Foucault and the "Analytics of Exclusion": Promoting Inclusive Education in Diverse Democracies

• In Event: Roundtable Session 36
  In Roundtable Session: International Perspectives on Student Health, Disability, and Inclusion

Abstract

Using Foucault’s studies of exclusion to understand the binary 'exclusion/inclusion', this paper provides a broad philosophical and historical background to the analytics and politics of exclusion as a means to educate for and promote the right to inclusive education in diverse democracies. It traces the political ecology of ‘social inclusion’ in response to ‘the crisis of the welfare state’ as a fundamental principle for the European social model, the UN and UNESCO. Finally, it critically discusses the model of inclusive education, understood within these defining historical and theoretical parameters, drawing the distinction between the legal and moral legitimation of rights and raising the question of the moral justification offered in defence of the right to inclusive education.

Authors

• Tina Besley, The University of Waikato

• Michael A. Peters, The University of Waikato