Inclusive Education Knowing What We Mean

Inclusive education: Knowing what we mean
E848_1 Researching inclusive education: values into practice
Inclusive education: Knowing what we

mean
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Contents
 Introduction
 Learning outcomes
 1 Inclusive education: Knowing what we mean
 2 Models of thinking
 3 Transforming learning
 3.1 Who is to be included?
 3.2 A broad view of inclusion
 3.3 From integration to inclusion
 3.4 The Salamanca Statement
 3.5 Centre for studies on inclusive education (CSIE)
 Conclusion
 Keep on learning
 References
 Acknowledgements

Introduction
This course introduces you to the contested area of educational inclusion. You will
look at differing perspectives on inclusion, in particular the way that medical and
social models have influenced and shaped current thinking. You will also think about
barriers to inclusion and the difference between integration and inclusion. In addition,
you will consider some of the key documents, such as the Salamanca Statement, that
underpin current thinking in this area.
This OpenLearn course provides a sample of postgraduate study in Education,

Childhood & Youth qualifications.

Learning outcomes
After studying this course, you should be able to:
 understand more systematically the knowledge and be more critically

aware of issues in inclusive education
 reflect critically upon and analyse perspectives regarding inclusion
 analyse and develop successful inclusive learning practices
 identify conceptual frameworks appropriate for investigating inclusion
issues, examining the inclusivity of systems and for developing
inclusive education
 develop techniques relevant to research scholarship.

1 Inclusive education: Knowing what we mean

There is no doubt that inclusive education is a contested area. Indeed, nationally and
internationally, it is the focus of what Daniels has called ‘extraordinary debates
concerning definition and ownership’ (Daniels, 2000, p. 1). In this opening section we
will look at a range of perspectives on what inclusive education means – drawn from
a variety of sources, both ‘official’ and individual. But first let us look at what
inclusive education means to you.
Activity 1 Personal experience of inclusion

Think about your own experience of inclusive education. You may need to identify
who was to be ‘included’ in these situations or definitions. Once you have done this,
consider why such inclusion mattered and for whom it was important.
You could then reflect on how your experience of inclusion compares with what you
believe inclusion should be about.
The perspectives that follow come from a range of viewpoints: disabled activists,
professionals working with children, government documents and a campaigning
organisation. As you read them, compare these views with your own.
The Equity Group is based in Scotland, and describes itself as ‘a group of disabled
people, parents of disabled children and other interested supporters’:
Fundamentally, we believe that inclusive education is about recognising children as

having equal rights and being of equal value. This should be a basic starting-point for
educational and social policy in a modern society.
(The Equity Group, 2004)
Chris Darlington is president of the National Association for Special Educational

Needs (NASEN), a national organisation for professionals working in the area of
inclusion. He defines inclusion as:
a process, not a state … inclusion is not a simple concept restricted to issues of

placement. … Key principles are valuing diversity, entitlement, dignity, individual
needs, planning, collective responsibility, professional development, and equal
opportunities.
(Darlington, 2003, p. 2)
Simone Aspis, who describes herself as ‘a special school survivor’ offers the
following definition:

Inclusive education should create opportunities for all learners to work together. This
requires a recognition that learning is enhanced when individuals of different abilities,
skills and aspirations can work together in a joint enterprise.
(Aspis, 2004, p. 129)
The next quote comes from Inclusive Schooling (DfES, 2001b), the official
document issued by the Department for Education and Skills (DfES) following
changes in the law in 2001 which strengthened students’ rights to a mainstream
placement:
Schools supported by local education authorities and others should actively seek to
remove the barriers to learning and participation that can hinder or exclude pupils
with special educational needs.
(DfES, 2001b, paragraph 7)
The Centre for Studies on Inclusive Education (CSIE) is a campaigning

organisation promoting the growth of inclusive schools:
Inclusion means enabling all students to participate fully in the life and work of
mainstream settings, whatever their needs. …
Inclusion may also be seen as a continuing process of breaking down barriers to

learning and participation for all children and young people. Segregation, on the other
hand, is a recurring tendency to exclude difference.
(CSIE, 2002b, p. 1)
You may have noticed that the different definitions have much in common, but also
vary: for example, you may have noted that the DfES's description focuses on ‘special
educational needs’, while the other perspectives view inclusive education as going
well beyond one particular group of learners. The scope and nature of these
definitions may in fact be similar or markedly different to your own that you noted in
Activity 1 in this section.
Although the word ‘inclusion’ now appears regularly in government documents, no

‘official’ definition of it exists and, in the United Kingdom (as in the United States),
the terms ‘inclusion’, ‘inclusive education’, ‘integration’ or ‘mainstreaming’, do not
appear anywhere in primary legislation. Consequently, when government documents,
academics, parents and activists speak of ‘inclusion’ or ‘inclusive education’, they
may appear to be using the same term while what they mean may not be the same at
all.
Activity 2 What does inclusion mean to you?

Re-read the definitions above, compare them with your own ideas, then note down
your own definition of ‘inclusive education’. Who is being included? What key words
would you include in your definition? Does this differ from the experiences of
inclusion that you have encountered or read about?
View discussion - Activity 2 What does inclusion mean to you?

2 Models of thinking
In Section 1, you were asked to think about your own definitions of inclusive
education. In Section 2, we show how personal experience of inclusion and exclusion
has been a major driving force in the development of inclusive education, with
disabled adults in particular struggling to redefine their experiences of schooling. One
major factor in this struggle towards redefinition has been the shift towards a social
model of disability.
Rieser and Mason have described a model as ‘not necessarily the truth as borne out by
scientific fact, just an idea that helps us to make sense of information’ (Rieser and
Mason, 1992, p. 13). Writing with the experience of a disabled person, Mason
describes how medical approaches to impairment have given rise to the view that
people are ‘individual objects to be “treated”, “changed” or “improved” and made
more “normal” (Rieser and Mason, 1992, p. 13). The medical model of disability
views the disabled person as needing to fit in rather than thinking about how society
itself might change. Rieser and Mason contrast this view with the ‘social model’ of
disability:
Disabled people's own view of the situation is that whilst we may have medical
conditions which hamper us and which may or may not need medical treatment,
human knowledge, technology and collective resources are already such that our
physical or mental impairments need not prevent us from being able to live perfectly
good lives. It is society's unwillingness to employ these means to altering itself rather
than us which causes our disabilities.
(Rieser and Mason, 1992, p. 15)
Rieser and Mason have contrasted the medical and the social models and have shown
the implications for schools of each way of thinking. This is illustrated in Table 1
below:
Table 1 Comparing the medical and social models of disability
Medical model Social model

• Child is faulty • Child is valued
• Diagnosis • Strengths and needs defined by self and
others
• Labelling • Identify barriers and develop solutions
• Impairment becomes focus of attention • Outcomes-based programmes designed
• Assessment, monitoring • Resources made available
• Segregation and alternative services • Training for parents and professionals
• Ordinary needs put on hold • Relationships nurtured

• Re-entry if ‘normal’ enough or permanent • Diversity welcomed; child is welcomed
exclusion
• Society remains unchanged • Society evolves
From: Rieser (2001, p. 139).
While Rieser and Mason focus on attitudes and responses to disability, their analysis
could be applied to many groups of young people who find themselves marginalised
in learning situations. It is not only learners with disabilities or learning difficulties
who find themselves excluded. Exclusion can be based on a range of factors and, as
Ghuman (1999) has shown in his work with adolescents from South Asia, some
populations find themselves the recipient of ‘multiple exclusions’ – racial, social,
educational and economic. Such ‘multiple exclusions’ have been documented in
England, where Parsons (1999), for example, has explored the link between ethnicity
and school exclusions, and has documented the disproportionate numbers of minority
ethnic students who find themselves permanently out of school.
Activity 3 Experience of a deficit perspective

Think about examples from your own experience where individuals or groups of
learners have been viewed from ‘deficit’ perspectives. This is likely to relate to the
left-hand side of Table 1 above. (You could also consider your own experiences as a
learner.) What impact has that had on their (or your) experience of inclusion in
particular learning contexts? Identify and note the extent to which these outcomes
may be seen as positive and/or negative from the learner's point of view.
Particular models of thinking can influence learning opportunities by restricting the

expectations of both teachers and learners. Writing about the life stories of people
who have experienced ‘special education’, Armstrong (2003) shows the impact of
such models. He cites the case of Penny, who after leaving a special school, attended
the special needs class at a local further education college. This is what happened
when Penny decided that she wanted to join the full-time catering course in the
ordinary college:
‘I went to see my tutor about the course but he doesn't want me to do it. He wants me
to go on a course that's only one day a week. It's all people from the special school.
That's not what I want to do but he'll probably get his own way.’
(Penny, cited in Armstrong, 2003, p. 108)
Armstrong points out that the question for Penny was that of who was defining her
interests. Decisions were being made about her based not on her views but on the
professionals’ expectations of people with ‘learning difficulties’. Penny, however,
was prepared to resist and decided to contact directly the teacher from the mainstream
course. Speaking about her tutor, Penny commented:

‘What's important to me is not important to him. He just wants me to do what he
thinks is best for me. Because I'm in this centre it's difficult to get into a main course
and get what you want. It wasn't even discussed at all whether I wanted to be in a
mainstream situation or a separate situation. That's what I would have liked. I would
have liked them to discuss and ask me: “Would you like to have a go in mainstream,
then if you find that you can't do it, go and see the Assisted Learning Centre.” What I
mean is students should have rights to be able to be listened to. Just to be listened to
and not to be fobbed off all the time.’
(Penny, cited in Armstrong, 2003, p. 109)
Penny's story raises questions about needs, rights and participation – all key areas of
debate as we try to define inclusion. We might see all these as questions about relative
power within education systems.
Activity 4 Penny's needs

Imagine that you are Penny's tutor. Write down a short definition of Penny's ‘needs’.
Imagine that you are Penny. How would you define your own needs?
You should highlight the importance of looking at ‘needs’ from various perspectives:
think about how different people ‘construct’ learning difficulties, based on their own
personal and/or professional experiences.
View discussion - Activity 4 Penny's needs
For Penny, other people's expectations of her create a barrier to learning.

Nevertheless, she challenges those expectations and has a strong sense of her own
right to be listened to. She is claiming her right to participate in her education in the
way she prefers. ‘Including Penny’ involves a fundamental shift in perspectives and
expectations, one that requires changes in culture in individuals, classrooms and
schools.

3 Transforming learning
3.1 Who is to be included?
Some critics have seen the focus on students with disabilities and difficulties in
learning as distracting from the real issue, that is, the processes of inclusion and
exclusion that leave many students, not simply those with disabilities, unable to
participate in mainstream culture and communities (Booth, 1996). Such processes
have an impact on many students, not just those with ‘special educational needs’.
In line with this way of thinking, the study of inclusion should be concerned with
understanding and confronting the broader issue of marginalisation and the
consequences of this process for marginalised groups. There is a range of groupings
of learners who might be included here: traveller students, mature students, those
living in poverty, minority linguistic and ethnic groups; very likely, you can think of
others. The point is that we cannot consider these groups in isolation if we are aiming
to make real changes in the way education works (Dyson, 2001).
Activity 5 Experiences of marginalisation

In your experience, what groups have you observed as likely to experience
marginalisation? How has the learning context either contributed to or addressed that
marginalisation? You may want to think about pupils who are ‘different’ in some way
from the majority. Your examples are likely to go beyond disability and learning
difficulty, and may include, for example, students with linguistic and social
differences.
Once you have marshalled your thoughts, spend some time explaining your examples
to a friend. Does he or she agree with your analysis? Make notes on the ways in which
your friend's viewpoint differs/agrees with your own.
3.2 A broad view of inclusion

Definitions of ‘inclusion’ and ‘inclusive education’, then, have moved away from a
specific focus on disability towards a broader view that encompasses students from
minority ethnic or linguistic groups, from economically disadvantaged homes, or who
are frequently absent or at risk of exclusion. ‘Inclusive education’ has come to mean
the provision of a framework within which all children – whatever their ability,
gender, language, ethnic or cultural origin – can be valued equally, treated with
respect and provided with real learning opportunities. Inclusive education is about
participation and equal opportunity for all – in other words, ‘full membership’ of
school and, later, society. Such a view of inclusion presents a challenge to existing
structures and systems that have themselves contributed to the barriers that learners
experience.

Inclusion requires the transformation of learning contexts:
In the field of education, inclusion involves a process of reform and restructuring of

the school as a whole, with the aim of ensuring that all pupils can have access to the
whole range of educational and social opportunities offered by the school. This
includes the curriculum on offer, the assessment, recording and reporting of pupils’
achievements, the decisions that are taken on the grouping of pupils within schools or
classrooms, pedagogy and classroom practice, sport and leisure and recreational
opportunities.
(Mittler, 2000, p. 2)
This process of transformation not only has radical implications for the way we think
about the origins of learning and behavioural difficulties, but also requires ‘systemic
change and a national policy’ (Mittler, 2000, p. 5). The wider social context of
inclusive education, at both national and international levels, is a crucial element in
our understanding of inclusion in schools.
3.3 From integration to inclusion

‘Inclusive education’, then, goes beyond ‘integration’ – a term which, until the late
1990s, was generally used to describe the process of repositioning a child or groups of
children in mainstream schools. ‘Integration’ was a term used by organisations such
as CSIE (originally called the Centre for Studies in Integration in Education) when
seeking neighbourhood placements for all students, and implied the need for a student
to adapt to the school, rather than for the school to transform its own practices. The
onus for change appeared to be on those seeking to enter mainstream schools, rather
than on mainstream schools adapting and changing themselves in order to include a
greater diversity of pupils.
‘Inclusive education’ implies a radical shift in attitudes and a willingness on the part
of schools to transform practices in pupil grouping, assessment and curriculum. The
notion of inclusion does not set boundaries around particular kinds of disability or
learning difficulty, but instead focuses on the ability of the school itself to
accommodate a diversity of needs.
The shift from ‘integration’ to ‘inclusion’ is not simply a shift in terminology, made
in the interests of political correctness, but rather a fundamental change in
perspective. It implies a shift away from a ‘deficit’ model, where the assumption is
that difficulties have their source within the child, to a ‘social’ model, where barriers
to learning exist in the structures of schools themselves and, more broadly, in the
attitudes and structures of society. Underlying the ‘inclusionary’ approach is the
assumption that individual children have a right to participate in the experience
offered in the mainstream classroom.

Daniels and Garner (1999) comment that while the concept of inclusion is not new, it
has been given fresh impetus by increasingly ‘rights-based’ arguments that go beyond
classrooms:
It is the recent widespread and increasingly vociferous demand to establish individual

rights as a central component in policy-making that has provided the impetus to place
inclusion firmly on the agenda of social change.
(Daniels and Garner, 1999, p. 3)
3.4 The Salamanca Statement

In 1994 over 300 participants – including 92 governments and 25 international
organisations – met in Salamanca, Spain, with the purpose of furthering the objectives
of inclusive education. The resulting Salamanca Statement (UNESCO, 1994) was
framed by a rights-based perspective on education. Although the Statement focused
on children described as having ‘special needs’, it asserted from the outset its
commitment to:
Reaffirming the right to education of every individual, as enshrined in the 1948

Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and renewing the pledge made by the world
community at the 1990 World Conference on Education for All to ensure that right for
all regardless of individual differences.
(UNESCO, 1994, p. vii)
Later, in the section ‘Guidelines for Action at the National Level’, the Statement
acknowledged that ‘most of the required changes do not relate exclusively to children
with special educational needs’ (p. 21); rather, they are part of a wider reform of
education needed to improve its quality and relevance and promote higher levels of
learning achievement by all learners.
The Statement placed educational reform firmly within a broader social agenda that
included health, social welfare and vocational training and employment. It
emphasised that mechanisms for planning, monitoring and evaluating provision for
inclusive education should be ‘decentralised and participatory’ and should encourage
the ‘participation of parents, communities and organisations of people with
disabilities in the planning and decision making’ (UNESCO, 1994, p. ix).
The Statement acknowledged that in many countries there were ‘well established
systems of special schools for those with specific impairments': these schools, it
asserted, could ‘represent a valuable resource for the development of inclusive
schools’ (UNESCO, 1994, p. 12). However, it urged countries without such a system
to ‘concentrate their efforts on the development of inclusive schools’ (UNESCO,
1994, p. 13) alongside specialist support services to enable them to reach the majority
of children and young people. All policies, both local and national, should ensure that
children with disabilities could attend their neighbourhood school.
Evans et al. (1999) have noted that the Salamanca Statement and other United
Nations proclamations have had a ‘powerful influence’ on international perspectives
on inclusion.
3.5 Centre for studies on inclusive education

(CSIE)
In an English context, the influence of the Salamanca Statement can be seen in the
work of the Centre for Studies on Inclusive Education (CSIE), which defines
inclusive education as principally a human rights issue. CSIE's manifesto, Ten
Reasons for Inclusion, states in its headline that ‘Inclusive education is a human right,
it's good education and it makes good social sense’ (CSIE, 2004a). The manifesto
then expands on the ‘human rights’ issue by providing a further list of imperatives:
1. All children have the right to learn together.

2. Children should not be devalued or discriminated against by being
excluded or sent away because of their disability or learning
difficulty.
3. Disabled adults, describing themselves as special school survivors, are
demanding an end to segregation.
4. There are no legitimate reasons to separate children for their
education. Children belong together – with advantages and benefits
for everyone. They do not need to be protected from each another.
(CSIE, 2004a)
Elsewhere, CSIE poses the question, ‘Why do we need inclusion?’, and couches the
answer in the terminology of human rights:
Because children – whatever their disability or learning difficulty – have a part to play
in society after school. An early start in mainstream playgroups or nursery schools,
followed by education in ordinary schools and colleges, is the best preparation for an
integrated life.
(CSIE, 2004b)
Inclusive education is a moral imperative, it argues, because:
Disabled children have an equal right to membership of the same groups as everybody
else. A segregated education restricts that right and limits opportunities for self-
fulfilment. People with disabilities or learning difficulties do not need to be separated
or protected.
(CSIE, 2004b)

While CSIE's focus is primarily on young people with disabilities and learning
difficulties, the organisation's language is strongly resonant of the language of civil
rights used, for example, in the United States in relation to equality of opportunity for
black students since the 1950s. In particular, it echoes the crucial decision made in
1954 by the US Supreme Court, in Brown v. The Board of Education, which
established not only that black children had a right to education but also that they had
a right to the same education as that received by white children. In declaring that
‘separate can never be equal’, the Brown judgment led to a variety of affirmative-
action policies in the US educational system, which had an impact not only on
curriculum organisation and opportunities in US primary and secondary schools, but
also on universities’ admissions policies.
In England and Wales, there have been no comparable judgments in the area of
individual rights. Instead, the 1981 Education Act (which came into force in 1983)
laid on local education authorities (LEAs) a ‘qualified duty’ to ensure that, provided
certain conditions were met, a child ‘with special educational needs’ should be
‘educated in a school which is not a special school unless that is incompatible with the
wishes of his parent’. It could be argued that the presence of such conditions, or
‘caveats’, has made access to a mainstream place in England and Wales not so much a
right but a series of hurdles. Since 1983, individual children have surmounted these
hurdles with varying degrees of success, depending on where they live, the nature of
their disability or learning difficulty, and how articulate and persistent their parents
have been. Recent changes in UK legislation, in particular the Special Educational
Needs and Disability Act 2001, have removed all but one of the caveats, and have
strengthened the rights of individual disabled children to participate more fully in all
aspects of school life. However, recent case law has demonstrated that new legislation
is at variance with other parts of the Education Act 1996. Parents seeking inclusive
education for their children and who find themselves in dispute with their LEA are
likely to need expert advice to find their way through a ‘complex and confused’ legal
situation (ACE, 2004).

Conclusion
Commentators (e.g. Pijl et al., 1997) have described inclusive education as ‘a global
agenda’. The persistence of the forces that marginalise individuals or groups of
learners, and also the models that would categorise them in particular ways, makes the
struggle for inclusion an ongoing one.
You will see why at the start of this section we felt it important to define what we and
others may mean when we use the term ‘inclusion’. This is because understanding
what the term means is constantly being redefined. The many different ‘stakeholders’
in education who use the term give it their own meaning, and it is important that you
remain alert to changes in emphasis and intent.
Having read this unit you'll see that we are discussing notions of what inclusive
education might be. What we haven't done at this point is to consider whether or not
inclusive education is actually a ‘good thing’. Segregated and special education has a
long history, and exerts a powerful influence on education (Open University, 2003). It
is easy to come across arguments against inclusive education either as a concept or in
the way that it is being enacted. Over the next few days, when you are looking at
newspapers, listening to radio or searching the internet, you may want to note these
down.

Keep on learning

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References
Advisory Centre for Education (ACE) (2004) ‘Laws to protect children with SEN “in
conflict”’, Bulletin no. 121, October, p. 4.
Armstrong, D. (2003) Experiences of Special Education: re-evaluating policy and

practice through life stories, London, RoutledgeFalmer.
Aspis, S. (2004) ‘Why exams and tests do not help disabled and non-disabled children
learn in the same school’, www.inclusion-boltondata.org.uk/FrontPage/data14.htm.
Booth, T. (1996) ‘A perspective on inclusion from England’, Cambridge Journal of

Education, 26 (1), pp. 87–99.
Centre for Studies on Inclusive Education (CSIE) (2004a) Ten Reasons for Inclusion,
http://inclusion.uwe.ac.uk/csie/10rsns.htm (accessed 31 July 2004).
Centre for Studies on Inclusive Education (CSIE) (2004b) What is Inclusion?,

http://inclusion.uwe.ac.uk/csie/csiefaqs.htm (accessed 17 September 2004).
Daniels, H. (ed.) (2000) Special Education Re-formed: beyond rhetoric?, London,

Falmer Press.
Daniels, H. and Garner, P. (eds) (1999) Inclusive Education, World Yearbook of

Education, London, Kogan Page.
Darlington, C. (2003) ‘The challenges of effective inclusion’, Times Educational

Supplement, 19 September.
Department for Education and Skills (DfES) (2001b) Inclusive Schooling: children
with special educational needs, London, DfES.
Dyson, A. (2001) ‘Special needs as the way to equity: an alternative approach?’,

Support for Learning, 16(3), pp- 99–104.
Mittler, P. (2000) Working Towards Inclusive Education: social contexts, London,

David Fulton.
The Open University (2003) Book 2 ‘Thinking it through’, E243 Inclusive Education:
learning from each other, Milton Keynes, The Open University.
Pijl, S. J., Meijer, C. and Hegarty, S. (eds) (1997) Inclusive Education: a global
agenda, London, Routledge.

Rieser, R. (2001) ‘The struggle for inclusion: the growth of a movement’ in
BARTON, L. (ed.) Disability, Politics and Struggle for Change, London, David
Fulton.
Rieser, R. and Mason, M. (1992, rev. edn) Disability Equality in the Classroom: a
human rights issue, London, Disability Equality in Education.
United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) (1994)

The Salamanca Statement and Framework for Action on Special Needs Education,
Paris, UNESCO.

Acknowledgements
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Activity 2 What does inclusion mean to you?

Discussion
Here are some of the ideas we had in response to this activity. You will notice that a
number of them extend significantly the definitions that open this section:
 Inclusive education goes beyond ‘special educational needs’: it refers

to all learners who, for different reasons, may find themselves at risk
of marginalisation or exclusion.
 Inclusive education is about values: it assumes that diverse groups of
pupils are of equal worth and have a right to be included.
 Inclusive education does not focus on perceived individual deficits,
but on the barriers to learning that individuals and groups of pupils
may encounter.
 Inclusive education is about changing the system so it is better for all:
this includes teachers, students and everyone in the educational
institution.
 Inclusive education is about participation and learning from each
other.
 Inclusive education is not a fixed state but an evolving one.
Some of the key words that we noted were: rights, participation, process, values,
equality, diversity, and change.
Back

Activity 4 Penny's needs

Discussion
In carrying out this activity you may have come to similar conclusions to those of
Armstrong (2003). He comments that:
the definition of ‘needs’ in any given situation may arise from negotiations taking
place between people with differing and sometimes conflicting interests (those of
teachers, parents, other pupils, the LEA and the LEA's professional advisers, for
example).
(Armstrong, 2003, p. 87)
What a professional may see as Penny's ‘needs’ – such as small groups, a protected
environment, amended materials – may not, for Penny herself, be seen as needs at all.
From her perspective, her needs are for autonomy and decision-making power in her
own life.
Back


Inclusive Education Knowing What We Mean

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Inclusive education: Knowing what we mean

E848_1 Researching inclusive education: values into practice

Inclusive education: Knowing what we

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About this free course

The Open University Walton Hall, Milton Keynes, MK7 6AA

Copyright © 2016 The Open University

We believe the primary barrier to accessing high-quality educational experiences is

Head of Intellectual Property, The Open University

The Open University

United Kingdom by The Open University

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This OpenLearn course provides a sample of postgraduate study in Education,

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 understand more systematically the knowledge and be more critically

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1 Inclusive education: Knowing what we mean

Activity 1 Personal experience of inclusion

Fundamentally, we believe that inclusive education is about recognising children as

(The Equity Group, 2004)

Chris Darlington is president of the National Association for Special Educational

a process, not a state … inclusion is not a simple concept restricted to issues of

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(Aspis, 2004, p. 129)

(DfES, 2001b, paragraph 7)

The Centre for Studies on Inclusive Education (CSIE) is a campaigning

Inclusion may also be seen as a continuing process of breaking down barriers to

Although the word ‘inclusion’ now appears regularly in government documents, no

Activity 2 What does inclusion mean to you?

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View discussion - Activity 2 What does inclusion mean to you?

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(Rieser and Mason, 1992, p. 15)

Table 1 Comparing the medical and social models of disability

Medical model Social model

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From: Rieser (2001, p. 139).

Activity 3 Experience of a deficit perspective

Particular models of thinking can influence learning opportunities by restricting the

(Penny, cited in Armstrong, 2003, p. 108)

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(Penny, cited in Armstrong, 2003, p. 109)

Activity 4 Penny's needs

View discussion - Activity 4 Penny's needs

For Penny, other people's expectations of her create a barrier to learning.

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Activity 5 Experiences of marginalisation

3.2 A broad view of inclusion

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In the field of education, inclusion involves a process of reform and restructuring of

3.3 From integration to inclusion

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It is the recent widespread and increasingly vociferous demand to establish individual

(Daniels and Garner, 1999, p. 3)

3.4 The Salamanca Statement

Reaffirming the right to education of every individual, as enshrined in the 1948

(UNESCO, 1994, p. vii)

3.5 Centre for studies on inclusive education

1. All children have the right to learn together.

Inclusive education is a moral imperative, it argues, because:

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