Abstract:

It is now 25 years since the Salamanca World Conference on Special Needs Education claimed to represent a world-wide consensus of future directions for the education of students with special educational needs (SEN). The landmark Salamanca Statement and the accompanying Framework for Action detailed the ideology of inclusive schooling for SEN students and provided guidelines for action. The paradigm shift created by the Salamanca documents rapidly became an international movement and policy orthodoxy in many countries. The great majority of countries in the global north and many in the South embraced the assumption that a common education in general school settings is possible for almost all children and youth with SEN. As well, a series of documents from the UN and its agencies codified inclusive schooling within the international human rights agenda and made it part of international education governance. However, as the principles and practices were diffused and adopted, contentious issues emerged to the extent that inclusive schooling today is a global movement that functions within varied conceptual blueprints and has deviated significantly from the principles, norms, and rules prescribed in the Salamanca documents. Many of the discontinuities have created a muddle of intent that clouds the worldwide inclusive agenda.

This retrospective paper illustrates the discontinuities by tracing thee international inclusive movement across what we consider to be three major milestones; that is, the Salamanca Statement, the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), and the 2016 CRPD Committee's General Comment Number 4. Each has been hugely influential and each has generated a range of innovative and contentious ideas that have sought to change the directions of inclusive education. We set out to spotlight the most enduring themes and the most contestable features. To add nuances, we look at the effects across selected jurisdictions, particularly those we have examined closely: to wit, Germany, Poland, and the province of Alberta, Canada.

We conclude that the current global inclusive agenda is rife with deviations from the original assumptions forwarded at Salamanca. Despite a bounty of rhetoric and significant changes in direction, present global indicators show that inclusive schooling as a strategy for al SEN students is faring poorly. There are few robust efforts to meld general and special education; the original intent of all children in general classrooms is far from realized; schools have not transformed to accommodate all learners; there is a resurgence of special placements; and may nation are preoccupied with building more special schools. No country has succeeded in constructing an inclusive school system that lives up to the ideals of Salamanca or the CRPD and, overall, there is limited meaning fun inclusion in general schools worldwide.

Keywords:

Students with special educational needs, inclusive schooling, Salamanca Statement, Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.