Abstract:

Inclusive education has become an international buzzword with numerous interpretations and not so successful implementations worldwide. Discussions about inclusive education have, in recent years, been shifting away from focusing merely on students with disabilities to focusing on other groups of students who are also being marginalized. In its simplest term, inclusive education does not seem all that complicated, but because of its multilayered texture in relation to both policy and practice, confusion reigns over what inclusive education really means and what best practices should entail. Iceland proves to be no exception even though inclusive education is the official school policy and was legislated as such in 2008. The lack of a clear definition has been greatly criticised and continues to be debated within the realm of the new Act on the Integration of Services in the Interest of Children’s Prosperity. Iceland is an island with about 383.726 inhabitants of which the proportion of foreign nationals in Iceland's population is close to 14% compared to only 2% in 1996. This recent growth of foreign nationals provides an excellent opportunity to examine and understand the historical development of the concept of support in Icelandic educational history and shed light on the system’s capacity to inspire the sense of belonging, participation, equity, and social justice for all students, but these values are the cornerstones of the ideology of inclusive education. The article is based on the first author’s doctoral thesis, which focused on the education of students with intellectual disabilities at the upper secondary school level. In that research focus was placed on only one identity marker, disability, and how the support students receive marginalises them within the system and hinders their full participation. This article is an effort to shed light on the constriction of this approach to support and point out the importance of focusing on intersectional dynamics, such as gender, ethnicity, sexuality, disability, class and other concerns when addressing differences and responding to support needs. The aim is to explain how and why the current structure of the Icelandic support system contributes to inequality among students when it comes to support in education and also to argue for the benefit of an intersectional approach to support. The research questions are two: What kind of understanding is given to the concept of support and how is support implemented within an education system which, according to the law, is an inclusive education system? How can theories about intersectionality, in relation to the concept of support, benefit the implementation of support within an inclusive education system? The theories and concepts that inform the analysis and discussions stem from Foucault’s theories of discourse, power, power relations, and resistance, Young’s theories of five faces of oppression and social justice, Yuval-Davis’ writings about belonging and Anthias writings about intersectionality. Preliminary findings suggest that the existing 'tunnel vision' to support lacks dimensions to meet the needs of diverse students and also that the current structure of support, in the form of special education, increases inequality among students who need support for various reasons.

Keywords:

Inclusive education, support, intersectionality, diversity.