In the name of inclusion, a consensus has formed around the need to ‘revolutionise schools’, to ‘overturn the paradigm that students must adapt to schools’ and therefore ensure that ‘schools adapt to the needs of each student’..
In the name of inclusion. The contradictions of an educational ambition : ce sont le titre et le sous-titre d’un ouvrage collectif publié par les The Episteme Publishing House qui, depuis 2023, est « la maison d’édition que la Fondation des Presses polytechniques et universitaires romandes (PPUR) dédie aux sciences humaines et sociales ».
A collection of essays on the contradictions of a consensual model
This is not a monograph, but rather a collection of essays on the contradictions of the model, as the subtitle of the book points out. Nor is it a popular science book, but rather a series of academic essays on the paradigm of inclusion and the burden it places on teachers, the silence surrounding certain real problems in schools, and the permanence of educational equality.
In the introduction, the authors specify that the purpose of the book is not to propose an alternative model or to present the history of the inclusive movement.
Their ambition "aims, on the one hand, to identify the ideological frameworks of “inclusive thinking” and, on the other hand, to understand the concrete consequences of inclusive policies on school stakeholders.
In other words, its objective is to better understand what is being done “in the name of inclusion” [...]. P. 12
Ironically, this book, which breaks the consensus on inclusive education, comes from Switzerland, a country famous for its neutrality. Would such a book, written by scientists, all of whom are education specialists, be possible in France? The authors' analyses focus mainly on the canton of Vaud. In 2019, this canton forcibly switched from a highly segregated model to an inclusive paradigm pompously dubbed ‘Concept 360°’.
In the name of inclusion: a book offering a dual analysis
As announced in the introduction, the authors first examine the ‘words’ and ‘values’ of inclusive thinking. In the second part, they focus on understanding the consequences of this model on the daily lives of teachers and on the pupils themselves.
Inclusive thinking
This section contains two chapters on the words that define inclusion.
The first chapter covers the ‘evidence’ for the inclusive model. Inclusion is said to be a third stage – the most advanced, of course – in the history of education. Schools initially practised segregation, sending problem pupils to external institutions. From the 1960s onwards, the work of associations enabled schools to integrate pupils more fully into mainstream education. Finally, since the 1990s, schools have become inclusive and adapt to pupils with special needs. The authors show that the reality is more complex. Rather than replacing each other, these models accumulate and overlap to form an increasingly opaque mille-feuille.
The second chapter, The language of inclusion. How school problems are not namedanalyses the presentation document for ‘Concept 360°’, the inclusive school project in the Canton of Vaud. Here again, clarity is not the document's cardinal virtue. At times it celebrates diversity as a source of richness, at others it proposes (equally vague) solutions to regulate it (without specifying what that means) and, above all, without specifying why schools should adapt to pupils:
- for their academic success?
- for their individual well-being?
- we don't know!
The entire document navigates between the ambivalent notions of respecting differences and normalising student behaviour. The term ‘need’ – which appears more than 100 times in the text – is subject to interpretative fluctuation, ranging from medicalisation to ethnic differentiation. The most stable notion associated with it is that of ‘performance’. One can sense the interest of consultants and advisory firms of all kinds...
On the other hand, important words such as ‘knowledge,’ “learning” and ‘disability’ appear rarely or not at all in the text. There is therefore reason to fear that policies dedicated to people with disabilities will be weakened by this model. The same applies to the collective approach of raising the overall level of pupils.
The inclusive model is exclusively individualistic. It is even essentialising, since pupils are defined solely by their needs and the support they require.
Tweet
What emerges most clearly from this document is that pupils with special educational needs are above all ‘individuals whose education costs more than others’. It is therefore purely an accounting standard. As the authors say:
Inclusive principles can easily be incorporated into management policy, except that reform efforts tend to blend into processes whose concrete objectives are difficult to identify in educational terms.
Inclusion in action
The second part of the book analyses the impact of the concepts examined in the first section.
The first essay focuses on defining what is expected of teachers in this model. Teachers who, faced with heavy workloads, increasing professional demands and limited resources, may ‘lose their sense of competence’ (p. 76).
Today, teachers must:
- to collaborate : with families but also with numerous practitioners (speech therapists, psychologists, social workers, etc.), which significantly increases their workload. Paradoxically, the total payroll available for these professionals reduces that of teachers. This can lead to an increase in the number of pupils in classes, thereby further increasing teachers' workloads.
- implement 'specialised programmes' : this places teachers at the heart of another paradox: that of meeting increasingly individualised needs with increasingly standardised teaching standards. Added to this is the time consumption that teachers could otherwise devote to teaching...
- practise differentiated teaching : here, there is considerable confusion: is it differentiation or pedagogical variation, does it apply to all pupils or only those with special educational needs? It seems that improvisation and resourcefulness are the solutions most often adopted by teachers.
This triple injunction leads to a " work intensification ": more activities in the same amount of time for the teacher. Furthermore, it runs counter to the supposed role of teachers: to impart collective knowledge to different students. And all work specialists will add that intensifying work is counterproductive: it tends to decrease productivity. So be it.
La seconde partie de l’ouvrage est surtout dédiée au cas suisse. Je n’insiste donc pas sur elle, même si elle illustre par des cas concrets les faiblesses de la méthode dénoncées dans la première partie.
The best definition of the ambition of this work is undoubtedly that given in the afterword by Serge Ebersold, professor and holder of the chair Accessibility at the Conservatoire National des Arts et Métiers (CNAM): that of ‘thinking about inclusion as a political issue marked by struggles and challenges that need to be transformed into a scientific subject’.
In the name of inclusion: a relevant analysis?
In the name of inclusion is published as open access, you can purchase it or download a free PDF version on the Editions Epistémé website. This is a free educational resource published under Creative Commons licence. In a future article, I will introduce you to a few publishers who have decided to offer their publications under free licences.
Objectif atteint, mon général ! Même si, parfois, les critiques me paraissent un peu trop adoucies. Les auteurs auraient pu être plus « mordants » sur certains aspects de ce mouvement inclusif, notamment sur son acceptation acritique du concept d’équité, issu de la pensée libérale de John Rawls. Certainement pas un penseur de gauche. Mais, je suppose que cette neutralité relative appartient au genre de l’essai universitaire. Et au goût de la Suisse pour la neutralité, même si, ces derniers temps, celle-ci se trouve remise en question au sein même de la Fédération.
Cet ouvrage a au moins le mérite de poser les bonnes questions, de pointer les non-dits et le flou qui caractérisent le mouvement inclusif. Et de dénoncer le poids qu’il fait peser sur les personnels enseignants, de qui on attend de résoudre au quotidien les contradictions d’un modèle concocté dans les hautes sphères pédagogiques. Bien loin, apparemment, des classes surchargées et des directions d’école sous-financées…
Did you enjoy this article? Subscribe to our newsletter ! It's free and you won't miss any of our actions or publications.