Normalcy and difference in schools: Social research project design from the political-epistemological dilemma

Abstract

This article presents a reflection on the articulation between the political and epistemological dimensions of a research study focused on the production of normalcy and difference in school contexts. Our research undertakes that what we call “difference” is not a natural fact neither an isolated cultural construction. Rather, it is an ideological production in relation to an imagined normalcy which is fashioned through the workings of several institutions, discourses, and practices. As it is, these productions can be traced to understand their effects and operations. Normalcy and difference, then, are always political. In this article we present a research project that seeks to make visible the workings of the production of normalcy to rethink and transform those school practices about difference. We present the research problem in detail and then describe methodological aspects, emphasizing those political and epistemological dilemmas present in our project as a critical study.