Schools’ prerequisites for inclusion – the interplay between location, commuting, and social ties

ABSTRACT

Recent research has focused on local context as crucial for inclusion. This paper focuses on schools’ prerequisites for inclusion and how such prerequisites can be theorised. We explore theoretically and empirically how location, commuting, and social ties interrelate and influence schools’ prerequisites for inclusion. Using case studies, we compare two schools’ local contexts. We find that the local place and community contribute to students’ relations, including how they interact with and include each other in school. We also find that the local composition of social ties is crucial for schools’ abilities to develop as inclusive communities and that commuting influences teachers’ involvement in local community and school, and with students. The theoretical model presented is used to analyze the schools’ prerequisites for inclusion.

KEYWORDS:

• Inclusion
• school development
• community
• location
• commuting
• social ties

Acknowledgements

The project School-In (2017–2020), is funded by the Research Council of Norway within the programme Innovation in the Public Sector, the University of Agder, and the five municipalities.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Norges Forskningsråd.