Rix, Jonathan (Senior Lecturer in Inclusion, Curriculum and Learning at the Open University, UK.)

Must Inclusion be Special?: Rethinking educational support within a community of provision - Current Debates in Educational Psychology Rix, Jonathan (Senior Lecturer in Inclusion, Curriculum and Learning at the Open University, UK.) 1st edition

Beyond the 'Special' Problem? examines the discord between special education and inclusive education and why this discord can only be resolved when wider inequalities within mainstream education are confronted. It calls for a shift in our approach to provision, from seeing it as a conglomeration of individualised needs to recognising it to be a conglomeration of collective needs.

The author examines the political, medical and cultural tendency of current times to focus upon the individual and contrasts this with the need to focus on context. The theoretical perspectives often associated with either special or inclusive education and the broad range of interests which depend upon their ongoing development are identified and analysed. This examination leads to a problematisation of mainstream education provision and our understanding of why social inequities emerge and how additional support can overcome these inequities.

Further chapters explore the underlying challenges which emerge from our use and understanding of the notions of special and inclusive and map out an alternative approach based upon a community of provision. This approach recognises the interconnectedness of services and the significance of context, and it encapsulates the aspiration of much international legislation for participation and inclusion for all. But it also assumes that we tend towards diffuse practices, services, policies, settings and roles, spread across provision which is variously inclusive and exclusionary. In seeking to create equitable participation for all, support needs to shift its focus from the individual to this diffuse network of contexts.

Beyond the 'Special' Problem? emerges from the research base which problematises inclusion and special education, and includes examples from many countries. It also draws upon the author?s research into pedagogy, language and policy and his experiences as a teacher and parent of a child identified with special educational needs.