Challenging understandings of inclusive education policy development in Southern Africa through comparative reflection

Abstract

The value of comparative education and the use of reflective experience and research to inform more sustainable local education development, particularly for developing contexts, is an ongoing consideration. This article explores these arguments in relation to the development of a more sustainable Inclusive Education policy in countries of the South. It focuses particularly on the experience of a policymaker from Swaziland, who, through engaging in the Erasmus Mundus Special Education Needs (SEN) Programme, has been instrumental in influencing the development of an inclusive education policy in Swaziland which recognises and attempts to respond to local contextual needs. The narrative provides valuable insight into an experience of reflection of policy and practice in Inclusive Education across North–South communities facilitated by an international collaborative study programme. It highlights key outcomes for emerging policy ideas in the South which rest on a more holistic understanding of inclusive education and the challenges of negotiating this in a country like Swaziland where the dominant discourse of inclusive education appears to be only associated with disability and separate institutions and structures for SEN.

Keywords:

• inclusion
• inclusive education
• special needs
• policy
• Swaziland
• barriers