From Them to Us: An International Study of Inclusion in Education (1468)

Inclusive education has become a phrase with international currency shaping the content of conferences and national educational policies around the world. But what does it mean? Is it about including a special group of disabled learners or students seen to have 'special needs' (them) or is it concerned with making educational institutions inclusive, responsive to the diversity of all their students (us)? In this unique comparative study, the editors have brought together an international team of researchers from eight countries to develop case-studies which explore the processes of inclusion and exclusion within a school or group of schools set in its local and national context. The study includes classroom observation, the experiences of the school day of students and interviews with staff, students, parents and school governors. Through an innovative juxtaposition of the case-studies and commentaries on them, differences of perspective within and between countries are revealed and analysed. The study arose from a dissatisfaction with previous research, which presents 'national perspectives' or seeks findings that have global significance. This book avoids such simplification and draws attention to the problems of translation of practice across cultures. The editors start from an assumption of diversity of perspective which like the diversity of students within schools can be viewed as problematic or as a resource to be recognized and celebrated. This book describes the outcomes of a comparative study that brought together an international team of researchers from eight countries (United States, Scotland, New Zealand, Norway, the Netherlands, Ireland, Australia, and England). The purpose of the study was to develop case studies that would explore the process of inclusion and exclusion within a school or group of schools set in its local and national context. Included are classroom observations, the students' experiences of the school day, and interviews with staff, students, parents, and school governors. Differences and similarities within and between countries are discussed in dimensions that relate to: (1) inclusion and exclusion as unlimited processes; (2) processes of inclusion and exclusion that can be taken for granted; (3) linking the process of inclusion and exclusion; (4) inclusion and exclusion specifically affecting students with low attainment or who are difficult to control; (5) categorization of students with disabilities; (6) medical responses to learning difficulties; (7) response to diversity of learners; (8) student right to inclusive education; (9) common curriculum or special curricula; (10) connection of inclusion and exclusion in school to wide social and political processes; and (11) how differences in perspective on inclusion and exclusion are treated. (Contains approximately 260 references.) (CR) A unique comparative study in which the editors have brought together and international team of researchers from eight countries to develop case studies exploring inclusion and exclusion in schools and then in the national context This book documents and analyses the perspectives on inclusion and exclusion revealed by researchers in eight countries in their studies of a school set in its national and local context.