'Summer Camps' for People with Disabilities: Institutional Specificities and Professional Skills

Abstract

During 2017, an ethnographic approach was carried out in a Summer Camp for people with disabilities. This article analyses the institutional attributes of that institution and the teachers’ perspectives over their daily work. It aims to analyse the Summer Camp’s institutional features; identify teacher’s requests regarding their professional training and whether it is an unrecognized specialization in physical education; and describe the strategies developed by the teachers to fulfil this vacancy in daily work. Most of the teachers belong to the field of physical education, and they have a key role in planning and developing recreational and sport-training activities. To this effect, they must display not only their professional knowledge and expertise, but also an empathic disposition towards the students. Although teacher training is valued in the institution, most of the teachers identify a vacancy in their career related to physical education of people with disabilities. The analyses focuses on two dimensions: routines, incidents and social occasions that take place in daily activities; and the requirements identified by the teachers in order to carry out the different tasks. The crosscutting question aims to analyse the foundations and arguments that proclaim the need of two different institutions –Summer Camp and Summer Camp for people with disabilities– for carrying out sport and recreational activities.