Inclusion: Dimensions of inclusion in education

ABSTRACT

The understanding of inclusion in education has transcended the assumption that inclusion is about students with special needs. It concerns the inclusion of all children. With systems theory as a framework, the article argues that in order to handle inclusion as a phenomenon that concerns all children, we need an operational definition of inclusion differentiated according to three dimensions. The first dimension covers different levels of inclusion. The second dimension concerns different types of social communities in and out of school, from which a child may be included or excluded. The class is one such type of social community, but equally important is membership in the self-organised community of children in the school-yard, the bilateral relationships with other children and/or teachers, etc. The third dimension concerns different degrees of being included in and/or excluded from the different communities. The point is that a child is not either completely included or excluded, but that he/she is included in or excluded from the different communities in different degrees. A comprehensive matrix definition is presented combining the three dimensions, which matches the present understanding of inclusion in education.

KEYWORDS:

• Inclusive education
• definition of inclusion
• dimensions of inclusion
• pedagogical practice
• teacher professionalism
• systems theory

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Ane Qvortrup is associate professor and head of Centre for Interdisciplinary Research and Development at the Department for the Study of Culture, University of Southern Denmark. Her research areas are general didactics, inclusion, curriculum theory and systems theory.

Lars Qvortrup is professor and head of National Centre for School Research at the Danish School of Education, Aarhus University. His research areas are data and research-informed school development, inclusion, school leadership and systems theory.