Introducing the module

 

This module explores the possibilities that arise from and in theorising inclusive education.  Indeed, the module takes, as its starting point, Slee’s contention ‘that the failure to apply theoretical analysis has been detrimental to the project of inclusion’ (Slee, 1998a: 126).  This module introduces theoretical perspectives as a way of understanding inclusive education practices and policies at a national level and an international level.  If the module is successful - if the answers it provides to these four questions are vital and illuminating - then it may validate the truth of Lewin’s (1952: 169) declaration: ‘There is nothing more practical than a good theory’.

 

Learning outcomes for the module

 

By the conclusion of the module, a student will be expected to be able:

 

a)     Show evidence of engagement with texts and ideas concerned with theorises of inclusive education

b)    Show engagement with primary sources

c)     Show a knowledge of theoretical perspectives and/or works

d)    Show an understanding of abstract concepts and ideas within theoretical perspectives

e)     Show an ability to work with theorists and their concepts in various forms of assessment as appropriate

 

Essay questions

 

Essay 1

 

Drawing on policy documents and one theorist, show an understanding of the difference between exclusion and inclusion in education.

 

Hand in date: week 7

 

Essay structure:

 

§  In the first section of the essay, show you understand how the difference between inclusion and exclusion is discussed in national and international policy documents.  This section will be the shorter of the two (no more than a page)

 

§  In the second section of the essay, show you understand a single theorist’s perspective on the difference between inclusion and exclusion in education.

 

Important: you are not being asked to compare or to evaluate the policies and theoretical perspectives; your task is to show that you understand these policies and perspectives.

 

 

Essay 2

 

Show an understanding of Freire and Dewey’s views of inclusion and exclusion in education and society?

 

Hand in date: week 12

 

Essay structure

 

Show you understand:

 

§  what Freire meant by the ‘banking concept of education’, ‘problem-solving education’, oppression, dehumanisation and humanisation

§  what Dewey meant by immaturity, habits, plasticity,  the difference between facts and ideas, and democracy 

 

Important: again, you are not being asked to compare or to evaluate the theoretical perspectives; your task is to show that you understand these perspectives.  In other words, you not being asked to say why you think Freire or Dewey’s understanding of exclusion is incisive or mistaken; rather, you must to show that you understand these ideas. So, avoid all evaluative language and critical assessment in your writing.

 

Starting in Week 2, each lecture will be followed by a seminar.  The seminar will focus upon the lecture and reading from the previous week, so in Week 2 we will discuss Aincow’s ideas and national policy relating to inclusion and exclusion, in Week 3 we will discuss Slee’s work, and so on.

 

Seminar structure

 

The seminars will be most engaging if each participant comes prepared.  It might be that you come with one or more of the following:

 

§  a quotation: bring a quotation from the work which you find helps your understanding of the ideas or which is confussing;

 

§  a question: bring a question about text, or about how the text relates to other ideas and the essay question.

 

The structure of the module

 

The module falls into two parts. 

 

Part I: Inclusion and exclusion in education

 

Rationale

 

Weeks 1 and 2 reflect on different ways of understanding inclusive and exclusionary practice in education, drawing on the work of contemporary experts in the field.  Week 3 engages more deeply with these differences by way of introducing inclusive education policy at a national and international level.  Weeks 4 to 7 introduce different theoretical perspectives on the difference between inclusion and exclusion in education.

 

Week 1. Introducing inclusive education: practice and policy

 

This week introduces the module and discusses the work of Mel Ainscow, a contemporary educationalist, who offers three distinct ways of thinking about inclusion and exclusion in education. 

 

Reading

 

Ainscow, M. (1998) Would it work in theory? Arguments for practitioner researcher and theorising in the special needs field, in: C. Clark, A. Dyson & A. Millward (Eds.) Theorising special education (London, Routledge).

 

DfEE (1997) Excellence for all children: meeting special educational needs. London: Stationery Office. Available:

http://www.education.gov.uk/consultations/downloadableDocs/45_1.pdf

pp.43-44

Department for Education and Skills (2001) Special educational needs code of practice. London, DfES Publications. Available:

http://www.teachernet.gov.uk/_doc/3724/SENCodeofPractice.pdf

pp. 51-2

Department for Education and Skills (2003) Every child matters. London, The Stationary Office. Available:

http://www.education.gov.uk/consultations/downloadableDocs/EveryChildMatters.pdf

pp. 13-22; 27-28

DfES (2004) Removing Barriers to Achievement - The Government’s Strategy for SEN  (London: Stationery Office). Available:

http://www.teachernet.gov.uk/_doc/5970/removing%20barriers.pdf

pp. 28-32

HM Government (2010) Coalition: our programme for government. Avaiable:

http://programmeforgovernment.hmg.gov.uk/files/2010/05/coalition-programme.pdf

 

Department for Education (2011) Support and aspiration:  A new approach to special educational needs and disability. London, The Stationary Office. Available:

https://www.education.gov.uk/publications/eOrderingDownload/Green-Paper-SEN.pdf

pp. 4-13

 

 

Further reading

 

Ainscow, M. (2000) The next step for special education: Supporting the development of inclusive practices, British Journal of Special Education, 27(2), 76-80.

Ainscow, M. & Hart, S. (1992) Moving practice forward, Support for Learning, 7(3), 115-120.

 

Week 2 Roger Slee, inclusive and special schooling

 

This week we turn to the writings of a contemporary educationalist, Roger Slee, to gain an understanding of his distinction between special and inclusive education. 

 

Reading

 

Slee, R. (2001a) Driven to the Margins: disabled students, inclusive schooling and the politics of possibility, Cambridge Journal of Education, 31(3), 385-397                      

Slee, R. (2001b) Social justice and the changing directions in educational research: the case of inclusive education, International Journal of Inclusive Education, 5(2-3), 167-177             

 

Further reading

 

Slee, R. (1998a) The politics of theorising special education, in: C. Clark, A. Dyson & A. Millward (Eds.) Theorising special education (London, Routledge).

Slee, R. (1998b) Inclusive education? This must signify ‘new times’ in educational research, British Journal of Educational Studies, 46(4), 440-454

Slee, R. (2000) Talking Back To Power: The Politics of Educational Exclusion, Paper presented at the International Special Education Conference, University of Manchester, 24-28 July. Available: http://www.isec2000.org.uk/abstracts/keynotes/slee.html  

Slee, R. (2001) ‘Inclusion in Practice’: does practice make perfect? Educational Review 53(.2), 113-123

Slee, R. (2006) Limits and possibilities for educational reform, International Journal of Inclusive Education, 10, (2-3), 109-119                         

 

Week 3.  Inclusion and exclusion in education: views from international policy

 

This week we consider distinct ways of understanding and approaching inclusion and exclusion in education in national and international policy.  We will discuss how inclusion and exclusion in education are understood in policy documents produced by United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) and the United Nations (UN).

 

Reading

 

UNESCO (1990) World declaration on education for all: Meeting basic learning needs, in: UNESCO (2000) Education for all: Meeting our collective commitments: Notes on the Dakar framework for action. Paris, UNESCO. Available:

http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0012/001211/121147e.pdf

pp.73-77

UNESCO (1994) World Conference on Special Needs Education: Access and Quality. Salamanca. Paris, UNESCO. Available:

http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0009/000984/098427eo.pdf

pp. iii-14

UNESCO (2000) Education for all: Meeting our collective commitments: Notes on the Dakar framework for action. Paris, UNESCO. Available:

http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0012/001211/121147e.pdf

pp. 7-17

UNESCO (2002) EFA Global monitoring report 2002. Education for all: Is the world on track?. Paris, UNESCO. Available:

http://www.unesco.org/en/efareport/reports/2002-efa-on-track/

pp. 30-35

UNESCO (2005) Guidelines for inclusion: Ensuring access to Education for All. Paris, UNESCO. Available:

http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0014/001402/140224e.pdf

pp. 9-16 

UNESCO (2009) Policy guidelines on inclusion in education. Paris, UNESCO.  Available:

http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0017/001778/177849e.pdf

pp. 8-9

UN (2000) The Millennium Declaration (New York, United Nations).  Available: http://www.un.org/millennium/declaration/ares552e.pdf

 

Week 4. Maxine Greene: Imagining possibilities for inclusive education

 

This week we turn to another contemporary thinker, Maxine Greene, to discuss her theoretical insights into the differences between inclusive and exclusionary practice and policy in education.

 

Reading

 

Greene, M. (1993) Diversity and inclusion: Towards a curriculum for human beings, Teachers College Record, 95(2), 213-221.

Greene, M. (1978) Wide-awakeness and the moral, in: Landscapes of Learning (New York, Teachers College Press)

 

Further reading

 

Greene, M. (1973) The Matter of Justice, Teachers College Record, 75(2), 181-191

Greene, M. (1978) Teaching: The Question of Personal Reality, Teachers College Record, 80(1), 23-35

Greene, M. (1984) “Excellence,” Meanings, and Multiplicity, Teachers College Record, 86(2), 283-297

Greene, M. (1995) Releasing the Imagination: Essays on Education, the Arts, and Social Change (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers)

Greene, M. (2000) Imagining futures: the public school and possibility, Journal of Curriculum Studies, 32(2), 267-280 

 

Week 5. Eric Fromm: On being included

 

Fromm distinguishing having and being, and he claims that together they ‘refer to two fundamental modes of existence … which determines the totality of a person’s thinking, feeling, and acting’ (Fromm, 1978: 33).  This week we turn to Fromm’s distinction between these two ways of being in the world, and the ways they relate exclusionary and inclusive educational policy and practice. 

 

Reading

 

Fromm, E. (1978) To have and to be (London, Routledge)

Fromm, E. (2003) Man for himself: An inquiry into the psychology of ethics (London: Routledge)

 

Further reading

 

Fromm, E. (1942) Fear of freedom (London: Routledge)

Wilde, L. (2000) In search of solidarity: the ethical politics of Erich Fromm (1900-1980) Contemporary Politics, 6(1), 37-54

 

 

 

 

Week 6. Martin Buber: ‘One-sided inclusion’ in education

 

This session discusses the work of Martin Buber.  We will consider Buber’s view of the separation of the world into ‘I and It’ and his understanding of the ‘I-Thou’ relation in relation to his conceptualisation of inclusion in education.

 

Reading

 

Buber, M. (1947/2002) Between man and man (London: Routledge)

Buber, M. (2004) I and Thou (Continuum, London)

 

Further reading

 

Buber, M. (2004) I and Thou (London: Continuum)

Hodes, A. (1972) Encounter with Martin Buber (London, Allen Lane)

Schilpp, P.A. & Friedman, M. (Eds.) (1967) The philosophy of Martin Buber (London, Cambridge University Press)

 

Part II: Inclusive and exclusion in education and society

 

Rational

 

In this part of the module we widen our discussion and consider the relationship between inclusion and exclusion in education and in society as a whole.

 

 

Week 7 & 8. Pablo Freire: school, society and the repetition of exclusion

SECOND NOTES

Freire (1996) discusses the relationship between exclusion or oppression in schools and in society as a whole.  He also suggests ways in which education which attempts to overcome exclusion and oppression might change society.

 

Reading

 

Freire, P. (1996) Pedagogy of the oppressed (London, Penguin)

 

 

 

Week 9/10.

 

Weeks 10 and 11. John Dewey, democracy and exclusion in education and society

 

We turn to Dewey in these sessions to discuss his understanding of democracy, exclusion and inclusion in schools and society.

 

Reading

 

Dewey, J. (1938/1963) Education and experience (New York, Collier)

Dewey, J. (1897/1966) My pedagogic creed, in: F.W. Garforth (ed.) John Dewey: Selected educational writings (London, Heinemann)

Dewey, J. (1903) Democracy in education, The elementary school teacher, IV(4), 193-203

Dewey, J. (1916) Democracy and education (New York: Macmillan)

 

Week 12. Essay preparation