Uses of Inclusion Amid Structural Violence Evidence From Guatemala and Malawi

• In Event: 47.095 - MTCC Roundtable Session 19
  In Roundtable Session: 47.095-13 - Universal Principles and Practices in Education: Models to Follow or Tyranny?

Abstract

Despite the global presence of inclusive education attained in the last 25 years, this notion is fraught with theoretical and methodological shortcomings (UNESCO, 1994). For instance, most studies have been produced in the developed world, while the work done in developed countries has focused almost exclusively on students with disabilities with little attention to other groups, and has emphasized where students are placed as a proxy for inclusive education, neglecting attention to sociocultural factors and outcome measures (Artiles et al., 2006).

The majority of inclusive education efforts in developing countries is about a decade old. Many controversies and challenges surround efforts to make it a reality. This has resulted in differences in the pace of the development of inclusive education across developed and developing nations (Engelbrecht & Green, 2007). Unfortunately, we know little about the conditions under which inclusive education is investigated and implemented in these regions of the world (Ferguson, 2008). Srivastava et al., (2013) concluded the lack of inclusion studies causes concerns regarding the status of research in developing countries. Thus, there is a significant need to advance inclusion research in the developing world, refine its conceptualization in such contexts, and examine how the foundational tenets of this idea are being appropriated in contexts in which socioeconomic and educational inequities are the norm.

Questions

• How is inclusive education conceptualized at different levels of the education system and across various perspectives?
• What factors contribute to the success or failure of inclusive education and what are the consequences of these influences?

Methods & Findings

We draw from a year-long study conducted in Malawi and Guatemala, two developing nations beginning to implement inclusive education. The purpose was to document inclusion perspectives at multiple levels of the education systems and identify factors that contribute to or deter inclusion implementation. Multiple data (interviews, focus groups, official documents, participant observation) were collected with key actors from the Ministry to classroom levels. We identified multiple meanings of inclusive education co-existing at different levels of the educational system. We also learned students with special needs were targeted, and identified participants’ views on material and symbolic gains. We documented how a discourse of rights that targeted various groups coexisted with a hierarchy of inclusions that privileged certain groups. Paradoxically, rights and professional expertise were used to enforce the exclusion of various groups, while the national policy’s rights discourse was left intact. The school signaled ritual conformity with the national inclusion policy through enrolling few students and adopting programs, but everyday school tensions and the enduring legacies of community violence subverted the promises of inclusion. We asked whether inclusion is fostering “inclusive exclusions” and reflect on the future on this movement in a fragile democracy.

Significance

Our analysis has significant implications for inclusion studies conducted in contexts where inequities are ubiquitous. We aim to advance a view of research as situated cultural practice that will infuse a much-needed epistemic reflexivity in this field (Arzubiaga et al., 2008).

Authors

• Alfredo J. Artiles, Arizona State University

• Rolf Werning, University of Hanover

• Myriam Hummel, Leibniz Universitat Hannover

• Marta Zoila Caballeros, Universidad Rafael Landívar