Inclusive education as ideology : a critical analysis of its pedagogical applicability

Abstract

Varying studies on inclusive education in South Africa indicate that the practice of inclusive education is contested by a section of the teacher population based on the premise of what inclusion means, or that the practice of such a pedagogy would hinder standard teaching practices. These occurrences can, at least in part, be explained as a consequence of inclusive education interacting with ‘traditionalist education’. It is therefore a pedagogy of inclusion entering into the context of an established teaching environment with entrenched notions of teacher responsibilities and teaching practices, as well as what support and inclusion mean. Both these pedagogies are founded in what Brantlinger identifies as ideological ‘roots’, convictions on an epistemic and ethical level that comes to define the pedagogical practice. By identifying diverse pedagogical frameworks as ideologies, these ideological roots can be laid bare, scrutinized and compared, in order to more accurately evaluate the ends of the particular pedagogical structure. This study endeavoured to highlight the competing ideological roots by means of reviewing the descriptions and views on inclusive education held by teachers, pre-service teachers and the lecturers of pre-service teachers. As a mixed methods study, a qualitative systematic literature review was utilized to identify key themes discernable from the views of in-service teachers on inclusive education. A self-constructed questionnaire was then developed based on these themes, to determine if pre-service teachers and their lecturers hold similar or diverging views. The derivable ideological roots of these key themes were recorded and compared in relation to Freire’s banking education and critical education schemas, to further elaborate on the consequences and effects of endorsed ideological roots. By means of evaluating these underlying schemas, especially their ideological foundations and epistemic-, ethical- and ontological consequences, the benefit of examining pedagogical frameworks as ideologies were emphasized and viability of inclusive education for education in South Africa reinforced.