Irritation of Interaction

A Seminar to Facilitate Critical-Reflective Thinking

Abstract

Conscious irritations of interaction as reflection offer to learn more about phenomena of disability and handicap: a seminar concept to facilitate a critical-reflective attitude. Every active debate about the phenomenon disability is a physical experience of strangeness (cp. Singer, 2018). Teachers should develop a professional attitude towards inclusion, the discourse on which is often narrowed on disability (cp. Dannenbeck, 2015, pp. 237f.). Depending on (conscious) experiences with disabled people, long-term attitude changes become necessary, which are realized by confrontations with individual anxieties for example (cp. Haubl, 2015). They may be initiated and supported by irritating biographical learnings (cp. Schäffter, 1997). The article describes a unique seminar in the winter term 2018/ 2019 at university. An educationalist with a visible handicap and a sociologist organized it. Students of educational science, sociology and student teachers participated. The offensively focused teacher’s disability may irritate students. It accompanies the discussion, which is based on theory, as well as student’s guesses and experiences with disability. Both facilitate student’s critical (meta-)reflection and may also sensitize them. Their willingness to identify learning occasions instead of active avoidance is required. The unmarked task for students is a portfolio questioning the individual change of attitude towards disability and handicap. They freely choose between reflecting individual experiences, inputs caused by experienced interactions with the teachers or other students, narrations by the handicapped educationalist about her situation, media and scientific content and other material. The interest in narrations by the teacher with handicap is big and gets space throughout the seminar.