Inclusive Education and the Issue of Change

Theory, Policy and Pedagogy

A. Liasidou

• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
• Year: 2015
• Print ISBN: 9781349673599, 9781137333698
• eBook ISBN: 9781137333704
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Comparative Education

Exploring the theoretical, policy and classroom (pedagogical) dimensions of transformative change within the context of inclusive education policy and practice, this book documents how ideological presuppositions and professional practice should be transformed in order to meet learner diversity in effective and non-discriminatory ways.

1

Introduction

Inclusive education is a recent internationally mandated policy phenomenon that stipulates all students’ right to quality mainstream education by means of promoting effective educational approaches and strategies to respond to learner diversity. Given that the notion of diversity extends to include various markers of difference, the analytical edge adopted in this book concentrates on disability-related differences, along with their intersections with other sources of social disadvantage linked to race/ethnicity, social class and gender (Liasidou 2013a). While acknowledging that prolonged reform efforts have largely been ineffective (Branson 2010) and even pernicious, for they corroborated rather than challenged exclusionary and discriminatory educational regimes (Lloyd 2008; Tomlinson 2012), the book attests to the importance of reconceptualizing and reimagining the process of educational change within the context of inclusion.

Inclusion is a prodigious task that cannot be materialized through facile policy rhetoric and practices intended to ‘patch up’ the educational system (Weddell 2008). Inclusive education can only be understood and analysed against concerns about initiating radical, comprehensive institutional and ideological reforms so as to challenge the special education status quo, along with the paraphernalia of its deficit-oriented practices, and facilitate inclusion (Thomas and Loxley 2007). Consequently, the issue of educational change is at the core of an inclusive education agenda (Ainscow 2005a, 2005b; Slee 2006, 2008; Liasidou 2007; Barton 2008) aimed at challenging power inequities and enhancing the learning and participation of disenfranchised groups of students.

The book aims to critically explore the issue of change within the context of inclusive education policy and practice. This involves exploring the theoretical, policy and classroom (pedagogical) dimensions of the process of transformative change, with a view to documenting the ways in which ideological presuppositions and professional practice should be transformed in order to meet learner diversity in effective and non-discriminatory ways. In terms of the theoretical dimension of the process of educational change, the book is given over to exploring the varied facets and underpinnings of inclusive education reforms, and analysing the ways in which systemic dynamics as well as issues of power, privilege and oppression are involved in the pursuit of transformative change. Emphasis is also given to the cosmopolitan nature of the change process by exploring the ways in which international politics as well as global policies and dynamics are reciprocally related and have a significant effect on national reform efforts (Ball 2012).

The distinctiveness of the book lies in its analytical approach that aims to blend diverse perspectives and disciplinary lenses, with the aim of providing a comprehensive understanding of the ways in which transformative changes aligned with the tenets of an inclusive discourse can be theorized and enacted. In discussing the sheer complexity and interdependency of the perspectives underpinning the process of change, the book draws insights from scholarly work on education policy, teaching and learning, disability studies, critical pedagogy, feminist theory, critical race theory and educational leadership so as to forge and exemplify links with inclusion, and to advance a comprehensive analysis of the theoretical and critical aspects of an inclusive education reform agenda.

The complex and multilayered nature of inclusive education necessitates a multidisciplinary and multiperspectival approach to theorizing educational change, an approach that this book aims to present and critically analyse. Theoretical compartmentalization and disciplinary fragmentation prohibit constructive dialogue and reflection on a number of common issues and concerns that surface across distinct disciplinary camps. These diverse disciplinary perspectives need to be correlated, concretized and contextualized with a view to enhancing current understandings of the ways in which inclusion interrelates with, and concomitantly is distinguished from, other disciplinary theorizations and academic discussions concerned with the issue of transformative educational change.

Common issues, considerations and debates that emerge across distinct disciplinary camps and bring to bear a significant impact on the process of change are thus highlighted, explored and interrelated in the light of the attempts to precipitate reforms aligned with the theoretical and philosophical underpinnings of inclusion. Owing to the multidisciplinary and multiperspectival approach adopted, a number of recurrent themes dealing with issues of ‘difference’, social justice and emancipatory forms of pedagogical discourse arise throughout the book, which are discussed in different contexts as well as from different theoretical perspectives and analytical lenses. The thematic similarities and overlapping considerations that arise reflect the shared ‘theoretical ground’ and common analytical perspectives deployed by distinct disciplinary camps in dealing with the notion of educational change and learner diversity. Such a multidisciplinary and multiperspectival approach aims at developing critical and reflexive understandings of the assemblage and multiplicity of ideas, factors, dynamics, ideological contestations and institutional conditions that impact upon the process of transformative change within the context of inclusion.

The cross-fertilization of diverse insights and perspectives germane to the politics of difference and diversity and the process of educational change can potentially strengthen and rationalize arguments in favour of inclusion, while also rationalizing and further developing political and socio-cultural perspectives on conceptualizing issues of difference and diversity on the grounds of special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEN/D). To this end, the book gives particular emphasis to the ways in which issues of difference and diversity on the basis of various markers of difference linked to race/ethnicity, gender and social class have been framed and theorized across distinct disciplinary camps and academic domains, in order to extend, contextualize and diversify them, without, however, losing sight of the ways in which disability-based differences relate to, and differ from, other sources of social disadvantage. The distinctiveness of disability-based needs should be both acknowledged and theorized in order to devise sound pedagogical strategies and designs to effectively respond to diversity on the basis of disability. At the same time, it should be noted that the notion of distinctiveness does not equate with reductionism; hence any deficit-oriented and individual pathology perspectives are problematized and jettisoned in view of emerging understandings of disabled students’ intersecting identities (Liasidou 2013b).

The book also takes the view that developing critical and informed understandings of the complex and contested nature of inclusion necessitates a global discussion on disability and difference that does not homogenize and silence the peculiarities of diverse geopolitical contexts. While being cognizant of the perils of the policy-borrowing process (Watson 2001), which are associated with the complex and unanticipated ways in which global and local dynamics interact and impact upon policy formulation and implementations across distinct geopolitical contexts (Green 2002), policy snapshots from different socio-political contexts such as Finland, the United Kingdom (UK) and the United States of America (USA) are presented, so as to explore and contextualize current policy/practice trends and developments, and put abstract ideas and theorizations into practice. These snapshots derive from the literature, but they are also presented as part of a case study approach concerned with exploring the differing ways in which inclusive education policies are formed and implemented across diverse socio-political contexts. This approach highlights the cross-cultural dimension of change and the ways in which the latter is contingent on socio-political and historical dynamics (Barton and Armstrong 2007). The globalizing discourse of inclusion necessitates taking into consideration idiosyncratic conditions and localized struggles that mobilize and impact upon the process of educational change (Liasidou 2012a). Implications for educational policy, classroom practice and research are discussed and reflected upon.

2

Neoliberal Reforms and the Crisis of Education

Introduction

This chapter is concerned with exploring the intricate relationship between inclusive educational policymaking, politics and the economy. In particular, emphasis is placed on discussing the ways in which neoliberal ideologies impact on the process of education policy formulation and implementation, and influence the aims and outcomes of national educational reform agendas. Global and local dynamics interact in complex and unanticipated ways, and bring to bear a significant impact on the ways in which market-driven ideological and institutional dynamics influence the process of educational change across differing socio-political systems.

While analysing the complexity and multiplicity of educational policymaking, Ball (2012) refers to the emergence of new policy networks that are constituted by local and global forces against which national policies are formulated and enacted. Dominant policy networks work towards disseminating particular discourses that contribute to the propagation of neoliberal reforms across the globe. These reforms have significant social justice implications for disabled people, their advocates and the general population.

As Barnes (2012:21) put it:

Since the coming of capitalism inequality within and across nation-states has escalated. This has been exacerbated over recent years by a succession of deepening global economic crises. … Consequently as we move further into the new millennium economic and political stability in all countries is likely to be increasingly fragile and the struggle for a fairer and inclusive global society more difficult

The above considerations have particular implications for the ways in which disabled people experience their impairments (Thomas 1999). The experiential aspects of disability are to a significant extent dependent on disabled people’s level of access to social and material resources. Currently, a large proportion of disabled individuals are increasingly denied access to these resources, in both the developed and developing world due ‘to the globalization of a particular materialist world view that prioritizes the pursuit of profit over equality and social justice’ (Barnes 2012:20).

The emergent neoliberal-driven policy and ideological imperatives, along with their impact on disabled and non-disabled people alike, raise a number of important issues that need to be urgently addressed in the light of ecumenical pleas and legal mandates promoting the necessity to advance more democratic and egalitarian communities (United Nations 2008). Even though multiculturalism, citizenship, equal opportunities, human rights and diversity are the lexical flagships that characterize contemporary political discourse and epitomize progressive thinking, the existence of actual practice that works against neoliberal governance is far away from official rhetoric, which is occasionally simply spouted for electoral purposes and for attracting media interest (Race 2015). Thus, in spite of the fact that rhetorical attacks on neoliberal discourse abound, transformative action is scarce and inconsistent; hence the mobilization of the reform process should be primarily directed towards intensifying and reinforcing political action aimed at transforming neoliberal preoccupations across social, political and educational domains. McLaren and Farahmandpur’s view (2001:144) is very apposite: ‘We simply are saying that without overcoming capitalist relations of production, other struggles will have little chance of succeeding.’

This chapter takes the view that the current crisis of capitalism reflects a wider social, political and educational crisis, which necessitates questioning, re-evaluating and repositioning the ideals of ‘casino capitalism’ (Giroux 2012) underpinning the dominant social, political and educational discourse. That said, it is suggested that the recent fiscal crisis necessitates developing an informed understanding of the relationship between the state and capitalistic modes of production, along with its implications for the intricately interwoven ways in which education and the market-based society are shaped (Woods 2011). As Giroux (2012:32) so appositely writes, the current crisis of capitalism is more than an ‘economic or political problem: it heralds a crisis of education that is part of a broader crisis of democracy itself’. A change in this reciprocal relationship can be mobilized by an education system that advances alternative values and principles, which are not an appendage to corporate ideals.

Neoliberal reforms and evocations for a discourse around values

Woods (2011:64) uses the metaphor of ‘meta-governance’ in order to portray the environment within which education policy and practice is formulated and enacted. ‘Marketizing meta-governance’ is what currently dominates in the UK, the USA and other Western-centric socio-political contexts, which steer ‘education in the direction of people formation for the economic system’. This metaphor epitomizes the propagation of corporate-driven regimes that mimic the highly competitive, individualistic and profit-oriented marketplace. Framed against the wider context of ‘marketizing meta-governance’, educational change initiatives have been largely abetted by the ascendancy of neoliberal ideologies that have placed a pronounced emphasis on choice and competition as a means of raising standards in public service. Education is thus meant to be subject and subservient to the mode of production, while the hierarchical division of labour is replicated and reproduced in current schooling.

In recent years, the vast majority of education policy developments in Western-centric socio-political systems have been increasingly subsumed within capitalistic modes of thinking that favour preoccupations with increased competition, individualism and quantitative measures of effectiveness (Ball 2009, 2012). Despite acknowledging that ‘[p]olitical and cultural exigencies in places such as Russia, China, and the United States, for example, necessarily lead to different instantiations of free-market capitalism’ (Dudley-Marling and Baker 2012:2), neoliberal imperatives have had similar implications for education policy and practice across different geopolitical jurisdictions. Ball (2012:12), for instance, discusses the ways in which neoliberal policy reforms do not only take place locally but ‘are also “carried” and spread globally through the activities of transnational advocacy networks …’. Western policy discourses are thus diffused and embedded in diverse policy contexts and bring to bear a prodigious impact on localized struggles for educational reforms. Neoliberalism has thus become a globalized discourse as it has been variously intertwined with diverse geopolitical cultures, ideologies and socio-economic exigencies. A global conversation on educational change and inclusion presupposes a concomitant analysis of the ways in which neoliberal ideological and policy imperatives undermine the process of mobilizing and sustaining socially just reforms for learner diversity. As this is a very influential ideological presupposition, understanding the theoretical underpinnings and policy implications of neoliberalism is crucial, if we are to challenge the status quo and to galvanize the process of transformative change.

The values of the marketplace are enshrined in educational institutions, which are called upon to produce ‘human resources’ in order to fulfil the demands of the global economy, thereby relegating to the margins those students who are allegedly deemed ‘unfit’ to meet the demands of corporate modes of schooling (e.g. disabled students). Under the light of this kind of global ‘meta-governance’, education is reduced to indoctrination with market-oriented values that are ‘merely connected with gaining manual or technical skills for getting a job or being employable’ (Sargis 2005:8), while the contention that ‘[e]ducation is the best economic policy’ (Brown 2007:1), has gained momentum around the world.

Thus, the recent financial turmoil has not only exposed the bankruptcy of capitalism, but has also contributed to the resurgence of values-based considerations that necessitate questioning and re-evaluating the ideological and institutional infrastructure of social and educational domains. The circumstances of the crisis reaffirmed the fundamental importance of questioning the purpose of public schooling, along with the ways in which it has both contributed to and been affected by the bankruptcy of capitalism. Some years ago, Sargis (2005:1) posited that ‘the system of public education is fundamentally flawed; that its purpose is not, as common belief has it, to educate, to enlighten, and thereby to produce citizens who act in both their own and in their society’s best interests, that is, citizens for a true democracy’. A couple of years later this assertion proved its veracity amidst the turmoil of the global crisis of capitalism.

The patent failure of the market-driven model has instigated resurgent concerns about the necessity to formulate education policies that are informed by a ‘discourse around values’ (Woods 2011:3) in mobilizing democratic and socially just reforms as a response to the ascendancy of market-based education policy imperatives that legitimize, reproduce and reinforce wider social inequalities. As one head teacher has very adroitly described, ‘the spiritual emptiness of capitalism’ has precipitated a renewed interest in what another educational professional called a ‘discourse around values’ (Woods 2011:3) that brings to the fore the necessity to embrace social democratic approaches to education policy and practice (Hursh 2007; Giroux 2012). Such a reflective and critical approach highlights the importance of promoting alternative values, emanating from more democratic and inclusive ideals, as the antidote to the proliferation of monolithic market-driven governance regimes.

Even though concerns about fostering more democratic approaches to human relations and conditions are not new, as these have prevailed in theoretical discussions and debates, the recent fiscal crisis has exacerbated inequality (Hursh and Henderson 2011) and made even more visible ‘the denting of the superiority of the private business/markets model’ (Woods 2011:2). The crisis thus provides the impetus to challenge the ways in which schools reproduce wider social inequalities, and routinely silence ‘the historical, economic, moral, and social political debts owed to disenfranchised communities’ (Bass and Gerstl-Pepin 2011:928).

Education constitutes a critical site within which wider changes can be envisaged and enacted as the role of education is crucial in formulating and influencing the ideological and institutional bases of distinct socio-political systems. In the aftermath of the recent global financial turmoil, educational change thus should be seen as a precursor for more fundamental social, economic and cultural transformations predicated on alternative values and priorities. These considerations make imperative, according to Goodson (2010:775), the need to ‘seriously scrutinise the neo-liberal orthodoxy in the field of education’ precisely because the corporate-driven educational restructuring attempts of recent years have distorted the role of schooling and have adversely affected educational outcomes. In a similar vein, Hargreaves and Shirley (2012) are scathingly critical of the neoliberal nature and direction of recent educational reform initiatives. As they write: ‘market oriented reforms that are designed to yield short-term economic returns are clearly the wrong strategy, headed in the wrong direction. Another kind of change is needed. … What might that be?’ (Hargreaves and Shirley 2012:4).

Determining the kind of change required is a major and timely issue, which needs to be taken into consideration when designing and implementing education or wider social policy reforms. Education policy and practice is not only embedded in and affected by a myriad of exogenous ideological and institutional dynamics (Berkhout and Wielmans 2001), but it also variously affects and shapes these dynamics. Quoting Hargreaves and Shirley (2012:1): ‘It’s not just the world that’s changing education now. An orchestrated shake-up of every aspect of education is starting to change the world.’

Countries such as Finland, which have somehow resisted neoliberal imperatives, and maintained a strong focus on a social democratic vision in education policy and practice, have managed to achieve higher educational standards and more equitable educational outcomes for learner diversity (Hargreaves and Shirley 2012). While explaining the nature of Finnish educational reforms, Sahlberg (2010) points to the fact that the country has not been influenced by the global education reform movement (GERM), which has emerged from the interests of supranational development agencies and has been geared towards introducing high-stakes accountability regimes for schools. Having resisted market-...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• Acknowledgements
• 1. Introduction
• 2. Neoliberal Reforms and the Crisis of Education
• 3. Inclusive Education Policymaking and the Question of Change
• 4. Theorizing Educational Change within the Context of Inclusion: Socio-cultural and Whole-School Considerations
• 5. Inclusive Classrooms and the Issue of Change
• 6. Sustainable Inclusive Education Reforms
• 7. Disability Studies at the Crossroads of Critical, Feminist, Anti-racist Theories and the Issue of Change
• 8. Educational Leadership and Socially Just Change
• 9. Disability Studies and the Issue of Change: The Voices of Disabled People/Students
• 10. Conclusions
• Bibliography
• Index