Perspectives on Inclusion: The politics of difference and diversity

 To analyze the contradictory and contentious nature of
inclusion
 To explain the ways in which inclusion is a human
rights and social justice issue
 To analyze the ways in which inclusion is frequently
reduced to a special education sub-system
 To provide some insights into intersectional analyses
of disability and discuss their implications for
education policy and practice

Inclusion as a process of school improvement and
development ( e.g Index for Inclusion- Booth and
Ainscow 2002)
Inclusion is inexorably linked with the principles
of equity and social justice (Ainscow 1999;
2007;Artiles et al 2006 ;Barton and Armstrong)

Armstrong and Barton 2007, 6)
 Inclusion ‘is fundamentally about issues
of human rights, equity, social justice and
the struggle for a non-discriminatory
society. These principles are at the heart
of inclusive educational policy and
practice’ (Armstrong and Barton 2007, 6)

Children & Families Act 2014:
Section 19: General principles guiding Part 3−the SEN provisions
 Persons with disabilities are not excluded from
the general education system on the basis of
disability….
 Persons with disabilities receive the support
required, within the general education system,
to facilitate their effective education

 Develop inclusive practices and remove
barriers to learning
 High quality support to meet the needs of
children with SEN/D

 illegal exclusions from schools
( Children’s Commissioner 2013)
 Exclusion also acts in covert ways
e.g.‘streams’, ‘tracks’, ‘sets’
(Armstrong et al 2010:110)

Inclusion is ‘troubled by the multiplicity of
meanings that lurk within the discourses that
surround and carry it
(Graham and Slee 2008: 83)
Inclusion’ is not a single movement; it is made up of
many strong currents of belief, many different
local struggles and a myriad of practice”
(Clough and Corbett, 2000:6)

 Inclusive Education is about values and
principles; the kind of Education we want
and the kind of Education we value
(Liasidou 2012a).
 New understandings of difference and
diversity, learning, emotional development,
human rights, citizenship and social justice (
e.g Artiles et al 2006; Kershner 2009; Slee
2014)
12

 Disability Vs Impairment
 The social model of disability Vs The
medical model of disability
(Oliver 1996;Thomas 2004)
 What are the implications for educational
policy and practice?

 Values of equality and social
justice/Human rights-social democratic
approach to schooling
VS
 Market forces in education/neo-liberal
discourse-utilitarian approaches to
schooling
(Giroux 2012; Woods2001)

 The aims of current schooling are in alignment with the
demands of global economy that necessitates increased
concerns for effectiveness, value for money and
competiveness.
 “local economies of student worth” ( Ball 2009:187)
Student as “commodities” (Dudley_Marling and Baker
2012)
 The constitution of “ideal” and “non ideal” students
(Harwood and Humphy 2008)
 Disabled students are regarded “as eternally lacking
(desiring subjects consuming the things they lack)”
(Goodley 2007:321)

 “Yet governments of all political persuasions
bowing to a variety of economic, professional and
parental vested interests, have acquiesced in the
expansion of SEN industry, implicitly conceding
its importance in dealing with potential groups,
who, while being offered some education and
training appear increasingly surplus in
‘knowledge economies’ and/or are in need of
social control from an early age”
( Tomlinson 2012:2).

17
 E.g.Warnock, M. (2010). ‘Special educational
needs: A new look’. In Terzi, L. (ed.), Special
Educational Needs: A New Look . London:
Continuum
 Warnock,M. (2005) "Special Educational
Needs: A New Look.UK: Philosophy of
Education Society of Great Britain
‘Inverse inclusion’
(Kassah and Kassah 2013)

 Dominant versions of educational inclusion are
occasionally reduced to special educational
subsystems by providing compensatory and
remedial models of support (Lloyd 2008).
 The gaze is squarely placed on students’
presumed “deficits” and the common practice is
to silence the ways in which disability is to a
significant extent an ideologically and socially
mediated phenomenon that emanates from and
rests upon wider socio-political and cultural
contextual factors.( Liasidou 2013 2012 b)

 Disability as ‘an evolving concept’ (UNCRPD 2008)
 The notion of intersectionality is presented a as
means to explore the ways in which disability
rests upon, is intertwined with and emanates
from other sources of social disadvantage ( e.g
Liasidou 2013a).
 Simultaneous discrimination (Barnes and
Mercer 2010; Thomas 1999)

 Disability categories are frequently contingent on
professional judgement which is occasionally skewed by
prejudice and discrimination. (Dyson and Kozleski 2008;
Tomlinson 1982, 2014)
 students’ special educational needs are inexorably linked
with multiple sources of disadvantage like ethnicity, social
class, gender and poverty (DCSF 2009;Keil et al 2006; Mitler
1999;Baca1999; Elwan 1999).
 the vast majority of students assigned to ‘controversial
categories of pathology … come from populations and
cultures we have “Othered” on the basis of colour and
socioeconomic status’ ( Rhodes 1995:460)

 “Triple threat
students” ( Baca
1990)
“triple threat students
Behaviour and Learning
difficulties
Limited English
proficiency
Poverty
( race and ethnicity)

► gaps in developmental tasks appear at 22 months
► the Millennium Cohort Study shows
lower vocabulary at age three for children from poorer
households.
►an FSM child has around 3 times worse odds of
achieving good school outcomes than a non-FSM child
at every critical point in their education after age 5”

Health Care System
 ‘children who are not born healthy, raised
in healthy homes, nourished well, and
who do not have effective early
intervention and robust medical
treatment become special education
students’ ( Turnbull 2009:7)

 Schools are expected to coordinate a multi-disciplinary
educational provision
 A holistic approach to evaluating students’ needs (e.g
'SEND code of practice: 0 to 25 years/ Education, Health and
Care Plans)
 New accountability regimes (Artiles et al 2006; Bringhouse
2009)
 Professional development for social justice and inclusion –e.g
leadership for social justice and inclusion ( Liasidou and
Svensson 20013)

 The extent to which our educational policies
are informed by a human rights agenda.
 The extent to which the distribution of
resources is informed by a human rights and
social justice agenda.
 The ways in which the contradictory policies
around inclusion are understood, negotiated
and actioned at school level by educational
practitioners.

 Ainscow, M. 2010. Achieving excellence and equity: Reflections on the development
ofpractices in one local district over 10 years. School Effectiveness and School
Improvement21, no. 10: 75–92.
 Ali, Z., Q. Fazil, P. Bywaters, L. Wallace, and G. Singh. 2001. Disability, ethnicity and
childhood: A critical review of research. Disability & Society 16, no. 7: 949–67.
 Artiles, A.J., N. Harris-Murri, and D. Rostenberg. 2006. Inclusion as social justice.
 Baynton, D. 2001. Disability and the justification of inequality in American history.
In Thenew disability history: American perspectives, ed. Paul K. Longmore and
Lauri Umansky, 92–102. New York: New York University Press.
 Bringhouse, H. 2010. Educational equality and school reform. In Educational
equality, ed. G. Haydon. London: Continuum
 Giroux, H. 2011. Education and the crisis of public values. New York: Peter Lang.
 Liasidou,A (2014): Disabling discourses and human rights law: a case study based on
the implementation of the UN Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities,
Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education,
DOI:10.1080/01596306.2014.936928
 Liasidou, A (2013): Intersectional understandings of disability and implications for a
social justice reform agenda in education policy and practice, Disability & Society,
28(3) 299-312
 Liasidou, A. (2012b) Inclusive Education, Politics and Policymaking. London:
Continuum
 Liasidou,A (2012a) Inclusive education and critical pedagogy at the intersections of
disability, race, gender and class. Journal for Critical Education Policy Studies, 10, 1,
168-184

Many thanks for your attention!
Email: a.liasidou@euc.ac.cy

Perspectives on Inclusion: The politics of difference and diversity

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Perspectives on Inclusion: The politics of difference and diversity