Developing inclusive education systems: what are the levers for change?

This paper argues that inclusion is the major challenge facing educational systems around the world. Reflecting on evidence from a programme of research carried out over the last ten years, it provides a framework for determining levers that can help to ease systems in a more inclusive direction. The focus is on factors within schools that influence the development of thinking and practice, as well as wider contextual factors that may constrain such developments. It is argued that many of the barriers experienced by learners arise from existing ways of thinking. Consequently, strategies for developing inclusive practices have to involve interruptions to thinking, in order to encourage an exploration of overlooked possibilities for moving practice forward. The issue of inclusion is the big challenge facing school systems throughout the world. In the economically poorer countries the priority has to be with the millions of children who never see the inside of a classroom (Bellamy, 1999). Meanwhile, in wealthier countries many young people leave school with no worthwhile qualifications, whilst others are placed in various forms of special provision away from mainstream educational experiences, and some simply choose to drop out since the lessons seem irrelevant to their lives. In some countries, inclusive education is thought of as an approach to serving children with disabilities within general education settings. Internationally, however, it is increasingly seen more broadly as a reform that supports and welcomes diversity amongst all learners (UNESCO, 2001). The argument developed in this paper adopts this broader formulation. It presumes that the aim of inclusive education is to eliminate social exclusion that is a consequence of attitudes and responses to diversity in race, social class, ethnicity, religion, gender and ability (Vitello & Mithaug, 1998). As such, it starts from the belief that education is a basic human right and the foundation for a more just society. Ten years ago the Salamanca World Conference on Special Needs Education endorsed the idea of inclusive education (UNESCO, 1994). Arguably the most significant international document that has ever appeared in the special needs field, the Salamanca Statement argues that regular schools with an inclusive orientation are ‘the most effective means of combating discriminatory attitudes, building an inclusive society and achieving education for all’. Furthermore, it suggests that such schools can ‘provide an effective education for the majority of children and improve