Practices of exclusion in cultures of inclusive schooling in the United Kingdom

Abstract

A tension has emerged in the United Kingdom over the last 30 years between policies designed to achieve educational excellence and policies seeking to achieve inclusive practice. The introduction of devolution across the jurisdictions of the United Kingdom has led to differences in practices developed from what were originally a common set of cultural and historical values and beliefs. Policy changes in England in particular have resulted in perverse incentives for schools to not meet the needs of students with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities and which can result in their exclusion from school. We illustrate the working of perverse incentives through a cultural historical analysis of the ways that professionals from different services may have different object motives. We argue for practices of inter-professional co-configuration and knotworking in order to meaningful relations and patterns of communication that join services around young people with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities.