A tribute to Len Barton

Abstract

This article constitutes a short personal tribute to Len Barton in honour of his work and our collegial relationship going back over 30 years. It covers how Len saw his intellectual project of providing critical sociological and political perspectives on special education, disability and inclusion, and his own radical political perspectives. Len’s challenges to prevailing notions of individual deficiencies of intellect, and disability as a personal misfortune, are noted, as is his profound influence on practitioners, activists, students and academics worldwide. It concludes that his goal of challenging and unsettling conventional ‘ways of knowing’ has had wide and lasting influence and that it is imperative to understand what moral, economic and political judgements lie behind decisions to separate, segregate and exclude young people from mainstream education and their fellow citizens.

Keywords:

• personal tribute
• critical perspectives
• disability
• inclusion
• radical

Notes

1. Harry Secombe was a well‐known British comedian who also wore a fedora hat.

2. The United Nations General Assembly called in 1975 for full and equal participation of those regarded as disabled in a Declaration on the Rights of Disabled People, and by 2006 many countries had signed the International Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. The World Bank and UNESCO are committed to ‘inclusive education for all’ (UNESCO 1994)