Towards educational inclusion in a transforming society: some lessons from community relations and special needs education in Northern Ireland

Abstract

This paper focuses on the socially constructed ideas that have come to be given the status of taken‐for‐granted knowledge within not one, but two, fields of professional practice in Northern Irish schools; community relations and special needs education. Dominant discourses were viewed as constructing norms around which educational professionals approached issues to do with difference and social justice—differences of attainment and disability in the case of educational special needs, and, in the case of school‐based community relations work, ethno‐political and religious differences. Our analysis identified some very powerful common discourses that served to maintain the status quo and limit the space for creative and pluralistic struggle. We argue that this process of unravelling or deconstructing professional meaning‐making in relation to education for diversity is a crucial first step towards the development of a more inclusive participative practice. In the final section, we consider some of the implications of our work and speculate about the meaning of educational inclusion within a transforming society.