Inclusive Education

Inclusive Education does not exclude anyone.

Inclusive education means education that is non-discriminatory in terms of disability (Links to an external site.), culture (Links to an external site.), gender (Links to an external site.)or any other aspects of learners or staff that a society may assign significance to. It involves all learners in a community, without exception and irrespective of their intellectual, physical, sensory or other differences, with equal rights to mainstream classrooms. Inclusion emphasises diversity (Links to an external site.)over assimilation (Links to an external site.), striving to avoid the colonisation of minority experiences by dominant modes of thought and action (Ballard, 1997:244-245). According to Swart (2004:232), inclusive education is the term used to describe educational policies and practices that uphold the right of learners with disabilities to belong and learn in mainstream education.

Although inclusion means different things to different people in different contexts, there are some commonalities:

A commitment to building a more just society (Links to an external site.)

A commitment to building a more equitable education system and

A conviction that the extension of the responsiveness of mainstream schools to learner diversity (and, particularly, to marginalised groups of learners) offers a means of turning these commitments into reality.

Evolving Focus

Productive Classroom