Inclusion's confusion in Alberta

Abstract

This hermeneutic paper interprets a recent series of reforms to inclusive education policy undertaken by the ministry of education in the province of Alberta, Canada. A 2007 Alberta Education review of the 16,000 student files in the province that school boards had claimed met the criteria for severe disability codification status – the level of disability that results in the most funding – showed almost half of the files did not meet the codification criteria. Alberta Education then claimed it was moving away from a disability and coding system through what it then called ‘Action on Inclusion’. In what is now being called ‘Diversity’, Alberta Education seems to have withdrawn from its proposed actions on inclusion though it still claims to be committed to inclusive education. Alberta Education seems to be presenting itself as having made significant steps towards an inclusionary school system when it has not yet reformed what it had once claimed was the major obstacle to inclusion: special education. We explicate this position by sharing our six-year-long tracking of Alberta Education's moves around inclusion.

• inclusion
• special education
• diversity
• funding
• coding
• disability

Notes on contributors

Christopher Gilham and W. John Williamson are PhD candidates at the University of Calgary, Alberta, Canada and teachers working in Alberta's public education system.