Lessons from the 1%: children with labels of severe disabilities and their peers as architects of inclusive education

Abstract

The 1% of US students with labels of severe disabilities including mental retardation have been historically excluded from ‘inclusive’ education, and from the important epistemological, political, pedagogical, and pragmatic currents in systemic education reform. They have been also been excluded from the design of, and participation in, the general academic curriculum. With ever increasing emphasis on academic goals, assessment and achievement standards are legally mandated to promote access to and progress in the general curriculum for ‘the 1%’. This study utilizes symbolic interaction to explore children’s construction of their own inclusive education in academic and social contexts. Symbolic Inclusion and Symbolic Exclusion are posited as constructivist definitions of inclusion, which transcend a traditional, one‐dimensional measure of time spent in the presence of children who do not have disabilities. Symbolic Inclusion and inclusive pedagogical practices are found to be instinctively and effectively utilized by a child with Rett syndrome and her peers with and without disabilities, though they were given exclusionary models by paraprofessionals, and limited opportunities for interaction. Recommendations to facilitate Symbolic Inclusion are suggested based upon Disability Studies in Education frameworks.

Notes

1. All names have been changed to pseudonyms.