Activity

Inclusion is often associated primarily with students who are disabled, who have impairments or “special educational needs” (Booth & Ainscow, 2011) – a perspective that is described as the narrow definition of the term (Arduin, 2015; Haug, 2017). Alternatively, seen from the broad angle inclusion is the process of removing “barriers to learning and participation” for all children and young people (Booth & Ainscow, 2011: 4), and especially the vulnerable ones. 

Removing barriers that stand in students’ way means increasing and reducing their exclusion from school communities; restructuring established structures, policies and practices in schools so that they accommodate the diversity of students; and viewing the differences between students as resources to support learning rather than a hinderance. When teachers remove barriers to learning, they create a conducive learning environment in which cultural, linguistic, learning and behavioral learner differences can be accommodated.

This approach encourages a shift in attention: instead of being the sources of difficulty in school, students experience difficulties in educational systems that do not cater to their needs. As Emanuelsson (2001: 135) points out: “Once children are identified as ‘different’ they become problematic to mainstream schools and teachers. From within the categorical perspective the process of labeling children as ‘having difficulties’, has the effect of investing the source of any difficulty or problem within the child.” 

The principle of universality, i.e. providing education to all children implies, paradoxically, an egalitarian and equitable approach (Kohout-Diaz, 2023: 3), through which all pupils are addressed “in the same way without exception, by welcoming them all within the framework of ordinary schooling; while at the same time also considering their individual, or singular, needs”.