Foundations of Inclusive Education Research: Volume 6

Cover of Foundations of Inclusive Education Research
Subject:

Table of contents

(20 chapters)
Abstract

This chapter traces the shift of many progressive educators from a general faith in special education to the more recent push for democratic and ethical inclusive education. This chapter examines the critical scholarship that propelled many educators away from systems of special education and into the inclusive education movement. Two phases in the development of inclusive education are described, an initial failed attempt often described by researchers as “integration,” and the current social movement building toward a more genuine social transformation of classrooms and schools.

Abstract

This chapter discusses the contribution of Sally Tomlinson’s Sociology of Special Education (1998, 2012). Following a brief biographical overview of Sally Tomlinson, the chapter provides an account of the way in which Tomlinson’s work has contributed to demystifying the social reality surrounding special and inclusive education. This is followed by a consideration of some of the outstanding issues and dilemmas connected with Tomlinson’s work. The chapter concludes by looking to the next decade and beyond and the way in which sociology may contribute to understandings of the field of special and inclusive education.

Abstract

This chapter discusses the significance of Sally Tomlinson’s article, The Irresistible Rise of Special Education and of her sociological thinking more generally. The paradox highlighted in the Tomlinson’s article, that is, the constantly evolving expansion, globally, of special education, alongside a simultaneous growth in support for the idea of inclusive education, is discussed in this chapter. Tomlinson’s influence on the sociological direction of Julie Allan’s work is traced and exemplified, and the continuing tensions in inclusive education are explored.

Abstract

This chapter provides a discussion of Roger Slee and Julie Allan’s 2001 article “Excluding the included: A reconsideration of inclusive education” published in International Studies in Sociology of Education. “Excluding the included” is a salient example of the influential work of these two scholars, threads of which can be found throughout their prior and following work, and in the work of other scholars in the area. The importance of the work and its ongoing impact on the field of inclusive education is discussed.

Abstract

This chapter explores the contribution of the work of Len Barton to the evolving inclusive education discourse; in particular his 1986 article, The Politics of Special Educational Needs. In this article, he discusses the influence of a sociological lens to problematize the current special education policy, practices, and inquiry. The future directions piece at the end of the article called for teacher awareness of the relationship between the personal and political. I felt I was a living, breathing example of the teacher who Len Barton was talking about. I chose this article because of its particular pertinence to my continuing understandings about the phenomenon of special education and subsequently my research with teachers of students with profound and multiple learning difficulties.

Abstract

This chapter discusses the contribution of the narrative and interpretive work of Dianne Ferguson (and Phil Ferguson) to the discourse of inclusive education research and practices. The chapter explores the concept of authentic inclusion that accepts a discourse contextualized in a needs-based, individualized focus within a perspective of diversity. The chapter continues to reiterate Ferguson’s call to mesh general and special education even within our present day, and emphasizes the need for a genuinely inclusive yardstick – not only to beat the inclusion drum, but also to focus on what authentic inclusion actually looks like.

Abstract

This chapter describes the contribution of Third World feminism for a materially grounded understanding of inclusive education that can make the transnational significance of this field more robust and enduring. The work of Third World feminist scholar, C. T. Mohanty, forms the central focus of the discussion, which develops linkages between the philosophical roots of her teachings and the work of some disability studies scholars. I argue that a historical-materialist understanding of disability is necessary for developing a nuanced theory of inclusive education that confers significance to the element of process. This supports a more expansive conceptualization of inclusive education that can avoid the theory-practice divide which leaves schooling systems around the world at hierarchized locations of ‘success’ or ‘failure’ in realizing its principles.

Abstract

This chapter discusses Icek Ajzen’s contribution of Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) to understandings of teacher attitudes and actions in relation to inclusive practices. The discussion explores why some educators are successful in including students with disabilities in regular classrooms and others are not and considers the role of educators’ attitudes in determining their actions when they teach. The chapter proceeds to discuss the role of TPB in teacher education that supports inclusive practices and also identifies some of the drawbacks of the existing research on attitudes within the field of inclusive education. The chapter highlights how TPB theory continues to have significant relevance in a range of areas related to teacher and inclusive education.

Abstract

This chapter describes the democratic philosophy and progressive education writing of John Dewey as sources of wisdom and guidance for the development of schools and classrooms where diverse groups of students live and learn together. The primary emphases are Dewey’s concept of moral equality, his understanding of democracy as a way of life, and his work with the teachers at the University of Chicago Lab School on a curriculum that analyzed tackled the central challenges of community life. Dewey offered useful theoretical work on liberal democratic communities while developing a relevant curricular example of how schools can focus learning activities on the promise and problems of society.

Abstract

The past three decades have witnessed an upsurge in inclusive education research and practice informed by a variety of epistemologies. This chapter is set against the backdrop of contemporary theorising of inclusive education research and practice. The key focus is to discuss the habitus, capital, doxa and field concepts of Pierre Bourdieu and their place in previous, present and future inclusive education scholarship. In the light of this undertaking, the chapter makes contribution to knowledge in terms of making theory visible through practice.

Abstract

This chapter focuses on the critical work of Dorothy Lipsky and Alan Gartner’s Inclusion and School Reform: Transforming America’s Classrooms, specifically through their 1987 piece, Beyond Special Education: Toward a Quality System for All Students. The chapter explores the five broad, interrelated areas of: (1) The Separate Special Education System; (2) Inclusive Education; (3) School Restructuring; (4) The Reform of Education and the Remaking of American Society; and (5) Amplification of Inclusion Issues. The chapter shows how the work of Lipsky and Gartner examines each theme in a discrete way whilst also showing how they are interrelated, analogous to jigsaw pieces that ultimately create a more comprehensive analysis of inclusive education scholarship and practice.

Abstract

The focus of this chapter is primarily on Burton Blatt’s investigations and exposés of closed institutions. These are the catalysts that served to set the stage for subsequent campaigns for inclusive schooling. The chapter also discusses issues of educability, the meaning of the concept of intellectual disability, the role of science in inclusion and treatment, and frameworks for pursuing, performing, and maintaining inclusive education and living. And in the interests of full disclosure, readers will note the personal connection between Biklen and Blatt, a result of sustained collaboration over many years.

Abstract

This chapter explores the contribution of Lous Heshusius’s article “Freeing Ourselves from Objectivity: Managing Subjectivity or Turning toward a Participatory Mode of Consciousness” to the field of inclusive education. Much of the opposition to inclusion has been fueled by the demand that effectiveness of inclusion be demonstrated with positivistic forms of research. Heshusius provides a resounding, sensible critique of the concepts of detachment, neutrality, and objectivity that underlie the positivist claim to epistemic authority. In the end, research should be viewed an ethical way of being whereby researchers, teachers, and students make sense of the world together.

Abstract

This chapter offers a critical evaluation of the disability scholarship of Michael Oliver, a leading developer of the British social model of disability, and Peter Singer, a philosopher whose utilitarian ethics excludes some persons with intellectual disabilities from full moral status. Through a critique of the simplified accounts of disability employed by these two very different scholars, this chapter explores the ontology and the moral significance of disability. The importance of the ontology of disability in relation to inclusion is also discussed.

Cover of Foundations of Inclusive Education Research
DOI
10.1108/S1479-363620156
Publication date
2015-11-26
Book series
International Perspectives on Inclusive Education
Editors
Series copyright holder
Emerald Publishing Limited
ISBN
978-1-78560-417-1
eISBN
978-1-78560-416-4
Book series ISSN
1479-3636