Evaluating education policies through a spatial lens: Uncovering the ability-space-regimes of Austrian new middle schools

This chapter focuses on the implementation of inclusive education in new middle schools (NMS, secondary level I) in Austria. Based on an ableism-critical perspective, the authors explore spatialized practices in a so called "integration class" at an NMS in Vienna. As the authors show, combining space and ableism for a theoretical framework allows for a deepening understanding of inclusion and exclusion in an untouched meritocratic school system. This reveals how even ostensibly inclusive, cooperative teaching taking place under the "surface of the NMS" is fundamentally permeated by ability-related hierarchies. This chapter focuses on the implementation of inclusive education in new middle schools (NMS, secondary level I) in Austria. It explores spatialized practices in a so called "integration class" at an NMS in Vienna based on an ableism-critical perspective. The chapter reveals how even ostensibly inclusive, cooperative teaching taking place under "surface of the NMS" is fundamentally permeated by ability-related hierarchies. The term "relational" refers to the interrelatedness of materiality and sociality in the production of space. Accordingly, space is socially constituted and constructed by subjects, in relation to material conditions. Accordingly, the territory of special needs education in the corridor is divided again into learning spaces for groups of students, differing concerning their ascribed cognitive abilities. This division is connected to the respective learning horizons that are opened up for the students. In sum, the educational space constructed within the walls of the art supply room offers no possibility for acquiring new abilities or deepening abilities already at hand.