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Project

Sounds, senses and the materiality of schooling: An acoustic history of special education in Belgium, 1824-1940

In this project the history of Belgian special education will be acoustically examined. This is an important but overlooked perspective because sounds do play an important role in the construction of difference. The project in particular will examine how the interactions between sounds, senses and the materialities of schooling contributed to the emergence and development of educational initiatives for persons with visual, auditory and intellectual disabilities. A distinction will be made between literal and metaphorical sounds. The first aim of the project is to reconstruct how the literal sounds produced by the persons with disabilities have been identified as ‘abnormal’ and to reveal how the acoustic qualities of materialities of schooling – like e.g. the radio, the headphone and the school building – were used in order to educate persons with disabilities. Besides focusing on literal sounds the project also will listen to the different voices involved in the political discussions that eventually would make education compulsory for Belgian persons with disabilities.
Date:1 Oct 2018 →  30 Sep 2022
Keywords:Special education, History of education, Materialities, Disability history, Sounds/silences
Disciplines:General pedagogical and educational sciences, Specialist studies in education