The line it is drawn; the curse it is cast: A Bourdieusian exploration of inclusion

Abstract

The inclusion of children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) in mainstream schools requires leaders to manage external and internal pedagogical priorities. This paper uses Bourdieu's theoretical toolkit to explore the ways in which inclusion is considered and enacted in UK schools. We look at how school leaders must balance their inclusive priorities with legitimate external pressures of the standards agenda and curriculum learning. We also look at the ways in which a young person may feel unable to meet typical learning and behavioural expectations due to a mismatch in their disposition (habitus) and the success criteria of an educational setting. We suggest that these students may feel pressure to alter their dispositions to better meet the capital requirements of the field, leaving them experiencing hysteresis or feelings of discomfort and a lack of belonging in schools. Instead of focusing on how students need to adapt to meet typical academic and social behaviours, we suggest that school leaders and teachers should embrace individual habitus and put the onus on changing the types of capital we value to be more responsive to the individual needs of young people.