The gravity of the status quo: considering resistances to inclusive education for students with disabilities

• In Event: Conceptualizations and possibilities of inclusion and diversity in education

Proposal

This paper will describe and explain the persistent and relentless undermining of inclusive education for students with disabilities. There will be two main points of focus first will be the context of education policy and practice that, while espousing its commitment to diversity and inclusion, proceeds from a platform competitive individualism. Students are seen as the bearers of results and as such present either value or risk. Those who represent risk are jettisoned.

The analytic framework will then broaden to examine the struggle for epistemological distinctions and clarity in the fields of special and inclusive education; the micro-politics of special and inclusive education policy-making; and the expanding reach of special educational needs in a climate of hyper-awareness of learning difficulties and behaviour disorders. The presentation will argue for a reaffirmation of inclusive education that steadfastly rejects all forms of exclusion of diverse population cohorts and is consistent with established theories of intersectionality as applied in the developing field of disability studies in education.

Keywords: Inclusive education, disability studies in education, social theory.

Author

• Roger Slee, University of South Australia