Demystifying inclusion: implications for sustainable inclusive practice

Abstract

This paper argues that in the pursuit of influencing inclusive education development, definitions of inclusion have been promulgated that remain a distant concept in the minds of the most significant partners in this process, i.e. teachers and schools. This is despite best efforts to share ideas for sustainable change based on such definitions. Based on the author’s experience of being a researcher in an inclusive education project in South Africa and subsequent attempts to influence sustainable development at a secondary school in the project, it is argued that a demystification of the term ‘inclusion’ or related terms such as ‘inclusive education’ is necessary to the process of engagement with schools to bring about more sustainable change.

Notes

1. PGSES is separate unit in the Department of Education, inherited from the Apartheid administrative framework. It is responsible for matters relating to special education.