Distribution of the sensible within the Salamanca Statement and Framework for Action: maintaining patterns of inclusion and exclusion?

ABSTRACT

This paper revisits The Salamanca Statement and Framework for Action through Jacques Rancière’s writing about the distribution of the sensible. It questions the supports provided within the Maltese state education system and asks readers to ‘think again’ by asking what has been left out. The Salamanca Statement is seen as reflected within the Maltese education system, both of which, however, position people and services in particular spaces. As systems, they have a totalising quality, which disables thought or any possibility outside that which is given. They also make assumptions about equality that is achieved, whereas Rancière writes about equality as a starting point and a presupposition. This is what gives democracy and politics a possibility, two values that are at the heart of inclusion.

KEYWORDS:

• the Salamanca Statement and Framework for Action
• Jacques Rancière
• distribution of the sensible
• dissensus
• equality

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Daniela Mercieca is a practicing educational psychologist and Associate Professor within the Department of Education Studies at the University of Malta. Her research interest is in critically problematising the assumptions that underpin educational practice with children and deconstructing situations in which decisions are made concerning children’s well-being in schools.

Duncan P. Mercieca is an Associate Professor of Philosophy of Education in the Department of Education Studies at the University of Malta. His research draws upon post-structuralist philosophers to think through educational issues, in particular those related to diversity and otherness; inclusion and disability and critiquing education research and its methods.

ORCID

Daniela Mercieca http://orcid.org/0000-0001-6609-1302

Duncan P. Mercieca http://orcid.org/0000-0003-4071-9522

Notes

1 The education system in Malta is divided into three sectors: State school that cater for 50% of the children in Malta; Church school, which are funded by the State and cater for around 45% of the children; and Private schools, which are fee paying and have around 5% of the children attending. The State Schools are divided into 10 Colleges. A college refers to a cluster of Primary, Middle and Secondary Schools.

2 Cefai and Cooper (2009) explain how in order for Nurture groups to fit in Maltese context and schools, a nurture group framework specifically for Malta was designed. Due to local policies that encourage all students to be part of the mainstream class to safeguard inclusion (Ministry of Education, Youth & Employment, 2005), nurture groups involved a part time arrangement, where students would meet 3 times a week for half of the school day (Copper and Cefai 2013). The framework proposed by Copper and Cefai (2013) involves the nurture group as providing support for the school to become more inclusive, to support the development of emotional literacy, to serve as a hub for parent training and to address individual needs of the students, parents and school.

3 It is tempting to start asking if all have the possibility of meaningful lives, and highlighting groups of people where this is impossible or hard to achieve. The moment this is done, one gets caught again within the hierarchical position.