There is confusion surrounding 'Inclusion'. The aims and drivers of inclusive education (IE) as experienced in the 1990s to early 2000s, in the UK and globally, emerged from a 'successful' disability rights movement with its depiction of the medical model as pejorative and promotion of the social model.In education, what we currently experience are messy attempts at IE alongside growing collective anxiety and confusion, as some governments take reactionary policy steps. This paper engages with the ubiquitous and complex question of 'IE' in the UK with specific reference to the intersectionality of 'disability' and its location within the University. It will problematise the UK rights agenda of the 1980s -1990s, locate and reflect on the complexities and conflicts of Inclusion and consider the need for new pedagogic developments. Such developments, it will be argued, emerge when one applies a critical eye to the impact of hegemony and 'silence' on the experiences of those with 'disability'. This approach has been developed in other areas of social justice and diversity, that is, class, gender and 'race', and it is argued that such an approach is needed with regard to 'disability'. It is proposed that post-rights pedagogic developments linked to this may provide a sturdier basis from which UK inclusionists, in particular university educators, can locate their future work.
Research in higher education, linked to national and international policy, suggests the need for educationalists to show greater understanding and awareness of the lived experiences of undergraduate students with disabilities. These sources argue that this knowledge should then be used to inform their understandings as tutors and facilitate inclusive and effective teaching strategies. This research had a primary focus on first-year students with disabilities' learning experiences; their transitions from school or college to university and their feedback on positive and negative learning experiences at both levels. Rich, complex stories were uncovered taking the research beyond the lecture theatre and seminar room, into the students' union bar and back to the Year 10 classroom. It is the intention of this paper to relay some of the stories shared, in particular drawing out findings related to effective learning practices and to note the significance of placing a socio-cultural lens on the question of inclusion in education.
Students with dyslexia often experience low self‐esteem and, linked with this, low academic achievement. Our research, commissioned by the Higher Education Academy, was carried out by academics in two universities, one in the south‐west of England and one in the north‐west, over 2009–2010. It set out to address ‘transitions and questions of “access” to higher education for students with identified disabilities’. While we accessed interesting material in this area we were also impressed by the wealth of material provided by our respondents with dyslexia on their school experiences, in particular factors that had impacted on their self‐esteem and academic achievement. Thus this article, while not an intended outcome from our work on matters of transition to higher education, emerges as a story telling a rich and illuminating tale of student success and failure and lifting the curtain on factors impacting on self‐esteem and academic achievement for students with dyslexia at school.
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