Towards Inclusive A Necessary Process Of Transformation

Towards inclusiveeducation:A necessary processof transformationBy Dr Kathy CologonDepartment of Educational Studies,Macquarie UniversityFor Children and Young Peoplewith Disability AustraliaOctober 2019

Suggested citationCologon, K. (2019) Towards inclusive education:A necessary process of transformation. Reportwritten by Dr Kathy Cologon, Macquarie Universityfor Children and Young People with DisabilityAustralia (CYDA)ISBN: ISBN-13: 978-0-646-80949-6AcknowledgementsChildren and Young People with Disability andDr Kathy Cologon would like to acknowledge thetraditional custodians of the lands on which thisreport has been written, reviewed and produced,whose cultures and customs have nurtured andcontinue to nurture this land since the Dreamtime.We pay our respects to their Elders past, presentand future. This is, was, and always will beAboriginal land.We would like to express our thanks to AssociateProfessor Bob Jackson, Professor Sally Robinson,and Dr Zinnia Mevawalla who provided peer reviewsfor this manuscript. The thoughtful, comprehensiveand helpful reviews were useful in strengtheningthis work.This activity received grant funding from theAustralian Government.

ContentsChapter 1 Towards inclusive education: An introduction2Chapter 2 The outcomes of inclusive education7Chapter 3 Defining inclusive education16Chapter 4 Illusions of inclusion26Chapter 5 Uncovering ableism in education34Chapter 6 Broken promises and further barriers to inclusion38Chapter 7 ‘Un-othering’: transformation towards inclusion42References 56Inclusiveeducationinvolves valuingand facilitating thefull participation andbelonging of everyone inall aspects of our educationcommunities andsystems.Towards inclusive education:A necessary process of transformation1

chapterONETowards inclusiveeducation:An introduction2Towards inclusive education:A necessary process of transformation

Inclusive education involves valuing andfacilitating the full participation and belongingof everyone in all aspects of our educationcommunities and systems.No one is excluded as supports for inclusion areembedded within everyday educational practices.1Inclusive education is about everyone learning together,in all our diversity. This means that everyone has genuineopportunities to learn together, with support as needed,and all students are meaningfully involved in all aspectsof the curriculum, thus making inclusion a sharedexperience.2 There is no ‘type’ of student ‘eligible’(nor ‘ineligible’) for inclusion – inclusion is about, withand for all of us. Inclusive education involves upholdingthe dignity of each student in belonging, participating andaccessing ongoing opportunities, recognising and valuingthe contribution that each student makes, and supportingevery student to flourish.3There is no ‘other’ in inclusion. At its core, inclusionrequires recognising and acting upon the realisationthat there is no ‘them’ and ‘us’. There is only ‘us’, andthus an ‘us’ to which, in our diversities, we all belong.This understanding of our shared humanity is fundamentalto bringing about inclusive education.4Recognising our shared humanity does not in any wayinfer ‘sameness’. Inclusion is not about pretending thatwe are all the same. A focus on sameness involvesprocesses of assimilation, which are not only contrary to,but form a serious barrier to, inclusion.5 Instead, inclusionis about valuing, celebrating and sharing our differencesas we embrace every aspect of the complexity ofhuman diversities and recognise that we are allequal in our ‘differentness’.6To be inclusive requires directly and actively rejectingcommon myths of ‘normal’ or ‘typical’ ways of thinking,being and doing, and recognising that education needs tobe open and responsive to the vast range of ‘differences’among humans. This is not to deny the many sharedways of being, but rather to identify that there is neveronly one way – or one ‘right’ way – to develop or ‘be’.Rather than creating systems and practices for whicheach person must shape themselves or be shapedto fit – or else be excluded – education systems andpedagogies need to be transformed to be open to, value,and be shaped for the many ways of being human.There is no‘type’ of student‘eligible’ (nor ‘ineligible’)for inclusion – inclusionis about, with andfor all of us.Background and methodIn 2013 Children and Young People with DisabilityAustralia (then Children with Disability Australia) publishedan extensive systematic literature review examining theevidence base for inclusive education.7 That review wasintended to provide a firm basis from which to informresearch-based advocacy and policy development. Insum, the findings were that while it was clearly establishedthat all people have the right to an inclusive education,and that when inclusive education occurs the outcomesare positive for everyone involved, there remained manyongoing barriers to the realisation of this right in the livedexperience of students and families.Current efforts towards inclusion are impeded bya lack of understanding of inclusive education andfrequent misappropriation and co-opting of the term.Additional barriers include negative and discriminatoryattitudes and practices, the lack of a clear and genuinenational commitment to inclusive education, insufficientsupport to facilitate inclusive education, and inadequateeducation and professional development in inclusiveeducation for teachers and other professionals.Critical to addressing these barriers is recognising anddisestablishing ableism at all levels of education systemsand settings.8 Ableism, which is examined in detail inchapter five, is a term increasingly used to describe theprocess by which people are excluded and viewed andtreated as ‘not one of us’. The term ‘ableism’ is used inthe same way as ‘racism’ and ‘sexism’ to describe theprocess of negatively stereotyping individuals or groupson the basis of a perceived ‘difference’ and, often,discriminating based on such stereotypes at individualand systemic levels.9 Using the term ‘ableism’ creates aTowards inclusive education:A necessary process of transformation3

1 Towards inclusive education: An introductionspace to enable the often-subconscious processof devaluing those of us who experience ‘disability’to be called out and held up to conscious scrutinyas a starting point for disestablishing ableism.This review of the research, in keeping with all otherexisting reviews and meta-analyses dating back overmany decades10, reveals a consistent lack of evidenceto suggest any benefit of segregated education.By contrast, a considerable body of research wasidentified demonstrating the benefits of inclusiveeducation. Despite these well-known findings, whichhave been persistent for more than half a century,current research nationally and internationally showsthat segregated education not only continues butis increasing.11Building on the research base for inclusive educationoutlined in the first edition, this second edition consistsof an extensive systematic literature review. It examinesevidence across six decades and incorporates morethan 400 research papers, relevant treaties andreports, to further explore the existing barriers andthe possibilities for addressing these to bring aboutthe realisation of inclusive education.It should be noted that there are many furtherpressing issues that are important to inclusiveeducation that fall outside the scope of this presentedition. However, this is not to suggest that thesematters are unimportant. There are a number of gapsin the literature identified within, and further researchis urgently needed to address these gaps.The research that is examined within this reportaddresses the outcomes of inclusive educationfor all students. This includes students with a widerange of disability labels, including students labelledwith ‘severe’, ‘profound’ and ‘multiple’ ‘disabilities’.Given the frequent misperception that the researchevidence does not concern ‘some’ students, it isimportant to make it clear at the outset that thisreport addresses the evidence regarding studentsacross the full range of labels. Inclusive educationis about all students, not only some.4Towards inclusive education:A necessary process of transformationIt is also important from the outset to recognise the manystudents, families, teachers, educators, paraprofessionaleducators, principals, directors, education departmentstaff and others who work tirelessly every day to supportinclusive education. There are many challenges andraising the issues identified within the research should notbe read as a criticism of individuals; rather, it is an attemptto draw to light important issues that require carefulconsideration if inclusive education is to become a realityin Australia.What has changed since we first did this work?In the time since the publication of the first editionin 2013, there have been a range of relevant inquiriesand reports within Australia, along with a host ofrecommendations and a number of relevant policychanges. Additionally, the United Nations Committeeon the Rights of Persons with Disabilities has producedGeneral Comment 4 (GC4), which explains Article 24 ofthe Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities(CRPD) on Inclusive Education.12 The CRPD articulatesthe rights of people who experience disability and clearlystates that these rights are not optional nor privileges.As outlined in chapter three, despite the frequent andongoing confusion around the term, and looseinterpretation and application13, ‘inclusive education’has been unambiguously defined in GC4. The adventof GC4 is one of many efforts towards bringing inclusiveeducation to a reality in the time since the first edition.Nonetheless, it unfortunately remains the case that theright to a full and inclusive education is not affordedto many children and young people who experiencedisability, and serious and ongoing violations of the rightsof children and young people continue.14 Given thepositive impact of genuine inclusive education, thishighlights the need for continued advocacy and policychange in this area.15The once radical notion of inclusive education has beenso ‘tamed’ and ‘domesticated’ that ‘special’ educationis now often misrepresented as ‘inclusive education’.16And yet, in a simultaneous contradiction, it seems thatthe lines between proponents of segregated and inclusiveeducation have been, perhaps even more boldly, drawnin the sand. However, there is no equality in segregation.The myth of ‘separate but equal’ was debunked throughthe civil rights movement in North America in the 1950s –