The Inclusion Illusion

Inclusion conjures images of children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) learning in classes alongside peers in a mainstream school. For pupils in the UK with high-level SEND, who have an Education, Health and Care Plan (formerly a Statement), this implies an everyday educational experience similar to that of their typically-developing classmates. Yet in vital respects, they are worlds apart. Based on the UK’s largest observation study of pupils with high-level SEND, The Inclusion Illusion exposes how attendance at a mainstream school is no guarantee of receiving a mainstream education. Observations of nearly 1,500 lessons in English schools show that their everyday experience of school is characterised by separation and segregation. Furthermore, interviews with nearly 500 pupils, parents and school staff reveal the effect of this marginalisation on the quality of their education. The way schools are organised and how classrooms are composed creates a form of ‘structural exclusion’ that preserves mainstream education for typically-developing pupils and justifies a diluted pedagogical offer for pupils with high-level SEND. Policymakers, not mainstream schools, are indicted over this state of affairs. This book prompts questions about what we think inclusion is and what it looks like. Ultimately, it suggests why a more authentic form of inclusion is needed, and how it might be achieved. Praise for The Inclusion Illusion 'This timely book presents clear challenges to the limits placed on progress for children with SEND in mainstream schools. It stands alongside calls, back to Warnock’s vision of every teacher being a teacher of SEN, for an end to “exclusion within inclusion”. It urges us to develop all staff to fulfil their roles with pupils with SEND. Acknowledging the value of TAs, it urges schools to ensure children who most need a teacher, get the teacher. Based on rigorous research, it rightly calls for bravery. For honesty. For action.' Professor Maggie Atkinson, Safeguarding consultant, adviser and leader, and Children’s Commissioner for England (2009–2015)'This is an important and valuable book which … has the potential to improve the educational experiences of pupils with significant learning and related difficulties. It combines an insightful account of the many issues and difficulties surrounding inclusion with a rigorous analysis of the outcomes and implications of large scale empirical work.' Professor Paul Croll, University of Reading 'I love this book! It tackles the structural challenges of inclusion head on and sets out what must change to create a fairer future for children with SEND. This is essential reading for all evidence-led school leaders, teachers and policymakers who believe in better.' Margaret Mulholland, SEND and Inclusion Policy Specialist, Association of School and College Leaders 'Rob Webster has deepened our understanding of how mainstream schools fail to address the needs of children with SEND. Distilling the crucial insights from years of work, he has thrown down a challenge to policymakers that for many children with SEND, simply having a mainstream placement is not the same as inclusion. This book is essential reading for anyone interested in what needs to change to ensure better futures for children with SEND in mainstream schools.' Brian Lamb OBE, Visiting Professor of Special Educational Needs and Disability, Derby University "This book brilliantly demonstrates the kind of education children with special educational needs in mainstream classroom, with the legal entitlement of an Education, health and care Plan actually experience. Despite talk of inclusion the classroom settings and organisation ensure that the children are excluded and marginalised from actual mainstream teaching. The over- use of Teaching Assistants, however well intentioned, is no substitute for the attention of qualified teachers. There is a separation in mainstream classes that ensures that inclusion is indeed an illusion. The book should be read by all teachers, parents and policy makers who care about the education of all children, not just those who are regarded as 'typical' or non-problematic." Professor Sally Tomlinson PhD FRSA

We may say we want to be inclusive, but what if we really don’t? What if our brains are hard-wired for selfishness and similarity and not for diversity and altruism? Having a diverse workforce is no guarantee that the work environment is inclusive. Companies hire for diversity and manage for similarity. We hire people for their difference and then teach them directly and indirectly what they have to do to fit in to the corporate culture. The Illusion of Inclusion exposes a myriad of diverse reasons why people are not more fully engaged and offers you the key to unlock the “Geometry of Inclusion”. This book takes the lid off Pandora’s box and explores the complexity of inclusion; where affinity bias or “mini-me” syndrome and the need to fit in are unconsciously blocking our ability to be inclusive. It offers a road map and an easy to comprehend model on how to minimize the impact of unconscious and conscious biases in order to embed an inclusive organizational culture.

"Women have had limited access to some higher education in Canada for over a century, but their participation has never been equal to that of men. Both as students and as faculty, women continue to be discriminated against on Canadian campuses in ways ranging from the most systemic and institutional to the most interpersonal and subjective. Contributors to this anthology explore and explain various dimensions of the illusion of inclusion, the contradiction between the widespread belief that women and men share equal educational opportunities and the uncomfortable reality of women’s marginalization and minority status."--pub. desc.

A collection of articles on inclusion of special education students.

The aim of Inclusion or Illusion is to provide readers with an understanding of educational provision in our primary schools for children with Mild General Learning Disabilities (MGLD) (over half the school-going special needs population). It is a book is for teachers, student teachers, policy makers and educational and support professionals. Based on teachers' own experiences in national and special schools, the book assesses the progress that has been made in this area so far, what the barriers are to progress, and what can be done to overcome these.

To many observers, the 1981 election of Henry Cisneros as mayor of San Antonio, Texas, represented the culminating victory in the Chicano community's decades-long struggle for inclusion in the city's political life. Yet, nearly twenty years later, inclusion is still largely an illusion for many working-class and poor Chicanas and Chicanos, since business interests continue to set the city's political and economic priorities. In this book, Rodolfo Rosales offers the first in-depth history of the Chicano community's struggle for inclusion in the political life of San Antonio during the years 1951 to 1991, drawn from interviews with key participants as well as archival research. He focuses on the political and organizational activities of the Chicano middle class in the context of post-World War II municipal reform and how it led ultimately to independent political representation for the Chicano community. Of special interest is his extended discussion of the role of Chicana middle-class women as they gained greater political visibility in the 1980s.

Positing inclusive education as a cornerstone of democracy, social equality and effective education, this unique book offers a timely response to the recent conservative backlash which has dismissed inclusive education as a field of research and practice which has become outdated and unfit for purpose. With profound insight and clarity, Slee delves deep into the architecture of modern-day schooling to show how inclusive education has been misappropriated and subverted, manifesting itself in a culture of ableism, an ethic of competitive individualism and the illusion of special educational needs. A unique book in both form and content, the author draws on music and art theory, on real-life observations and global experience, contemporary education policy and practice to reject calls for a return to segregated schooling, and put forward a compelling counterargument for schooling which models the kind of world we want our children to live in - a world of authentic, rather than divided communities. A timely response to a modern-day debate with global relevance, Inclusive Education isn't Dead, it Just Smells Funny will be of interest to researchers and educators, policy makers, parents and practitioners with an interest in inclusive education.