenoch is hinting at a crisis in special educational needs (SEN)<\/a> and mental health within schools, then she would be correct. However, blaming the people who are suffering the most for these systemic issues is a classic right-wing tactic. It’s akin to Nigel Farage\u2019s inflammatory rhetoric about immigrants crossing the English Channel. Both SEN and mental health crises are socially and economically produced; they are the result of policies and conditions shaped by those in power, not by the people who are most affected. Our current education and healthcare systems are structured around targets and bureaucratic efficiency rather than the actual needs of people. The result is that those who require the most support are often the first to be squeezed out, and Badenoch\u2019s comments do nothing but exacerbate the marginalisation of these groups.<\/p>\r\n

The “Culture Wars” and misplaced focus
In her quest for leadership, Badenoch has become a key player in the so-called “culture wars\u201d, a framing that positions the issues at hand as battles, with winners and losers. For those on the receiving end of Badenoch\u2019s comments, it certainly feels like a war, especially when our identities and rights are being called into question. As an autistic person myself, with two autistic children, it would be easy for me to react as if attacked, because these words hurt. However, I think it is unproductive to focus too negatively on Badenoch as an individual. Instead, we should concentrate on dismantling the flawed arguments she puts forward. Influenced by philosopher Paul Ricoeur\u2019s concept of the “hermeneutics of faith,<\/a>” I think it\u2019s important to approach these debates with a critical yet compassionate mindset. While we should rigorously challenge harmful rhetoric, we should also consider the possibility that those making such arguments are not inherently malicious but may be deeply misguided, acting out performances of how they were treated in their own pasts by a suspicious and uncaring society.<\/p>\r\n

A path forward
Badenoch is wrong in her recent comments. I hope she can come to understand why. If her goal is truly to create a better future, then she must engage with more nuanced and compassionate perspectives on autism and a range of other issues. She could start with the excellent work at the Sheffield Institute of Education that challenges the kind of regressive thinking on show here: Luke Beardon, Stephen Connolly, and Caroline Lear offer world-leading teaching on autism through the Autism MA program. Jill Pluquailec\u2019s forthcoming short story and work with me on \u2018Relational Neurodiversity\u2019 are challenging deficit narratives in relation to neurodivergence. The Education with Autism, Disability and SEN course is led by Steph Hannam-Swain, whose own work focuses on the complexities of self-harm in the lives of disabled people. Phil Coombes\u2019 research on schools and mental health reveals how school assemblies, once hubs of spiritual and moral guidance, have transformed into \u2018Empty Churches\u2019 preaching self-regulation and individual accountability. Caron Carter\u2019s work around friendship shows us how fundamental relationships are to a positive educational experience. Tig Slater\u2019s research challenges traditional, reductive narratives around experiences of LGBTQ+ people. A large number of postgraduate research students are also working towards doctorates on issues around trans people\u2019s lived experience; the enactment of neurodiversity theory in schools; changing perceptions of autism and so forth.<\/p>\r\n

This research is desperately needed in a society that increasingly forefronts external priorities and appearances over internal wellbeing \u2013 a society I have termed the “post-affect society”\u00a0<\/a>\u2013 in which inner lives are neglected, mistrusted and downright denied in favour of meeting the demands of a mechanistic external reality. To move forward, we need to build communities and coalitions that recognise the importance of human agency and empathy, rather than scapegoating the vulnerable for the advancement of political careers. We also need to fundamentally change our understanding of the mind. While Badenoch\u2019s rhetoric is harmful, it presents an opportunity to challenge and educate. If we can shift the conversation away from scapegoating and toward understanding, we may yet find a path toward a more empathetic country founded on the principles of social justice.

Dr Chris Bailey is senior lecturer in the SIOE. He is a philosopher, artist and educator.<\/p>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Tory leadership contender, Kemi Badenoch, has recently made some \u2018stigmatising\u2019 and confused remarks concerning autistic people. This is just the latest chapter in what has become an ongoing spectacle of socio-cultural posturing within what the media often calls the “culture wars.” Not content with vilifying asylum seekers and trans people, Badenoch is now targeting […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10265,"featured_media":2342,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"wds_primary_category":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2336","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sioe"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.shu.ac.uk\/sioe\/files\/2024\/10\/chris.jpg?fit=640%2C426&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7axDP-BG","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.ac.uk\/sioe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2336","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.ac.uk\/sioe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.ac.uk\/sioe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.ac.uk\/sioe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2336"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.ac.uk\/sioe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2336\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2343,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.ac.uk\/sioe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2336\/revisions\/2343"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.ac.uk\/sioe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2342"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.ac.uk\/sioe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2336"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.ac.uk\/sioe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2336"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.ac.uk\/sioe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2336"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}