Dilemmas of inclusive education

Abstract

Inclusive education is the attempt to educate persons with intellectual disabilities by integrating them as closely as possible into the normal structures of the educational system. As this necessitates various kinds of “inclusion through selective exclusion” (partial exemption from grades, special classes, special treatment by teachers, etc.), inclusive education is inherently faced by tensions. Drawing on sociological systems theory, we argue that these tensions can be assigned to three levels of the educational system – the level of the functional macrosystem of education, the level of the organization and the level of the individual (classroom) interaction. Analyzed in this way, it becomes possible to see that the dilemmas of inclusive education result from tensions between the three levels – e.g., inclusion into normal educational organizations requires exclusion from certain functions of the macrosystem of education and so on. The tensions themselves cannot be fully resolved, but they can certainly be addressed in ways that may be more satisfactory to individuals with special educational needs.

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