Inclusive discourse in Greece: strong voices, weak policies

Abstract

This paper explores the inclusive discourse in Greece at a period characterized by change in policy and practice. The aim is to discuss critically the distance between the strong voices and weak practices that characterizes the Greek inclusive discourse. The first part focuses on disability and presents the ways that a ‘common sense’ understanding of disability is constructed in the public domain resulting in the de‐politicization of the inclusive discourse. The second part focuses on inclusive education, discussing the contradiction between the rhetoric of inclusive education and the reality of the expansion of special provision for an increasing number of students. It is argued that the fragmentation of the inclusive discourse and the emphasis on common sense assumptions about human and social rights reduce policies about inclusive education to an add‐on, peripheral element of the proposed educational reforms.