Addressing Tensions and Dilemmas in Inclusive Education by Brahm Norwich

Author:Brahm Norwich
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Routledge

Inclusive education and schooling: issues and tensions

Applying ideas about social inclusion to education in keeping with a social model of disability was not going to be without its problems. These issues arise partly from the historical role of education and partly from issues associated with inclusion as a general value. As Sayed and Soudien (2003) point out, education has been not only about access and social mobility but also about social selection. In this way, education can be socially inclusive and exclusive. Also, talk about inclusive education has often failed to talk about different ‘differences’; differences have been overlooked in terms of who is included/excluded. This is the criticism that inclusion assumes that ‘one size fits all’, when policies and practices might need to vary depending on the aspect of diversity. This relates to another criticism, summarised by Sayed and Soudien, that although inclusive education is meant to go beyond disability to cover other aspects of diversity, such as race, class and gender, there is little specification of how these different aspect interrelate. These authors also remind us that the dichotomous talk about inclusion–exclusion assumes that people always want to be included: that there is a movement from excluded to included. This may be so for many people, but some may wish to be in a bi-cultural position and others to be separated.

Another problematic aspect of the concept of inclusive schooling is that it assumes that inclusion can alter the status quo in society. An inclusive school cannot ensure that young people will participate in the wider community outside school. Schools may be able to influence society, but schools are nevertheless also subject to wider social structures and processes (Bernstein, 1970). Schools already serve various social and economic interests and inclusion is proposed for school systems in many countries that are often already selective and tracked into different kinds of schools. In the case of UK (England), for example, the principle of inclusion needs to be seen within the historical movement for comprehensive or common schools for all children and young people. In this way the principles of inclusion connect with a longer-term political vision about schools, especially about secondary schools for all. However, this varies by country. In countries with a tradition of common schools (e.g. Scandanavian countries), inclusion connects with this vision of schooling. But, in other countries, which have established differentiated secondary schooling (e.g. Germany and the Netherlands), inclusive education comes into tension with the basic organisation of the school system.

It is useful to consider a specific country to illustrate these points in more detail. I will examine briefly the issues in England. Central to the debates about the organisation of English secondary schools has been the selection of children at age eleven for either a more academic education in grammar schools or in secondary modern schools where a less academic/vocationally oriented education was provided. Special schools had their place in this differentiated school system where ‘general ability’ assessment played a large part in the selection process for these kinds of schools.

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