Inclusive curricula? Pupils on the margins of special schools

Abstract

This paper discusses an inclusion initiative and action research project involving the special schools and services of an education administration (Local Education Authority) in the UK. The project is concerned with the classroom contexts and dynamics that create difficulty. It is not intended to produce incremental change along a developmental path, but rather to stimulate transformation of thinking within the schools. The focus is on pupils who provide the greatest challenge to the routine confidence and competence of teachers. The local education administration aims to avoid placement of these pupils out of the locality in specialist provision elsewhere in the country by developing appropriate curricula, pedagogy and support locally. The part of the project reported here makes use of Intensive Interaction, an interactive approach that emphasizes the quality of teacher-learner interaction, as a vehicle for reviewing and transforming practice. The emphasis is on intuitive teaching combined with critical reflection and collaborative problem-solving, rather than on the notion of specialist ‘experts’. The planning, action and developments of the initial year of the project are reported and themes related to the challenge of inclusion are discussed.