Inclusion: It's Complicated
The concept of inclusion is central to educational research and policy, with international conventions recognising disabled children’s right to inclusive education (United Nations, 2006, art. 24). However, inclusion is defined and understood in many different ways (Cigman, 2007; Dwyer, 2023; Winzer, 2009). Sometimes, educational inclusion is a synonym for integration: physical placement of disabled and neurodivergent students alongside non-disabled and neurotypical students (e.g. Dalgaard et al., 2022), although this could involve autistic people merely being tolerated, or having to adapt to the majority’s preferences (Weaver et al., 2021). Today, the dominant definition of inclusion – especially in the Global North – could be called ‘integration plus’: integration with supports so that all students can fully participate in diverse school communities and experiences (e.g. Ferguson, 1995; Pellicano et al., 2018). However, making an environment work well for everyone is not easy, and some autistic young people have articulated the basis of a radically different understanding of inclusion that one might call ‘integration-agnostic’. They suggested that inclusion is about belonging, being supported and feeling valued, regardless of whether one’s peers are neurotypical/non-disabled or neurodivergent/disabled (Goodall, 2020). We argue that a similar integration-agnostic understanding has the potential to transform education systems by increasing meaningful inclusiveness.
