Inclusion and Diversity: Communities and Practices Across the World [1 ed.] 1032333863, 9781032333861

Table of contents :
Cover
Half Title
Title Page
Copyright Page
Table of Contents
List of Illustrations
Preface
Foreword by Lorraine Graham
Acknowledgements
Editors Bio
List of Contributors
Chapter 1: What, Why, and How of Inclusion
Introduction
What Is Inclusion?
Who Are to Be Included?
Why Inclusion?
How Can Inclusion Be Manifested?
Conclusion
References
Part I: Excluded Communities, Diversities, and the Bases for Inclusion
Chapter 2: The Linguistic Diversity of Pluralist Cultures: Status of Linguistic Minorities in India and Canada
Introduction
India: The Country with a Hundred Tongues
The Official Language Debate
A Recognition of the Linguistic Diversity in India
Linguistic Disparity: Policies and Laws
Minority Rights: The Judicial Passage
Canada: More Than a Few Acres of Snow
Historical Background
Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and Linguistic Minorities
Linguistic Minorities and Asymmetry
Conclusion
Notes
Disclaimer
References
Chapter 3: Indigenous knowledge and sustainable lifestyles of the people of the Sundarbans: Traditional rituals and goddess Bonbibi
Introduction
Rituals as a part of sustainability of native societies from times immemorial
Rituals in Western societies
Rituals in the Indian subcontinent
World’s richest mangrove forest: the coastal Sundarbans
Complex lives of the people of the Sundarbans and the increasing threats and risks
Cultural rituals and sustainability of the Sundarbans
The Sundarbans and remote, rural communities
Deities of the Sundarbans and the locals
Bonbibi: protector of the forest and forest-dependent communities
Objectives
Methodology
Search design and procedure
Search strategies based on inclusion and exclusion criteria
Results and interpretation
The tale of Maa Bonbibi: an important aspect of the rituals
Birth of the forest deity Bonbibi
Bonbibi meets Dokkhin Rai in athhero bhatir desh, the Sundarbans
Bonbibi, protector of the non-greedy, forest-dependent community
Maa Bonbibi, both for Dokkhin Rai and forest dwellers
Importance of Bonbibi in the lives of the people of the Sundarbans
Prayers offered before and during journeys in the forest
Beliefs related to Bonbibi and implications
Discussion
Cultural rituals with respect to Bonbibi foster sustainability
Bonbibi: icon of unity, conservation, and socio-environmental sustainability
Enriching biodiversity through rituals
Instilling values like honesty and protection of nature
Leaving core area of the Sundarbans undisturbed due to belief in Bonbibi
Protecting the tiger
Conclusion
References
Chapter 4: Religious Determinants of Accepting Women’s Activism and Inclusivity in Pakistan: The Beliefs of University Students
Introduction
Method
Participants
Materials
Psychological Measure of Islamic Religiousness (PMIR)
Attitudes towards Feminism and the Women’s Movement Scale (FWM)
Self-Identification as Feminist (SIF)
The Perceived Social Inclusion Scale
Islamic Religiosity and Women’s Activism/Inclusivity Beliefs
Results
Multiple Regressions
Supporting Feminist Identity and Women’s Activism
Perceived Women’s Inclusion in Society
Thematic Analysis
Acceptability of Women’s Activism and Their Social Inclusion
Restrictions on Women’s Activism and Their Social Inclusion
Rejection of Women’s Activism and Their Social Inclusion
Discussion
Limitations and Future Research
References
Chapter 5: Access, Participation and Achievement: Duo-ethnographic Reflections on Barriers to Inclusion for Learners with Autism
Introduction
Literature review and related theories
Methodology
Access
Participation
A committed school management team
Well-trained teachers
Parental involvement
Shared resources
Becoming inclusive by being inclusive
Schools as community sites
Achievement
Conclusion
References
Chapter 6: Systemic Oppression of the Buraku People and Other Minorities in Japan: Intersectional Culture for Liberation
Introduction
Exploration of Buraku Issue
Liberation Culture and Normalisation Culture
Buraku Liberation Movement and Learning-together Movement in Tana
From Special Education Movement to the Learning-together Movement
The Intersection of Normalisation Culture and Liberation Culture
Conclusion
References
Chapter 7: Enigma of autism spectrum intersecting dichotomy of variability and functionality
Introduction
Understanding neurodiversity
Evolutionary trajectory of neurodiversity
Dichotomy of autism spectrum through the neurodiverse lens
Intra- and inter-autistic variabilities
The paradox of strengths and deficits
Valorizing the strengths
Autism spectrum as an emerging neurotribe
Alternative inclusive pathways to accommodate neurodiverse autistics
Conclusion
References
Part II: Inclusive Classrooms and Educational Interventions
Chapter 8: Inclusive Early Literacy Practices for Emergent Bilinguals
Inclusive Early Literacy Practices for Emergent Bilinguals
United States and Global Perspective on Bilingual Learners
Importance of Home Language
Evidence-Based and Recommended Early Literacy Strategies
Oral Language Strategies
Storytelling—Family and Funds of Knowledge
Oracy
Home Language Use in the Classroom
Culturally Relevant Play
Milieu and Incidental Teaching
Family Involvement and Partnership
Literacy Strategies
Shared Story Book Reading
Dialogic Reading
Culturally Responsive Literacy Opportunities
Language Experience Approach
Sheltered Instruction for Young Readers
Conclusion
References
Chapter 9: Developing Dyslexia-Friendly EFL Classrooms in Greece: The Teachers’ Perspective
Introduction
Literature Review
Aims of Study
Methodology
Participants
Data Collection
Data Analysis
Findings and Discussion
Pre-intervention
Intervention
Conclusion
References
Chapter 10: The education of students with visual impairments in the twenty-first century in Hungary
Introduction
Essentials of inclusion
Inclusive education in Hungary
General consideration
The population of Hungarian students with blindness or visual impairment
A brief history of the education of students with BVI
Current challenges and success in inclusion
Conclusion
Notes
References
Chapter 11: Educational Inclusion of Migrant Children in the Discourse and Practices of Teachers in Private and Public Russian Schools
Introduction
Methodology
Participants
The Case of Pereletnye Deti
Interview Schedule
Findings
Research Question 1: Teachers’ Attitudes towards Educational Inclusion
Research Question 2: Techniques and Methods of Management of Cultural Diversity
Research Question 3: Institutional Facilitators and Barriers
Inclusive School Environment
Freedom of Activity Planning for Teachers
Teaching Staff Structure
Research Question 4: Cultural Facilitators and Barriers of Inclusive Environment Development
Conclusion
Acknowledgement
Notes
References
Chapter 12: Disability in Schools: Segregation, Full Inclusion or Free Inclusion?
Position Statement
Historical Context: Shifts in Thinking about Placement
Theoretical Considerations
Dominant Theoretical Approaches
Ableist Assumptions in Special Education
The Dismissal of Disabled Communities
Social Construction and Environmental Adaptation
A New Approach: Free Inclusion
Conclusion
Note
References
Chapter 13: Inclusive capability in education systems and schools: Swedish experiences in international light
Introduction
Challenges and development 2005–2020 in the Swedish education system
Proven experience: inclusion in local context, a matter of complexity and uncertainty
What do we really know about inclusion through international research?
Context-based studies in Sweden for a deeper understanding
Conclusion
To avoid the risk of reactive output from the education system and its schools
Build on deep knowledge about how to transform a school
Constructive reflections: a conceptual model about inclusive capability
References
Part III: Community Inclusive Practices and Strategies
Chapter 14: Inclusive football commentary: Should radio commentary learn from audio description to create a richer experience for audiences who cannot see the match?
Introduction
Accessibility in stadiums
Accessibility through radio?
Accessibility as a niche requirement
The experience of AD
What is being described in AD?
What is the matchday experience?
Matchday audio description
Radio football commentary
Conclusion: should radio commentary become more inclusive?
References
Chapter 15: Early childhood intervention programs in under-resourced communities: Reflections on practice
Early childhood intervention
Reflective practice
Training
The dissonance
Transition to including families
Working with families
Workshops
Continuing my journey with families
References
Chapter 16: Social Support and Acceptance: Transgender People’s Lived Experiences with Social Media as an Alternative Space
Introduction
Transgender Lives in India: Social Stigma, Ostracism, and Health Risks
Social Media in the Lives of Transgender People
Rationale for the Study
Methodology
Research Questions and Research Design
Participants
Research Instrument
Data Analysis
Results
Transgender People’s Experience of Social Support and Acceptance with Social Media
Social Media as the Gateway to Access Information among Transgender People
Development and Reconstruction of Relationships
Catalytic Role of Social Media in the Upliftment of Trans-Community
Suicidal Risk: Regulating Suicidal Thought among Transgender People
Conflicts within the LGBTQ+ Community
Discussion
Multidimensional Interactive Role of Social Media on Social Acceptance of Transgenders
Informational Support: A Key to Well-being of the Gender Minorities
Emotional Support: A Key to Stress-free Come Out
Affirmation of Values and Attitudes: A Key to Get Along with the Mainstream Society
Interpersonal Communication Leads to Acceptance
Social Acceptance to Social Inclusion: A Future Prospect
Practical Implication
Limitations and Further Research Direction
Concluding Remarks
Acknowledgments
Funding
Conflict of interest
References
Chapter 17: Inclusion: Responding to diversity and ideological confusion
Inclusion: Responding to diversity and ideological confusion
A brief history of societal influences on educational inclusion in England
Would more choice lead to more flexibility?
School failure
Building capacity and inclusive design
Conclusions
References

Citation preview

INCLUSION AND DIVERSITY

This volume presents a comprehensive overview of inclusion and diversity in education across the globe. It examines how more inclusive education systems can be built and covers areas and topics such as disability studies, sexual minorities, and indigenous communities, marginalized communities among others. The book presents perspectives of experienced and cutting-edge researchers on inclusive practices that facilitates participation, equity, and access from across countries such as India, the USA, Australia, the UK, Canada, South Africa, Japan, Pakistan, Rome, Hungary, Sweden, and others. It discusses how spoken language, race, gender, and religion contribute to inclusion and marginalization. The volume also explores ideas on how schools and educational systems can respond to diversity-related issues, and the lessons learned about how to improve capacities for further inclusion. Additionally, it provides a holistic understanding of the classroom practices and interventions adopted to handle the problems of students with diverse needs. The book volume facilitates understanding of the broader spectrum of various diversities existing in our society and also the strategic pathways for their inclusion. This incisive and comprehensive volume will be of interest to students, teachers, and researchers of education, inclusion and diversity, equity and access, disability studies, educational psychology, social work, sociology, and anthropology. It will also be useful for teacher training course, and anyone who is associated with or working in the field of diversity and inclusion. Santoshi Halder is a Professor in the Department of Education, University of Calcutta, India. She is a Board-Certified Behavior Analyst (BACB, USA) with specialization in Autism intervention having years of experience, and a Special Educator licensure (RCI). She has been actively involved internationally and nationally in the inclusion of people with diverse needs, including disabilities through various academic and research endeavors since 2000. Garry Squires is a Professor in Educational Psychology, Special Educational Needs, and Inclusion at the University of Manchester, UK. He previously worked as an educational psychologist in a large local authority in England and was the lead psychologist on the development of dyslexia-friendly schools and led on local authority policy for inclusion.

INCLUSION AND DIVERSITY Communities and Practices Across the World

Edited by Santoshi Halder and Garry Squires

Cover image by beastfromeast / Getty Images First published 2023 by Routledge 4 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN and by Routledge 605 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10158 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 2023 selection and editorial matter, Santoshi Halder and Garry Squires; individual chapters, the contributors The right of Santoshi Halder and Garry Squires to be identified as the authors of the editorial material, and of the authors for their individual chapters, has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library ISBN: 978-1-032-33386-1 (hbk) ISBN: 978-1-032-45866-3 (pbk) ISBN: 978-1-003-37903-4 (ebk) DOI: 10.4324/9781003379034 Typeset in Bembo by SPi Technologies India Pvt Ltd (Straive)

CONTENTS

List of Illustrations viii Preface ix Foreword by Lorraine Graham xi Acknowledgements xiii Editors Bio xv List of Contributors xvii 1 What, Why, and How of Inclusion Santoshi Halder

1

PART I

Excluded Communities, Diversities, and the Bases for Inclusion 9 2 The Linguistic Diversity of Pluralist Cultures: Status of Linguistic Minorities in India and Canada Shruti Bedi and Sébastien Lafrance

11

3 Indigenous Knowledge and Sustainable Lifestyles of the People of the Sundarbans: Traditional rituals and goddess Bonbibi Arupa Mandal and Santoshi Halder

29

4 Religious Determinants of Accepting Women’s Activism and Inclusivity in Pakistan: The Beliefs of University Students Muhammad Ayub Buzdar, Viktoria Tidikis and Nora D. Dunbar

49

vi  Contents

5 Access, Participation and Achievement: Duo-ethnographic Reflections on Barriers to Inclusion for Learners with Autism Mary G. Clasquin-Johnson and Michel Clasquin-Johnson

65

6 Systemic Oppression of the Buraku People and Other Minorities in Japan: Intersectional Culture for Liberation Yasuko Futaba

82

7 Enigma of Autism Spectrum Intersecting Dichotomy of Variability and Functionality Santoshi Halder

97

PART II

Inclusive Classrooms and Educational Interventions

107

8 Inclusive Early Literacy Practices for Emergent Bilinguals Kimberly McDavid Schmidt, Ekta Ghosh and Rashida Banerjee

109

9 Developing Dyslexia-Friendly EFL Classrooms in Greece: The Teachers’ Perspective Maria Reraki

123

10 The Education of Students with Visual Impairments in the Twenty-first Century in Hungary Judit Gombás and Beáta Prónay

136

11 Educational Inclusion of Migrant Children in the Discourse and Practices of Teachers in Private and Public Russian Schools 147 Maria Kozlova, Tatiana Ryabichenko, Igor Mikheev and Mike Titterton 12 Disability in Schools: Segregation, Full Inclusion or Free Inclusion? Patrick Dwyer

168

13 Inclusive Capability in Education Systems and Schools: Swedish Experiences in International Light Per Skoglund

188

Contents  vii

PART III

Community Inclusive Practices and Strategies

207

14 Inclusive Football Commentary: Should Radio Commentary Learn from Audio Description to Create a Richer Experience for Audiences Who Cannot See the Match? 209 Lindsay Bywood, Inma Pedregosa, Barry Ginley and Alison F. Eardley 15 Early Childhood Intervention Programs in Under-Resourced Communities: Reflections on Practice Sadna Balton and Shakila Dada

223

16 Social Support and Acceptance: Transgender People’s Lived Experiences with Social Media as an Alternative Space Santana Parui and Santoshi Halder

238

17 Inclusion: Responding to Diversity and Ideological Confusion Garry Squires

260

ILLUSTRATIONS

Figures 3.1 13.1 13.2 13.3 15.1 15.2 16.1 16.2

PRISMA chart of the review process From find-deficit-loop to build-school-loop Mechanisms for transformation Model of inclusive capability Group sessions Workshop activities Social media influence on social acceptance A persuasive model of social inclusion through social support and acceptance

36 198 199 201 231 233 253 256

Tables 3.1 Mapping Rituals of the Sundarbans Communities to Regional Sustainability 40 4.1 Results of Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) of Modified version of Psychological Measure of Islamic Religiosity (PMIR) 52 4.2 Descriptive Statistics of Students’ Responses on Independent and Criterion Variables 55 4.3 Multiple Regressions Predicting Feminist Identity/Women’s Activism and Women’s Social Inclusion from Islamic Religiousness and Gender 57 4.4 Distribution of the Codes into Three Major Themes 57 10.1 Number of Students with BVI Exempted from Secondary-School Subjects 143 15.1 Workshop Design 232 15.2 Workshop Topics 232 16.1 Demographic Profile of the Transgender Persons (N = 12) 242

PREFACE

Inclusion in the broader sense of the term is to create an anti-discriminatory environment for people with all kinds of diversities existing in society. In the narrowest sense inclusion may be just assigning a person a place in an inclusive setting but most broadly it goes far beyond mere placements, rather manifestation in its entirety with successful accomplishments of the parameters of inclusion (Oluremi, 2012). Inclusion is conceptualized with a myriad of thoughts ranging from a narrow to broader perspective encompassing beliefs, approach, and practice’s philosophy, and perhaps it is a major process that goes beyond the educational environment with the implicated philosophy per se (Allan, 2008; Oluremi, 2012). Some of the most important indices of inclusion are equal rights and opportunity, participation, dignity, acceptance, decision-making, and choice just as at par with the rest of the majority of people in society in all walks of life (UNESCO, 2005). Manifestation of full inclusion is possible only when the philosophy behind inclusion is deeply and rationally understood by the common masses in all hierarchies existing in any society. Inclusion should be as natural as human existence, as natural as development and life itself in its entirety (Hodkinson, 2010). Despite inclusion being the slogan for the last many decades the actual process and the successes are extremely varied within and across countries. There are multiple challenges in the way of effective implementation of inclusion in each country’s context. There also lie many misconceptions and confusion in regard to the definition, concept, and understanding of its various aspects; henceforth, the real visibility of an inclusive society with the full participation of people with diversity is still a long way to go. This book brings forth crucial perspectives and aspects of inclusion from various cultures and countries (viz., India, the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, South Africa, Hungary, Sweden, Moscow, Romania, Pakistan, and Canada) from the researchers, educators, and practitioners in their respective fields. The primary objective is to bring out and gather those perspectives and practices together as a

x  Preface

comprehensive whole and disseminate them to the masses and various stakeholders with the objective to orient and inform them for facilitating the broader objective and aim of inclusion all over the world. This book brings out a much broader spectrum of inclusion for designing an inclusive society covering areas and topics most broadly namely disability, sexual minorities, women, third gender/transgender, historically or socially backward classes, socioeconomically backward, religious minorities, indigenous communities, and others. This book captures perspectives of experienced faculty members or researchers primarily from the subject Education from reputed Universities and Institutions worldwide. All the authors have years of experience working in close proximity to inclusion. Authors present various aspects of inclusion related to equity and access from many countries. Studies from around the world will provide pivotal and critical aspects of participation, equity, and access facilitating an in-depth awareness and understanding of the various crucial aspects of inclusion. The book is divided into three main parts: PART I: Excluded Communities, Diversities, and the Bases for Inclusion This part covers many of the excluded communities and captures through the chapters the various factors that lead to the exclusion in various parts of the world. Crucial bases for the inclusion of the excluded communities are presented. PART II: Inclusive Classrooms and Educational Interventions This part explores ideas around how schools and educational systems can respond to diversity and lessons learned about how to improve capacity for further inclusion. PART III: Community Inclusive Practices and Strategies The chapters in this part highlight the role of the appropriate, timely intervention that contributes to inclusivity. This starts by considering individual factors and then moves on to thinking about how diversity can be supported at the individual level or at the societal level through appropriate support systems in various environments; home, school, and communities. The book is designed to be of use to a wide range of readerships; students, scholars, teacher educators, practitioners, stakeholders, and researchers all over the world who are working in the field of diversity and inclusion. The book is targeted at a wide range of professionals: researchers, practitioners, stakeholders, special educators, teachers, and parents providing information and or discussions on educational needs, health care provisions, and social services, which may be beneficial to all irrespective of country and culture who are working or are associated with inclusion and diversity in various capacities. Prof. Santoshi Halder, India Prof. Garry Squires, UK

FOREWORD Lorraine Graham Professor of Learning Intervention, Melbourne Graduate School of Education, The University of Melbourne, Australia

This book of 17 chapters from authors across the globe is a major contribution to the dialogue about what inclusion is, what it looks like in different contexts, and how respect for diversity and inclusion is fundamental to how we experience the world. Co-authors Professor Santoshi Halder and Professor Garry Squires are to be congratulated for inviting diverse contributions that span the gamut from broad perspectives on inclusion to individual stories that provide insights into specific circumstances. Organizing chapters into parts that focus on societies, systems, and individuals presents readers with a ‘way in’ to engage with the key questions: How do societies include or marginalize individuals? How can education systems contribute to greater inclusivity? How does thinking about the circumstances of individuals help us move towards greater inclusivity? Such questions cause me to reflect on the journey towards greater inclusion, particularly in schools, from my perspective as a teacher and academic. 1994, the year that the Salamanca Statement (UNESCO, 1994) was signed was the year I began teaching initial teacher education classes in inclusive education in regional New South Wales, Australia. Those early classes were part of stand-alone subjects, and focused more on teacher actions than the students who were ‘included’. Fast forward 27 years and I am currently part of an Initial Teacher Education Steering Committee that is guiding the development of core courses in early childhood, primary, and secondary streams that bring together understandings about social justice, pedagogy, assessment, and inclusion as the fundamental knowledge necessary for all initial teacher education candidates. Students, as gloriously individual learners, are securely at the center of these subjects! Similarly, in this book, individuals are at the heart of discussions about diversity and inclusion in communities and are touched by various practices implemented across the world. Though some remain marginalized, excluded, and segregated, the rise of the rights movement, greater attention to active citizenship, and the

xii  Foreword

increasing incorporation of an ethics of care into systems have meant that there is greater collaborative striving for the kind of perspectives and practices necessary to transform society – as evident in this book. As Professor Halder and Professor Squires’ book illustrates inclusive societies and systems are respectful of human rights; have a focus on the development of relationships that allow people to accomplish their goals; and build sustainable, caring environments that support all individuals. The rich and diverse chapters of Inclusion and Diversity: Communities and Practices Across the World invite readers to contemplate the interrelated themes of community, relationships, practices, care, and empowerment – in every context, every day, for everyone.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The idea of bringing out this book volume crystallized and shaped through various stakeholders working closely with various aspects of inclusion and inclusive communities across the world. The gap between documentation, conventions, and mandates and their implementations in various contexts needs both a top-down and simultaneously a bottom-up approach. So as to say, it needs an interconnected, unified, interdisciplinary, and integrated approach on one hand, and on the other hand, it needs strategic actions through the grassroots in the various hierarchy of any society or country. Significant thoughts accumulated down the years prompted conceptualizing and proposing a book that captures the perspective of various stakeholders from various cultures and countries. The concept and understanding of the proposed book got refined and ignited through the discussions and discourses with many such significant peoples worldwide during academic visits, personal visits, conferences, collaborative research projects, etc. It would be extremely difficult and rather impossible to name all of them as there are so many who have directly or indirectly influenced the thought process for further refinement and manifestation in the form of the present book. I am thankful to the University of Calcutta, my home institution, for providing me with the scope, platform, and continuous support to flourish my research and academic endeavor most strategically. I would like to acknowledge the United States India Education Foundation (USIEF) and International Institute of Education (IIE), Rockefeller Foundation, Shastri IndoCanadian Institute, Japan Society for Promotion of Science (JSPS), Australian Government, Department of Education and Training, Australian High Commission, and Endeavour Australia India Council, National Institute for Humanities and Social Sciences (NIHSS), JSPS, Rockefeller foundation, Indian Institute of Social Science Research (ICSSR) and University Grants Commission (UGC), for providing wonderful opportunities to get connected to the amazing group of scholars who stimulated and kindled the

xiv  Acknowledgements

interexchange of thoughts towards addressing some of the most crucial global issues for facilitating inclusive participation and the agreeableness for accepting, respecting and embracing all sorts of diversities. I would also like to thank my wonderful group of young scholars and students for igniting my passion while responding to their quest for knowledge and inquisitiveness for truth and hence directly or indirectly driving and energizing me towards significant and contributory work for the society and community. My sincere thanks to my research colleague Prof. Garry Squires the Co-editor of this book for accepting my invitation to join this endeavor and for his agreeableness, time and efforts in assisting me in the book project. Finally, I would also like to thank my husband Dr. Arindam Talukdar, Principal Scientist, Indian Institute of Chemical Biology, India, my daughter Mihika, my son Kiaan, and my parents for providing me with inspiration and support, without which the book would not have been possible. The book is the product of the cumulative efforts of so many people around the world in various countries who trusted to share their valuable perspectives and agreed to extend their experiences together for our readers for facilitating the pathway to creating an inclusive society. Special thanks are due to all those people whom I may have missed out. Finally, I am thankful to God for providing me the most wonderful and amazing opportunities and experiences all through! Santoshi Halder, Editor Professor, University of Calcutta, India The opportunity to work on this book with so many talented authors and experts from across the globe has been a continuing journey of enlightenment. The views both challenge my thinking and bring hope and inspiration to my work. The different chapters come from many fields of academic work and some I would not have read – but then I would have missed out on the uniqueness that comes from spotting similar themes from across the disciplines. It leads to a feeling of connectedness, belonging to a wider cause, and intersubjectivity. My heartfelt thanks to all our authors for their work in their field of expertise and their contributions to this book. My thanks also to Santoshi for inviting me to join her in this endeavor. Garry Squires, Co-Editor Professor, University of Manchester, UK

EDITORS BIO

Santoshi Halder, Ph.D., is Professor at the Department of Education, University of Calcutta, India. She has a post-graduate degree in Education and a Ph.D. in applied psychology. She is a Board-Certified Behavior Analyst (BACB, USA) and is Special Educator licensure (Rehabilitation Council of India, RCI). She has been actively involved internationally and nationally in multifarious ways for the inclusion of people with diverse needs through various academic and research endeavors since 2000. She has been an international fellow and recipient of various prestigious competitive International awards: Hungarian State Fellowship (2022–2023), Hungarian Mobility Grant (2023), Shastri-Indo-Canadian Fellow (2020–2022), Fulbright Academic and Professional Excellence fellow, USA (2020), Rockefeller Fellow, Italy (2019), Japan Society for Promotion of Science/JSPS fellow, (2019), Endeavour Australia-India Education Council Research Fellow and Honorary Visiting Fellow at Olga Tennison Autism Research Centre (OTARC), La Trobe University, Australia (2015–2016), Endeavour Awards Ambassador (2018), and Fulbright Nehru Senior Research Fellow, USA (2011–2012). She received the Governor’s Medal (West Bengal, India) in 2001 for her contribution to the community and people as a National Cadet Corps (NCC). Nine Ph.D.s and 18 M. Phil dissertations have been successfully awarded under her supervision. She is passionate about understanding and addressing the needs of the excluded and marginalized communities around the world and has been proactively working for the inclusion of people with diverse needs since 2000. She has edited and authored multiple international books on inclusion/inclusive pedagogy, research methodology, disability, culture, equity and access, and education technology. She is currently working on various research and book projects on areas of global importance and has completed ten research projects: six international and four national funded by UGC, ICSSR, NIHSS, USIEF, IIE, JSPS, Rockefeller foundation, etc. Dr. Halder has authored 20 book chapters in international books and published more than 60 papers in peer-reviewed national and international

xvi  Editors Bio

journals. She teaches BACB-approved-behavior analysis courses to students from various countries. She provides behavior intervention services, especially to people with autism spectrum disorder, including training the parents and practitioners. She is involved in training teacher trainees on inclusive practices and evidence-based strategies from the mainstream, inclusive and special schools from various parts of the world predominantly from southeast countries. She has delivered more than 90 lectures/invited presentations/talks in various institutions/universities in various low-middle-high income countries (viz., India, South Africa, the USA, Austria, Italy, Singapore, Japan, and Canada). Garry Squires, D.Ed.Psy., is Professor in educational psychology, special educational needs, and inclusion at the University of Manchester, UK. He previously worked as an educational psychologist in a large local authority in England and was the lead psychologist on the development of dyslexia-friendly schools and led on local authority policy for inclusion. He has been active in the British Psychological Society since 1995 and is currently a Fellow and was the Chair of the National Awarding Committee for the EuroPsy. From 2017 to 2021, he has been a consultant to the European Agency for Special Needs and Inclusive Education. His research interests are around special educational needs, mental health, inclusion, professional educational psychology practice, the use of data in educational systems, dyslexia, cognitive behavioral therapy, therapeutic approaches in education, and evaluating school-based interventions and programs.

CONTRIBUTORS

Muhammad Ayub Buzdar, Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor in the Department of

Education, Government College University, Faisalabad, Pakistan. He is the recipient of the prestigious Fulbright Fellowship (2019–2020) for post-doctoral research. Dr. Buzdar’s research interests are in cognitive and social psychology. His research focuses on cross-cultural similarities and differences in the students’ cognitive and behavioral preferences. Different sociocultural components like religiosity, gender roles, and multiple inequalities are also the subject of his research. Sadna Balton, Ph.D., is the Head of the Department of Speech Therapy and

Audiology at Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital in Soweto, South Africa. She is also a part-time lecturer at the Centre for Augmentative and Alternative Communi­ cation (CAAC) at the University of Pretoria, where she is teaching in the field of Early Childhood Intervention. She is a founding member of the Gauteng Early Childhood Intervention workgroup, which aims at raising the profile of early childhood intervention in the province. She is the Chairperson of the Professional Board for Speech and Language Therapy. Her special interest is the field of early childhood intervention, specifically developing caregiver programs, facilitating professional development in the province, and engaging in research that is driven by clinical practice and experience. Rashida Banerjee, Ph.D., is a Professor and Chair in the Department of Teaching

and Learning Sciences at the University of Denver. Her research areas are effective community, family, and professional partnerships, appropriate assessment of young children, especially issues around diversity, inclusive intervention for young children, and early childhood workforce development. She has served on the Division for Early Childhood Board and the DEC Recommended Practices Committee responsible for ensuring the development and use of evidence-based practices in

xviii  Contributors

early childhood. She is Ford Foundation Fellow Alum and currently serves as the Editor of Journal for International Special Needs Education. Shruti Bedi, Ph.D., is a Professor of Law at the University Institute of Legal Studies

(UILS), Panjab University (PU), Chandigarh; Co-ordinator, Department of Law, University School of Open Learning, PU; Director, Centre for Constitution and Public Policy, UILS, PU; and a TEDx speaker. Her areas of research are constitutional law, internal security law, and comparative public law. She has authored two books; co-edited four books; and has published numerous articles in reputed international and national legal journals, books, blogs, and newspapers. She has lectured at international and national forums, including universities in England, Canada, Brazil, Indonesia, and Vietnam. Lindsay Bywood, Ph.D., is a Senior Lecturer in Translation Studies at the University

of Westminster. She holds a Ph.D. in subtitling from University College London, an M.A. in German and Philosophy from the University of Oxford, and an M.A. in Translation Studies from the University of Salford. Her research centers around audio description and inclusive design in various settings, with other research interests in the subtitling of German films into English, and machine translation and post-editing. Before becoming an academic, she worked for many years in the audio-visual translation industry in various roles. She is deputy editor of The Journal of Specialised Translation (JoSTrans), and Director of the European Association for Studies in Screen Translation (ESIST). Mary G. Clasquin-Johnson, Ph.D., is a Senior Lecturer in the Department

of Inclusive Education at the University of South Africa. She holds a Ph.D. in Education Policy Studies from the University of Pretoria. Her teaching, postgraduate supervision, research, and community engagement focus on inclusive education and autism. Michel Clasquin-Johnson, Ph.D., is a Professor in the Department of Religious

Studies and Arabic at the University of South Africa. He has published on a wide variety of topics, most recently on autism. Shakila Dada, Ph.D., is a Professor at the Centre for Augmentative and Alternative

Communication (CAAC) at the University of Pretoria. She is currently the Director of the CAAC. She is a speech-language therapist, with extensive experience in research and teaching in the field of AAC and Early Childhood Intervention. Her research seeks to systemically describe, understand, and address the communication and participation patterns of persons who have complex communication needs. Her particular focus is on the way in which graphic symbol-based augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) systems can be used to facilitate language learning for individuals with complex communication needs.

Contributors  xix

Nora D. Dunbar, Ph.D., is a Principal Lecturer in the Department of Psychological

Sciences at NAU, Flagstaff, Arizona, USA. Dr. Dunbar’s research areas include developmental and family psychology. Her most recent research concerns sexism and racism in STEM fields, well-being during emerging and early adulthood, and the teaching of psychology and includes contributions towards replication efforts through the Open Science Collaboration. Patrick Dwyer is an autistic person and an autism researcher. Patrick is currently a

Ph.D. candidate in the Neurocognitive Development Lab at UC Davis. His research is particularly focused on sensory processing and hyper-focus in autism. However, Patrick also has interests in numerous topics such as education (K-12 or postsecondary) and neurodiversity; broadly, Patrick is interested in anything relevant to the well-being of autistic and neurodivergent people. Patrick is a co-founder and co-chair of the Autistic Researchers Committee at the International Society for Autism Research (INSAR) and a member of the Autistic Researcher Review Board at the Autism Intervention Research Network on Physical Health (AIR-P). At a local level, Patrick facilitates a peer support community for neurodivergent students at UC Davis. He maintains a blog, autisticscholar.com. Alison F. Eardley, Ph.D., is a Senior Lecturer in psychology at the University

of Westminster. Trained as a cognitive psychologist, her earlier work explored imagery, imagination, memory, and multisensory processing in individuals who were blind and sighted. Her current interdisciplinary work challenges the ableist concept of ‘access provision’, by applying a cognitive lens to the exploration of audio description as an inclusive tool that can enhance access and experience for all users, irrespective of their visual experience, within museums and now sport. She is a Fulbright-Smithsonian Scholar (2021–2022). Yasuko Futaba, Ph.D., is currently working at the University of Tokyo in Japan.

Her area of specialization is the sociology of education, with a particular focus on inclusion and exclusion in education and cross-minority perspective. Her initial research focused on how school culture may change in accordance with the inclusion of children with disabilities as a turning point. She later expanded her sociological investigation to the intersecting perspectives of different minorities. Ekta Ghosh is a doctoral candidate at the University of Denver in the Curriculum

and Instruction domain. She is an early interventionist whose future role includes supporting families in optimizing the child’s development and the family’s overall quality. Ekta’s aim is to establish a model school having an inclusive set-up and to operate as the administrator of the institution. Barry Ginley is the founder of Tamstone Consulting, an organization devoted to

improving accessibility for all. Barry obtained an M.Sc. in Inclusive Environments

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Design and Management at the University of Reading in 2001 and graduated with an Executive MBA from Henley Business School in 2017. He is an advisor to the UK Government’s Paralympic Legacy Advisory Group and sits on the board of the Global Disability Innovation Hub. In October 2019, Barry was appointed as Chair of the Cabinet Office’s Regional Stakeholder Network, enabling disabled people to contribute to new government policies and practices. Judit Gombás, Ph.D., is an academic at ELTE Barczi Gusztav Faculty of Special

Needs Education. She is the Hungarian national representative of ICEVI. Her major fields of interest are social inclusion, adapted physical activity, access to free time and culture, and the everyday life of adults with visual impairment. Lorraine Graham, Ph.D., is a Foundation Professor of Learning Intervention and

Associate Dean (International) at the Melbourne Graduate School of Education, The University of Melbourne. Her work is concerned with the effective teaching of students with learning disabilities/difficulties, sustainable learning, inclusive practices, self-regulated learning, and teacher professional learning. Lorraine has authored eight books, more than 90 published academic works, and extensive educational resource materials. Santoshi Halder, Ph.D., is a Board-Certified Behaviour Analyst (BACB, USA) and

a Professor in the Department of Education, University of Calcutta, India. She is the recipient of various prestigious international fellowships; Shastri-Indo-Canadian Fellow (2020‒22), Fulbright Academic and Professional Excellence fellow, USA (2020), Rockefeller Fellow, Italy (2019), JSPS (2019), Endeavour Australia-India Education Council Research Fellow and Honorary Visiting Fellow at Olga Tennison Autism Research Centre (OTARC), La Trobe University, Australia (2015‒2016), Endeavour Awards Ambassador (2018), and Fulbright Nehru Senior Research Fellow, USA (2011–2012). She received the Governor’s Medal (West Bengal, India) in 2001 for her contribution to the community and people as a National Cadet Corps (N.C.C). Nine Ph.D.s and 18 M.Phil. dissertations have been successfully awarded under her supervision. She is passionate about the inclusion of people with diverse needs and has published more than 200 peer-reviewed journal articles and or book chapters. Igor Mikheev is a Ph.D. student at the Faculty of Social Sciences, International

laboratory for Social Integration Research, National Research University Higher School of Economics, Moscow, Russian Federation. Igor has been assisting with a study of the sociocultural integration of children from families with migration experience. His research interests include postcolonial studies, multiculturalism, neo-Marxism, critical theory, and social inequalities. Maria Kozlova is a Chief Research Fellow at the International Laboratory for

Social Integration Research and an Academic Supervisor of the Master’s program

Contributors  xxi

‘Sociology of Public and Business Sphere’, National Research University Higher School of Economics, Moscow. She has a degree in Psychology and Ph.D. in Ethnology and Anthropology. Her research interests include problems of social integration, educational inclusion, intergroup relations, sociology of culture, and sociology of morality. She is an author of more than 50 publications and is an editor of six collective monographs. Sébastien Lafrance is Crown Counsel (Prosecutor) at the Public Prosecution

Service of Canada and former part-time professor of law at the University of Ottawa, Canada; he holds an LL.B. (Université du Québec à Montréal) and a B.Sc. (University of Montreal). He is a former clerk at the Supreme Court of Canada and at the Quebec Court of Appeal and also was Counsel at the Law Branch of the Supreme Court of Canada. He has been a public speaker in 20 countries so far on different legal topics, including but not limited to criminal law, constitutional law, and international law. He has published book chapters and articles in seven countries so far. He is a hyperpolyglot. Arupa Mandal is a Senior Research Scholar, University Grants Commission Fellow

(UGC), Ph.D. candidate, Department of Education, University of Calcutta, India. She completed her post-graduation degree (M.Sc.) in subject Botany, Master of Education (M.Ed.), and Master of Arts (M.A.) in Education. Her research interests are cultural studies, population education, sustainable development etc. Kimberly McDavid Schmidt, Ph.D., is a Clinical Assistant Professor in the

Department of Teaching and Learning Sciences at the University of Denver, where she leads the Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Education Certificate as well as teaches literacy methods courses. Her research focuses on the racialized and embodied literacy practices of children in relation to children’s literature as well as the identities and development of preservice teachers, with a focus on race, culturally responsive pedagogy, evidence-based biliteracy practices, and culturally relevant children’s literature. Santana Parui is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Education, University of

Calcutta. She completed her undergraduate (Hons.) and a postgraduate degree in Education from the University of Calcutta. She received the fourth rank in graduation (Education Hons.) and third rank in master’s program. She has received Swami Vivekananda Merit Cum Means Scholarships (SVMCM) by the Government of West Bengal for PG level (2014–2016) and Swami Vivekananda Merit Cum Means Scholarships (SVMCM) by the Government of West Bengal for UG level (2012–2014). She has completed an M.Phil. degree from the University of Calcutta as Junior Research Fellow. She has qualified two times for UGC-NET (National Eligibility Test) and one-time UGC-NET with JRF, including State Eligibility Test (SET).

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Inma Pedregosa is a Ph.D. researcher at the University of Westminster. She holds

an M.A. in Audiovisual Translation from the University of Roehampton, and her main research interests are media accessibility, namely audio description and captioning. She is currently an Honorary Fellow of the University of Roehampton, where she was a Senior Lecturer in Spanish and Translation before embarking on her Ph.D. As a freelance translator and interpreter, she has specialized in football, and her Ph.D. explores the possibilities of inclusive football commentary. Beáta Prónay is a Special Education Teacher for intellectual disability and visual

impairment and is a psychologist. Working in special education and teacher training for over 40 years. Her major fields of interest are rehabilitation, coping, selfdetermination, empowerment, and social inclusion. Maria Reraki, Ph.D., is the Program Director for the master’s degree in Language,

literacies, and dyslexia in the Department of Disability, Inclusion and Special Needs (DISN) at the University of Birmingham, UK. Her current research interests are on dyslexia and self-esteem and support approaches for multi/bilingual learners with dyslexia, particularly at postsecondary and university levels. She has a strong interest in assessments and interventions that target the inclusion of learners with dyslexia in monolingual and multilingual settings. She draws upon her own teaching experiences, which include working as an English language teacher in schools in Greece supporting learners with dyslexia and literacy difficulties. Tatiana Ryabichenko, Ph.D., is a Senior Research Fellow at the International

Laboratory for Social Integration Research and Associate Professor at the Department of Psychology, National Research University Higher School of Economics, Moscow, Russian Federation. She is a member of the International Association for Cross-Cultural Psychology. Her research interests focus on acculturation and intercultural relations, an adaptation of migrants and ethnic minorities, and value transmission in ethnic minority and ethnic majority families. Per Skoglund, National Agency, R&D coordinator, is a political scientist. During

the 1980s and 1990s, his research focused on the public sector’s handling of uncertainty and complexity. From the mid-1990s until early 2000, he was Head of research and development in Swedish Habilitation, West Sweden. In 2002, he was engaged as Research and Development coordinator in the Swedish National Agency for Special Needs Education and Schools, focusing on developing governance, leadership, and support functions in the education system. From 2014 until 2021, he combined this being a Project Adviser within the European Agency for Special Needs and Inclusive Education. Garry Squires, DEdPsy., is a professor in educational psychology, special educa-

tional needs and inclusion at the University of Manchester, UK. He previously

Contributors  xxiii

worked as an educational psychologist in a large local authority in England and was the lead psychologist on the development of dyslexia-friendly schools and led on local authority policy for inclusion. He has been active in the British Psychological Society since 1995 and is currently a Fellow and the Chair of the National Awarding Committee for the EuroPsy. From 2017 to 2021, he has been a consultant to the European Agency for Special Needs and Inclusive Education. His research interests are around special educational needs; mental health; inclusion; professional educational psychology practice; the use of data in educational systems; dyslexia; cognitive behavioral therapy; therapeutic approaches in education; and evaluating school-based interventions and programs. Viktoria Tidikis, Ph.D. is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Psychological

Sciences at NAU, Flagstaff, Arizona, USA. Dr. Tidikis’s research interest is in the area of creativity, with an emphasis on the study of higher-order and complex cognitive processes. Dr. Tidikis leads the Creativity Research Group (CRG) at NAU. The CRG seeks to advance scholarly foundation and research opportunities throughout the area of creative thinking. The CRG investigates cognitive and sociocultural processes that foster creative thinking using behavioral and physiological measures and seeks to advance global initiatives through its collaborations with investigators in China, Lithuania, and Pakistan. Mike Titterton, Ph.D., is a Professor in the International Laboratory for Social

Integration Research at the Higher School of Economics, Moscow, Russian Federation. He also works as an expert for international donors, governments, and civil society organizations in worldwide development settings. He is a registered EU Social Protection Expert and UNICEF Child Protection Expert and a member of WHO Prison Health and School Health expert networks. He has worked as a Senior Expert for the European Union, Council of Europe, World Bank, World Health Organization, UK-DFID/FCDO, and NHS Health Scotland. He was formerly the director of Health & Life for Everyone, an international social enterprise working with vulnerable children and adults. His research interests include international development, the inclusion of marginalized groups, and translating research and policy into practice.

1 WHAT, WHY, AND HOW OF INCLUSION Santoshi Halder

Introduction The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) enshrined in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development aim to alleviate poverty; facilitate access to education, modern energy, and information; and envisage that all nations and people of all sections of society should reap the benefits of prosperity and enjoy minimum standards of well-being (World Bank, 2013). Achieving this target is impossible without making institutions and partners at all levels work toward the inclusion of marginalized and disadvantaged populations, who are most vulnerable, and ensuring equal access to all in a bid to foster fully participatory and truly inclusive growth. The social and historical processes of societies, while shaping the constitutional traditions of nations since time immemorial, led to different grounds of discriminations based on race, gender, religion, ethnicity, sexual orientation, age, disability, etc., which still continue (Hodkinson, 2010). Hence, marginalization and discrimination of various types, levels, and intensities have been a common structural feature of our societies universally and the path to equality is a never-ending challenge (Lollini, 2018). However, the global surge in human rights legislation (UN, 1989, 2006; UNESCO, 2015a; UNHCR, 2017) has played a major role in evolving a robust cosmopolitan culture and has ignited a spurt of dialogue among the various stakeholders across countries worldwide against the exclusion or marginalization of people existing in society. Although there is no official definition of minority groups, the United Nations Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities (UN, 2006) reported that a minority status depends on the objective (i.e., existence of a shared ethnicity, language, or religion) and subjective (i.e., individuals identifying themselves as members of a minority) criteria. These criteria may apply not only to people with disabilities but also, in general, to people with all kinds of diversities. People can experience DOI: 10.4324/9781003379034-1

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seclusion of various levels, forms, and intensities in various contexts. The criteria for seclusion (adapted from UN, 2006), as applied to the people that face it, are (a) having significantly lower control or power over their lives than members of a dominant or majority group; (b) not being limited to a mathematical minority; (c) being interchangeable with a subordinate group; (d) experiencing narrowing of opportunities, such as access to education, jobs, or health care; (e) suffering discrimination and subordination; (f ) manifesting physical and/or cultural traits that set them apart and are censured by the dominant group; (g) sharing a sense of collective identity and common burdens; (h) sharing social rules around membership; and (i) tending to marry within the group. In light of these criteria, the countries should protect not only linguistic, ethnic, and religious minorities but also new collective aggregations of citizens who share visible common attributes and have a shared history of unfair treatment. These criteria highlight that seclusion in various forms exists in all societies, cultures, and countries. People have been marginalized all through human existence and continue to be secluded, neglected, oppressed, and victimized, and this adversely impacts their overall quality of life and well-being. It goes without saying that no single strategy can comprehensively address the multiple forms, levels, and intensities of exclusion and promote inclusion; this is due to the wide range of inter- and intra-level diversities intersecting various factors. The UNESCO (2020) global report on inclusion in education identifies an exacerbation of exclusion during global crises or emergencies (such as the COVID-19 pandemic) and estimates that the most marginalized countries and peoples (40% of low- and lower-middle-income countries) suffer the most due to their already disadvantageous situations. Exclusion in any form impacts an individual adversely and even more for those already marginalized or secluded during a crisis situation, and has far-reaching consequences related to dignity, security, quality of life, and well-being. Inclusion is a human rights issue, and societies must work globally, cohesively, and collaboratively in a unified, interconnected way to operationalize the inclusion of people with diversities. Inclusion of all people across all walks of life, regardless of their differences, is the cornerstone of sustainable growth. Hence, while it is pertinent to understand inclusion, it is also vital to identify the root causes of exclusion and discrimination, based on historical trajectories across the world, so that they can be addressed strategically for sustainable inclusive global growth (World Bank, 2013).

What Is Inclusion? The idea of inclusion can be expressed in myriad ways, ranging from narrow to broad perspectives and encompassing beliefs, approaches, and philosophies (Allan, 2008; Oluremi, 2012). In the narrowest sense, inclusion may be the simple act of assigning a person a place in an inclusive setting. In the broader sense, it is the creation of an anti-discriminatory environment to ensure the full participation of people with all kinds of diversities; the latter goes far beyond mere placements and

What, Why, and How of Inclusion  3

envisions manifestation in its entirety with successful accomplishment of the parameters of inclusion (Oluremi, 2012). As per Booth (2000), inclusion must be a broad church with solid foundations where exclusion from society is accepted as having a common root in ‘intolerance to difference’. Certain general principles identified by the UNCRPD (UN, 2006) are vital to understanding inclusion and diversity (generalized for the plethora of diversities across societies). The criteria envisaged by UNCRPD are (a) respect for inherent dignity,  individual autonomy, freedom of choice, and independence; (b) nondiscrimination; (c) full and effective participation; (d) respect for difference and acceptance as part of human diversity and humanity; (e) equality of opportunity; (f ) accessibility; (g) equality between men and women; and (h) respect for the evolving capacities of people with diverse needs. Hence, the most important indices of inclusion are equal rights and opportunity, participation, dignity, acceptance, decision-making, and agency of choice at par with the majority of people across all walks of life (Booth & Ainscow, 2011; Coles & Hancock, 2002; Hornby, 2004; UNESCO, 2005). Inclusion applies to all aspects of life and proclaims that all people have freedom, equality, and opportunity to participate fully in public life regardless of their differences or diversities. This entails (a) feeling respected, appreciated, and valued as a member of a group; (b) participating in recreational activities; (c) being employed with a competitive wage at par with abilities and capacities; and (d) participating in all aspects of life with respect and dignity. Significantly, inclusion has been recognized as a philosophy for attaining a quality life for all people who have historically been excluded from the mainstream due to various diversities or atypicalities. Inclusion is seen as a process to address and respond to the diverse needs of all people for enhancing participation and reducing exclusion in all walks of life (UNESCO, 2005). Inclusion is a way of thinking about how to be creative in making our homes, schools, and communities accessible and equitable places, where one and all can participate with dignity with their own inherent characteristics or traits. Inclusion is about feeling accepted; embracing, cherishing, and valuing differences; and being respectful toward all diversities. Inclusion enshrines the value that every person has some strength or the other, which needs to be nurtured and embraced for a common good and sustainable growth. Inclusion is about building the foundation and flexibility for the acceptance of all forms of natural variation that ever existed, currently exist, or will exist in society.

Who Are to Be Included? Throughout history, people have confronted barriers that have prevented some from participating fully in political, economic, and social life; these people are the ones eventually labeled disadvantaged and marginalized groups and communities. Historically, almost all countries have groups and communities that were secluded from mainstream society in some way or the other for multifarious socio-cultural reasons. The predominant and common factors that cause exclusion of people, anywhere in

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the world, are background, identity, and ability (i.e., gender, age, location, poverty, disability, ethnicity, indigeneity, language, religion, migration or displacement, sexual orientation or gender identity expression, incarceration, beliefs, attitudes) including stigmatization due to negative attitudes, beliefs, or perceptions (World Bank, 2013). Though there has been a spurt in the global implementation of inclusion over the past few decades, the actual process and its successes are extremely disparate and variable across countries. Despite inclusion being a slogan at the national as well as international levels, there are multiple challenges in the way of effective implementation. Moreover, there are many misconceptions about its various aspects, which means that we still have a long way to go before an inclusive society is truly tangible.

Why Inclusion? Inclusion values diversity and the unique contributions that each individual can make toward the common good and well-being (Virgilio, 2013). In a truly inclusive society, every person experiences a sense of safety, security, and belonging while also feeling responsible and accountable for the well-being and quality of life of others in the ecosystem. Each individual should be able to fully participate in all walks of life and should be provided the desired respect, support, flexibility, and resources to nurture and respond to their individualized needs and diversities. Hence, inclusion nurtures a fertile substratum to nurture vice-versa benefits for all, as it (a) instills values for next-generation children (perceiving the person as primary and any differences as secondary, while learning to empathize and value diversity); (b) provides opportunities for friendships (learning to comfortably interact with diverse people as a result of close proximity and shared experiences); (c) prepares individuals for adult life; (d) cultivates an enriched learning environment that can accept and accommodate diverse needs; and (e) provides additional resources in society, thus benefitting all people in the community. Inclusion is rooted in the concepts of equity, access, and participation, which involve active engagement, promote learning and development, ensure a better quality of life and well-being for all, and are instrumental in eliminating discriminatory attitudes. Understanding of and respect for differences and diversities can flourish in an environment where people of diverse abilities and backgrounds play, socialize, and learn together. Homes and schools remain the primary platforms to provide the context for a child’s first relationship with the world, enabling the development of social relationships and interactions, thus laying the foundation for the philosophy and ethics of later life. The seeds of inclusion are sown in early childhood years and form the base for facilitation and manifestation throughout later life. Research postulates multifarious benefits of an inclusive environment. Inclusion provides a secure, safe, and comfortable environment where an individual’s traits, abilities, and capacities are nurtured, flourished, and manifested to the maximum. Such an environment promotes social and emotional development, which are integral aspects of learning and development attuned to individual variation. It has been found that children in inclusive environments cultivate increased acceptance and

What, Why, and How of Inclusion  5

appreciation of diversity; develop better communication and social skills; adhere to strong moral and ethical principles; create warm and caring friendships; benefit from enhanced self-esteem and self-worth; realize their potential for growth; seek out better opportunities for utilizing diverse abilities; have empathy and greater understanding of each other, ensure that people’s needs are better met and promote tolerance. While inclusion catalyzes acceptance, exclusion fuels the fear of difference. Inclusion drives meaningful, spontaneous, and positive changes in individuals and societies. Hence, inclusion is vital for alleviating extreme diversities and boosting shared prosperity (World Bank, 2013). An inclusive learning environment has been recognized as the foremost prerequisite for achieving the sustainable developmental goals (UNESCO, 2015a, 2015b; World Bank, 2015). Education can act as a powerful catalyst to help develop and promote an inclusive society and to realize the Sustainable Developmental Goals (UNHCR, 2017). An individual’s performance and behavior are profoundly affected by the way others perceive and judge them; sadly, one’s abilities seem to diminish when people view them as inferior (Wilkinson & Pickett, 2010). Research shows that the benefits of inclusion extend far off beyond boundaries of academics, families, countries, or cultures and play a crucial role in impacting directly or indirectly in solving much broader developmental universal goals (Baker et al., 1994). Since early years are the foundation of learning, that is the best time to teach children to respect differences and to appreciate the value of each other’s contributions, as they intuitively comprehend the significance as well as the needs of an inclusive environment.

How Can Inclusion Be Manifested? The manifestation of inclusion and its practical implementation in real contexts are possible only when the core philosophy is deeply understood by all: accepting, rejoicing, and understanding the importance and significance of differences and their mutual benefit. The philosophy of inclusion is seeded in a person from the very inception of life, gradually being molded and manifested throughout life as the person evolves into a mature adult. It is not something that might happen in a day; it may take generations to decondition the existing trajectory and condition the expected and manifest to the extent where it is visible across levels, forms, and intensities, be it in decision-making, leadership, or friendship, and indeed becomes part and parcel of quotidian living (Skrtic et al., 1996). Hence, it is important that parents and teachers, who are the two most important members of a child’s immediate environment, develop clarity about the fundamental elements of inclusion. As a result, the principles of inclusion will get incorporated and reflected in their parenting and teaching styles. They spend substantial amounts of time with the child and play crucial, effective roles in shaping the child’s thought process during the early development years, thus impacting later development in diverse ways. Their role is of paramount importance in shaping the child toward evolving as an inclusive human being for manifesting the essence of inclusion all around. Inclusion should be ingrained in the mind of a person such

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that it becomes a natural part of their life, actions, responses, and behaviors, which demonstrate inclusion instinctively and spontaneously. Inclusion being a process that begins at birth and continues and hence it is the responsibility of all members of a society. The surrounding environment and members of the micro- and macrosystem play crucial roles. The responsibility is collective; each and every person in society must work to reinforce this process. In the early years of growth, when the foundation of personality is being laid, inclusion can be nurtured through parenting styles; gradually, it can extend into other environments through other members of society. There is a crucial role and responsibility of the members of each environment for inclusion to manifest (Bronfenbrenner, 1986, 1999) – (a) microsystems: family, school, religious organization, neighborhood, etc; (b) mesosystem: interaction of the microsystem; (c) exosystem: extended families and neighborhood; (d) macrosystem: attitudes and ideologies of the culture; and (e) chronosystem: environmental changes that occur over the course of life. Whether the implementation of inclusion succeeds or fails depends largely on the society, the community, and the upbringing of the people. It is thus the responsibility of all these stakeholders to facilitate the process of inclusion through collective, concerted efforts and actions across hierarchies. Successful inclusion happens when all the people at various levels and hierarchies are engaged in the process with their individual capacities, and the cumulative account results in true visible difference. Inclusion encompasses healthy collaboration and cohesion among all stakeholders; family–school partnerships; collaborations between general and special educators; well-constructed plans that identify specific accommodations, modifications, and goals; coordinated planning and communication between members (with diversities); integrated service delivery and orientation; and training and sensitization of people. Inclusion necessitates creative thought and strategic planning to include all people with diversities. The process includes creating the scope for and facilitating communication between various diverse people. It is the process of improving the terms on which individuals and groups take part in society, and it leads to vice-versa benefits, including improving the ability, opportunity, and dignity of those disadvantaged and/or marginalized (Hodkinson, 2010). The chapters in the book bring forth various aspects of inclusion to provide a comprehensive framework as much as possible. Part I covers some of the excluded communities from various corners of the world, which have been less represented in literature so far, and captures through the chapters the various factors that lead to the exclusion in various parts of the world and hence lays the foundation for the inclusion of secluded communities. This part presents the oppression of Buraku people and other less highlighted minorities in Japan, the dichotomy of inclusion or seclusion of autism as a disability; inclusion of women in Pakistan; Indigenous communities and their contributions to sustainability from the world’s largest mangrove forest – the Sundarbans; and finally a comparative analytical presentation of the linguistic minorities in Canada and India. Part II explores ideas and empirical evidences of how schools and educational systems can respond to the various diversities

What, Why, and How of Inclusion  7

and reports. This part presents inclusive early literacy practices as interventions to address the challenges of learners with dyslexia; addresses the educational needs of visually challenged in Hungary and inclusion of migrant children; and presents a discourse around paradoxes of segregation and inclusion from the voices of a neurodiverse youth and a Swedish experience of inclusion. Part III focuses broadly on various interventions at the societal level through community-inclusive practices and strategies. This part presents inclusive experiences in sports for visually challenged; social support and acceptance of transgendered and the role of social media; and early childhood intervention programs in under-resourced communities. Hence, the book presents evidence base instances from various corners of the world and presents through the book a wide range of possibilities to facilitate the thought process of the readers toward the key indicators of inclusion and lays the foundation of an inclusive society, community, and people. The broader objective of the book is to prompt the readers to initiate a discourse on various aspects of inclusion in their local communities, identify various secluded communities and their challenges, create flexible environments full of divergent and rich opportunities and inclusivity, and address the needs of the diverse people and communities through an environment of acceptance and dignity flourishing their spontaneous strengths and atypicalities.

Conclusion Inclusion is to believe that every individual has the potential to create the appropriate environment so that their needs are nurtured and manifest. Inclusion is to manifest strengths and address weaknesses through mutual effort. The past few decades have been notable for inclusion as people are gradually realizing and recognizing the benefits of inclusion of people with diverse needs, and signs are visible worldwide in various degrees. However, the process is slow and to have a substantial visibility around, the various parameters of inclusion need to tickle down to every nook and corner, be it regional, national, or international. To create a successful inclusive environment, we must, on the one hand, educate and orient ourselves to accept and embrace differences with dignity and respect and, on the other, encourage and stimulate others to do the same, thus ensuring that all individuals in society flourish, participate, and manifest together, thus realizing their fullest potentials to achieve sustainable, equitable growth. Finally, true inclusion manifests with a critical discussion and dialogue through a global network of scholars from various cultures, disciplines, and backgrounds across countries of the world.

References Allan, J. (2008). Rethinking inclusive education – the philosophers of difference in practice. Springer. Baker, E. T., Wang, M. C., & Walberg, H. J. (1994). The effects of inclusion on learning. Educational Leadership, 52, 33–35.

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Booth, T. (2000). Inclusion and exclusion policy in England: Who controls the Agenda? In F. Armstrong & D. Armstrong (Eds.), Inclusive education (1st ed, pp. 78–98). David Fulton Publishers. Booth, T., & Ainscow, M. (2011). Index for inclusion: Developing learning and participation in schools. Centre for Studies on Inclusive Education. Bronfenbrenner, U. (1986). Ecology of the family as a context for human development: Research perspectives. Developmental Psychology, 22(6), 723–742. Bronfenbrenner, U. (1999). Environments in developmental perspective: Theoretical and operational models. In S. L. Friedman & T. D. Wachs (Eds.), Measuring environment across the life span: Emerging methods and concepts (pp. 3–28). American Psychological Association Press. Coles, C., & Hancock, R. (2002). The inclusion quality mark. Creative Education. Hodkinson, A. (2010). Inclusive and special education in the English educational system: Historical perspectives, recent developments and future challenges. British Journal of Special Education, 37(2), 61–67. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8578.2010. 00462.x Hornby, G. (2004). Promoting responsible inclusion: Quality education for all. In C. A. Jones (Ed.), Supporting inclusion in the early years. Oxford University Press. Lollini, A. (2018). Brain equality: Legal implications of neurodiversity in a comparative perspective. International Law and Politics, 51(69), 69–133. Oluremi, F. D. (2012). Special schools and mainstreaming programme in Nigeria and lessons for 21st century. Ife – Psychologia. Skrtic, M. T., Sailor, W., & Gee, K. (1996). Voice, collaboration, and inclusion: Democratic themes in educational and social reform initiatives. Remedial and Special Education, 17, 142–157. UN. (1989). Convention on the rights of the child. United Nations. UN. (2006). Convention on the rights of persons with disabilities and optional protocol. United Nations. UNESCO. (2005). Guidelines for inclusion: Ensuring access to EFA. United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. www.unesco.org/education/educprog/sne on 29/7/’09. UNESCO. (2015a). Education 2030. Incheon declaration: Towards inclusive and equitable quality education and lifelong learning for all. United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. UNESCO. (2015b). Relationship between sustainable development goal 4 and the education 2030 framework for action. United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. UNESCO. (2020). COVID-19 Educational disruption and response. United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. https://en.unesco.org/themes/educationemergencies/ coronavirus-school-closures UNHCR. (2017). The sustainable development goals and addressing statelessness. United Nation High Commissioner for Refugees. Virgilio, A. D. (2013). Segregation versus inclusion: Understanding minority serving higher education institutions in the U.S. and Canada. The College Quarterly or of Seneca College, 16(1). https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1016467.pdf Wilkinson, R., & Pickett, K. (2010). The spirit level: Why equality is better for everyone. Penguin Books. World Bank. (2013). Inclusion matters: The foundation for shared prosperity. New frontiers of social policy. World Bank. World Bank. (2015). Incheon declaration: Education 2030 - towards inclusive and equitable quality education and lifelong learning for all (English). World Bank Group.

PART I

Excluded Communities, Diversities, and the Bases for Inclusion This part covers many of the excluded communities and captures through the chapters the various factors that lead to the exclusion in various parts of the world. Crucial bases for the inclusion of the excluded communities are presented.

DOI: 10.4324/9781003379034-2

2 THE LINGUISTIC DIVERSITY OF PLURALIST CULTURES Status of Linguistic Minorities in India and Canada Shruti Bedi and Sébastien Lafrance

Introduction Language is not only an instrument; it is a symbol. It represents the national identity. In a polylingual state, the most complex task is to ensure the inclusion of all groups, whose language is officially recognised by the state or not, and to determine an official language. The impact of decisions made by the branch of a state, legislative, judicial, or executive, on linguistic minorities is manifold as it affects their socio-economic status and their collective identity. The Honourable Michel Bastarache, now a former puisne judge of the Supreme Court of Canada, stated (1991, 395), “language rights can be seen as rights of a minority group which needs special protection”.1 Generally speaking, minority may be defined as “a group numerically inferior to the rest of the population, in a non-dominant position, whose members – being national of the State – possess ethnic, religious or linguistic characteristics different from those of the rest of the population” (Ermacora, 1983, 292). A minority has, most of the time but not always, less power than the majority (Ben Achour, 1994, 337; Lemieux, 1986, 10). This chapter analyses how India, a multilingual democracy, and Canada, a bilingual one where “bilingualism is coupled with the co-existence of two different legal systems” (De Caria, 2012, 7), structured and implemented language policies with respect to the minority languages. “[T]he importance of language rights is grounded in the essential role that language plays in human existence, development and dignity” (Reference re Manitoba Language Rights, 1992, 744). The Supreme Court of Canada decided many cases regarding linguistic rights when applied to specific issues, so many that it is impossible to address them in this text. That said, in one of its seminal decisions on this issue, Ford v. Quebec (Attorney General) (1988, 748), the Court made an important point regarding the importance of the language itself, and its interaction with other fundamental rights, DOI: 10.4324/9781003379034-3

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in a case that decided Quebec’s rules requiring the use of French only in public signs and company names, when it wrote: “Language is so intimately related to the form and content of expression that there cannot be true freedom of expression by means of language if one is prohibited from using the language of one’s choice”. India’s cultural diversity and its rich heritage are replete with examples of the magnificent expressions of Kalidas (Sanskrit), Rabindranath Tagore (Bengali), Meera Bai (Rajasthani), Lalleshwari (Kashmiri), Mirza Ghalib (Urdu) and many more. While discussing the significance of the recognition accorded to the rights of expression of the Indian linguistic minorities, Chief Justice S.R. Das in re The Kerala Education Bill, 1957 stated, “There can be no manner of doubt that our Constitution has guaranteed certain cherished rights of the minorities concerning their language, culture and religion. These concessions must have been made to them for good and valid reasons” (para 49). He further states, “The genius of India has been to find unity in diversity by assimilating the best of all creeds and cultures” (para 51). What characterises the rights of linguistic minorities is the use of a language in the private sphere as well as in their community but also in their relations with the state (Ben Achour, 1994, 354). The status of linguistic minorities of secular democratic India is compared with that of Canada, “one of the oldest and most enduring federations” (Boucher, 2008, 1) and “one of the most ethnically diverse societies in the world” (Meyerhoff, 1994, 922–923; Mendes, 2009, 397). It was also noted that “India’s system is particularly well suited to a comparison with the Canadian systems; some even call India and Canada ‘long lost siblings’ because their constitutional dynamics are similar” (Gilles, 2012, 10; Gautam and Lafrance, 2020, 127). As observed by the former Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Canada, the Right Honourable Beverley McLachlin (2017, 37), both India and Canada “are made up of people who speak different languages and come from different cultural backgrounds”. All states in the world give an official status to one or several languages but none do to all languages spoken on its territory (Woehrling, 2003, 123). The linguistic tensions experienced by the two states, both former British colonies, have been addressed more or less successfully in this work. For example, “language continues to be a controversial issue in Canada” (Meyerhoff, 1994, 979), and India’s language diversity is under threat as speakers of diverse languages have become a rarity due to lack of popular interest in the conservation of these languages (Hegde, 2017). However, these tensions are most of the time addressed in the context and with the means of democratic regimes. What is sought to be analysed is whether the legislative measures, policy decisions, and the “dialogues” with the courts in the two countries have been able to create and sustain protective environments for the linguistic and cultural minorities.

India: The Country with a Hundred Tongues The diversity and the immensity of India were captured by Mark Twain, “The land of dreams and romance … the country of a thousand nations and a hundred

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tongues, of a thousand religions and two million gods, the cradle of human race” (Twain, 2017).2 Twain’s attempt at explaining the diversity of India was laudable, but he seriously underestimated the number of languages that India speaks. The 1961 census established around 1,652 mother languages in the Indian subcontinent (Recalde, 2016). However, there has been a drastic reduction in this number. As per the 2011 Census, the number of languages spoken in India is 121, out of which 22 are scheduled languages under the Constitution (Census Report, 2018).3 At the time of independence, what India needed most was unity, and the one thing that could unite her was a common language. However, unifying the existing linguistic diversity was a daunting task. Even Hindustani, a bazaar language which comprised of Hindi, Urdu, Punjabi, and a few words from English and other Indian languages, was only spoken by around 45% of the people (Austin, 2019, 339).4 In 1946, the common tongue of India was English, the language of the conqueror (Austin, 2019, 330; Nath, 1989, 72–73). With the speakers of all regional languages clamouring for attention and status for their languages, the Constituent Assembly had to find a solution to fill this emotional void amongst the populace. They did not provide for one language to be spoken throughout India.

The Official Language Debate One nation, one (official) language, was the maxim adopted to establish the Western European nations after the Treaty of Westphalia (Croxton, 1999). However, this formula was inappropriate for a multinational and polyglot country like India, and a multinational and bilingual country like Canada. Bearing in mind India’s massive population, the deeply embedded cultural diversities and the historicity of cultural communities, the democratic path of inclusivity of its pluralism was and is a formidable challenge. The non-Hindi speaking groups were apprehensive that in case Hindi replaced English, then the Hindi-speaking citizens would enjoy an advantageous position in economic and political institutions of the country. Consequently, instead of providing for a “national language” (Rashtra Bhasha), they tactfully provided that “Hindi would be the official language of the Union”.5 Despite the circumspection employed in the wording, this decision meant that Hindi would be the official language of the Indians and the other languages would be relegated to a lower status (Shalev, 2006, 35). Articles 120 and 210 of the Indian Constitution provided for the language to be used for business in the Parliament and State Legislatures, while Articles 29, 30, 350, and 351 provided for protection of minority languages. However, the language provisions actually failed to express the multilingual reality of India. The English language was to be used for all official business of the government for a period of the next 15 years.6 The states were given the freedom to adopt any language as their official language.7 Despite the Constitution being 72 years old, the situation remains challenging. Although Article 343 provides for Hindi as the official language, turning polyglot India into a unilingual entity is an untenable proposition (Oommen, 2000).

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The analyses of the Radhakrishnan Commission on University Education are still relevant, Hindi does not enjoy in India such natural ascendancy over provincial languages as to incline the inhabitants to accept a secondary position for their own language. Hindi is the language of the minority, although a large minority. Unfortunately, it does not possess any advantages, literary or historical over other modern languages. (Radhakrishnan, 1950) Consequently, and necessarily, “one-third nation” of Hindi cannot be a true representative of the country’s composite culture (Oommen, 2003, 289).

A Recognition of the Linguistic Diversity in India The 1905 partition of the largely monolinguistic state of Bengal by Lord Curzon, albeit for the purpose of convenience, divided the Bengali speakers into a Hindumajority West Bengal and a Muslim-majority eastern Bengal and Assam. This invited overwhelming opposition from Bengalis, including the Muslims, as it ignored the linguistic homogeneity of Bengal (Sharma, 1969, 18–19). This unrest spread initially to Punjab and then to the rest of India, giving nationalist leaders a reason to unite the people against the British. Additionally, the linguistic groups started seeking the reorganisation of the Indian territory along linguistic lines. Subsequently, this issue itself became a task for the newly independent India to integrate the 550 princely states. The reorganisation of states along linguistic lines was initially discarded as linguistic states were viewed as a threat to national unity (Anderson, 2013, 167).8 Adopting a balanced approach, the newly appointed States Reorganisation Commission, in its report, supported the reorganisation of states on linguistic basis while retaining some multilingual “composite states” in which “languages are integrated territorially” (Report of SRC, 1955, 45).9 However, the reorganisation did not end demands for linguistic recognition. Riots resulted in the partition of Bombay into the monolingual states of Maharashtra and Gujarat in 1960, and Punjab was divided into Punjabi speaking (Sikh) majority state of Punjab, and two Hindi-speaking (Hindu) majority states of Haryana and Himachal Pradesh in 1966 (Anderson, 2013, 169). Nagaland came to be created in 1963. From Assam, the states of Manipur, Tripura, and Meghalaya were born in 1972 and Arunachal Pradesh and Mizoram in 1986 and 1987, respectively. In 2000, Jharkhand was made out of Bihar, Uttranchal was created from Uttar Pradesh, and Chhattisgarh was from Madhya Pradesh. The last to join this bandwagon was Telangana from Andhra Pradesh in 2014. On the recommendation of the States Reorganisation Commission, the central government, in consultation with state governments, tried to lay down a policy with respect to instructions in the mother language at the secondary stage. Constitutional amendments were made providing for adequate facilities for instruction to children

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belonging to linguistic minorities in the mother tongue at the primary level of education.10 To investigate all matters relating to the safeguards provided for the linguistic minorities under the Constitution, and to report on these matters to the President at such intervals as he may direct, Article 350 B provides for the appointment by the President of a Special Officer, now designated as Commissioner for Linguistic Minorities. However, the guarantee of these rights becomes meaningful only through effective implementation ( Jacob, 1972, 373). The polarised diversity of India was difficult to unite, and the Government of India seems to have resigned itself to a policy of bilingualism with English and Hindi being the official languages, although the idea of Hindi being the sole official language seems to exist in the Official Languages Act, 1963 (Narang, 2010, 12). The fact that the country is still not ready to accept Hindi as “the language” is evident from the protests which the BJP government encountered, when it insisted upon promoting Hindi as a compulsory language in the schools, under the draft National Education Policy, with the southern states leading the protests, in June 2019 (Datta, 2019).

Linguistic Disparity: Policies and Laws The task to accommodate the aspirations of the ethnolinguistic communities and their demands for recognition and growing assertiveness has been arduous, where the expression of diversity has had to be balanced with unity for maintaining national cohesion (Arora, 2010, 201). In India, language conflicts have more or less been accompanied by other social conflicts (Mohan, 2010–11, 261). In Canada, “language rights have [also] been the focal point for political debate” (Meyerhoff, 1994, 47), was the source of social conflicts (Fournier, 1982), and “will fuel the Canadian constitutional debate forever” (Côté, 1992, 7–8). In India, the disparity in the economic performance of the states has resulted in increasing the regional disparities, which has further compounded the challenges faced by the linguistic minorities. The economic performance of the “linguistic minority states”, which are the non-Hindi-speaking states, has been higher as compared to the “linguistic majority states”. However, the Centre has shown a tendency of diverting the resources of the country towards the poorer “linguistic majority states”, resulting in differences between the minority and majority linguistic groups (Mohan, 2010–11, 266). This resultant economic disparity expressed through language conflicts has dampened the integration of minority communities with the majority. The framers of the Constitution and their heirs exhibited a constitutional and legal will to build an inclusive society (Arora, 2010, 204). The desire to remove the deeply embedded inequalities in our pluralistic society has been expressed in the Constitution, in addition to national and state legislations, supplemented by policy decisions and judicial pronouncements. Under the Indian Constitution, besides the general rights available to all communities like those of equality, one right exclusively available to the minorities is the right to establish and manage educational institutions of their choice. This is in pursuance of the right of religious and linguistic minorities to their culture. Article 29(1) guarantees to all citizens the

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right to conserve their distinct language, script, or culture. Article 29(2) prohibits discrimination in admission to state educational institutions on grounds of religion, race, caste, language, or any of them. Under Article 30(1) religious and linguistic minorities are given the right to establish and administer educational institutions. The Constitution does not define the term “minority”, nor does it lay down any criteria for determining it (Singh, 2006: 272). This question arose before the court which had to decide what constitutes a “minority” (re The Kerala Education Bill, 1957, 1958). The court concluded that minority would be defined as a group which was numerically less than 50%. The court observed that when an Act of a state legislature is applicable to the whole state, minority must be determined by reference to the entire state and any group, linguistic, or religious which is numerically less than 50% of the entire state population. This test was approved in D.A.V. College, Jullundur v. State of Punjab (1971). Subsequently, the Supreme Court held Linguistic and religious minorities are covered by the expression “minority” under Article 30 of the Constitution. Since reorganisation of the States in India has been on linguistic lines for the purpose of determining the minority, the unit will be the State and not the whole of India. (T.M.A Pai Foundation vs State of Karnataka, 2002) The report of the National Commission for Religious and Linguistic Minorities states that the status of a linguistic minority is determined by numerical inferiority, non-dominant status, and stable features of distinct identity (Report, 2007, 32). Interestingly the report states that exclusive adherence to a minority language, which may be the mother-tongue of a section of population, does affect the socio-economic and educational development of that linguistic minority specially in the initial years. Therefore, steps for enhancing the skills of the linguistic minorities including learning/teaching of the majority language need to be emphasised. (Report, 2007, 40) This indication in the report of the government suggesting that the socio-economic and educational backwardness in the minorities stems from the dependence on the minority language is illogical. Instead of addressing the gaps in the educational system or creating equal opportunities in the state institutions (Finnigan, 2019), the state blames it on the lack of knowledge of the majority language. The suggestion by the government that knowledge of the majority language is a means of alleviation of backwardness is violative of equality. One of the reasons for the extinction of minority languages is the assimilative nature of dominant languages. As an example of this assertion, it has been seen that the minority tribal languages in many states are not taught in their own tongue but in either the dominant language of the state or in English. The justification being that the scripts of these native tongues are either not developed or do not exist

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(Rao, 2008, 67). Further, minority language speakers are usually ridiculed by peers, etc., when they speak in their language (Rao, 2008, 68).

Minority Rights: The Judicial Passage In 1952, the Anglo-Indians, a small minority group running schools were affected by an order passed by the government of Bombay. The order provided that stateaided schools where the medium of instruction was English could not admit students other than Anglo-Indians. If they did so, they would forfeit the state aid unless they switched their medium of instruction to Hindi. The Supreme Court struck down the order as it directly prevented Indians from studying in Anglo-Indian schools on grounds of race and language (State of Bombay v. Bombay Education Society, 1954). Thereafter, in 1959 the Supreme Court negated an attempt by the CPI government of Kerala to take over the management of Christian schools, which act was in violation of Article 30, by declaring a major part of the Kerala Education Bill unconstitutional (re The Kerala Education Bill, 1957, 1958). Chief Justice S.R. Das speaking for the court said, There can be no manner of doubt that our Constitution has guaranteed certain cherished rights of the minorities concerning their language, culture and religion. These concessions must have been made to them for good and valid reasons. … So long as the Constitution stands as it is and is not altered, it is, we conceive, the duty of this Court to uphold the fundamental rights and thereby honour our sacred obligation to the minority communities who are of our own. (re The Kerala Education Bill, 1957, 1958) The court stressed on the “sacred obligation” of the country to honour the minority communities, thereby enabling the removal of any feeling of distrust prevalent amongst them. However, later on in the cases pertaining to higher education, the state-aided minority educational institutions (MEIs) did not receive a similar treatment. The court chose to impose the allegation of “maladministration”, resulting in an unmitigated disaster for the minorities and their freedoms under the Constitution (Nariman, 2014, 44). The Constitution provides for the protection of the fundamental right of minorities to conserve their religion, language, script, and culture. The Supreme Court attempted to give meaning to this “sacred obligation” towards minorities until the 1990s. However, lately, the attitude of the courts leaves a lot to be desired in this respect.

Canada: More Than a Few Acres of Snow In Canada, there are basically three kinds of ethnocultural minorities: “(1) the immigrant communities, (2) the aboriginal peoples, and (3) a national minority, that is,

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the Québécois who form a French-speaking society” (Boucher, 2008, 2) in the province of Quebec. To these categories could be added the English-speaking minority within that province, which is “particularly unique in a North American setting” (Thériault, 2007, 259), and the French-speaking minority outside of Quebec, in the rest of Canada. However, the minority status for these last two groups may be debatable because some argue that “Francophones in the rest of Canada cannot be defined as an ethnic minority because this group defined itself as an integral part of French Canada” (Thériault, 2007, 262). The same argument could be raised for the Anglophones living in the province of Quebec because they would be a part of English Canada as a whole, which is a majority. The Supreme Court of Canada confirmed the protection of minorities, including linguistic minorities, as one of the four foundational principles of Canadian federalism (Reference re Secession of Quebec, 1998, 79). The Honourable Michel Bastarache (1991, 398) also noted that the history of language conflicts in Canada shows very convincingly that all language legislation was meant to provide for conditions under which minority language groups would be able to make use of their own language in dealing with legislatures and the courts. However, before that legislation was enacted and even then, Canadian history shows that there was a long way to go before the improvement, implementation, and enforcement of the rights of linguistic minorities in Canada. Landry and Forgues (2007, 1) noted, “What was to become Canada could be described as the product of a series of power relations and compromises between two colonial powers, the French and the British”. In Candide, Voltaire’s description of Canada does not sound that appealing when he wrote, “these two nations [France and Britain] are at war about a few acres of snow somewhere around Canada, and they are spending on this beautiful war more than all Canada is worth” (Voltaire, 1758, Chapter 23). For these “few acres of snow”, its inhabitants have deemed it worth the effort to defend their rights, including their linguistic rights.

Historical Background In a nutshell, events that marked Canadian history in that regard may be summarised as follows, keeping in mind that “Canada’s history has never been a history of one language, and one language only” (McLachlin, 2017, 39). Between 1755 and 1763, more than two-thirds of the Acadiens, the French population that had inhabited Nova Scotia for more than a century, were deported by the British outside of Canada (Landry and Forgues, 2007, 2). Following the victory of the British over the French during the Battle of the Plains of Abraham in 1759 and the Treaty of Paris in 1763, the residents of Nouvelle-France became British subjects. The Royal Proclamation of 1763 did not provide linguistic rights to the French living in Nouvelle-France. The Constitutional Act of 1791 separated Canada into two colonies: Upper Canada

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(now Ontario) and Lower Canada (now Quebec; formerly Nouvelle-France). In 1837–1838, insurgents in both colonies led rebellions against the Crown and the political status quo. These events “inspired the pivotal Durham Report” (Buckner, 2019). Lord Durham’s report in 1840 proposed that the French be assimilated (Mills, 2019). In 1840, the two Canadas were reunited by the Act of Union that provided that the language of the Legislature is English; this rule was abrogated later in 1848. In 1867, the British North America (“BNA”) Act of 1867 created the Dominion of Canada.11 Section 133 of the BNA Act provided rights to French and English for parliament and the judicial system for Canada. Canada did not adopt an official language policy, and “this system was asymmetrical since Quebec was the only province that had to recognize both French and English” (Landry and Forgues, 2007, 3); both French and English “were treated on an equal footing in the province of Quebec” (Charbonneau, 2017–2018, 495). French was (and is still) spoken by a majority of the population in the province of Quebec, whereas English was (and is still) spoken by the majority of the population in the rest of Canada (Gaudreault-Desbiens and Pinard, 2003–2004, 201). In 1890, the province of Manitoba ceased publication, following the enactment of the Official Language Act, 1890, of the French version of its Legislative Records, Journals, and Acts, which Act will be later, but many years later, found to be unconstitutional by the Supreme Court of Canada (Attorney General of Manitoba v. Forest, 1979). In 1912, the province of Ontario issued Regulation 17, which limited the use of French as the language of instruction and communication. In 1963, the Royal Commission on Bilingualism and Biculturalism was created “in response to growing tension between Canada and Quebec separatists” (Meyerhoff, 1994, 929) and was “instrumental in shaping the bilingual Canada of today” (Landry and Forgues, 2007, 3). In 1969, the Quebec legislature enacted the Act to promote the French language in Québec in which the primacy of French as the language of instruction was affirmed. In 1977, the Charter of the French Language (more commonly known as Bill 101), which defined Quebec’s language policy, was adopted by the province of Quebec. It made French the sole official language of that province pursuant to its section 1 but the range of Bill 101 has been reduced several times by rulings of the Supreme Court of Canada, for example when they established that French could not be the only language of legislation and the courts (Att. Gen. of Quebec v. Blaikie et al., 1979; Attorney General of Quebec v. Blaikie et al., 1981). This special status for the French language as the sole official language in Quebec is “mainly symbolic” (Woehrling, 1986, 134; De Caria, 2012, 14), mostly because since 1969 “Canada was officially bilingual” (Charbonneau, 2017–2018, 496) throughout the country, including in Quebec. In 1980 and 1995, a referendum was held in Quebec to consult the population in order to decide whether Quebec should proclaim national sovereignty and become an independent country, with the condition precedent of offering a political and economic agreement to Canada. Both times this option was rejected by popular vote, although the second time it was rejected by a close margin. Thus, the issue of Quebec inevitably occupies a prominent place in any discussion on minorities in Canadian public law (GaudreaultDesbiens and Pinard, 2003–2004, 203; Thériault, 2007, 258).

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Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and Linguistic Minorities Even if Canada and the United States are both geographically located on the North American continent, there is a world of difference between the two since the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms (“Charter”), enacted in 1982 at the time of the repatriation of the constitution, is a part of the constitution, which “differs in important respects from the United States Constitution” (Meyerhoff, 1994, 914). More specifically, “Canadian approach to multiculturalism differs in wide measure from the American version” (Ashok, 2001, 159). Pursuant to its section 32, the Charter only applies to matters that are within the authority of Parliament or the provincial legislatures, not to private matters. The Charter was hoped to lead “Canadians to define themselves more in terms of rights they held in common and less in terms of geographical communities that divided them” (De Caria, 2012, 87). Not only is a language a symbol but so is also the Charter, which soon “after its adoption … became a pan-Canadian national symbol [and] is one of the most important sources of the collective self-image of Canada as the state of a single nation” (Boucher, 2008, 14). Could the Charter as a symbol eventually lead to the disappearance of the nation-state as we know it in Canada? When announcing the policy of multiculturalism in 1971, the former Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau, father of the current Prime Minister of Canada, Justin Trudeau, said in the House of Commons (1971, 8545): There cannot be one cultural policy for Canadian of British and French origin, another for the original peoples and yet a third for all others. For although there are two official languages, there is no official culture, nor does any ethnic group take precedence over any other. No citizen or group of citizens is other than Canadian, and all should be treated fairly. When he tried to define what it means to be Canadian, the actual Prime Minister declared in 2015, perhaps driven by an excess of enthusiasm and maybe also echoing what his father had said before, “There is no core identity, no mainstream in Canada. There are shared values … Those qualities are what make us the first post-national state”. It would be fair to say that this proposition is somehow far-fetched, or that it would stretch, at best, the words of his father said in 1971. It remains true nowadays that “the nation-state model remains sacrosanct” (Foran, 2017, Jan. 4), this being illustrated by the existence of national borders, which were sadly recently closed by several countries because of the pandemic of the coronavirus (COVID-19), and at a time where nationalism is on the rise in many countries. Canada could hardly claim at this point in time to be a genuine post-national state. No one is against virtue but if Canada was not a post-national state in 1971, it is still not the case in 2020. Canada has a long tradition of being inclusive, open-minded, and welcoming, with various ethnic and linguistic groups: it has been “a land of immigration since its very beginning” (Boucher, 2008, 3). In the 1960s, a multiculturalist model

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started to compete with the original bilingual model (Gaudreault-Desbiens and Pinard, 2003–2004, 200 & 220; Rocher and White, 2014, 7) and began to become more and more important for Canadians throughout the years because, for example, “cultural diversity and fidelity to multiculturalism are believed to make Canada distinct” (Meyerhoff, 1994, 923; Kymlicka, 2003, 1). This is mirrored by the Charter: “Canada is distinctive in the extent to which we have not only legislated, but also constitutionalized, our practices of accommodation” (Kymlicka, 2003, 4). Its section 27 provides that it “shall be interpreted in a manner consistent with the preservation and enhancement of the multicultural heritage of Canadians”. That said, it was pointed out that both “[l]inguistic dualism and a narrow definition of multiculturalism are rooted in Canada’s constitution-making” (Meyerhoff, 1994, 1010; emphasis added) and that “this provision is probably more symbolic than legal” (GaudreaultDesbiens and Pinard, 2003–2004, 218). This narrow definition of multiculturalism implies that “[l]egislation, policy and the Charter purport to recognize cultural, but not linguistic equality for ethnic minorities” that are expected to “adopt, and thus assimilate to, one of the official languages” (Meyerhoff, 1994, 918–919, 928, 954, 959–960 and 974). However, Woehrling (1986, 177) argued that “even if section 27 only expressly refers to culture and not to language, it remains possible that this section may have certain effects on linguistic rights of minorities”. In addition to section 27 of the Charter, the Canadian Multiculturalism Act, enacted in 1988, also recognises Canada’s multicultural heritage and obliges the federal (national) administration12 to consider, and to favour, multiculturalism in its decisions (GaudreaultDesbiens and Pinard, 2003–2004, 219). Its preamble also “recognizes the diversity of Canadians … as a fundamental characteristic of Canadian society”. Section 23 of the Charter is devoted to the issue of minority language educational rights and places positive obligations on governments to mobilise resources and enact legislation in that regard. That section of the Charter was qualified as “distinctively Canadian” (De Caria, 2012, 63) and “quite peculiar to Canada” (De Caria, 2012, 27). It must be recalled that the government had “flatly rejected proposal to amend the Charter to include parallel language education rights for ethnic minorities” (Meyerhoff, 1994, 937). Section 15 of the Charter is devoted to “equality” and provides that every individual be treated without discrimination. However, this section protects probably more racial, religious, and ethnic minorities than linguistic minorities because “language” is not an enumerated or analogous ground of prohibited discrimination whereas the other categories are (Woehrling, 1986, 172; Gaudreault-Desbiens and Pinard, 2003–2004, 224); this section “neither speaks to the multicultural ideal of equal treatment or respect of all groups, nor protects culture or language at the collective level” (Meyerhoff, 1994, 1002). Linguistic policies in Canada are complex: “The complexity derives from the fact that linguistic policies in Canada have most often, if not always, been a means by which both federal and provincial governments have answered the identity-based political crises in the last fifty years” (Charbonneau, 2017–2018, 494). Indeed, multiculturalism “defines” (Meyerhoff, 1994, 922–923) and is “central” to Canada’s

22  Shruti Bedi and Sébastien Lafrance

identity (Meyerhoff, 1994, 924–925). But it also led to social crises. From 2006 to 2008, the province of Quebec was plagued by a crisis in “reasonable accommodation”,13 which led to the “Quebec’s Bouchard-Taylor commission into reasonable accommodation … as a way to bridge some of the social divides that exist not only in Quebec but elsewhere in Canada” (High, 2010). The province of Quebec was again into crisis mode when Bill n°60 (Charter affirming the values of State secularism and religious neutrality) was presented at the Quebec assembly (Rocher and White, 2014, 3) but this bill never passed muster. Another similar social crisis is also currently going on because of Quebec’s Bill n°21 (An Act respecting the laicity of the State) (Bosset, 2019). All these crises happened even if Canadian courts had previously confirmed that there is an obligation to accommodate a person’s religious rights. In Canada, a multiculturalist policy emphasises anti-discrimination measures, for example, dress codes “allowing Sikhs, Muslims or Jews to wear religious symbols in public institutions” (Boucher, 2008, 3; Bosset, 2019).

Linguistic Minorities and Asymmetry In 1985, paragraph 16(1) of the Official Languages Act established English and French as the official languages of Canada. Bombardier (2020, Jan. 28) recently noted, “There are two official languages in Canada, but nobody is obliged to be bilingual. … the vast majority of Canada do not speak French”. The French language in Canada “falls in the category of weak national languages … needing to be protected” (De Caria, 2012, 79). There is an asymmetry, which varies according to the geography. English in Quebec is a minority, and French is also a minority language in all the other nine provinces and the three federal territories of Canada (Landry and Forgues, 2007, 1). Therefore, English and French speakers are either a majority or a minority in Canada, depending on the province that is examined. Traditionally, “the notion of minority in Canadian law … referred to Francophone and Anglophone identities” (Gaudreault-Desbiens and Pinard, 2003–2004, 199). However, when a state wants to support the use of one or several minority languages, besides the majority language, it may also declare them official either for the state as a whole or only for one or a few of its subdivisions (Woehrling, 1986, 135). This is exactly what happened to the Aboriginal and Inuit populations, who also have their own official languages in Canada. In that context, is achieving linguistic “equality” possible in Canada? Should it become a goal for the state? From the perspective of policies, the answer is negative, mostly because “Canada’s model of language rights and multiculturalism in general and the Charter’s language rights and multiculturalism provisions in particular are inconsistent with a broader, egalitarian definition” (Meyerhoff, 1994, 919 & 969). Practically speaking, linguistic equality would also be difficult to implement because, in general, “[l]arger linguistic groups”, as they exist in Canada but also in India, “will have the advantage over small ones”, “the heaviest burden” may then be imposed “on the smallest minority” (De Caria, 2012, 84–85), who may need to learn the language of the majority for various reasons. Woehrling (1986, 123) also noted,

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The numerical importance of the various known linguistic communities on the territory, the fact that some are historic minorities, traditionally established, while others come from a more recent immigration, the historical role played by certain groups in the foundation of the State, constituting as many objective and rational criteria. Charles Taylor, a famous Canadian philosopher, also stated that real equality means that certain groups will have the right to be recognised in their difference (Taylor, 1994, 25), then causing de facto an asymmetry in the recognition of their rights. Therefore, the asymmetry in the recognition of linguistic rights for minorities may not only be an issue, but it may also be a positive solution: “Asymmetrical constitutional provisions in multi-ethnic federations are especially important in order to promote the essential features of cultural self-determination of such minorities; these features can include language” (Mendes, 2009, 398); the same reasoning is also applicable, mutatis mutandis, to India.

Conclusion The long-term effect of hasty proposals negatively impacts the multilingual character of India as it challenges the very survival of linguistic minorities. The government, through the medium of policies and along with the National Commission for Minorities, further supplemented with a positive judicial concern, should work towards addressing the problem without any further loss to the linguistic and cultural contexts of the linguistic minorities. India is a multilingual and multireligious entity, and to advocate this pluralist perspective, we need to incorporate all the elements into it without eroding the identity, dignity, and self-respect of any community (Oommen, 2003, 291). Justice DY Chandrachud speaking recently at a book release in Delhi stressed on the need to recognise and accept that “India is a nation of plural views; a nation of plural identities and a nation of multitude of cultures” (Roy, 2020). To facilitate and realise the linguistic pluralism of India, it would be advisable to accord some constitutional recognition to a larger number of languages spoken by a sizeable section of the population. Perhaps, some inspiration for possible reforms to ensure unity of India could be taken from the following words of the Supreme Court of Canada, “The principle of federalism facilitates the pursuit of collective goals by cultural and linguistic minorities which form the majority within a particular province” (Reference re Secession of Quebec, 1998, 59). Further recognition and creation of administrative units based on linguistic preferences with the objective of instituting programs on eradication of illiteracy and the consequent socio-political transformation would make way for cultural renewal: “multinational federalism can require some degree of asymmetry” (Boucher, 2008, 9). The pluralist approach is the best option to tackle the challenges faced by any country trying to effectively grapple with its diversity. Federation was also initially chosen as a flexible form of state organisation14 for countries such as India and Canada

24  Shruti Bedi and Sébastien Lafrance

because it “allowed to settle or attenuate issues” (Woehrling, 2003, 144–145) related to linguistic heterogeneity of the population. Thus, this pluralist perspective is an effective counter to the European model of one nation, one (official) language (Oommen, 2003, 302), which is utterly unsuited for a polyglot polity, such as India and Canada.

Notes 1 For clarity purposes, the Honourable Michel Bastarache wrote this in an article before he was appointed as a puisne judge of the Supreme Court of Canada. 2 Mark Twain wrote about his visit to India and his impressions of its diversity and culture in Following the Equator. 3 The People’s Linguistic Survey of India has identified a total of 780 languages in India, out of which 220 have been lost in the last five decades (Lalmalsawma, 2013). 4 Just four months before his demise, Gandhi summed up what he felt about Hindustani, “Hindustani should be neither Sanskritized Hindi nor Persianised Urdu but a happy combination of both. It should also freely admit words wherever necessary from the different regional languages and also assimilate words from foreign languages, provided that they can mix well and easily with our national language. Thus, our national language must develop into a rich and powerful instrument capable of expressing the whole gamut of human thought and feelings”. 5 Constitution of India, Article 343 provides for the official language. Articles 343–351 deal with the language provisions in the Constitution. 6 Constitution of India, Article 343 – (1) The official language of the Union shall be Hindi in Devanagari script. The form of numerals to be used for the official purposes of the Union shall be the international form of Indian numerals. (2) Notwithstanding anything in clause (1), for a period of fifteen years from the commencement of this Constitution, the English language shall continue to be used for all the official purposes of the Union for which it was being used immediately before such commencement: Provided that the President may, during the said period, by order authorise the use of the Hindi language in addition to the English language and of the Devanagari form of numerals in addition to the international form of Indian numerals for any of the official purposes of the Union. 7 Constitution of India, Article 345 – Official language or languages of a State – Subject to the provisions of articles 346 and 347, the legislature of a state may by law adopt any one or more of the languages in use in the State or Hindi as the language or languages to be used for all or any of the official purposes of that State. 8 The idea of reorganising states along linguistic lines had apparently been discarded by a Linguistic Provinces Commission (the Dar Commission) in 1948. 9 The report of the States Reorganisation Commission stated that it was “neither possible nor desirable to reorganise States on the basis of the single test of either language or culture, but that a balanced approach to the whole problem is necessary in the interests of our national unity”. Most of the recommendations of the Commission were accepted by the Parliament in the form of the 1956 States Reorganisation Act. 10 Article 350 A was introduced in the Constitution of India by the 7th Amendment Act in 1956. 11 “It united Upper Canada (Ontario), Lower Canada (Quebec), Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick. The Canadian federation expanded with the addition of the provinces of Manitoba (1870), British Columbia (1871), Prince Edward Island (1873), Saskatchewan and Alberta (1905), and Newfoundland (1949)”. 12 “In a federation, sovereignty is divided between different levels of government, with some jurisdictions shared and others exclusive to one of the different orders of government” (Boucher, 2008, 8).

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13 This legal concept that deals with discrimination stems from Canadian labour law but now its application extended to other areas of the law. This legal concept was addressed by the Supreme Court of Canada in the decision Ont. Human Rights Comm. v. SimpsonsSears, [1985] 2 SCR 536. 14 “In a federation, sovereignty is divided between different levels of government, with some jurisdictions shared and others exclusive to one of the different orders of government” (Boucher, 2008, 8); “The power to enact a law affecting language is divided between the two levels of government by reference to criteria other than the impact of the law upon languages” (Hogg, 2007, 56–3; Devine v. Quebec (Attorney General), 1988, 14).

Disclaimer The views, opinions, and conclusions expressed herein are personal to Prof. Lafrance and should not be construed as those of the Public Prosecution Service of Canada or the Canadian federal Crown.

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Hegde, P. (2017, Feb. 21). “Protecting Language Diversity in India” Press Information Bureau Government of India. Retrieved from https://pib.gov.in/newsite/mbErel. aspx?relid=158532 High, S. (2010, May 11). Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage, No. 014, 3rd Session, 40th Parliament (1155), House of Commons Canada. Retrieved from https://www. ourcommons.ca/DocumentViewer/en/40-3/CHPC/meeting-14/evidence Hogg, P.W. (2007). Constitutional Law of Canada, 5th edition, Carswell, loose-leaf: Toronto. House of Commons Debates. (1971). 28th Parliament, 3rd Session: Vol. 8. Jacob, A. (1972). Linguistic Minorities in India: Problems and Safeguards, Indian Law Institute: New Delhi. Kymlicka, W. (2003). “Canadian Multiculturalism in Historical and Comparative Perspective: Is Canada Unique?”, Constitutional Forum, 13(1), 1–8. Lalmalsawma, D. (2013, Sept. 7). “India Speaks 780 Languages, 220 Lost in the Last Five yYears - Survey”, Reuters. Retrieved from http://blogs.reuters.com/india/2013/09/07/ india-speaks-780-languages-220-lost-in-last-50-years-survey/ Landry, R. and Forgues, E. (2007). “Official Language Minorities in Canada: An Introduction”, International Journal of the Sociology of Language, 185, 1–9. https://doi. org/10.1515/IJSL.2007.022 Lawson, G. (2015, Dec. 8). “Trudeau’s Canada, Again”, The New York Times. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/13/magazine/trudeaus-canada-again.html?_r=0 Lemieux, V. (1986). “Les minorités et l’État: quelques propositions générales” (Minorities and the State: Some General Propositions) in Lacroix, J.-M., Pelletier, R. and Zylberberg, J., Minorités et État, France/Canada: Presses universitaires de Bordeaux / Presses de l’université Laval. McLachlin, B. (2017). “Reflections on Bilingualism in Canada”, Ottawa Law Review, 49(1), 29–42. Mendes, E. (2009). “The Canadian Constitution and Charter of Rights and Freedoms: A Global Template for Minority Rights?” in Mendes, E.P. and Srighanthan, S. (eds.), Confronting Discrimination and Inequality in China: Chinese and Canadian Perspectives, Canada: University of Ottawa Press, 396–404. Meyerhoff, T. (1994). “Multiculturalism and Language Rights in Canada: Problems and Prospects for Equality and Unity”, American University Journal of International Law and Policy, 9(3), 913–1014. Mills, D. (2019, Nov. 6). “Durham Report”, The Canadian Encyclopedia. Retrieved from https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/durham-report Mohan, S. (2010–11). “Minority and Majority Linguistic Groups in India: Issues and Problems”, Bulletin of the Deccan College Post Graduate and Research Institute, 70/71, 261–269. Narang, A.S. (2010, March 18–20). “Nation Building and Minority Alienation in India (Policy and Practices) EURASIA-Net Final Conference on Trans Regional Platform and Joint Research Agenda on Protection of Minority Rights”, Kolkata. Nariman, F.S. (2014). “Minorities at the Crossroads: Comments on Judicial Pronouncements”, Economic and Political Weekly, 49(46), 40–45. Nath, S. (1989). “Linguistic Minorities: The Historical Perspective”, Proceedings of the Indian History Congress, 50. Official Languages Act (Canada), RSC 1985, c 31 (4th Supp). Retrieved from https:// www.canlii.org/en/ca/laws/stat/rsc-1985-c-31-4th-supp/latest/rsc-1985-c-31-4thsupp.html Official Languages Act (Nunavut), SNu 2008, c 10. Retrieved from Official Languages Act (Northwest Territories), RSNWT 1988, c O-1. Retrieved from

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Ont. Human Rights Comm. v. Simpsons-Sears, [1985] 2 SCR 536. Oommen, T.K. (2000). “Conceptualising Nation and Nationality in South Asia” in Sharma, S.L. and Oommen, T.K. (eds.), Nation and National Identity in South Asia, Orient Longman: Delhi, 1–18. Oommen, T.K. (2003). “Language and Nation: For a Cultural Renewal of India”, Asian Journal of Social Science, 31(2), 286–303. Radhakrishnan, S. (1950). Report on University Education, Government of India: Delhi. Rao, S.S. (2008, Sept.). “India’s Language Debates and Education of Linguistic Minorities”, Economic and Political Weekly, 43(36), 63–69. Recalde, D, (2016, Sept. 15). “A Closer Look at India’s Languages” Day Translations. Retrieved from https://www.daytranslations.com/blog/indias-languages/ Report of the National Commission for Religious and Linguistic Minorities. (2007). Ministry of Minority Affairs: New Delhi. Report of the States Reorganisation Commission (SRC), 1955. Retrieved from https:// mha.gov.in/sites/default/files/State%20Reorganisation%20Commisison%20Report%20 of%201955_270614.pdf Reference re Secession of Quebec, [1998] 2 SCR 217. Reference re Manitoba Language Rights, [1992] 1 SCR 212. Re The Kerala Education Bill, 1957 AIR 1958 SC 956. Rocher, F. and White, B.W. (2014, Nov.). “L’interculturalisme Québécois dans le contexte du multiculturalisme canadien” (Quebec Interculturalism In The Context of Canadian Multiculturalism), Institute for Research on Public Policy, N° 14, 1–48. Retrieved from https:// irpp.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/study-no49.pdf Roy, R. (2020, Feb. 4). “We Have To Accept That India Is A Nation Of Plural Views, Multitude of Cultures: Justice Chandrachud”, Live Law. Retrieved from https://www. livelaw.in/news-updates/we-have-to-accept-that-india-is-a-nation-of-plural-views-multitudeof-cultures-justice-chandrachud-152302 Sharma, P.K. 1969. Political Aspects of State Re-organisation in India, Mohuni Publications: New Delhi. Singh, R.K. (2006, April-June). “Constitutional Mandate and Rights of Linguistic Minorities”, Journal of the Indian Law Institute, 48(2), 271–276. State of Bombay v. Bombay Education Society 1954 AIR 561. Taylor, C. (1994). “The Politics of Recognition” in Gutmann, A. (ed.), Multiculturalism, Princeton: Princeton University Press, 25–73. Thériault, J.Y. (2007). “Ethnolinguistic Minorities and National Integration in Canada”, International Journal of the Sociology of Language, 185, 255–263. https://doi.org/10.1515/ IJSL.2007.033 T.M.A. Pai Foundation v. State of Karnataka, (2002) 8 SCC 481. Twain, M. “Following the Equator” in Eutsey, D. (2017, April 20). “Dreaming India, the Marvellous  and Mark Twain’s Mysterious Stranger”, Centre for Mark Twain Studies. Retrieved from https://marktwainstudies.com/dreaming-india-the-marvelous-mark-twainsmysterious-stranger/ Voltaire (1759). Candide, Classiques et Patrimoine, Magnard, France (published again in 2013). Woehrling, J. (1986). “La Constitution canadienne et la protection des minorités ethniques” (The Canadian Constitution and the Protection of Ethnic Minorities), Les Cahiers de droit, 27(1), 171–188. https://doi.org/10.7202/042733ar Woehrling, J. (2003). “Les trois dimensions de la protection des minorités en droit constitutionnel comparé” (The Three Dimensions of the Protection of Minorities in Comparative Constitutional Law), Revue de droit de l’Université de Sherbrooke, 34, 95–155.

3 INDIGENOUS KNOWLEDGE AND SUSTAINABLE LIFESTYLES OF THE PEOPLE OF THE SUNDARBANS Traditional rituals and goddess Bonbibi Arupa Mandal and Santoshi Halder

Introduction People all over the world perform rituals. These customs pervade human life through religion, business, politics, education, athletics, and even the military, making them central to the most meaningful traditions and cultural practices around the world (Hobson et al., 2017). These traditional rituals mostly focus on governance, values or belief systems, survival, and sustenance (Kah, 2016). They play a crucial role in building families and communities, marking rites of passage and other important life events, expressing joys and sorrows, and—most importantly—creating and sustaining identity (Bone, 2016). Rituals also provide people with tools to learn to think logically, analogically, and ecologically, and thus move toward a sustainable culture. Most important, during rituals, one experiences one’s own unique culture, of not opposing nature but living in communion with and firmly within it, and that is the key to sustainable culture (LaChapelle, 1984).

Rituals as a part of sustainability of native societies from times immemorial Most societies over the world maintain rituals. Most native societies have three common attributes: (a) an intimate, conscious relationship with their place, (b) stable ‘sustainable’ cultures, often lasting thousands of years, and (c) a rich ceremonial and ritualistic life (LaChapelle, 1984). The capacity to engage in rituals is a psychologically prepared and culturally inherited behavior geared toward facilitating social group dynamics (Kah, 2016). It has been documented and established through evidence-based works that rituals are necessary for progress of

DOI: 10.4324/9781003379034-4

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science, sustainability, management of natural resources, and conservation of nature (Kealiikanakaoleohaililani et al., 2018).

Rituals in Western societies Every society follows some traditions that are sustained from generation to generation to become heritage, which further shapes religious, philosophical, and cultural practices (Patwardhan, 2014). Kah (2016) endorses that rituals are important for society and that they promote food self-sufficiency. Kealiikanakaoleohaililani et al. (2018) showed that spiritual approaches rooted in the ritual practices of Hawaii provide a powerful portal for revealing, supporting, and enhancing their collective aloha (i.e., love, fondness, reciprocity, and dedication toward family members, as well as the places and processes). Spiritually oriented ritual is a powerful portal for revealing, supporting, and building up the collective love for and devotion to the places and processes that they steward and the path they believe is required for effectively advancing the science of sustainability, the management of natural resources, and the conservation of nature (Kealiikanakaoleohaililani et al., 2018). The. Another society, ‘the Tukano Indians,’ who are habitants of the Northwest Amazon River basin, directed by their shamans, who make use of various myths and rituals that prevent over-hunting and over-fishing; thus, they act as conscious ecologists with nature conservation. The ritualistic life of Kung people of the Kalahari Desert living in exactly the same place for nearly 11,000 years have very few material belongings, but their maintained ritualistic life is one of the most sophisticated of any group (LaChapelle, 1984). Thus, rituals act as the most complex form of cultural behavior that demonstrates evolutionary value by consolidating protective social bonds which, in turn, increase the chances of survival (Wojtkowiak, 2018) of a community and its traditions.

Rituals in the Indian subcontinent India is exceptionally rich in rituals owing to its great diversity of religious cultures and traditions (Nongbri et al., 2017). Throughout India, various gods and goddesses are worshipped in different religions (Sharma & Pegu, 2011). The sacred groves of India represent a long-held tradition of community management of forests for cultural reasons (Ormsby, 2013). In the Khasi region of Meghalaya in the eastern part of India, indigenous people perform a number of rituals on different occasions to pray to, communicate with, or appease deities. People believe that gods and spirits residing in the forests protect the people, cattle, and land and keep evil spirits away. They also sincerely believe that extracting resources from forests, except for purposes of cremation, may offend the deities and cause adverse impacts on the people or the entire community. To please the deities, they perform various

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religious rites in these groves and ensure that these sacred spaces are conserved well and nearly free of anthropogenic disturbances. Knowledge of such rituals is usually transmitted from one generation to the next through word of mouth, and is a very important part of the community’s culture. Researchers report that rituals performed by indigenous people of the Khasi region play an important role in the conservation of local plant species and, in the long run, sustenance of the biodiversity of the region ( Jeeva et al., 2006). Assam’s tribal community also has a rich tradition of religion and culture. About 57% of the total population of tribal communities in Assam who depend mainly on plant resources for their daily life have close relation with and deep knowledge about plant resources of their environments, which form a fundamental part of their material and spiritual cultures. Hence, their religious practices and beliefs are based on supernaturalism that conserves nature (Sharma & Pegu, 2011). In West Bengal, there are 40 different tribes, who are mainly nature worshippers and prefer to live in contiguous areas in accordance with their own religious beliefs, customs, and rituals. Different zones of West Bengal such as the Sundarbans are also home to multi-ethnic communities, which practice common rituals.

World’s richest mangrove forest: the coastal Sundarbans The Sundarbans is a mangrove ecosystem where beautiful nature meets a diverse culture. In the local language, ‘sundar’ means ‘beautiful’ and ‘ban’ means ‘forest’ (Dutta, 2011; Ray, 2013) so the mangrove region gets its more common name, the Sundarbans. It is also believed that the name has been given due to the local abundance of the ‘Sundari’ (Heritieria littoralis) tree. The host area of this massive mangrove is formed by the confluence of the Ganga, Brahmaputra, and Meghna rivers in the Bay of Bengal, and spans 10,000 sq. km, including Bangladesh and India (Chakraborty, 2011; Das, 2011; Rahman & Asaduzzaman, 2013; Rogers & Goodbred, 2014). The habitat of the unique Sundarbans stretched across India and Bangladesh represents the emotions of the citizens, which is more than that of a woody endeavor. The Indian portion covers about 40% of the total area of the Sundarbans. Due to its rich variety of flora and fauna, the Government of India declared the forest a National Park in 1984 (Samanta et al., 2013). In 1987, it was declared a World Heritage Site by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) (Chowdhury et al., 2016). Before 1989, the Indian Sundarbans was declared as the Sundarbans Biosphere Reserve (SBR) under UNESCO’s Man and Biosphere Reserve (MAB) Program (Das, 2018). As a biosphere reserve, the Sundarbans is protected with respect to three objectives: (a) “conservation of genetic resources, species, and ecosystems; (b) scientific research and monitoring; and (c) promoting sustainable development in communities of the surrounding region.”

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Despite the area being covered by considerable mangrove forest, more than 1 million people live in the Sundarbans currently (Dutta, 2011). Many of these people depend on the mangrove forest resources for their livelihoods, and their religious faith, cultural adaptations, and myths integrate crucial and thought-provoking aspects of the Sundarbans. The villagers’ respect for the forest reflects a positive and successful story of wildlife conservation. Besides its rich diversity of flora and fauna, this World Heritage Site is known for its natives who survive the challenging terrain on the strength of their traditional skills and knowledge (Das, 2018).

Complex lives of the people of the Sundarbans and the increasing threats and risks The tidal halophytic mangrove forest of the Sundarbans experiences tides twice a day. The changing level of water regulates the biological diversity and lifeline for the entire ecosystem. The distinctive feature of this mangrove is not just that it is dense but that it is the last and largest mangrove on earth where the Royal Bengal tiger (Panthera tigris tigris) still lives. The Sundarbans also supports more than 230 species of residential and migratory birds, including some endangered species. However, over the last 100 years or so, the floral and faunal diversity of the Sundarbans has undergone modification due to habitat degradation, anthropogenic pressure, and ecological changes. In the ecosystem of the Sundarbans, with dense forests, a semi-terrestrial environment, periodic tidal inundations, and the elusive nature of wildlife, life is complex and definitely not simple (Das, 2018). The Indian Sundarbans has been depleting at an alarming rate over the past few decades. In 1773, the total area of the Sundarbans was 22,354 sq. km, of which 10,064 sq. km was included as the Indian Sundarbans. In 1873, the Indian forest area had been reduced to 7,894 sq. km. Within 100 years (1873–1973), in 1973, the mangrove forest declined rapidly and diminished to 4,277 sq. km (4.5% decline rate). By 2016, the area was reduced to 3576 sq. km (10.24% decline rate). The loss of the mangrove forest in the Indian Sundarbans from 1773 to 2016 is about 5.63% (Hussain et al., 2017). In the last century, due to erosion, flood probability increased at an alarming rate, thereby creating the major problem of siltation of the riverbed. Moreover, the present continuous rise of sea level is becoming a significant threat for the already vulnerable and fragile ecosystem (Pramanik, 2014). The water salinity seasonally varies from 9 ppt to 29 ppt. The sources of all the rivers in this region are getting progressively silted up, leaving hardly any passage for fresh water. Also, the rivers are getting shallower and more brackish over the years (Mallick, 2013). The mangrove coverage in the country has increased to 21.6% in the past three decades as per the India State of Forest Report (Kamboj & Das, 2019), whereas the coverage of the Indian Sundarbans has decreased significantly to 13.7% due to low rainfall, increased

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silt-clay deposition, low tidal range, and excessive pollution (Quader et al., 2017). It has been observed that the Indian Sundarbans is rapidly losing its natural ecological balance, and this is causing climate change as well as other natural disasters. This is an indication of a critical situation and high risk for the maintenance of sustainability of the Sundarbans.

Cultural rituals and sustainability of the Sundarbans The conservation of nature and natural resources is an important part of the cultural ethos, especially in remote rural and indigenous communities in many parts of the world, including India (Singh et al., 2017). For the proper conservation of nature, sustainable development is the key. According to The Brundtland Commission (1987), “A development path is sustainable if it meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability to do the same in future.” The report focuses on essential topics such as standards of living, ecological limits, and productive potential, but more recently it stresses the importance of culture for sustainability (Barry, 2007, 2015), and rituals form a core aspect of culture. About 45% of all the people living in rural regions globally maintain their own cultures through various rituals. Some religious people in many countries of the world, including India, protect their environment, believing it to be God’s creation (Udoh, 2015). In India, rural communities constituted about 68% as of 2011 (Ministry of Home Affairs, 2011) live close to nature, in a simple and frugal manner. Studying the historical trajectory of the people of the Sundarbans reveals the close association of nature and humans through various cultural practices that are inherited and disseminated from generation to generation, thus establishing a deep connection between the local communities and the local ecosystem. However, over the years, such cultural rituals and practices are losing relevance and becoming extinct gradually due to various factors. There is a pertinent need to revive the cultural ethos and the deep people–nature connection and rejuvenate the long-lasting association of a sustainable lifestyle with the protection of the natural resources of the Sundarbans.

The Sundarbans and remote, rural communities The Sundarbans is a place where human poverty and fragility interface with natural richness, a place where the world seems so close to development yet so far (Kanjilal et al., 2010). The Sundarbans land first appeared as public property in 1759, during the Mughal era, as a gifted will to Robert Clive; after his demise, it was passed on to the East India Company in 1774 (Dutta, 2011). In 1771, British collector general Clod Russell planned to divide the Sundarbans into plots with the purpose of collecting timber and revenue and intended to lease the lands to Zamindars (higher castes in power). Encouraged by these landlords, poor people from different parts of West Bengal and some neighboring states migrated

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to the Sundarbans for work and eventually settled there. The settlers, from 1781 onward, started felling the trees to make space for cultivation (Ghosh et al., 2015). People arrived from various other parts of India and also from Bangladesh and gradually created a heterogeneous population (Chowdhury et al., 2016) in the  Sundarbans. The population increased rapidly in the post-colonial era with the India–Bangladesh partition. After India’s Independence, the population of the Indian Sundarbans rose from 1.15 million in 1951 to 4.44 million in 2011 (Ghosh et al., 2015). Nearly 47% of the people belonged to backward castes, including Scheduled Castes (SCs), Scheduled Tribes (STs) (Kanjilal et al., 2010), and other backward classes (OBCs). Locals of Sundarbans mainly depend on mono-crop cultivation and forest resources for their livelihoods. However, the constant struggle due to the high salinity of soil, regular flood, and cyclone every year, including poor transportation system, which causes additional barriers to profitable income hindering good crop production (Das, 2011). Thereafter, the only way of living is to depend on forest resources. The forest-dependent population of the Sundarbans was mainly engaged in professions such as collecting honey, fishing, catching crab and shrimp, collecting snails, cutting wood, and gathering golpata (Nypa fruticans) (Kothari, 2015; Ray, 2013; Sen & Pattanaik, 2017) despite the high risk of dangers like tiger attacks (Chowdhury et al., 2016), poisonous snakes, thorn-like pneumatophore roots, and dangerous crocodiles. Every year, about 40 people die due to tiger attacks (Chowdhury et al., 2016). To bolster their self-confidence to overcome such situations, the local people turn to various cultural rituals and practices, which gradually became a vital element of their lifestyles.

Deities of the Sundarbans and the locals The common people of the Sundarbans are highly religious-minded. Hindu communities are the major religious group, followed by Muslims (Chowdhury et al., 2016). Amidst the wild animals, dense forest, and awful silence, they find themselves small and insignificant. From their feelings of fear arose the forest-dependent communities’ belief in forest gods and goddesses. Several deities thus worshipped by the people include forest goddess Bonbibi, tiger god Dokkhin Rai, crocodile god Kalu Roy, forest protector Ateswar, god of fever Jarasur, serpent goddess Manasa, forest mother Bisalakshi, fertility god Tusu, and fish god Makal Thakur (Mistri, 2013; Sur, 2014). The forest-dependent community, which traverses the forest for honey collection, fishing, etc., worships mainly Bonbibi, the ‘mother of the forest.’ They believe that she will protect them from tiger attacks and other dangerous situations, as she is the protector of the forest.

Bonbibi: protector of the forest and forest-dependent communities Bonbibi, the deity of the Sundarbans, is believed to be the protector of all. She is unique as people of various religions—Hindus, Christians, as well as

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Muslims—worship her, propelled by their strong belief in her divine powers. There may be differences in their rituals and customs—Muslims call her ‘Bonbibi’ for instance while, for Hindus, she is ‘Bonodebi’ (Karmakar, 2018), but Bonbibi is the focal point of their faith and absolute devotion. People who mainly depend on the forest for their daily survival—fetching wood, collecting honey and wax, catching fish and crabs—are the main worshippers of Bonbibi (Mandal, 2018). The inhabitants of the Sundarbans do not think of Bonbibi as an ‘elite deity’ in a temple or a mosque. Instead, she is considered an integral part of their lives where religious differences are meager compared to the significant struggle of life (Karmakar, 2018).

Objectives The study explores the cultural rituals and practices followed by the forest-dependent communities of the Sundarbans and illuminates the significance of their rituals that play crucial roles in sustaining and conserving their local ecosystem. The study also intends to explore the link between these rituals followed by the people of the Sundarbans and the sustainability of the Sundarbans.

Methodology Search design and procedure Based on the objectives of the study, the design and process of search were conducted and eligible studies were searched through computerized searches via Google, Yahoo, Scopus, SAGE Journals Online, Elsevier Journals, Springer Journals, Indian Journals, and Web-of-Science.

Search strategies based on inclusion and exclusion criteria The search procedure included combinations of the key terms ‘forest Deity Bonbibi’ and cultural rituals in relation to sustainable development from the Sundarbans region. Also, the process was moved to other words such as Bonbibi and Sundarbans locals, cultural rituals for Bonbibi, worshipping of Bonbibi, indigenous knowledge related to Bonbibi, story of Maa Bonbibi, and so on. The search process followed online digital sources and conference proceedings. The studies included have been selected on the basis of inclusion and exclusion criteria. In the initial selection stage, duplicate articles were removed. Study titles were reviewed and irrelevant articles were removed. After this, the abstracts were studied to decide if they matched the criteria. Finally, the full text was considered for further inclusion. The reference lists of selected studies were also searched and only those that met the selection criteria were included. Only studies published in the English language (empirical, review-based, and theses) from 2001 to 2019, irrespective of study design or methodology, were

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FIGURE 3.1 

PRISMA chart of the review process

included. Through systematic and critical study, selected articles were analyzed to achieve the objectives of the study. The search strategy is given in Figure 3.1.

Results and interpretation The tale of Maa Bonbibi: an important aspect of the rituals In the legend of Bonbibi, the characters that play significant roles are Bonbibi, Shahjangali, Dokkhin Rai, Dhona, and Dukhey. The story begins with the birth of Bonbibi until the incidents that made her the forest deity of Sundarbans.

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Birth of the forest deity Bonbibi A man named Ibrahim lived in Medina. Ibrahim married Golabibi with permission from his first wife Phulbibi, who was incapable of bearing children. However, Ibrahim had to agree to a condition that he would have to fulfill a wish of Phulbibi’s in the future. At the same time, God decided to send Bonbibi and Shahjangali from heaven on a divine mission and instructed them to take birth as the children of Golabibi. While Golabibi was pregnant, Ibrahim left her in the forest to fulfill his first wife’s wish, as per his promise. So, Golabibi gave birth to two children, Bonbibi and Shahjangali, in the forest. To complete their mission as decided by God, they were to travel from Arabia (Mecca and Medina) to athhero bhatir desh (‘the country of eighteen tides’) (Karmakar, 2018; Uddin, 2019). Then they call out the names of Allah and mix the holy earth of Mecca with the earth of infamous Sundarbans ( Jallis, 2004).

Bonbibi meets Dokkhin Rai in athhero bhatir desh, the Sundarbans The jungles of athhero bhatir desh were the realm of a powerful demon king, Dokkhin Rai (Mandal, 2018). When Bonbibi and Shahjangali reached this country, Dokkhin Rai heard their azan (Muslim call for prayer) and called them to battle, but his mother Narayani appeared and said that it would be better for two women to battle. Bonbibi agreed to this suggestion. When Narayani started to lose in the conflict, she called Bonbibi a ‘friend’ (soi). The merciful Bonbibi stopped the battle, accepted the friendship ( Jalis, 2004), and decided to resolve the situation peacefully. The country was divided into two: half for the wilderness to be ruled by Dokkhin Rai and half for the human settlement to be ruled by Bonbibi (Bhattacharyya et al., 2018; Jalis, 2004; Karmakar, 2018).

Bonbibi, protector of the non-greedy, forest-dependent community In athhero bhatir desh, there lived a man called Dhona who planned a journey searching for wealth in the forest. For the journey he collected ships and searched for more persons, he misled a little boy named Dukhey, whose sole guardian was his poor mother, as his father had passed away long ago. With a heavy heart, Dukhey’s mother gave him permission to go, advising him to remember and pray to Maa Bonbibi if he encountered any dangerous situation in the forest (Sur, 2014). So young Dukhey joined Dhona’s crew and they set off. They reached an island named Kedokhalir Char, in the realm of Dokkhin Rai. That night, Dokkhin Rai appeared in Dhona’s dream, asking for Dukhey in exchange for wealth beyond imagination. The avaricious Dhona agreed to the lucrative proposal and, within seconds, creatures came from the forests to fill his ships with

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a huge amount of honey and wax (Karmakar, 2018). Then Dhona left Dukhey in the forest, as per his promise to Dokkhin Rai. When Dukhey saw Dokkhin Rai in front of him, he recalled what his mother had told him, and he offered a prayer to Bonbibi, asking her to save his life. Maa Bonbibi rescued him and her brother Shahjangali beat up the demon Dokkhin Rai, who fled in fear and was punished by Bonbibi (Bhattacharyya et al., 2018; Karmakar, 2018). From then on, Bonbibi was considered the mother of forest dwellers and turned respectful toward Dokkhin Rai too.

Maa Bonbibi, both for Dokkhin Rai and forest dwellers For fear of Bonbibi, Dokkhin Rai ran to his friend, Ghazi, for refuge. Ghazi, a pir (Sufi saint), proposed that Dokkhin Rai ask Bonbibi for mercy by calling her mother. Both then went to Bonbibi and Ghazi appealed to her on behalf of Dokkhin Rai. Bonbibi agreed and accepted Dokkhin Rai as her ‘son,’ on the condition that he and his followers (tigers and spirits) would stop being a threat to humans. She assured them that humans too would stop being a threat to non-humans (wild animals and spirits). Bonbibi then returned the little boy named Dukhey to his home and gifted him a “great treasure trove of honey and wax” (Karmakar, 2018). In essence, the myth of the forest deity Bonbibi is that she has been sent from heaven to help the people of the Sundarbans. In the deep forest known for its man-eating tigers and ruled by Dokkhin Rai (responsible for human sacrifices to tigers), Bonbibi defeated Dokkhin Rai and ruled the forest. Meanwhile, a honey and wax collector sent a poor boy into the deep forest as a sacrifice to Dokkhin Rai, in exchange for a lot of honey and wax. Bonbibi rescued this boy named Dukhey by defeating Dokkhin Rai. Accepting Bonbibi as the supreme power of the forest, Dokkhin Rai promised to stop tigers from killing people. Since then, Bonbibi has been worshipped by the forest-dependent communities of the Sundarbans, both Hindu and Muslim. Her story holds great significance in their lives and forms an important aspect of the rituals they follow. Bonbibi demonstrated to the whole world the law of forest that the rich and greedy would be punished while the poor and honest would be rewarded. This story has been transferred from generation to generation and is a crucial learning for the people who maintain their indigenous lifestyle while protecting their local environment and forest.

Importance of Bonbibi in the lives of the people of the Sundarbans Locals of the Sundarbans worship Bonbibi, offer prayers to her idol, and maintain certain rituals significant to her.

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Prayers offered before and during journeys in the forest The forest-dependent community maintains immense faith in and respects the forest deity Bonbibi. Before starting any journey into the forest, traditional Hindu fishermen follow various rituals and worship Bonbibi in a manner different from mainstream Hindu beliefs (Islam & Chuenpagdee, 2013). The honey collector worship Bonbibi early in the morning before leaving for honey gathering (Sen & Pattanaik, 2017); in the forest, before initiating the honey collection journey, they glorify the power of Bonbibi by uttering the following (Kothari, 2015): Amid the dense forest I am Mother of all Devotees, endangered will be saved, if I am recalled, don’t envy my devotees who has faith on me. Another common prayer of the forest dwellers is the following (Chowdhury et al., 2016): Othootho Maa Bonbibi, tomar namey baralam pa Amar ei lokjoner opor je debe gha, tarey tui dhore dhore kha Arise, O Mother Bonbibi, I step forward in your name Whoever try to harm my people, hunt him down and eat his flesh

Beliefs related to Bonbibi and implications Interestingly, the Sundarbans locals do not think of Bonbibi as an ‘elite deity’ of a temple or a mosque but consider her part of their tough lives, where religious differences are unimportant and the struggle of life is significant (Karmakar, 2018). They worship her at different junctures, such as before entering the jungle, while pumping water out of water bodies, before going to the river or the sea to fish, while harvesting fish, while combating stresses such as leprosy, pox, and snakebite during specific months or seasons, and while hoping to protect livestock (Mondal et al., 2014). Several statues of Bonbibi are erected in the forest for worship. People believe that Bonbibi is always alert in the forest to protect them against any kind of danger. They especially believe in the fact that she can offer protection from tigers. This ritual practice and associated beliefs provide the locals with the mental strength to engage in risky fishing practices in the wilderness of the forest (Islam & Chuenpagdee, 2013). Bonbibi is worshipped like a member of their community. She is neither dressed in gold nor adorned with ornaments but rather with different banoful or forest flowers. On the last day of the Bengali month Poush, locals worship Bonbibi as a goddess of the land. On this auspicious day, they offer her prayers and then leave a rooster (morog) or hen in the forest for Bonbibi. Some instances of the main extracts on rituals are given in Table 3.1.

Ritual

Description

Explanation

Sustainability

Goddess Bonbibi, the deity of forest, is worshipped by all forestdependent people of various religions (Hindus, Muslims, and Christians).

People from the Muslim The practice of such rituals in The unity and cohesiveness of the community offer red flag to the the name of Bonbibi ushers in villagers of the Sundarbans show idol of Bonbibi, considering unity among people of different social sustainability, whereas her akin to a young girl of their religions, and this promotes their efforts to conserve local family. Hindus worship her as healthy social relationships and flora suggest environmental a mother goddess, earlier with communal cohesiveness in the sustainability. mud idols and wildflowers and Sundarbans community. The creepers as ornaments of Goddess intertwined rituals of the locals being followed by the followers demonstrate the common needs of both religions (i.e., forestand interests toward the same dependent people from Muslim source of power. The common and Hindu communities). Now needs and interests increase artificial ornaments are also used involvement in groups thereby along with wildflowers. making their lives better (Vohs et al., 2013) and a lifestyle for sustainability of Sundarbans. By using wildflowers and local creepers in the rituals, the people also conserve particular species of the Sundarbans flora.

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TABLE 3.1  Mapping Rituals of the Sundarbans Communities to Regional Sustainability

Description

During Bonbibi puja, locals leave a rooster in the forest as a ritual offering.

As a part of the ritual after the The locals enrich the fauna The ritual helps maintain worship of Bonbibi, some of the Sundarbans through and promote biodiversity believers leave a rooster in the such practices. Sometimes, conservation and thus promotes forest to glorify her, which these roosters eventually get sustainability. makes the people more confident transformed into a wild type (bon about protection from Maa morog) with prolonged adaptation Bonbibi. and survival in the forest. Also, they may be included in the biodiversity food chain. Due to their implicit belief in This belief and honesty of the Forest dwellers help maintain Bonbibi, the forest-dependent forest-dependent community forest resources and foster people feel protected. They help conserve the Sundarbans’ environmentally sustainable believe that the person who resources by protecting the wild development. is greedy for forest wealth flora and fauna. This practice is punishable and that only enshrines the philosophy of using the genuinely needy people natural resources to fulfill basic are protected by the goddess needs only. (Karmakar, 2018). They believe that if they maintain the forest resources, Bonbibi will save them from tigers and provide them with gifts such as more honey. This is as per the story where young Dukhey is gifted a lot of honey for his honesty.

Forest-dependent people do not take anything more than their requirements from the forest.

Explanation

Sustainability

(Continued)

Indigenous Knowledge and Sustainability of Sundarbans Locals  41

Ritual

Ritual

Description

Locals do not enter the extreme core area of the Sundarbans Forest, due to their regard for Bonbibi.

As per the Bonbibi tale, the Sundarbans territory is divided into halves: one for Dokkhin Rai and another for Bonbibi. People fulfill their needs only from the restricted area assigned to Bonbibi. All the forest-going people strictly follow this rule.

Bonbibi is considered the mother of the locals as well as the tigers of the forest.

Explanation

Sustainability

People’s respect for this belief Such practices encourage the insulates the core area of maintenance of sustainability in the forest, ensuring that it is the Sundarbans. undisturbed by human intrusion. Hence, the wild flora and fauna remain protected. Also, the limited human ingress in the forest for honey collection facilitates the pollination process while controlled fishing in the river helps balance and control the biodiversity. Facing a tiger in the forest is the The positive thoughts of the forest- The positive attitude of the locals most dangerous incident possible dependent community toward toward the tiger facilitates in the life of the Sundarbans tigers prove that tiger and man protection for tigers. locals. The forest-dependent have a mental bond, which people, however, believe that restricts unnecessary wounding they have a relationship with the or killing of tigers. At a time tigers, since both have the same when the tiger population in the symbolic mother who binds Sundarbans is rapidly declining, them together by inspiring them such thinking helps protect the to be brothers. endangered species.

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TABLE 3.1 (Continued)

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Discussion Cultural rituals with respect to Bonbibi foster sustainability The people of the Sundarbans believe that collecting more forest resources than they need offends Bonbibi. Such beliefs maintained via their cultural rituals ensure and foster unity, honesty, respect among locals, and conservation of the forest. Thus, Bonbibi evokes a socially as well as environmentally sustained lifestyle among the locals.

Bonbibi: icon of unity, conservation, and socio-environmental sustainability The forest-dependent people of the Sundarbans believe that Bonbibi is their protector against all dangers in the forest (Karmakar, 2018). Along with Hindus and Muslims, the goddess is also worshipped by Christians and adivasis (tribals), irrespective of their religious demarcations (Sur, 2014) and differences in practicing cultural rituals (Karmakar, 2018) (Chowdhury et al., 2016). This reflects the strong collective faith in her divine powers. Muslims make idols of Bonbibi in the form of a young girl of their family and offer her red flags. Hindus worship her as a mother goddess. People from both religions (i.e., Hindu and Muslim) used mud idols and wildflowers and creepers as ornaments of the Goddess for a long time, but now some also use artificial ornament. The inhabitants of the Sundarbans maintain a sustainable existence by taking from the forest only what they need to survive. By using wildflowers and creepers for their rituals, they conserve particular species of the Sundarbans flora. Also, their processes of worshipping different elements of nature (trees, animals, snakes, etc.) are ways of respecting and protecting the forest and its elements (Mondal et al., 2014). To reiterate, all the religious communities have common needs and shared interests and, in their interwoven ritualistic ways, they appease the same source of power (Uddin, 2019). In this manner, Goddess Bonbibi evokes unity among people of different faiths and rituals, and thus makes them engaged in their own intrinsic interests, making their lives better (Vohs et al., 2013) as well as promoting healthy social relationships and communal cohesiveness.

Enriching biodiversity through rituals During Bonbibi prayers, the ritual of leaving a rooster in the forest (Sur, 2014) is another way of animal conservation and enrichment of forest fauna. In some cases, these roosters eventually transform into a wild type (bon morog) with prolonged adaptation for survival in the forest. Also, they may be included in the biodiversity food chain. Hence, cultural rituals help maintain and promote biodiversity conservation.

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Instilling values like honesty and protection of nature The story of Bonbibi emphasizes that a person greedy for forest resources is punished while only the genuinely needy person is protected (Karmakar, 2018). This belief of the forest-dependent community helps conserve the Sundarbans and protect its wild flora and fauna by inculcating in the locals the philosophy of consuming only the basic, requisite quantum of natural resources. The tale also reflects how only those people who do not exploit natural resources and collect only what they need are saved from Dokkhin Roy by Bonbibi. Thus, the myth inspires honesty and encourages sustainable practices among forest dwellers, thus helping maintain resources.

Leaving core area of the Sundarbans undisturbed due to belief in Bonbibi As per the Bonbibi tale, the territory is divided into halves: one for Dokkhin Roy and the other for Bonbibi. All the people of the Sundarbans respect and strictly follow this demarcation. This protects the core area from human intrusion and thus safeguards the wild flora and fauna. Meanwhile, the area delimited for humans is protected by Bonbibi, and the human processes there foster sustainability, for instance, by facilitating the pollination process through honey collection and catalyzing balance in biodiversity through adequate fishing. Moreover, the myth of the goddess promotes an environmental culture (Chowdhury et al., 2016), which helps to a great extent in the conservation of endangered wild flora and fauna. Though the story of Bonbibi is a myth, it is so deeply and strongly believed that it influences the moral consciousness of the people, who operate out of a blend of both fear and veneration toward the goddess. People are aware of the consequences of violating the rules of the forest, as per the Bonbibi tale, and hence abide by them, thus also maintaining and sustaining the natural flora and fauna of the forest (Karmakar, 2018).

Protecting the tiger The Sundarbans dwellers believe that they have a special relationship with tigers because both have the same symbolic mother (Bonbibi), and this awareness binds them together by inspiring them to be brothers. The other reason for ‘relatedness’ is sharing a harsh environment, which turns them all into ‘cantankerous’ beings ( Jalis, 2004) that leads to the belief of the forest-dependent community that tiger and man share a mental bond or connection, which restricts unnecessary wounding or killing of tigers. Juxtaposed with the current rapid decline of the tiger population in the Sundarbans, such beliefs promote and facilitate environmental sustainability by protecting the tiger from unnecessary disturbance. The socio-cultural context and ecology of the Sundarbans also strengthen the religious beliefs of the forest-dependent communities (Islam & Hossain, 2017). Their beliefs and respect toward Bonbibi orient the people to be hopeful and live

Indigenous Knowledge and Sustainability of Sundarbans Locals  45

with positivity despite the risks of their environment. Their ritual practices are the way toward positive thinking that thrives by worshipping and remembering the forest deity Bonbibi. Hence, following the mythical Bonbibi tale and, as a consequence, the related rituals and practices, conserves the human and non-human population (flora and fauna) of the Sundarbans. In an era of rapid loss of biodiversity, Bonbibi shines a light and shows a way forward for sustainability.

Conclusion It is a well-known fact that the Sundarbans is a ‘hidden treasure,’ and its protection and conservation are our responsibility. The local people, who struggle daily with the environment for survival, shoulder a major part of this responsibility. This shared struggle, as well as the awareness of common vulnerabilities, creates in them a sense of ‘togetherness,’ irrespective of the fact that they belong to different religions. Besides vulnerability and the constant fear of wild animals, the forest is the only resource for their survival. So, the unity among them and the rich repository of practices and rituals maintained with regard to Maa Bonbibi together facilitate sustainability of the society as well as of the largest single block of tidal halophytic mangrove forest in the world, the Sundarbans. The Bonbibi tale reveals an indirect but strong association with forest preservation and helps maintain ecological balance as forest dweller inhabitants are aware that this World Heritage Site needs to be protected. To conserve forest biodiversity by following ethnic practices and rituals, it is important to maintain the importance of the tale of Bonbibi and disseminate the beliefs intrinsic to it to the younger generations of dwellers of the Sundarbans. Simultaneously, to bolster the livelihoods of the locals, it is equally necessary to create alternative and sustainable small industries, which are not dependent on forest resources. The government should provide funding for and implement initiatives to encourage the forest-dependent community to continue to worship the forest deity Maa Bonbibi while also sensitizing them to the significance of forest protection using other means of dissemination such as jatra, natok, and palagaan. An authentic salute to the legend of Maa Bonbibi would be an integrated campaign to nurture existing practices and create new avenues to support sustainable local lifestyles, thus extending the cultural legacy to the coming generations, within and outside the Sundarbans community.

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4 RELIGIOUS DETERMINANTS OF ACCEPTING WOMEN’S ACTIVISM AND INCLUSIVITY IN PAKISTAN The Beliefs of University Students Muhammad Ayub Buzdar, Viktoria Tidikis and Nora D. Dunbar Introduction The majority of women in Pakistan face unfavourable conditions in and outside of their homes. Various domestic, economic, academic, and political factors influence the nature and extent of women’s freedom and autonomy in Pakistani society (Akram, 2018). The World Economic Forum (2020) identified four major areas in which women in Pakistan are facing acute disparity and negligence. These areas include women’s economic participation and opportunities, educational attainment, health and survival, and political empowerment. Efforts to mitigate oppression and gender-based disparities in society, and to ascertain their fundamental rights, generally meet opposing consequences and, in some instances, result in physical and emotional violence against women (Khalid & Choudhry, 2018; LaBore et al., 2019). Federal and provincial governments have enacted legislation to protect women’s rights at the workplace, at home, and in overall society. Many of these regulations, however, have not been implemented properly (Ahmed et al., 2021). Women’s rights movements, especially the “Women March” (Aurat March) demonstrations of recent years, have sparked a debate on women’s activism and inclusion in various spheres of social life, especially true in fields that have been considered male-dominated (Samo, March 15, 2020). Women’s activities against oppressive forces are not only considered a threat to their modesty but also are thought against Islamic and cultural morals and values. The Country’s Prime Minister, Imran Khan, even labelled the Women March, and other similar steps to gain equality and protection, as a “rival culture.” He vowed to end it by reforming curricula and the overall schooling system of the country (Newsweek Pakistan, March 12, 2020). Due to the religious approach of the majority population, the debate on women’s activism in Pakistan has remained religious in nature (Khan, 2019). In this paper, we define religiosity as an act of accepting, interpreting, and practising certain religious DOI: 10.4324/9781003379034-5

50  Muhammad Ayub Buzdar et al.

beliefs (Beit-Hallahmi, 2015), which then shapes behavioural, cognitive, and attitudinal aspects of the human personality (Buzdar et al., 2015; Maiello, 2012). Secular feminism is a fundamentally Western concept, however, a section of its supporters in Pakistan come forth with religion-based arguments to widen the acceptability of the women’s rights movement in a predominantly religious society. The entrance of this new group has divided the feminist movement into supporters of Islamic feminism and secular feminism (Zia, 2009). Secular feminism strives to achieve all types of equalities for women on humanistic and democratic grounds. Islamic feminism, however, claims to extract these rights from religious scriptures of Islam. For instance, the renowned Muslim feminists Wudud, Ahmad, and Mernissi have reinterpreted Islamic religious scriptures, claiming that the previous interpretations serve pro-patriarch tribal systems (Badran, 2009). The opponents of both narratives of feminism also use religious and culture-based arguments to present their position (Newsweek Pakistan, March 12, 2020). Women’s social and professional activism is judged through the lenses of religious beliefs and cultural convictions. The feminist movements have given birth to the notions of empowering women in and outside the Islamic jurisdiction. The interpretation of religious scriptures and traditions is central in both rivalling arguments. Depending on the acceptability and interpretation of religious scriptures and popular beliefs, the acceptability of women’s activism and inclusivity vary within individuals and groups. The acceptability or rejection of feminism is often a result of an adjustment in people’s religious and social views (Zubair & Zubair, 2017). Marshall (2008) notes the case of Turkey where women face criticism from both secular and religious men. Secular men criticize women for wearing scarves and other religious symbols; religious men on the other hand criticize women for their expanded role in society and try to curb their rights. This dilemma can be traced in other Muslim societies as well. Political Islamization has developed an urban class that idealizes a pro-patriarchal tribal and radical version of Islam (Saleem, 2017). The tribal culture–religion amalgamation can be observed in the long-opposed inclusivity of women in Saudi society (Doğruel, 2015), and the same can be predicted here in Pakistani society, with little variation. There is ample evidence of an inverse relationship between the individual’s religious beliefs/services and analytical reasoning skills (Pennycook et al., 2014). The lack of reasoning and critical thinking skills proliferates religious extremism and other radical viewpoints in the people (Buzdar et al., 2019). Religious conservatism is not only confined to holding traditional dogmatic religious beliefs; it also entails holding several religiously motivated ethical, social, economic, political, and other associated beliefs and practices. Religious activism is also included in the domains of religious conservatism (Carkoglu, 2009). People with conservative religious beliefs support traditional patriarch culture and are less inclined to agree with women’s rights movements. Women’s activism is generally labelled as a part of a cultural war against Islamic societies (Zia, 2019). The people with less-conservative religious beliefs, however, are moderate in their views and weigh various demands of women activists as legitimate as per Islamic provisions. The focus of this chapter is to understand the religious determinants of accepting or rejecting women’s activism and inclusivity in Pakistani society.

Religious Determinants of Accepting Women’s Activism  51

This inquiry examined how Islamic religiosity shapes Pakistani university students’ attitudes towards women’s activism and inclusivity in Pakistan. The influence of gender differences on the students’ perceptions was explored as a supplementary objective of the study. The psychological dimensions of Islamic religiosity adapted by Raiya, Pargament, Mahoney, and Stein (2008) were accepted as independent variables in the inquiry. These variables reflect different aspects of respondents’ personal religiousness. Respondents’ beliefs that designate their political and social conservatism were not included in this study

Method Participants A two-phased sampling technique was used to recruit 400 Muslim university students. During the first phase, stratified sampling was used to select ten universities from public sector universities. In the second phase, 40 students were recruited from each university through an open call for participation. Participants were recruited through passive means (Gelinas et al., 2017), such as social media announcements and involving directorates of students’ affairs in the selected universities. Ethical guidelines for social media and face-to-face recruitment were followed, and measures were taken to secure the participants’ privacy and to ensure the confidentiality of the data. Interested participants were instructed to contact the research team for consideration of enrolment. Participation was voluntary and participants were not compensated. Data were collected online using Qualtrics (Qualtrics, 2005) for 363 university students (77% females), after the elimination of 37 uncompleted questionnaires.

Materials Psychological Measure of Islamic Religiousness (PMIR) A shortened version of the PMIR (57 questions), originally developed by Abu Raiya et al. (2008), was used to assess the prevalence of different dimensions of Islamic religiosity in the respondents. Participants responded to statements using a 5-point Likert scale that ranged from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree). Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) with principal component method was run to extract seven fixed factors from the data. The cumulative per cent of variance explained by the seven factors was 59.988. The first factor demonstrated an eigenvalue of 10.930 whereas the other six factors showed eigenvalues greater than 1. The factors included (1) Islamic Beliefs, (2) Islamic Ethical Principles and Universality, (3) Islamic Religious Struggle, (4) Islamic Religious Exclusivism, (5) Islamic Positive Religious Coping, (6) Punishing Allah Reappraisal, and (7) Islamic Religious Conversion. Theoretical description of the factors along with the factor loadings of each statement are presented in Table 4.1, and means and standard deviations for each subscale are presented in Table 4.2. For each subscale, a higher score indicates a greater agreement of the respondents with that religious dimension.

Factor Name

Description

Statements

Factor Loadings

Islamic Beliefs

The subscale measures the respondents’ agreement with basic Islamic beliefs like the existence of Allah, Day of Judgement, Angels, Prophets, and holy books.

.813 .901 .807 .673 .798

Islamic Ethical Principles and Universality

The subscale measures to what extent respondents observe Islamic ethical codes of dos and don’ts in their local and global context.

I believe in the existence of Allah. I believe in the Day of Judgement. I believe in the existence of paradise and hell. I believe in the existence of the angels, the Jinn, and Satan. I believe in all the prophets that Allah sent and in the sacred texts that were revealed to them. Islam is the major reason why I am a humble person. Islam is the major reason why I honour my parents. Islam is the major reason why I help my relatives and neighbours. Islam is the major reason why I assist the needy and the orphans. Islam is the major reason why I am a tolerant person. Islam is the major reason why I do not drink alcohol. Islam is the major reason why I do not have sex before marriage or outside it. Islam is the major reason why I do not consider committing suicide. Islam is the major reason why I do not engage in gossip. I consider every Muslim in the world as my brother or sister. One of my major sources of pride is being a Muslim. I would like to live in a world ruled by the Islamic laws. I believe that brotherhood and sisterhood is one of the basic tenets of Islam. I find myself doubting the existence of Allah. I find some aspects of Islam to be unfair. I find myself doubting the existence of the afterlife. I think that Islam does not fit the modern time. I doubt that the Holy Qura’n (the central religious text of Islam) is the exact words of Allah. I feel that Islam makes people intolerant.

Islamic Religious Struggle

The subscale assesses the presence of doubts, confusions, and conflicts that the respondents experience when following the religion.

.714 .722 .801 .789 .753 .685 .731 .732 .631 .466 .582 .536 .517 .872 .841 .881 .790 .797 .788

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TABLE 4.1  Results of Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) of Modified version of Psychological Measure of Islamic Religiosity (PMIR)

Factor Name

Description

Statements

Factor Loadings

Islamic Religious Exclusivism

Religious exclusivism reflects the respondents’ beliefs that there is an absolute reality and a single way to approach it.

Islam is Allah’s complete, unfailing guide to happiness and salvation, which must be totally followed. Of all the people on this earth, Muslims have a special relationship with Allah because they believe the most in his revealed truths and try their hardest to follow his laws. It is more important to be a good person than to believe in Allah and the right religion. (R) Islam is the best way to worship Allah and should never be compromised. No one religion is especially close to Allah, nor does Allah favour any particular believers. (R) When I face a problem in life, I look for a stronger connection with Allah. When I face a problem in life, I consider that a test from Allah to deepen my belief. When I face a problem in life, I seek Allah’s love and care. When I face a problem in life, I read the Holy Qura’n to find consolation. When I face a problem in life, I ask for Allah’s forgiveness. When I face a problem in life, I remind myself that Allah commanded me to be patient. When I face a problem in life, I do what I can and put the rest in Allah’s hands. I pray because I find it satisfying. I read the Holy Qura’n because I find it satisfying. I fast in Ramadan because when I fast, I feel close to Allah.

.625

The subscale assesses the respondents’ connectedness with Allah and a spiritual satisfaction that is a result of following and believing in religion.

.675 .777 .637 .708 .760 .830 .583 .731 .749 .671 .403 .519 .421 (Continued)

Religious Determinants of Accepting Women’s Activism  53

Islamic Positive Religious Coping

.770

Factor Name

Description

Statements

Factor Loadings

Punishing Allah Reappraisal

The subscale assesses the respondents’ feeling of being punished by Allah in times of crises and difficulties.

When I face a problem in life, I believe that I am being punished by Allah for bad actions I did. When I face a problem in life, I wonder what I did for Allah to punish me. When I face a problem in life, I feel punished by Allah for my lack of devotion.

.863

Becoming more involved in Islam was a turning point in my life. Islam has moved from the outside to the very centre of my life. At one point in my life, I realized that Islam is the solution to all of my problems. All at once, I felt that my life has no meaning without Islam. All at once, I felt that I am on the wrong path and that I should follow the path of Allah. In comparison to the way I used to be, Islam touches every aspect of my life.

.704 .711 .740

Islamic Religious Conversion

The Islamic religious conversion refers to the recreation and re-imagination of self and life under religious influences.

.871 .850

.676 .723 .643

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TABLE 4.1 (Continued)

Religious Determinants of Accepting Women’s Activism  55 TABLE 4.2 Descriptive Statistics of Students’ Responses on Independent and Criterion

Variables Variable Independent variables Islamic Beliefs Islamic Ethical Principles and Universality Islamic Religious Struggle Islamic Religious Exclusivism Islamic Positive Religious Coping Punishing Allah Reappraisal Islamic Religious Conversion Criterion variables Supporting Feminist Identity and Women’s Activism Perceived Women’s Inclusion in Society

Cronbach’s Alpha

Mean

SD

.83 .91 .92 .77 .88 .88 .84

4.88 4.78 1.69 4.31 4.73 4.11 4.64

0.47 0.48 1.12 0.89 0.50 1.07 0.59

.83 .94

3.78 3.67

0.72 0.94

Attitudes towards Feminism and the Women’s Movement Scale (FWM) The FWM is a self-reported measure used to gauge respondents’ disposition and commitment to the women’s movement. The scale contains ten items, consisting of six favourable and four unfavourable (reverse scored) statements (e.g., “The women’s movement is too radical and extreme in its views”) that are rated on a 5-point Likert scale from 1 (strongly agree) to 5 (strongly disagree).

Self-Identification as Feminist (SIF) This 4-item scale (Szymanski, 2004) includes statements that represent both public and private identification as feminists, importance of beliefs and values of feminism to the self, and support for the goals of the feminist movement that are rated on a 5-point Likert scale ranging from 1 (strongly agree) to 5 (strongly agree). Items of FWM and SIF were averaged to form a criterion variable, “Supporting feminist identity and women’s activism” with higher scores indicating greater endorsement of feminism. The criterion variable demonstrated high internal consistency (Cronbach’s α = .83).

The Perceived Social Inclusion Scale This 16-item scale (Jansen et al., 2014) was originally developed to measure perceived group inclusion on a 5-point Likert scale ranging from 1 (strongly agree) to 5 (strongly agree). In this study, the scale was used to assess respondents’ perceptions about the space Pakistani society gives to women in their life endeavours. The items of the scale are adjusted shifting their direction from group to women’s social inclusion. The scale consists of four 4-item sub-scales, including group membership (e.g., Our society treats women as insiders), group affection (e.g., Our society likes women), room for authenticity (e.g., Our society allows women to be who they are), and value in authenticity (e.g., Our Society encourages women to express their authentic self ).

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Islamic Religiosity and Women’s Activism/Inclusivity Beliefs Two open-ended questions (i.e., (1) How do you value women’s activism in relation to our religion and culture and (2) how promoting women’s inclusion in society is justifiable in religious perspectives) were included to get a deeper understanding of the participants’ beliefs. Essay text boxes were provided against each question in the survey to receive the responses.

Results Multiple regression analysis was run to assess the relationship between the independent and criterion variables. A thematic analysis approach was employed to analyse the qualitative data. The qualitative findings helped to illuminate how certain dimensions of religiousness influenced the acceptance or rejection of women’s activism and inclusivity in this sample of Pakistani Muslim university students.

Multiple Regressions The seven factors of Islamic religiosity were regressed on the two criterion variables separately. Students’ gender (Female = 0, Male = 1) was also included in the model as a predictor. The set of predictors was submitted for data screening. For each model, no violation of the assumptions of normality, linearity, homoscedasticity, or collinearity was observed, and no univariate or multivariate outliers were detected. There was no missing data. The sample size was adequate to test the overall model and the individual predictors (n = 363).

Supporting Feminist Identity and Women’s Activism Taken together, the set of predictors explained 20.90% (R2) of the variance in the criterion, F(8,354) = 11.71, p < 0.001 (see Table 4.3). Whereas most predictors (i.e., Islamic religious struggle, Islamic religious exclusivism, punishing Allah reappraisal, and Islamic religious conversion) were positively related to supporting feminist identity and women’s activism, Islamic beliefs were negatively associated with supporting feminist identity and women’s activism. In addition, in comparison to women, men were less likely to support feminist identity and women’s activism. Across predictors, Punishing Allah Reappraisal and Gender shared the strongest relationships with the criterion.

Perceived Women’s Inclusion in Society Taken together, the set of predictors explained 7.40% (R2) of the variance in the criterion, F (8,354) = 3.54, p < 0.001. Unlike the previous model, only two predictors demonstrated significant positive relationships with the criterion: Islamic Ethical Principles and Universality and Islamic Religious Struggle. Furthermore, gender did not regress on this criterion variable.

Religious Determinants of Accepting Women’s Activism  57 TABLE 4.3 Multiple Regressions Predicting Feminist Identity/Women’s Activism and

Women’s Social Inclusion from Islamic Religiousness and Gender Predictors

Islamic Beliefs Islamic Ethical Principles and Universality Islamic Religious Struggle Islamic Religious Exclusivism Islamic Positive Religious Coping Punishing Allah Reappraisal Islamic Religious Conversion Gender F (8,354) R2

Supporting Feminist Identity and Women’s Activism

Perceived Women’s Inclusion in Society

β −.11 .05

t

Sig.

β

T

Sig.

−2.14 1.00

.033 .331

−.04 .18

−0.67 3.04

.505 .003

.001 .002 .586 .000 .018 .000

.19 3.50 .00 0.01 .02 0.38 .07 1.23 .05 0.86 .00 0.02 3.54 ( p = .000) .07

.001 .991 .707 .221 .389 .985

.17 3.25 .16 3.13 −.03 −0.55 .22 4.33 .13 2.37 −.20 −4.10 11.71 ( p = .000) .21

Note: β = Standardized beta coefficient; R2 = Regression coefficient; t = t-statistic.

Thematic Analysis Analysis of qualitative data demonstrated the diverse opinions of the participants. The thematic analysis procedure marked by Braun and Clarke (2013) was followed to analyse the qualitative data. Preliminary codes were assigned to the relevant features of data by three faculty members who were trained for the qualitative data analysis. The faculty members separately assigned codes to the responses and sought for patterns in the assigned codes. A match among the assigned codes and patterns revealed a more than 90% consensus among the coders. The three faculty members reached a consensus after discussing the rest of the codes. A total of 283 codes were assigned, and the three patterns were sought in order to provide a holistic representation of the participants’ opinions. The themes include 1) acceptability of women’s activism and their social inclusion, 2) restrictions on women’s activism and their social inclusion, and 3) rejection of women’s activism and their social inclusion (see Table 4.4). TABLE 4.4  Distribution of the Codes into Three Major Themes

Themes Acceptability of women’s activism and their social inclusion Restrictions on women’s activism and their social inclusion Rejection of women’s activism and their social inclusion Total

Frequency of Codes Percentages of Codes (%) 90

31.81

160

56.53

33

11.66

283

100

58  Muhammad Ayub Buzdar et al.

Acceptability of Women’s Activism and Their Social Inclusion This category comprised the codes that supported the provision of equal rights and opportunities to women as their fundamental right. The students in this category believed in supporting feminist movement on different grounds. A male student stated, “I consider, it is the right of every woman to do their activities in society without any fear and hesitation.” Majority of the students offered various reasons for their unconditional support for the feminist movement. A female student justified her support for women’s activism on economic grounds: “We support economic justice for women. One way to get this justice is to put resources directly into their hands. Women activists are basically striving to achieve this target.” Some students who supported feminism and women’s social inclusion justified their position with religious arguments. Views of these students were majorly aligned with the very concept of Islamic feminism. Islam and Pakistani culture, according to the views of this group, do not prohibit women’s active participation in different spheres of life. A female student explained her beliefs: Our religion always advises us to be vocal for those who are suffering. And we clearly know that women are the oppressed gender in this country. It is necessary for us to raise our voices for women. I know the rights Islam gives to us (women). These are our fellows who did not allow us to receive and enjoy our rights. When I realized this, I started my resistance against this oppression. I know my rights; I raise my voice for me and my fellow women. I empower my fellow women and support them whenever they need it. I support women rights movements openly and proudly, not only on social media networks but in my real life, too. There was another argument in this context. Some respondents claimed that Islam has no restrictions on women’s empowerment and their participation in social and professional activities. It was the society, in their point of view, that prohibited women to perform independently.

Restrictions on Women’s Activism and Their Social Inclusion The second theme comprised the codes that favoured restrictions and limitations on women’s activism and inclusivity in Pakistani society. The responses in this group were in majority and offered arguments that favoured patriarchy and male dominance in social and societal matters. The group derived their arguments mainly from popular religious discourse. The university students, in this category, accepted that Islam has given independence to women but within certain religious limitations. The students’ perceptions about the nature and extent of these limitations were varying. For example, a female student argued, Women did trades and teaching in the time of Holy Prophet (Peace be upon him) but Islam has made some restrictions for them. Women can participate

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in society only after following these conditions. First, there is a compulsion of face covering for them. There should be an arrangement of hiding women’s faces from all unauthorized men in their activities. If they need to talk to any unauthorized man, they must talk harshly without any politeness. Another female student developed her argument comparing feminism with the Islamic concept of women’s rights: Last few years, “women march” is here. They said a slogan; “mera jism, meri marzi” (My body, my choice) that is very wrong. I am not going to promote it. Islam gives much freedom to women but there are some boundaries and limitations. We, as women, should follow these instructions for our own wellness. The idea that following boundaries and restrictions is better for women’s wellbeing and protection was popular in this group. The group generally argued that Islam gave independence to women but with some limitations that were for the betterment and protection of women.

Rejection of Women’s Activism and Their Social Inclusion This theme presents a collection of codes that reject feminism and women’s right activities in the country. The codes, in this category, were in minority; however, they revealed a very strict point of view. The students in this category rejected the idea of women’s activism and their social inclusion. A part of this group used religion-based arguments to justify their position. A female respondent explained: Men and women are not equal. But they should show respect for each other. Islam teaches us to respect each other. Women activists should work for this respect instead of equal rights. The rights, Islam has given to women, are best and remaining happy in these rights is better for us. The pursuit of respect is further confined to the house walls. A female student claimed: “Islam gives women respect but inside the house rather than outside. A woman can take part in the society only as a mother, sister, daughter or wife.” These types of perceptions represented a traditional patriarchal mindset in the society. The selection of words of some male respondents in this category was highly strict against women’s mobility: “Remove liberalism from women’s minds then they will accept Islamic culture.” Another male student, who was even more extreme in his opinion described, Let them (women) live under the shoes of men for sometimes without playing woman card then we’ll talk about equality. Women demands equality but want playing women card too. They demand equality but still want all

60  Muhammad Ayub Buzdar et al.

luxuries that this society provides to women. … It is not okay to demonstrate this feminist behavior as a Muslim. Yeah we are with you but only in those demands that are acceptable. Blaming modern education and social development was also common among the students who rejected women’s activism. One male student argued that Almighty Allah gave importance to men over women, and women were not accepting this reality due to modernism. Women claimed equal rights as if their husbands were their slaves. Some opponents of women’s social inclusion saw the women’s case from a different angle. A female university student explained that women and men contributed differently in initiating human inhabitation on this earth. If someone wants inclusion of both genders, it will make the formation of this world meaningless.

Discussion The quantitative analyses revealed a greater agreement of university students with different dimensions of Muslim religiosity and a comparatively lower level of support for accepting feminist identity and women’s activism of their social inclusion. The prevalence of Islamic religious struggle – presence of doubts and intellectual conflicts when following religion – remained very low. Both regression models confirmed the contribution of religious factors in explaining variances in the students’ choices about women’s activism and inclusivity in the Pakistani society. The prevalence of Islamic beliefs is negatively associated with the students’ support for feminist identity and women’s activism. This association supports already established inverse relationships between the levels of religiosity and attitudes towards women’s movements (Fitzpatrick Bettencourt et al., 2011; Lottes & Kuriloff, 1992). Nevertheless, the variables of Islamic religious struggle, Islamic religious exclusivism, the punishing of Allah reappraisal, and Islamic religious conversion have positive relationships with the criterion variable “Supporting feminist identity and women’s activism.” The variables Islamic ethical principles and universality and Islamic religious struggle have a positive association with the criterion variable “Perceived women’s inclusion in society.” The respondents with a greater religious struggle, religious exclusivism, religious conversion, and an internal fear of divine retribution are more likely to support women’s rights. This finding helps in drawing a conclusion beyond the previously held notion of a direct association between the religious conservatism and the traditional patriarchal approach towards women. The findings of this study are understandable under the Third Space Theory of Beit-Hallahmi (2015). The theory postulates that individuals’ uniqueness in social context is hybrid in nature and the result of a socio-cognitive adjustment in the human mind. This cognitive activity may facilitate adjustment in people’s religious beliefs as well as other associated viewpoints (Zubair & Zubair, 2017). We concluded that the students with a tendency of religious scepticism were more open

Religious Determinants of Accepting Women’s Activism  61

and supportive of the women right’s movement in the country. Another aspect of Muslim religiosity is the students’ agreement with Islamic ethical principles and universality. The students with greater scores on this variable were more likely to satisfy with women’s social inclusion in the Pakistani society. The qualitative analyses’ results showed a trichotomy of views about the women’s movement in Pakistan. The students’ responses were turned into three themes that reflected three distinctive religion-based interpretations of women’s roles in the society. The students who denounced women’s activism and supported male dominance borrowed their argument from a traditional patriarchal version of religious beliefs about women’s role in the society that had prevailed since the medieval Islamic period. The students who supported the women’s movement were divided into two categories. One group supported women’s activities unconditionally, whereas the other group accepted women’s social participation and inclusion with religion-based restrictions. Both groups of students, however, did not represent secular and Islamic feminism, respectively. The respondents who accepted women’s activism and social inclusion without so-called religious restrictions justified their position through reinterpreting religious teachings. This group can be categorized closer to the concept of Islamic feminism that is contextualized by Badran (2009). The influence of the patriarchal culture of Pakistan dominated the viewpoints of another group of students. Ideologically, this group was far from the advocates of Islamic feminism and imposed certain restrictions on women’s mobility and their contribution as members of society. The group justified these restrictions in the name of religion and women’s protection. The majority of both female and male respondents fell into this category. The work of Muslim feminists, Mernissi and Barlas, helps in understanding the masculinist assertion on imposing so-called religiously motivated barriers on the women’s role in the society as well as the hegemonic behaviours of female students in accepting these restrictions. Both scholars challenge the hegemonic acceptance of a model “silent, passive, obedient women,” claiming it as a product of tribal patriarchal systems. In these social systems, the true message of Islam was interpreted and propagated by jurists-theologians to serve the hyper-masculine culture in the society (Barlas, 2019; Mernissi, 1987). This inquiry identifies the prevalence of such stereotypical gender behaviours in contemporary Pakistani society. The present study contributes to explaining the influence of certain dimensions of religiosity in forming attitudes towards women’s activism and inclusivity in Pakistani society. The inquiry challenges the conventional idea of inverse relationship between religious conservatism and acceptance of women’s movement. It draws lines in different dimensions of Muslim religiousness and differentiates between the push and pull factors of promoting women’s activism. The most alarming factor reported in the inquiry is the shrinking space for both secular and Muslim feminism in the educated youth in Pakistan. Although the trend of accepting feminist identity and women’s activism is higher in the female sample, yet the participants have constructed their own meanings of very terms of feminism, women’s rights,

62  Muhammad Ayub Buzdar et al.

women mobility, etc., under their socio-religious preferences. The use of religion as an instrument to impose and accept certain restrictions on women’s inclusion is widely acceptable in the participants.

Limitations and Future Research The inquiry confirms the role of different religious dimensions in the university students’ beliefs about women’s activism and inclusivity in Pakistani society. It is observed that the students’ beliefs in this regard are diversified and opposing in some contexts. The scope of this inquiry is limited to the exploration of the religious determinants of this diversification of beliefs. The interaction of other socio-cultural factors that may influence students’ views about women’s movement was not the subject of this inquiry. We suggest further research to explore the social, cultural, and societal factors that determine the interpretations of religious teaching about women’s role in the society. This inquiry is also limited to exploring only religious factors as independent variables. Since the target population of this study is university students, the contribution of academic factors in establishing students’ beliefs cannot be ruled out. Previous research demonstrated the role of various academic factors in promoting religious extremism in Pakistani society. Further research may be conducted to investigate the role of education in forming students’ attitude towards women’s activism and inclusivity in Pakistan.

References Abu Raiya, H., Pargament, K. I., Mahoney, A., & Stein, C. (2008, 2008/11/10). A Psychological Measure of Islamic Religiousness: Development and Evidence for Reliability and Validity. The International Journal for the Psychology of Religion, 18(4), 291– 315. https://doi.org/10.1080/10508610802229270 Ahmed, B., Yousaf, F. N., & Asif, U.-e.-R. (2021, 2021/07/04). Combating Street Harassment: A Challenge for Pakistan. Women & Criminal Justice, 31(4), 283–293. https:// doi.org/10.1080/08974454.2019.1644697 Akram, N. (2018, 2018/11/01). Women’s Empowerment in Pakistan: Its Dimensions and Determinants. Social Indicators Research, 140(2), 755–775. https://doi.org/10.1007/ s11205-017-1793-z Badran, M. (2009). Feminism in Islam: Secular and religious convergences. Oneworld Publications. Barlas, A. (2019). Believing women in Islam: Unreading patriarchal interpretations of the Qur’an. University of Texas Press. Beit-Hallahmi, B. (2015). Psychological perspectives on religion and religiosity(2nd ed.). Routledge. Braun, V., & Clarke, V. (2013). Successful qualitative research: A practical guide for beginners. Sage Publications. Buzdar, M. A., Ali, A., & Tariq, R. U. H. (2015, 2015/06/01/). Religious Orientations as a Predictor of Rational Thinking among Secondary School Students. Thinking Skills and Creativity, 16, 1–8. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tsc.2014.11.005 Buzdar, M. A., Tariq, R. U. H., & Ali, A. (2019). Combating Terrorism on Intellectual Battlefields: Lenses on the Potentials of Universities in Pakistan. Higher Education Policy, 32(3), 441–460. https://doi.org/10.1057/s41307-018-0090-z

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Carkoglu, A. (2009). The rising tide of conservatism in Turkey. Palgrave Macmillan US. Doğruel, F. (2015). A long road ahead for achieving fully fledged equality: Saudi women’s rights activism. In J. Karakoç (Ed.), Authoritarianism in the middle east: Before and after the Arab uprisings (pp. 92–126). Palgrave Macmillan UK. Fitzpatrick Bettencourt, K. E., Vacha-Haase, T., & Byrne, Z. S. (2011, 2011/06/01). Older and Younger Adults’ Attitudes Toward Feminism: The Influence of Religiosity, Political Orientation, Gender, Education, and Family. Sex Roles, 64(11), 863–874. https://doi. org/10.1007/s11199-011-9946-z Gelinas, L., Pierce, R., Winkler, S., Cohen, I. G., Lynch, H. F., & Bierer, B. E. (2017). Using Social Media as a Research Recruitment Tool: Ethical Issues and Recommendations. The American Journal of Bioethics, 17(3), 3–14. https://doi.org/10.1080/15265161.2016. 1276644 Jansen, W. S., Otten, S., van der Zee, K. I., & Jans, L. (2014). Inclusion: Conceptualization and measurement. European Journal of Social Psychology, 44(4), 370–385. https://doi. org/10.1002/ejsp.2011 Khalid, J., & Choudhry, M. T. (2018, 2021/05/01). Violence and Economic Empowerment of Women in Pakistan: An Empirical Investigation. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 36(9–10), NP5545–NP5560. https://doi.org/10.1177/0886260518800318 Khan, A. (2019). The women’s movement in Pakistan: Activism, Islam and democracy. Bloomsbury Academic. LaBore, K., Ahmed, T., Rizwan-Ur, R., & Ahmed, R. (2019, 2021/07/01). Prevalence and Predictors of Violence Against Women in Pakistan. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 36(13–14), NP7246–NP7263. https://doi.org/10.1177/0886260518824652 Lottes, I. L., & Kuriloff, P. J. (1992). The effects of gender, race, religion, and political orientation on the sex role attitudes of college freshmen. Adolescence, 27(107), 675–688. Maiello, C. (2012). Religiosity and personality. In N. M. Seel (Ed.), Encyclopedia of the sciences of learning (pp. 2814–2816). Springer US. Marshall, G. A. (2008, 2008/01/01). A Question of Compatibility: Feminism and Islam in Turkey. Critique: Critical Middle Eastern Studies, 17(3), 223–238. https://doi. org/10.1080/10669920802405563 Mernissi, F. (1987). Beyond the veil: Male-female dynamics in modern Muslim society (Revised ed.). Indiana University Press. Newsweek Pakistan. (March 12, 2020). Imran Khan blames education system for Aurat March ‘Culture’. Newsweek Pakistan. Retrieved from https://www.newsweekpakistan. com/imran-khan-blames-education-system-for-aurat-march-culture/. Pennycook, G., Cheyne, J. A., Barr, N., Koehler, D. J., & Fugelsang, J. A. (2014, 2014/01/01). Cognitive Style and Religiosity: The Role of Conflict Detection. Memory & Cognition, 42(1), 1–10. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13421-013-0340-7 Qualtrics. (2005). (Version 2020). Qualtrics. Saleem, R. M. A. (2017). State, nationalism, and Islamization: Historical analysis of Turkey and Pakistan. Springer International Publishing. Samo, S. H. (March 15, 2020). Aurat Azadi March: A controversial movement. Daily Times. Retrieved from https://dailytimes.com.pk/576870/aurat-azadi-march-a-controversialmovement/ Szymanski, D. M. (2004, 2004/08/01). Relations Among Dimensions of Feminism and Internalized Heterosexism in Lesbians and Bisexual Women. Sex Roles, 51(3), 145–159. https://doi.org/10.1023/B:SERS.0000037759.33014.55 The World Economic Forum. (2020). Global gender gap report 2020. Retrieved from Geneva: http://reports.weforum.org/global-gender-gap-report-2020/dataexplorer.

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Zia, A. S. (2009). The Reinvention of Feminism in Pakistan. Feminist Review, 91(1), 29–46. https://doi.org/10.1057/fr.2008.48 Zia, A. S. (2019). Faith and feminism in Pakistan: Religious agency or secular autonomy? Sussex Academic Press. Zubair, S., & Zubair, M. (2017, 2017/07/01/). Situating Islamic feminism(s): Lived religion, negotiation of identity and assertion of third space by Muslim women in Pakistan. Women’s Studies International Forum, 63, 17–26. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wsif.2017.06.002

5 ACCESS, PARTICIPATION AND ACHIEVEMENT Duo-ethnographic Reflections on Barriers to Inclusion for Learners with Autism Mary G. Clasquin-Johnson and Michel Clasquin-Johnson

Introduction To be the parent of a child with special needs is always difficult. But how does a parent navigate the provisioning of educational facilities in a context where even children without disabilities face barriers to learning? In this chapter, we examine our experience as parents of a child with autism when confronted with such a system. The Constitution (Republic of South Africa, 1996a) pledges that all children have equal access to ten years of free and compulsory basic education from the ages of 5 to 15 years. South Africa is a signatory to Education for All and seeks to promote equity and equality (DoE, 2001). This goal is not translated into practice. Indeed, Jansen (1998) argues that policy rhetoric was adopted with no realistic assessment of implementation capacity. Publicly funded schools are compelled to respect citizens’ wide-ranging linguistic, cultural and developmental diversity. The Admission Policy (Republic of South Africa, 1996b) prohibits unfair discrimination related to access, but these policies cannot be enforced in independent institutions. While South Africa is close to achieving universal access to basic education, quality remains elusive (Mampane, 2020; Sayed et al., 2013; Venter, 2020). Access for children with disabilities remains problematic: more than 70% of children with disabilities are out of school (Majoko, 2018). Consequently, children are being denied their constitutional right to education. Exclusion from education leads to social exclusion (Walton, 2010, p. 244). Children with autism appear to be especially vulnerable since only 1.7% of children in special schools have autism (DBE & DWCPD, 2013). This suggests that the majority of these learners are undiagnosed and battling in the mainstream, out of school or enrolled at independent special schools.

DOI: 10.4324/9781003379034-6

66  Mary G. Clasquin-Johnson and Michel Clasquin-Johnson

While some public schools provide quality education, the official teacher-tolearner ratio is 1:40. Classes with up to 70 learners exist in poorly resourced areas. In this situation, individual support is unlikely. The weighting of children with autism is 1:6, meaning that one teacher should be in charge of no more than six children. This is what we find, for example, in the Republic of Ireland (Neylon, 2019). White Paper 6 admits that “At the current average staffing ratios in special schools of around 1:10 (ranging from 1:6 to 1:16), expanding the system on the conventional model will be impossible” (DoE, 2001, p. 39). Parents may turn to independent (private) education providers as they do not have confidence that their children will receive the required support in public schools. This was indeed our own experience (Clasquin-Johnson & Clasquin-Johnson, 2018). In contrast to public schools that are compelled to admit learners (Republic of South Africa, 1996b) on a geographical basis, private schools have created access control mechanisms. These include written pre-admission assessments, psychometric assessments, interviews of children and parents and even debentures (i.e., long-term securities). We view these as barriers to access and inclusive education. There is an urgent need to identify and confront the systemic barriers to inclusion in South Africa. Autism is regarded as a complex condition since the characteristics of individuals vary greatly (Ballantyne et al., 2021). Challenges related to communication, social interactions and behaviour constitute the most common symptoms (WHO, 2021). In addition, the APA (2013) notes that [T]he symptoms of people with ASD will fall on a continuum, with some individuals showing mild symptoms and others having much more severe symptoms. This spectrum will allow clinicians to account for the variations in symptoms and behaviors from person to person. Teachers find it challenging to teach diverse children and meet their individual needs (Hummerstone & Parsons, 2021). What may work for one child will not necessarily work for another. This requires teachers to constantly adapt their teaching methods and to design individualised teaching and assessment activities which undermines their self-efficacy (Love et al., 2019a). Majoko (2018) observed that, although many teachers agree with the principles of inclusive education, they lack the knowledge, skills, resources and instructional support to implement it. In this chapter, we reflect on our family’s journey over the past ten years (2011– 2020) related to our ongoing search for appropriate education and therapeutic services for our son and review the decisions that we made, using the power of narratives as a reflective process (De Wolfe, 2014). Through such reflective practice, we aim to offer insights into our experiences informed by our teaching, research and community engagement. We are both academics and the parents of a child with autism, that is, parent-practitioners. In addition, as citizens, we have a responsibility to share our experiences with other parents who may encounter similar challenges.

Access, Participation and Achievement  67

Literature review and related theories The fundamental right to education for all children, including children with disabilities, can be traced from the adoption of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) (UN, 1989). South Africa is a signatory of Education for All (UNESCO, 1990) and the Salamanca Statement (UNESCO, 1994). The Dakar Framework for Action (UNESCO, 2000) notes that all children, including those with disabilities, should attend their nearest school, alongside their typically developing peers and siblings. This means that segregated placement should be the exception if the safety of the child, or that of others, is at risk in an inclusive educational setting. This paved the way for South Africa to formally adopt inclusive education (DoE, 2001). Twenty years later, inclusive education remains elusive, and exclusion persists despite mounting high court rulings that repeatedly reassert the fundamental right of access to education (Du Toit-Smit, 2020). Muthukrishna et al. (2016) argue that exclusionary pressures as well as limited political power and knowledge prevent the families of children with disabilities from accessing their right to education. Moreover, Florian (2015) argues that a lack of consensus on what inclusion is underlies the lack of implementation internationally. In our context, we define inclusion as upholding the fundamental right of every child to receive education and to develop to his or her full potential (DoE, 2001). Inclusive education is aligned with equality, human rights and social justice (Clasquin-Johnson & Phala, 2021). In South Africa, inclusion covers a range of provision involving three categories of schools: (i) mainstream ordinary schools, (ii) full-service schools and (iii) special schools (DoE, 2001). In other words, inclusion is more complex than a setting (Goodall, 2020) as it depends on the experiences of individuals with additional support needs. Inclusion is therefore not dependent on a mainstream setting since it extends beyond physical access. As noted in Article 24, General Comment 4 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities: Integration does not automatically guarantee the transition from segregation to inclusion and without accompanying structural changes to create an accessible built environment alongside modifications in teaching methods and approaches, placing children with disabilities in mainstream classes does not constitute inclusion. (UN, 2006:4) Walton (2010, p. 244) calls this “dumping potentially vulnerable learners into a hostile … school”. Unfortunately, few schools seem willing to do the hard work involved in finding flexible and creative approaches to teaching, learning and assessment. There appears to be consensus in the existing scholarship that teachers are key to the successful implementation of inclusive education (Ballantyne et al., 2021; Bansal, 2019; Majoko, 2018) because their beliefs and attitudes determine their

68  Mary G. Clasquin-Johnson and Michel Clasquin-Johnson

capacity to accommodate their learners’ diversity, especially children with disabilities, including autism (Kang-Yi et al., 2018; Love et al., 2019b; Talib & Paulson, 2015). This capacity crucially depends on teachers receiving additional training, adequate resources and support (Bryant, 2018; Vanderpuye et al., 2020). Teachers also require training on how to enhance pastoral and emotional support, rather than focusing exclusively on academic support (Hummerstone & Parsons, 2021). This was confirmed by learners with autism who participated in Goodall’s (2020) study who defined inclusion as belonging, being valued and being wanted as people by their teachers. Similarly, educational justice for children with autism consists of both access and a sense of belonging and well-being (Merry, 2020). Brede et al. (2017) have identified “overwhelmingly negative” experiences of children with autism and their parents that stem from discrimination, stigma and fear that underlie exclusion in education. Stigmatisation is not reduced through disclosure (White et al., 2019). Instead, low tolerance for difference and diversity, and negative attitudes abound (Merry, 2020). This urgently needs to be addressed since exclusion undermines well-being and exacerbates poor health and social outcomes (Brede et al., 2017). Children with autism are vulnerable to bullying in the mainstream (Cook et al., 2020), leading them to experience high levels of stress and anxiety (Adams et al., 2019). Goodall (2020) and Hummerstone and Parsons (2021) have identified many other negative experiences related to the environmental and social aspects of mainstream schools, including stress of unpredictability, social isolation, bullying by peers, inflexibility of pedagogies, anxiety caused by assessment under examination conditions and a lack of understanding from teachers. The majority of the young people with autism who participated in Goodall’s study encountered “exclusion in inclusion” in mainstream schools (Goodall, 2020, p. 13).

Methodology We employ duoethnography to construct narratives or stories using ourselves as data and reflect on our experiences of inclusion and diversity. This is a more recent development from the established methodology of autoethnography, which has proved itself to be particularly fruitful in the study of autism (Ellis, 2014; Hanekom, 2012). By practising autoethnographic research in a dialogic process between two or more authors, duoethnography allows for a deeper analysis of the research problem than does the standard single-author autoethnographic method (Norris et al., 2012). Within the broad autoethnographic tradition, we tend towards analytic autoethnography (Anderson, 2006). Here autoethnographic observation is explicitly linked to existing literature, rather than to the more free-form evocative autoethnography. We share our story using the narrative approach to autoethnography, which empowers people to describe their complex relationships and experiences (De Wolfe, 2014, p. 139). We share our encounters with gatekeepers and contrast our experiences with the existing scholarship. Anderson (2006) identifies three core features of analytic autoethnography: (1) complete membership of the research

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setting or population, (2) conspicuousness as a member in published texts and (3) dedication to contributing towards a theoretical understanding of social concerns. We are aware that our options are limited, despite living in one of the most well-resourced areas of South Africa. We are also not typical parents as we are able to conduct in-depth critical analysis of every school’s policy and practice and hold them accountable. As noted by De Wolfe (2014, p. 140) While parents may employ these narratives to meet personal goals or engage others in their private reflection, the work of these narratives may also extend beyond the individual and familial levels, entering the public realm, and enacting social change. We approach inclusion from a “moderate inclusionist” perspective (Goodall, 2020, p. 3) as our search for educational services was informed primarily by our son’s needs, rather than an ideological position on inclusive education. We, therefore, seek to share our experiences with other parents, critically reflect on and assess our journey – we always question ourselves and our decisions for our son. We are making “educated guesses”, which is frequently uncomfortable but constant dialogue, however, has assisted us to make the best decisions with what is presently at our disposal. The questions to be explored in this chapter, therefore, are, generically, “What is the nature of inclusion for children with autism in South Africa?” and more particularly, “How do South African parents of children with autism experience inclusion?” In what follows, we use Florian’s (2015) Inclusive Pedagogical Approach that highlights three requirements (access, participation and achievement) as our primary theoretical lens to evaluate our experience as parents of a child with autism in the South African schooling system. Florian introduced this pedagogy to explain how teachers should teach all children – not some, or most, but all. It is important to realise that access on its own, with no cognisance taken of the well-being, participation and the possibility of achievement after access has been obtained, is a recipe for disaster. Within Florian’s categories, we use Walton’s (2010) six attributes of good inclusive education to create a more fine-grained appraisal of our experiences, especially with regard to Florian’s category of participation.

Access As first indicated in our article on the cost of raising a child with autism (ClasquinJohnson & Clasquin-Johnson, 2018), our son was eight months old when we adopted him. By the time he was old enough to enter preschool, the first signs of developmental delays (mainly speech development) were already evident. Our son’s diagnosis was not our first experience of autism. We have a nephew on the spectrum who is eight years older. We, therefore, knew that public school was not an option since our son would be lost in the mainstream setting. He would

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receive very limited or no individual attention. Our son’s greatest challenge was related to his delayed speech. We, therefore, enrolled him at an independent preschool. The school claimed to be following the Reggio Emilia approach, which highlights the “hundred languages of children”, and the school stated that it was “fully bilingual”. In reality, it proved to be Afrikaans medium. This meant that our son was not learning in his home language. While attending this preschool, our son commenced speech therapy at the age of 22 months since the speech pathologist visited the school on a weekly basis. There was already no denying that his speech was delayed. It was at this school that we first encountered the possibility of autism, as the principal, who had a PhD in Early Childhood Education, hinted that he could be on the spectrum. The teachers pointed out that he preferred to play on his own. This led us to make an appointment to see a neurodevelopmental pediatrician. We waited five long months for the appointment and the verbal diagnosis that “he is definitely on the spectrum”. No written diagnosis was provided. The school offered no resistance when we informed them that we needed to find a more appropriate school for our son. We proceeded to enrol him at a preschool for children with autism that used specialised communication strategies such as MAKATON, Tiny Hands and PECS. It was a small independent school started by a psychologist who had worked abroad for a year as a teaching assistant at a school for children with autism. Here we first encountered one of his most typical behaviours: a rigid distinction between the world of school and the world of home. Decks of PECS cards mysteriously disappeared as quickly as they arrived from school. Even today, as his teachers tell us what a model citizen our son is during school hours, homework remains a daily battle. Our search for an alternative school was informed by our son’s needs. Being at a school with only children on the spectrum, mostly boys, and many non-verbal or with communication and speech delays, was not speeding up his language development. This realisation prompted us to move as soon as possible. We were now part of an autism community, and this enabled us to seek advice from others who were part of this community. What was remarkable was that each person had a completely different view on the same schools. Author 2: When asking different people about their experiences of the same school, diverse, even contradictory, responses were received e.g., when enquiring about a public school for children with autism, we were told that, “They only take high-functioning children”, “They only take verbal children” and “they only take low-functioning children” and “they have a 3-year-long waiting list”. The last response turned out to be the most accurate. This confused perception of the premier public school for autism in our area was held, not only by parents but also by various educational and health professionals. Clearly, this school has not invested in marketing itself and clarifying its public image.

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During research focused on curriculum differentiation for children with autism in special schools (2016–2019), see (Clasquin-Johnson, 2020b), we identified that all seven schools visited categorise children as either “low-functioning” or “high-functioning”. We therefore found little evidence that schools address the needs of learners with autism as a spectrum condition. This troubles us as we have realised that our son does not fall into either category. He is therefore part of the missing middle: he can learn but requires more support than what ordinary mainstream schools are willing to provide. This realisation propelled us into the private school sector. Our son has attended an average of one new school per year for his entire career thus far. Is this ideal? No, of course not. With every move, he had to acclimatise to new teachers, make new friends and adjust to a new curriculum. Still, in every case, the move was prompted by our realisation that that school had taken him as far as it was going to. Sometimes the school itself changed. One school has changed, within six years, from an explicitly inclusive school to one that uses the word “exclusive” in its marketing. Most recently, it has rebranded itself as an online remedial school in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Every school has made a contribution to his development. But eventually, we knew that it was time to go. Each move led to a growing awareness that our options were shrinking. When asking members of the autism community (e.g., the parents of children with autism whom we met at the local therapy centre) where their children were attending school, we found that our son had already attended the schools or that the medium of language was inappropriate or that we did not agree with their requirements of employing a personal facilitator. Following our son’s diagnosis, we took a conscious decision not to conceal it when approaching schools for admission. This had consequences. Gatekeepers are not necessarily teachers or even principals. Even school secretaries can act as effective barriers to enrolment, by the simple mechanism of deciding whose calls to return or forward. Author 1: I recall telephonic exchanges with admission staff who panicked when I calmly informed them of our son’s diagnosis. During one such conversation, I was asked if I had considered the local public school for children with autism. When I responded that they had a 3-year-long waiting list for pre-admission assessment, I was told that a meeting would be scheduled and that “we will get back to you as soon as possible”. Three years later, this remains outstanding. Author 2: In a meeting at another school, we were told that our son would not be happy there since “We have no children with disabilities here”, but we know a parent who has such a child at that school. It appears that children will be grandfathered in if they are diagnosed after their admission, but no new diagnosed children will be admitted. Time and again, we were informed that our son would have to undergo psychometric and educational tests, at our expense and payable in advance, before we

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would get an interview about the school’s practices and policies. Reports of the same tests from the previous school were not acceptable. Each school trusts only its own psychologists and paediatricians. In fact, there is one school that will not even reveal its fee structure until those test results are in. Author 1: At two schools, we have encountered a lack of accountability and transparency regarding pre-admission assessment procedures. No written feedback was ever provided. There were discussions on the basis of the evaluations, but the teachers were the only ones in the meeting with access to it. We were granted admission and were so grateful that we dropped our requests for it. Upon reflection, we have learned that schools disregard the stress they place on parents. We experienced a sense of powerlessness and strongly felt that we were at the mercy of insensitive principals, who evaluated us largely on our ability to comply with their regulations and pay increasingly exorbitant fees. Each move to a new school has resulted in increased expenditure. This is not a peculiarity of private schools. We considered placing our son at a public school that specialises in autism. Even there, the in-house psychologist had to evaluate him first. There was no fee involved, but reports by previous professionals were simply disregarded. At no stage did we experience any evaluation as part of an ongoing therapeutic process. What is clearly needed is an overarching system of diagnosis and educational recommendation that is universally recognised by public and private schools alike. Why should parents repeatedly pay for the same pre-admission procedures? It is not as if autism is something the child will grow out of. In such a system, assessment could evolve into an accumulative process for the child’s well-being, rather than as a risk assessment for the school.

Participation According to Walton (2010), there are six keys to successful inclusion: A committed school management team Well-trained teachers Parent involvement Shared resources Becoming inclusive by being inclusive Schools as community sites We will flesh out Florian’s category of “participation” by evaluating the access avenues offered by our son’s current school according to these six keys and comparing it to other schools he has attended.

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A committed school management team Schools in both the state and independent sectors where inclusion has been successful have principals and management teams who are committed to reducing exclusion—whether on the basis of socioeconomic status, different learning needs, language, or culture—and promoting inclusion. Examples of this are seen in contexts as diverse as wealthy independent schools, inner-city schools, and rural schools. (Walton, 2010, p. 243) The educational and business aspects of school management were usually conflated, with a single person, the principal, also acting as the owner and business manager. In one instance, the principal was a speech therapist, and her privately owned therapy centre led to the establishment of a school. Similarly, another school was established by an educational psychologist who planned to open a school in all nine provinces of South Africa. Given this, she was an absentee principal. This is not the case at his current school. The owner of the school takes care of the financial and regulatory aspects, while a separate employee acts as principal and is in charge of the educational aspects. We see this as a positive approach. In our experience, if the school’s financial sustainability and survival are under threat, the owner-principal is unable to focus on the quality of education or ensure the meaningful participation of every child. Although it is a small private school and the financial burden is high, the school does not exclude on the basis of socio-economic status. The child whose entire extended family chips in to pay the fees is as welcome as the one whose parents can easily afford it (in terms of participation, if not necessarily in terms of access). Differentiation of teaching strategies is an explicit feature of the school, specifically in the three-wave system of support (Brooks, 2016; Oxfordshire LA, 2009) it has adopted from the UK and is attempting to adapt to South African needs.

Well-trained teachers The country is unlikely to emerge from decades of systematic discrimination and segregation on the grounds of race, disability, class, gender, and ethnicity and expect that its thinking has been unscathed by the assumptions of superiority and normalcy that the system entrenched. Teachers need to learn not only inclusive teaching strategies but also to question beliefs, value systems, structures, and practices that continue to perpetuate exclusion in South African society. (Walton, 2010, p. 243) Teachers are widely regarded as key to the successful implementation of inclusive education, but teachers are poorly equipped to teach children with autism due to their highly variable characteristics and their perception that children with ASD are more difficult to include than children with other barriers (Brede et al., 2017;

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Clasquin-Johnson & Clasquin-Johnson, 2018; De Wolfe, 2014). Similarly, the teachers studied by Brock et al. (2019) identified their inability to skillfuly implement effective teaching strategies as the main barrier to their learners’ success. The current requirements for teacher education (Republic of South Africa, 2015) represent an attempt to address teachers’ content knowledge, pedagogical skills and reflexive competence. One of the intentions of this policy is to expand the scope of further teacher education beyond the usual linear progression from undergraduate to postgraduate by also including the horizontal expansion of teaching skills. It is here that we could expect to see inclusive education skills becoming available to existing teachers. Author 2: In most of our son’s schools, there has been a preponderance of young, newly qualified teachers. Indeed, it was a pleasant surprise to see a mixture of younger and more mature, more experienced teachers in the current school. This school also had the first-ever male role model within a school environment. Author 1: As an academic involved in teacher education, I have been in the privileged position to collaborate with colleagues in designing training for teachers to address the shortcomings identified above. While the schools my son has attended have not been receptive to utilising my expertise (see below), my students report that they feel more equipped to teach diverse children.

Parental involvement [P]arental involvement needs to be actively encouraged by schools, particularly those pursuing inclusivity, given that low levels of parent involvement in education are prevalent in the South African education system. The knowledge and skills that parents have can be harnessed in many ways by inclusive schools as they find ways of providing the resources necessary for effective inclusive schooling. (Walton, 2010, p. 243) One might expect that when one of the child’s parents has a doctorate in Education, schools would be eager to make use of that expertise. This is not the case. At one school we found that none of the teachers were qualified (the principal had attended a short course on autism in the UK). They therefore appeared wary of two parents with PhDs, even more so when one of them worked in their field and offered to assist with training. [P]arental involvement needs to be actively encouraged by schools, particularly those pursuing inclusivity, given that low levels of parent involvement in education are prevalent in the South African education system. The knowledge and skills that parents have can be harnessed in many ways by inclusive

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schools as they find ways of providing the resources necessary for effective inclusive schooling. Author 1: I learned not to offer any training or support to our son’s schools or teachers. During the first training session, I encountered active resistance and a lack of participation. The teachers did not take kindly to a parent telling them how to teach. In response to every suggestion, the staff responded, “we are already doing that”. I could not detect evidence of it.P]arental involvement needs to be actively encouraged by schools, particularly those pursuing inclusivity, given that low levels of parent involvement in education are prevalent in the South African education system. The knowledge and skills that parents have can be harnessed in many ways by inclusive schools as they find ways of providing the resources necessary for effective inclusive schooling. Author 1: I learned not to offer any training or support to our son’s schools or teachers. During the first training session, I encountered active resistance and a lack of participation. The teachers did not take kindly to a parent telling them how to teach. In response to every suggestion, the staff responded, “we are already doing that”. I could not detect evidence of it.[P]arental involvement needs to be actively encouraged by schools, particularly those pursuing inclusivity, given that low levels of parent involvement in education are prevalent in the South African education system. The knowledge and skills that parents have can be harnessed in many ways by inclusive schools as they find ways of providing the resources necessary for effective inclusive schooling. Author 1: I learned not to offer any training or support to our son’s schools or teachers. During the first training session, I encountered active resistance and a lack of participation. The teachers did not take kindly to a parent telling them how to teach. In response to every suggestion, the staff responded, “we are already doing that”. I could not detect evidence of it. Author 2: None of the schools have made a serious effort to make use of our skills, or the skills of any other parent. Keep in mind that the private schools our son has attended cater to overwhelmingly middle-class families. The combined skill sets of the parent body, if harnessed, would be an enormous asset to the school. But instead of asking if there are any parents with academic, legal or accounting qualifications willing to do some pro bono work, the schools prefer to pay for services. When it comes to educational practices, this not-invented-here-syndrome is even stronger. Principals of private special schools tend to have a sense of ownership over various therapies, some of them even accusing others of theft of intellectual property. The message is clear. The parents’ role is to pay school fees and provide daily transport. The teachers are the experts. If there is a “parent community”, it is an informal one outside the school gates. Author 1: Parental involvement at all his schools has been low. Schools are more inclined to parent information sessions than meaningful participation.

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This takes the form of a single session at the beginning of the year, before any real issues have emerged. Recently, we were told “the staff were terrified that you would ask difficult questions”. But we were so grateful, that we very rarely challenged them.

Shared resources To some people, the notion of including learners who may have additional support needs in classrooms represents further competition for what are perceived to be scarce resources. … This may suggest that affluence may be a prerequisite for inclusion in the South African context, but this is not necessarily so. As was found in Lesotho and India, barriers to inclusion are sometimes more easily overcome in poor, rural schools where a sense of community interdependence prevails. Inclusive schools in South Africa are characterized by ubuntu—the African philosophy of being that says, “I am because we are, or I am fully human in relationship with others.” This emphasizes community and cooperation among people and the sharing of whatever is available. (Walton, 2010, p. 243) As we have discussed elsewhere (Clasquin-Johnson, 2020a, p. 250), we are critical of the tendency to haul out “ubuntu” as a metaphorical “get out of jail free” card when it comes to inclusive education. It certainly is an attractive concept and something we should all strive towards. In our experience, though, even highly inclusive schools tend to see their distinctive teaching methodologies as a commercialisable Unique Selling Point. True, that reflects our experience, in highly atypical socio-economic circumstances. Even if we could find a school in which such an inclusive ethos did exist, there would still be the issue of overcrowding. A small class size has been our non-negotiable bottom line, but the very factors that make this possible militate against the development of an ubuntu ethos. COVID-19 has thrown this into stark relief. If class sizes of up to seventy are the normal state of affairs, how can schools be expected to practice social distancing? We are critically aware that our privileged position in accessing resources for our son is in stark contrast to our goal of providing equitable education for all children. It troubles us enormously that the current context of COVID-19 has eroded progress in achieving education for all. More children are out of school than ever before (Mlaba, 2020; Van der Berg, 2020, July 14). Access to education has seriously been compromised. Vulnerable populations have been the hardest hit. During the 2020 lockdown, when schooling was moved to online platforms, our son had access to lessons and therapy sessions. But the overwhelming majority of children in our country did not.

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Becoming inclusive by being inclusive Schools make conscious decisions about whom to include/exclude and can build their capacity through the admission of learners with disabilities or barriers. Successful inclusive schools have become inclusive by being inclusive. This means that they have become inclusive on the job. Some schools claim that they are not ready to be inclusive and refuse admission to learners on the grounds that they cannot accommodate or cater to them. (Walton, 2010, p. 243) Our determination to have our son go as far with formal schooling as he can means that he is now in a school that follows the official curriculum, albeit with extra support. Frankly, we are astonished at how jam-packed the curriculum is when one looks at it from the vantage point of a learning disability. We have been assured that the school’s three-wave model of intervention and learning support is enabling the school to work with our son. They have placed him in “Wave 3” and the cost increases as the intensity of support increases. We have readily agreed since they have been the most willing to accommodate our son’s individual needs, interests and abilities. Additional support has increased the school’s human resource requirements, and parents need to foot the bill for this at independent schools. The curriculum differentiation strategies are comprehensive and include adaptations to the learning environment, learning content, time allocation, teaching methods and assessment. Our son has been paired with a peer buddy, who is also on the spectrum. This strategy has enhanced his participation. His buddy is more academically inclined. Yet teachers have pointed out that our son is teaching his buddy social skills and mentoring him during their swimming lessons. We are pleased that our son is developing holistically.

Schools as community sites A characteristic of many inclusive schools in South Africa is their outreach and service to their communities beyond their obligations to the learners in their classrooms. … Some inclusive schools facilitate parent support groups and others share their facilities, resources, and expertise as a logical extension of the very values and culture that make them inclusive of diverse learners. (Walton, 2010, p. 244) This aspect has been codified into educational policy, at least for public schools (DoE, 2001). Public special schools are intended to serve as resource centres in their respective areas. There is no such compulsion on private special schools. Unfortunately, in our son’s current school this is largely limited to spending 67 minutes making a “positive contribution to the world” through “service to others”

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(Nelson Mandela Foundation, 2021, Jan 22) on 18 July, Nelson Mandela’s birthday. The school collects donations of non-perishable food parcels from parents and distributes this in poor communities. During the COVID-19 lockdown in 2020, these parcels were collected from parents as usual but donated to the school’s cleaning staff who receive the lowest salaries. It need not be this way. One previous school that our son attended had a twinning project with a school in a lower socio-economic neighbourhood. Another school has opened a satellite campus there.

Achievement Successful inclusive schools have become inclusive by being inclusive. This means that they have become inclusive on the job. Some schools claim that they are not ready to be inclusive and refuse admission to learners on the grounds that they cannot accommodate or cater to them. A characteristic of many inclusive schools in South Africa is their outreach and service to their communities beyond their obligations to the learners in their classrooms. … Some inclusive schools facilitate parent support groups and others share their facilities, resources, and expertise as a logical extension of the very values and culture that make them inclusive of diverse learners. Author 1: After securing admission at a previous school, our son was placed in the skills programme where the official curriculum was not followed. Instead, random skills were taught. One day the children completed basic addition, and the next day they completed colouring-in activities. Older children were instructed in life skills such as gardening. But this was the school that presented a workshop on the official curriculum, illustrating how far our son was from attaining the assessment requirements. I responded “Yes, I was involved in creating this curriculum. I want you to explain how you will support my son to reach the outcomes”.uccessful inclusive schools have become inclusive by being inclusive. This means that they have become inclusive on the job. Some schools claim that they are not ready to be inclusive and refuse admission to learners on the grounds that they cannot accommodate or cater to them. A characteristic of many inclusive schools in South Africa is their outreach and service to their communities beyond their obligations to the learners in their classrooms. … Some inclusive schools facilitate parent support groups and others share their facilities, resources, and expertise as a logical extension of the very values and culture that make them inclusive of diverse learners. Author 1: After securing admission at a previous school, our son was placed in the skills programme where the official curriculum was not followed. Instead, random skills were taught. One day the children completed basic addition, and the next day they completed colouring-in activities. Older children were instructed in life skills such as gardening. But this was the school that presented a workshop on the official curriculum, illustrating how far our son was from attaining the assessment requirements. I responded “Yes, I was involved

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in creating this curriculum. I want you to explain how you will support my son to reach the outcomes”.Successful inclusive schools have become inclusive by being inclusive. This means that they have become inclusive on the job. Some schools claim that they are not ready to be inclusive and refuse admission to learners on the grounds that they cannot accommodate or cater to them. A characteristic of many inclusive schools in South Africa is their outreach and service to their communities beyond their obligations to the learners in their classrooms. … Some inclusive schools facilitate parent support groups and others share their facilities, resources, and expertise as a logical extension of the very values and culture that make them inclusive of diverse learners. Author 1: After securing admission at a previous school, our son was placed in the skills programme where the official curriculum was not followed. Instead, random skills were taught. One day the children completed basic addition, and the next day they completed colouring-in activities. Older children were instructed in life skills such as gardening. But this was the school that presented a workshop on the official curriculum, illustrating how far our son was from attaining the assessment requirements. I responded “Yes, I was involved in creating this curriculum. I want you to explain how you will support my son to reach the outcomes”. As we have seen, differentiation of the learning environment, content, teaching strategies and resources are well established in our son’s current school. Differentiation of assessment, on the other hand, remains problematic and one which we continue to negotiate. While this was not a problem with his initial access to the school, it may become a problem with access to higher grades. We are concerned about their implementation of assessment under examination conditions which other scholars such as Hummerstone and Parsons (2021) have identified as a barrier to inclusion.

Conclusion We have experienced frequent uncertainty, anxiety and stress. We constantly question, “Are we doing the right thing?” and “Are we making the best choices?” We are fortunate to be able to reflect with others including extended family members and colleagues working in the field of inclusive education, seeking counsel and reassurance. As parents of a child with autism, we have experienced stigma and discrimination. We are willing to make compromises if we believe that our son is sufficiently happy at a school, able to learn and make progress and see concrete evidence that the school is making an effort to accommodate his individual needs. But we avoid conflict and criticism. We have had to accept that our son will not follow in our footsteps. His future remains unclear, but it probably lies in a more physical direction. We are hardly the first parents whose children move into a direction where the parents can only offer moral and financial support, not the practical kind.

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The sustainability of education is currently under severe pressure as increasing numbers of parents are being retrenched and unable to afford school fees. In South Africa, education is not completely free even at “public” schools: parents have to supplement the very basic government provisioning. At private schools, student fees are the only stream of income. COVID-19 has threatened our survival as human beings and has tested our values and our capacity to care about others. It may seem churlish to critique schools in a situation where the first consideration is whether there will even be a school tomorrow. We cannot hide behind our methodology and pretend that there is not a far greater crisis ongoing in South African education. We must believe that there will be a post-COVID world. In that world, will the promise of free and compulsory education still exist for all children, regardless of their disability status? Or will it have been swept away by the overwhelming desperation to survive?

References APA. (2013). DSM-5 Fact Sheets: Autism Spectrum Disorder. American Psychiatric Association. https://tinyurl.com/yyf5v385 Bansal, S. (2019). Challenges Experienced by Teachers in the Implementation of Inclusive Education. Journal of Disability Management and Rehabilitation. Journal of Disability Management and Rehabilitation, 5(2), 64–71. http://www.jdmronline.org/index.php/ jdmr/article/view/75 Clasquin-Johnson, M. (2020a). A Preliminary Conclusion: Trends in ASD Research in South(ern) Africa. In M. G. Clasquin-Johnson, D. Mahlo, & M. Clasquin-Johnson (Eds.), Autism. Perspectives from Africa (Vol. 1, pp. 249–250). Unisa Press. Clasquin-Johnson, M. G. (2020b). Framing Autism. In M. G. Clasquin-Johnson, D. Mahlo, & M. Clasquin-Johnson (Eds.), Autism. Perspectives from Africa (Vol. 1, pp. 6–24). Unisa Press. Clasquin-Johnson, M. G., & Phala, T. (2021). Promoting Inclusive Pedagogies by Embracing Cultural and Linguistic Diversity. In H. Ebrahim, M. Waniganayake, D. Hannaway, & M. Modise (Eds.), Curriculum, Pedagogy and Assessment: A Handbook for Early Childhood Education (pp. 305–323). Pearsons Education. DBE, & DWCPD. (2013). Report on the Status of Learners with Disabilities in Special Schools, in The Department of Basic Education’s Year of Inclusive Education (2013) – Are Things Being Done Differently?. Department of Basic Education & Department of Women, Children and People with Disabilities. DoE. (2001). Education White Paper 6. Special Needs Education. Building an Inclusive Education and Training System. Department of Education. https://www.education.gov.za/Portals/0/ Documents/Legislation/White%20paper/Education%20%20White%20Paper%206.pdf Du Toit-Smit, T. (2020). Autism and the Law. In M. G. Clasquin-Johnson, D. Mahlo, & M. Clasquin-Johnson (Eds.), Autism. Perspectives from Africa (Vol. 1, pp. 175–248). Unisa Press. Ellis, S. J. (2014). Perspectives of the Autistic ‘Voice’: An Ethnography Examining Informal Education Learning Experiences. Sheffield Hallam University]. Sheffield. Hanekom, P. W. (2012). Finding an Educational Niche for Our Son with PDD: An Autoethnography. Stellenbosch University. http://scholar.sun.ac.za/handle/10019.1/71600 Majoko, T. (2018). Teachers’ Concerns about Inclusion in Mainstream Early Childhood Development in Zimbabwe. International Journal of Special Education, 33, 343–365.

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Majoko, T. (2020). Autism and Inclusion. In M. G. Clasquin-Johnson, D. Mahlo, & M. Clasquin-Johnson (Eds.), Autism. Perspectives from Africa (Vol. 1, pp. 162–174). Unisa Press. Mlaba, K. (2020). Over 300,000 South African Children May Have Dropped Out of Primary School During COVID-19. Global Citizen Website. https://www.globalcitizen.org/en/ content/south-africa-children-school-drop-out-covid Muthukrishna, N., Morojele, P., Naidoo, J., & D’Amant, A. (2016). Access to Education: Experiences from South Africa. In E. G. Iriarte, R. McConkey, & R. H. Gilligan (Eds.), Disability and Human Rights: Global Perspectives (pp. 133–146). Palgrave. Nelson Mandela Foundation. (2021, Jan 22). Nelson Mandela Day. https://mandeladay. com/ Neylon, J. (2019). Investigating the Use of Adventure Education in Fostering Social Skill Development in Students with Autistic Spectrum Disorder. University of Limerick. https:// ulir.ul.ie/handle/10344/8481 Oxfordshire LA. (2009). Inclusion Handbook. Oxfordshire LA. https://schools.oxfordshire. gov.uk/cms/sites/schools/files/folders/folders/documents/SEN/inclusionhandbook/ C_Inclusive_Teaching_and_Learning/C3-C8_Three_waves_of_intervention.pdf Sayed, Y., Kanjee, A., & Nkomo, M. (Eds.). (2013). The Search for Quality Education in PostApartheid South Africa: Interventions to Improve Learning and Teaching. HSRC Press. UN. (1989). Convention on the Rights of the Child. United Nations. UN. (2006). Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and Optional Protocol. United Nations. UNESCO. (1990). World Declaration on Education for All. United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. https://tinyurl.com/yxhshevp UNESCO. (1994). The Salamanca Statement and Framework for Action on Special Needs Education. United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. UNESCO. (2000). The Dakar Framework for Action. Education for All: Meeting our Collective Commitments. United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. Venter, L. (2020). A Systems Perspective of Basic Education in South Africa. Stellenbosch University. https://scholar.sun.ac.za:443/handle/10019.1/108056 WHO. (2021). 2021 ICD-10-CM Diagnosis Code F84.0: Autistic Disorder. World Health Organization. https://www.icd10data.com/ICD10CM/Codes/F01-F99/F80-F89/F84-/ F84.0

6 SYSTEMIC OPPRESSION OF THE BURAKU PEOPLE AND OTHER MINORITIES IN JAPAN Intersectional Culture for Liberation Yasuko Futaba

Introduction Like many parts of the world, historically embedded discrimination has continued to affect certain groups of people in Japan. It includes Zainichi Koreans, immigrants from the Korean peninsula who were seriously affected by Japanese colonisation since the Pacific War; Ainu, a native ethnic group from northern Japan who were deprived of their native lands; Okinawans, who were seriously affected by the acts of the U.S. military during the Pacific War and afterwards; and the Buraku people. Buraku is the term that represents historically discriminated villages. People from these villages and their descendants have long experienced or been at risk of experiencing discrimination. Compared to other minority-related issues in Japan, the number of studies on the Buraku issue is not particularly small. However, there appear to be fewer findings within such studies that are considered acceptable by the academic majority. This more likely reflects the colonial standpoint of the academic majority, rather than any legitimate problem with studies on the Buraku people (Meghji, 2020). Consequently, there is even no academic agreement on who the Buraku people are and why they have been discriminated against (Yagi, 1994). Discrimination against the Buraku is sometimes understood as racism (Nabeshima, 2010). However, unlike racism in the United States, Buraku discrimination is neither based on their skin colour nor any other differences in appearance (Bondy, 2015). Therefore, their difference from the other Japanese people is not apparent. Nobody could tell who the actual members of the Buraku are. Some researchers indicate that Japan’s Koseki system–a record-keeping system that contains information on individuals in family trees based on the place of origin of their families— marks the Buraku people. However, it does not directly mark any district as a Buraku village (Bondy, 2015). Since there are limited published resources available that DOI: 10.4324/9781003379034-7

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outline where Buraku villages are and who the Buraku people are, the Buraku people cannot be reliably identified. Other studies interpret Buraku discrimination to be based on a former caste system (Gordon, 2008). There are two different interpretations: one presents the Buraku were considered outcastes as per the caste system during the Edo era 300– 400 years ago (Bondy, 2015; Boocock, 2011), whereas the other argues that the discrimination started more than 400 years ago as a result of the caste system in the Sengoku era (Buraku Liberation Research Institute, 1993). However, the historical data that such studies used was extracted from documents which were mostly written by people belonging to the upper classes, who possessed a limited understanding of mass culture. Furthermore, Japanese culture and institutional systems have transformed tremendously since then due to integral events such as the loss of ordinary lives during the Pacific War and the establishment of a modern political system and constitution. It is thus hard to believe that the discrimination against the Buraku continues to persist in an unchanged form. Needless to say, this study is not an attempt to deny the existence of those caste systems or discrimination against outcastes but to explore how Buraku discrimination continues to be reproduced and how it may have possibly reduced. Studies that aim to identify the origin of Buraku discrimination do not sufficiently explain what makes the Buraku people a marginalised group. A number of people argue that the issue of Buraku discrimination has already been solved as a result of the efforts to bridge the socio-economic inequality between the Buraku people and other communities. Others, many of whom identify themselves as having some connection to the Buraku, strongly believe that the issue has not been resolved or even improved in any tangible manner (Gordon, 2008). The invisibility of the issue induces silence regarding it among the Japanese, including some of those who experienced such discrimination themselves (Bondy, 2015). Consequently, Buraku liberation movements were politically divided and contested, especially after the first legislation to combat the Buraku issue was passed. One party took a conservative approach to assimilate the Buraku people into the current system. Another party argued from a Marxist position that the existing socio-economic gap would need to be bridged in order to successfully liberate the Buraku people. The third group insisted that socio-economic inequality is a result of historical discrimination and they believed that it could be effectively addressed through community-based movements that target the discrimination itself by bringing together both the discriminators and the discriminated (Bondy, 2015; Gordon, 2008). The second party opposed the view of the third group because the second party believed that discrimination could only disappear once the economic inequality diminished (Gordon, 2008). Such divisions resulted in various practical divergences–the consequences of which are apparent in the education provided in different prefectures in Japan. This chapter discusses the impact of liberation education, which started in line with the Buraku liberation movement around 1970 in Osaka prefecture, and how it ultimately interacted with the educational movement for disabled children– another marginalised group in Japan–and presented a new opportunity to fight

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against discrimination through the intersection of different educational movements for marginalised children. In the following sections, it further discusses the Buraku discrimination and development of Buraku liberation movements, and followingly compares Buraku liberation education and the learning-together movement for disabled children. Finally, it presents the potential of emancipatory culture–created through the interaction of Buraku liberation education and the learning-together movement for disabled children–to liberate not only Buraku children but also children belonging to various other marginalised groups.

Exploration of Buraku Issue According to Yagi (1994), there were three propositions on Buraku discrimination that the Buraku liberation movement agreed to target after the Pacific War. In the three propositions, the nature of Buraku discrimination was first indicated as the division of control. Then, the discriminatory practices that occur as a result of the nature of discrimination are explained from three aspects, as described below. 1 ) economic aspect: exclusion from key industries 2) political aspect: insufficient governmental measures to ensure civil rights 3) psychological aspect: socially conscious notion of discrimination (Yagi, 1994, p. 17) The first aspect is based on the class-oriented understanding of society. Given that the Buraku mostly suffered from extreme poverty and lacked a decent living environment, at least until the government took measures in accordance with the legal requirements, the necessity of interventions to bridge this economic gap between the Buraku and other communities was evident to anyone who was aware of it. Educational problems such as the long-term absence of Buraku children from schools and the limited number of students pursuing post-compulsory education persisted as a consequence of their economic problems. The Buraku Liberation League worked hard to fill the gap between the Buraku people and other communities. During the first phase of the movement, the league worked alongside the movement led by the Japanese Communist Party. However, the party later parted from the movement, citing that Buraku discrimination had disappeared as the apparent economic gap had been resolved. The second aspect, which concerned the political sphere, was also accepted by all parties of the movement (Yagi, 1994). However, it later turned out to be controversial in terms of the approach that people wanted to select to address the matter. For the Communist Party, this second aspect was secondary to the first classbased aspect, which they believed was the fundamental problem that underpinned discrimination against the Buraku (Bondy, 2015). On the other hand, the Buraku Liberation League generally believed that only addressing the class structure was not sufficient to ensure that the rights of Buraku people would be safeguarded. They thought that the Buraku people and others may require specialised reforms, such as

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the inclusion of anti-discriminatory or rights-based learning into curriculums and the promotion of anti-discriminatory practices (Boocock, 2011). The aspect pertaining to the psychological sphere was also in some ways controversial, especially for those who believed that Buraku discrimination does not exist or had been solved. For them, targeting any visible inequality and ensuring equal opportunities was commensurate to fighting against discrimination, as they believed that there was no Buraku-focused discrimination. In contrast, the Buraku Liberation League and those involved in the liberation education movement strongly believed that there was a need for intervention to cultivate society’s consciousness regarding discrimination (Nishimoto, 1960). As reflected in the discussion above, Buraku-related movements involved contested views in terms of the interpretation of Buraku discrimination and measures that should be taken to tackle the problems faced by the Buraku. The conflict among the organisations involved in the movement particularly deepened during the period when the government acknowledged the existence of the inequality experienced by the Buraku people and intervened with necessary legislative backup (1965–2002) (Gordon, 2008). The government distanced itself from the liberation movement and called for Dowa (harmonious integration). In education, the same kind of difference in approach arose in terms of contents of Dowa education (Nagao, 1997, p. 12). One approach was to ensure equal educational opportunities for the Buraku people, such as by providing scholarships and free textbooks and addressing the long-term absence of Buraku children from schools. Since the Buraku people were not visibly different from others, many believed that such measures would completely abolish the inequality experienced by the Buraku people. Following this logic, if such visible inequality was the very reason for the discrimination, the interventions would eventually result in the elimination of discrimination altogether. The other approach was to critically question educational practices by situating the experiences of Buraku children at the centre of classroom matters. To differentiate the two approaches, the latter is called Buraku liberation education in this chapter. This second approach was supported by the Buraku Liberation League. Many of the league’s members were related to Buraku communities in some way and believed that the cause of Buraku discrimination resides in people’s minds and is embedded in society. They were certain that discrimination could not be eliminated unless ordinary people were involved in the movement as well. The two approaches are actually complementary, as the liberation education movement undertook both (Sumita, 1981). Nevertheless, as the first problem was gradually improved, the conflict between the two approaches became obvious. The Teachers’ Union split into two, and the section of the union that was aligned with the Communist Party claimed that the actions of the liberation movement might worsen discrimination or result in its re-emergence. The intention of the government was the promotion of official Dowa education, and it stated that Dowa education must not be aligned with political/social movements (Nakano, 1975). As a result, most local governments and schools

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adopted Dowa education schemes, rather than Buraku liberation education, when they sought to address the issue. Unfortunately, the Buraku movements in eastern Japan had such a limited impact that most schools there never addressed the Buraku issue, even after Dowa education had been officially promoted (Buraku Liberation Research Institute, 1993; Kawamukai, 1972). On the other hand, the Osaka prefectural government issued its own policy regarding the Buraku issue, and it stated that Dowa education aims to liberate the Buraku and that it is advisable to collaborate closely with Buraku liberation movements (Nakano, 1975). This is why most of the liberation education practices were developed in Osaka prefecture. Before moving on, let me elaborate on the most fundamental problem I discussed in the introduction of this chapter: “Who are Buraku people, and why are they discriminated against?” There are a number of studies and theories that explore the same, but the “only consistent identifying feature of Buraku people is that they are discriminated against” (Su-Lan, 1999, p. 4). Yagi (1994) also admitted that no Buraku-related studies could answer these fundamental questions. However, we can find a clue to answer the questions in Memmi’s (1968) definition of discrimination. The definition touches on four points: (1) the emphasis on the differences–either real or made-up–between the perpetrators and the victims of discrimination, (2) the devaluation of the differences of the victims, (3) the generalisation of the hierarchical values of the differences and (4) the justification of attacks on the victims and/or the privilege of the perpetrators (Memmi, 1968, p. 227). Since this definition was constructed to be suitable to all forms of discrimination, it naturally fits quite well with Buraku discrimination. The particularly interesting part is it clearly indicates that the difference between the victims and perpetrators of discrimination does not have to be real, but it may be created/reinforced by the perpetrators. If this is understood to hold true, the fundamental questions can be largely answered. The Buraku people are designated as being inferior owing to their differences from those who discriminate against them. They are discriminated against because the perpetrators of discrimination generalise their differences to be symbolic of their inferiority in order to justify such discrimination. Buraku liberation education could influence other minorities because Buraku discrimination symbolised discrimination in general, and combating it directly tackled discrimination-related problems, regardless of which minority groups were the targets of discrimination. In the next section, I will discuss the commonalities and differences between the educational movements for Buraku children and disabled children. It shows that the nature of education for Buraku liberation may be, in some respects, not immediately compatible with movements for disabled children. This is because its cultural influence can impact disabled children both positively and negatively.

Liberation Culture and Normalisation Culture One of the problems of school culture in Japan is that it expects children to fit into the mould designed by school norms. Tsuneyoshi (2011) described it as an “illusion

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of homogeneity and assimilationist ideology”. For example, if a Buraku child does not finish their homework and performs poorly in their academic endeavours, their teachers would usually blame those problems on their lack of effort. However, such a view neglects the possibility that the child’s parents, unlike other parents, may not be literate and are thus unable to give them any academic support; or that among all the children in the class, the Buraku child does not have any place to study as they live with their six family members in a cramped space. It is very important for Japanese schools to treat children equally. Kariya (1995) termed this as “formal equality”. Equality in Japanese schools mandate people to be treated exactly in the same way, regardless of their background or struggles. In this culture, the inequality that the Buraku experience as a result of discrimination would be easily overlooked. The liberation of Buraku children therefore necessitated a reflection on what Buraku people had to experience before they could equally participate in schooling. I visited many schools in Osaka and interviewed teachers. Many teachers who were involved in liberation education from the 1970s to the 1990s described that it usually involved all the children in school, but it particularly focused on Buraku children and encouraged them to speak about what they had to go through and to be proud of their traditional culture and work. According to the teachers, liberation education also involved listening to Buraku people in their locality and learning about their traditional work and cultural heritage. Some schools encouraged or more vigorously pushed all their students to choose a local high school. This move was adopted in response to the Buraku Liberation Movement claiming that there was a need for a high school that everyone could enter in order to increase entrance rate of Buraku children into high school. For some teachers, this strong emphasis on the Buraku issue was necessary to the discrimination they faced in schooling. If the discrimination is ignored due to the “assimilationist ideology”, the Buraku people could never be liberated. However, such strong measures sometimes triggered negative consequences. Many teachers who practised liberation education were criticised for creating “reverse discrimination”. Owing to the pressure of the culture of “formal equality” within schools, many teachers experienced some kind of conflict. The teachers attempted to fight Buraku discrimination alongside Buraku people by adopting the problem as their own and not just as someone else’s. However, some children and/or parents believed that their education was restricted by Buraku liberation education in a way that made them feel overlooked. This was because non-Buraku children did not receive as much attention from teachers in the classroom as Buraku children did. This resulted in a dilemma for Buraku liberation education. The discrimination experienced by Buraku children and their families could easily be overlooked, especially in schools, which is why the Buraku issue had to be consciously addressed by making it the centre of teachers’ educational practice; however, such an emphasis on the Buraku issue sometimes triggered jealousy among others, which occasionally resulted in the worsening of the discrimination and conflict in certain localities. The spotlighting of the issues experienced by the Buraku through education was also one of the hotly debated issues within the Teachers’ Union, which

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eventually split into two different unions. The union that was in alignment with the Communist Party held on to official Dowa Education, whereas the other insisted that the Buraku issue needed to be at the centre of educational attention. On the other hand, the two unions had opposing views with respect to education for disabled children. The union aligned with the Communist Party insisted that disabled children must receive special treatment, whereas the other suggested the integration of disabled children in general education. For some people, the practice of Buraku liberation education resembled special education, where disabled children receive special treatment. However, special education in Japan was a highly hierarchical system of classifying disabled children that was managed by professionals, not a system that liberated disabled children from discrimination (Nakamura, 2003). As a result, the union that supported Buraku liberation education generally supported the inclusion of disabled children, whereas the other union supported special education. Furthermore, the two approaches–Buraku liberation and the inclusion of disabled children–were not always compatible either. As mentioned earlier, an important strategy of Buraku liberation education was to place the Buraku issue as a central matter in classrooms and schools. In contrast, the movements regarding education for disabled children, especially after the Act for Compulsory Special Education was enforced, aimed not to treat disabled children as special, but to instead demand the right to access to the same educational system and services. The actors involved in many movements claimed that their strategy even involved refusing any kind of special supports and services in schools for disabled children (Hori, 1994). Yet, the two approaches shared a common vision: “to fight against discrimination”. The most important theme of Buraku liberation education was to always focus on the most vulnerable children (Tanaka, 1981). Its meaning can be interpreted in two ways by actors of inclusion movements: whether to pay attention to disabled children’s unequal access to education or to give special treatment to disabled children in education. Such an ambivalent relationship between the two interpretations was reflected clearly in the relationship of the Buraku Liberation Movement and the learning-together Movement of education for disabled children in Tana city in Osaka prefecture.

Buraku Liberation Movement and Learning-together Movement in Tana From 1970 to 1990, Tana city–located in the urban area of the northern part of Osaka prefecture–experienced rapid development and its population burgeoned. This study uses three kinds of data. The first kind is text data from newsletters of the teachers’ union and the parents’ association and published records of educational practice that were written by teachers. The second kind is information from experienced and retired teachers that I met during my fieldwork. From 2014 to 2016, I was in the field doing participatory observation in some schools and attending related seminars and events that were organised by teachers and parents.

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The third kind is data collected through interviews with experienced and retired teachers. One of them is an author as well as a respondent and an actor in the field. Through the data, I was able to formulate a comprehensive account of what happened at that time. With ethical considerations in mind, I replaced the name of the city with Tana, and all the names (except that of an author of a publication) with alternative ones. As mentioned earlier, Buraku liberation education was actively practised in many parts of Osaka prefecture from the 1970s to the 1990s. In some schools, its practice dated back to as early as the 1950s. As for Tana, the movement became active there relatively later. The former Research Council of Dowa Education was established in 1964, but according to a retired teacher, only a few teachers who volunteered to learn about the Buraku issue participated in the council until the beginning of the 1970s (Fieldnotes 2016.9.3). It was only in 1971 that it became active and recruited all teachers in Tana as its members (as stated in the distributed material by Tana Research Council of Human Rights Education in 2003). There were four schools in the two school districts that had Buraku communities in their locality. Those schools engaged in Buraku liberation education as a primary issue, whereas other schools were relatively uninvolved in liberation education. The situation in other cities in Osaka prefecture was relatively similar, but some schools in certain cities were under pressure from the Buraku liberation movement, and some cities did not engage with the issue to the same degree. In other words, the activeness of Buraku liberation education in Tana was neither advanced nor underdeveloped in comparison to other cities in Osaka. However, it became gradually clear that liberation education in Tana began to take a unique route as the engagement in the movement for disabled children deepened.

From Special Education Movement to the Learning-together Movement Education for disabled children, before the Compulsory Special Education Act (1979) was enacted in Japan, officially classified children into four hierarchical strata: children with severe or multiple impairments were exempted from schooling, children with moderate impairments went to special schools, children with mild impairments went to segregated special classes and children without any impairments studied in regular classes. The compulsory education of children without impairments was usually managed by the board of education under municipal governments, while special classes and special schools were under prefectural governments. It meant that the municipal board of education could decide the number of classes to be set up in a year and the number of teachers to be provided in a school, but it did not have the authority to set up and assign teachers to special classes/special schools in its districts. According to Tana’s Education by Tana Teachers’ Union, many children with severe or multiple impairments were exempted from schooling in 1971 just like in other parts of the nation. Teachers of special classes used to write petitions to the local authority to establish a special school in the municipality

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so that children with disabilities, including those exempted from schooling, could attend a school within their city even though it still would not make a school accessible enough for disabled children as it was for others. Nonetheless, as teachers of special classes were marginalised in the teachers’ community, the petition did not have the power to compel the authorities to make changes. The situation turned dramatically when the Tana Teachers’ Union and members of the Tana Council of Dowa Education recognised the exclusion of disabled children from schooling. The teachers’ union called for action in their newsletter: We have believed that we were working to reduce inequalities among children by particularly looking after the children most in need in our classes, but we have forgotten the children who were not even allowed to attend school.  …We have excluded and discriminated against those children just because they were not there. (Extracted from Tana’s Education, issued by Tana Teachers’ Union in 1980) Thus, the exclusion of disabled children became a social problem for all teachers in Tana, not just for special education teachers. The teachers who engaged in Buraku liberation education were among them. Yet, the law prevented teachers in a municipality from doing anything to ameliorate the conditions for these children. Nevertheless, the teachers practising Buraku liberation education thought of visiting the homes of the exempted children to get to know more about them and their circumstances, and critically examine what the educators themselves could do for them. This served as the origin of the learning-together movement for disabled children. It was the only teachers’ movement in Japan that ultimately aimed to include all children in their local schools regardless of the severity of their impairments. This was in contrast to other movements by teachers for the education of severely disabled children in other parts of Japan, because those movements aimed to ensure that the students were accommodated in special settings, not inclusive ones. This movement differed because it was based on the tenets of Buraku liberation practice, which was to listen to the experiences of discrimination and to focus on the most vulnerable people in any educational practice (Futaba, 2017; Tanaka, 1981). As a result, even the aim of the movement changed from the creation of a municipal special school to the inclusion of every child into their local schools. By the mid-1970s, children with any disability began to attend a school within their school district. In 1978, the Tana Policy on Education for Children with Disabilities was issued to ensure all children with disabilities were recommended to go to a school in their locality. During this period, teachers involved in the liberation education movement and learning-together movement were united and supported each other wholehearte­ dly. However, with respect to the matter of educational practice within schools, one issue resulted in conflict between Buraku liberation education and learning-together education: whether minority groups needed to receive special attention.

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Teacher Hanada, who worked at Mizugami elementary school in Tana, which practised Buraku liberation education, told me in her interview that she could not forget the plea of a Buraku mother, who said “Please do not ignore him, please do not abandon him…” (interviewed on 2013.10.3). Buraku discrimination in schools used to involve the neglect of their experience of severe discrimination and their eventual abandonment with excuses such as “low attainment” and “behavioural problems”. Ignoring the experiences of such marginalised groups could be discriminatory as their lower attainment and “behavioural problems” were, in fact, consequences of the historical discrimination and inequality that they experienced. The same thing could be said about the children who were exempted from schooling until they were included in local schools, because they and their families had been ignored and abandoned for a long time. Yet, discrimination against disabled children involved highlighting them and segregating them. In contrast to the Buraku movement, which sought to highlight Buraku discrimination, the movement for disabled children tended to aim at liberating them from being construed as “special”. They were more concerned with whether a disabled child was seen to be a regular member of classes than to specially design a learning environment and accommodations for them. When Mizugami elementary school turned to focus particularly on the attainment of children, which included Buraku children and other minorities, the differences between the two approaches became evident. As an anti-discrimination practice, Mizugami elementary school tried to look after marginalised children in special settings to raise their achievement and close the gap between them and others. This could be an anti-discriminatory arrangement for Buraku children but was feared by the learning-together movement as such an approach signalled the start of the segregation and exclusion of disabled children. “It is not liberation if they aim at raising achievement in schools” (Yamaguchi, 1998). Yamaguchi is one of the leading actors of the learning-together movement and used to be a teacher in Mizugami elementary school. He wrote the piece while in the middle of the conflict. Standard school culture, which measures the level of liberation through the attainments of children, appeared to permeate into Buraku liberation education, especially towards the end. Although many disabled children across Osaka prefecture had acquired the opportunity to attend a local school with the help of the Buraku liberation movement, this change in the meaning of liberation triggered an exclusion of disabled children. On the other hand, there were many teachers who were involved in both the learning-together movement and the Buraku liberation movement and deeply understood the importance of both concepts. These teachers became the driving force for intersectional education for the marginalised in Tana.

The Intersection of Normalisation Culture and Liberation Culture In Tana, there were four schools that were considered Dowa-education-promoting schools. Those schools had a Buraku community in their locality and were the most active with respect to the practice of Buraku liberation education. As a result,

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unique school culture (hereinafter: liberation culture) could be observed in Dowaeducation-promoting schools and in all the schools in Tana (hereinafter: normalisation culture). As I discussed in the previous section, liberation culture tends to highlight certain minorities, whereas normalisation culture, which was created through interaction with severely disabled children in their schools, turns away from attaching special labels to disabled children and recognises them as part of the school community. The two cultures occasionally clashed at first. However, we could find a number of cases where normalisation culture and liberation culture interacted and integrated without any conflict. Teacher Hanada described Buraku liberation education and education for disabled children in her interview: FUTABA (THE AUTHOR):  What

did you think of education in your Dowa education promoting school? TEACHER HANADA:  Our practice as teachers was always severely questioned by the community. I knew what Buraku liberation education is, and I heard of the experience of Buraku, but it was different being a part of the institution. It struck me so hard. I also had some fears about failing to focus on Buraku children. When there is a Buraku child in my class, there would also be another teacher, who was called the Dowa education teacher. It was different from disability assisting teachers…they were much serious about never leaving Buraku children alone. FUTABA:  How about disabled children? TEACHER HANADA: Well, disabled children, they were there in the classroom anyway. (Interviewed on 2013.10.03) This comment might suggest that Teacher Hanada never seriously considered the education of disabled children. However, this was exactly what the learning-together movement aimed for and reflected through normalisation culture; disabled children were considered the same as regular students and people never questioned their presence. Teacher Hanada’s understanding of Buraku and disability was therefore the most likely result of the simple integration of normalisation culture and liberation culture. On the other hand, there were some teachers who were deeply involved with both movements. In Hikari junior high school, another school that had a Buraku community in its district, teachers were extremely involved in the education of Buraku children, disabled children and many more marginalised children. Teacher Tsuchiya, who grew up in a different region and never thought of education for Buraku and disabled children, talked about how he felt about the presence of such children in school in his interview. Teacher Tsuchiya joined the junior high school in Tana in 1984, after several years of working in a different field. “I was so shocked to see disabled children in the school! I asked some experienced colleagues why such children did not attend special schools, and they taught me a lot with strong

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messages” (interviewed on 2014.8.23). However, as his peers helped him to overcome the challenges he faced at work, he gradually changed his views and became a vigorous supporter of marginalised children. He stated the following: Teacher Tsuchiya: Our school was a troubled school; seriously troubled, so to say. I was young, and my colleagues too were young. It may be an exaggeration, but we worked all day and often forgot to eat and sleep. Many things happened, so we constantly discussed what we could do about it. I felt the importance of peers very deeply. Nothing might change by that, but I could not do it alone; with them, I could proceed. (Interviewed 2014.08.23) Teacher Tsuchiya: When I was once a disability supporting teacher, I gave a presentation at a professional development session in my school about my student. He had … an intellectual disability? No, maybe cerebral palsy or a difficulty in learning or something … I remember I just talked about his impairments. Then, some colleagues added that he likes to ride a bicycle and spoke more about what he liked and how he lived his daily life. I did not know about those things. I only looked at his impairments; I had never tried to see the child himself. I talked about the importance of understanding the background of a child as if I was always doing so, but I did not look at children at all. The colleague tried to show it to me instead of directly criticising me. (Interviewed 2014.08.23) When he began to work as a teacher, he did not understand what his peers were trying to tell him when they said things like “You just ‘return’ to the children”. However, as he worked with many children with difficulties (not only those with disabilities but also those from families in severely difficult conditions), he learned a lot from the children and understood what his colleagues really meant. The most impressive event was the school trip with Makino–the leader of a group of juvenile delinquents; Makino was his student in his homeroom class for two years. The responsibility of homeroom teachers for their students in Japan was very grave compared to other countries and Teacher Tsuchiya was very nervous about taking him along for the school trip. Teacher Tsuchiya: Makino came late on the day of the trip, with some followers; he looked as if he was ready to do something evil … now think of it maybe not so much though. I was not confident about taking him on the two-night trip. Then my colleague Kameyama said, “Makino is in your class, but we are all responsible, not only you. Do not worry by yourself ”. I cannot hide my tears when I narrate this story. It was the first time that I felt like I had a real friend, with whom I could share the most difficult things. I felt a deep urge to tell my students the importance of such friends. It would encourage them a lot. (Interviewed 2014.08.24)

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Makino did cause some trouble during the trip. He borrowed a pair of shoes where they stayed, but the person who lent the shoes thought that he had just lent them to Makino for a day. When Makino did not return the shoes on the second day, the man asked for his shoes. This upset Makino enough to make him want to attack the man. Teacher Tsuchiya asked his colleagues to look after others and sat with Makino and listened to him. Teacher Tsuchiya calmly asked Makino what happened. Makino cried profusely and explained that he thought he could borrow the shoes for the entire stay and thus felt betrayed when the man asked for them back. Makino had extremely challenging familial circumstances. He had to look after his siblings because his parents could not. He could not trust adults because he was often not trusted by adults. Teacher Tsuchiya: There is a so-called liberation movement, I mean the teachers’ union’s activities and liberation. They say children with difficulties are treasures. I did not understand what that meant at first, but I realised once I focused on Makino. Before, I only thought of my burden of having Makino in my class, and I was never able to understand how difficult Makino’s life was. I feel burdened, but Makino faces a much greater burden. When I reached that conclusion, we were both able to change each other. I feel deeply grateful to have had such a moment. (Interviewed 2014.08.24) Teacher Tsuchiya sees disabled children in the same way as children with difficulties. Teacher Tsuchiya: I think we do not need to think about it too much, but just make sure not to separate disabled children from the others. It will force us to think about what we can do to be together if we cannot divide them. Honestly speaking, we want to divide them, but if we cannot do it, it makes us ask children in our class what to do. You never ask children usually, right? But if we ask them, they start discussing what we could do. We do this not only for disabled children or particular children with difficulties. When I have a problem and do not know what to do, I ask the children for help. As a result, they might think that they can ask for help when they themselves have a problem. It is the same for teachers, too, and everyone else. (Interviewed 2014.08.24) Teacher Tsuchiya emphasised the importance of focusing on the child. It may appear to be an approach that is opposed to normalisation culture, but similar to liberation culture. However, we can also see the difference in his approach from the liberation culture in Mizugami school. Teacher Tsuchiya tries to centre the problems of all children as everyone matters. He never wants to focus on children only because they are Buraku children or have impairments. He never wants to use the focus as an excuse to separate disabled children. On the contrary, he never separated them in order to make the problems of disabled children, as well as all the other children, to be a collective problem in his class.

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Conclusion This chapter discussed how the interaction of the emancipatory cultures of minorities could have the power to foster changes within the dominant culture. It is true that Buraku liberation education was officially terminated a long time ago and that the learning-together movement for disabled children was not even officially recognised in Japan. Since the Buraku liberation and learning-together concepts were constructed from the standpoint of marginalised identities, the general masses may find them difficult to accept. However, the intersectional culture showed us a way of coexisting by centring everyone without drawing a dividing line between minority groups and/or between minorities and the majority. I believe that many divisions in our society have been created unintentionally and without people’s awareness. I also believe that the issues experienced by minorities are not only problems for a particular individual, group, or nation; these problems should concern people all over the world, even if they may have been overlooked by history. It is my sincere hope that more such local marginalised cultures will be discovered and reconsidered as it might enable us to create a truly inclusive society.

References Bondy, C. (2015). Voice, silence, and self: Negotiations of Buraku identity in contemporary Japan. Harvard University Asia Center. Boocock, S. S. (2011). The schooling of buraku children. In R. Tsuneyoshi, K. H. Okano, & S. Boocock (Eds.), Minorities and education in multicultural Japan (pp. 44–76). Routledge. Buraku Liberation Research Institute (Ed.). (1993). Shinpen Buraku-no rekishi (History of the Buraku, new edition). Kaiho Shuppansha. Futaba, Y. (2017). Haijo-to Hosetsu-wo Meguru Gakko-soshiki-no Henyo: Shogaiji Kyoiku-ni Kakawaru Katto-ni Chakumokushite (Transformation of School Organizations around Exclusion and Inclusion: In special reference to struggles over education for children with disabilities). Osaka University. Gordon, J. A. (2008). Japan’s outcaste youth. Paradigm Publishers. Hori, M. (1994). Shogaiji kyoiku-no Paradigm tenkan (Paradigm shift of education for children with disabilities). Tsugeshobo. Kariya, T. (1995). Taishu kyoiku-no yukue (The outcome of mass education). Chuokoronshinsha. Kawamukai, H. (1972). Higashinihon-ni okeru dowa kyoiku-no genjo-to mondaiten (Current situation and problems of dowa education in the eastern Japan). Kyoiku (Education), 22(3), 85–95. Meghji, A. (2020). Decolonizing sociology. Cambridge: Polity Press. Memmi, A. (1968). L’homme dominé. Paris: Gallimard. (S. Shirai and M. Kikuchi (Trans.)) (1971). Sabetsu-no kozo. Godoshuppan. Nabeshima, Y. (2010). Invisible racism in Japan. In J. A. Gordon, H. Fujita, T. Kariya, & G. LeTendre (Eds.), Challenges to Japanese education (pp. 109–130). Teachers College, Columbia University. Nagao, A. (1997). Kaiho kyoikuno sotento gendaiteki iso (Issue of liberation education and the modern phase). In Liberation Education Research Institute. Kaihokyoikuno Identity (Identity of liberation education) (pp. 9–23). Meijitosho Shuppan.

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Nakamura, M. (2003). Sengo tokushu kyoiku shinkosakutoshiteno shogaiji kyoiku-no fukyu-to sono kaisoka (Spread of education for children with disabilities and its hierarchisation as a strategy to promote special education after the war). In M. Nakamura & S. Arakawa (Eds.), History of education for children with disabilities (pp. 134–139). Akashishoten. Nakano, R. (1975). Dowakyoiku kenkyuni kansuru jakkanno kosatsu (Some discussion on Dowa education). Osaka Kyoiku University Kyoiku Joho, 10, 56–62. Nishimoto, S. (1960). Buraku Mondai-to Dowa Kyoiku (Buraku Issue and Dowa Education). Sobunsha. Su-Lan, R. E. A. (1999). Buraku mondai in Japan. Harvard Human Rights Journal, 12, 1–59. Tanaka, Y. (1981). Kaiho kyoikuron saiko (Rethinking theory of liberation education). Tsuge Shobo. Tsuneyoshi, R. (2011). The “newcomers” and Japanese society. In R. Tsuneyoshi, K. H. Okano, & S. Boocock (Eds.), Minorities and education in multicultural Japan (pp. 129–148). Routledge. Yagi, K. (1994). Buraku sabetsu-no sociology (Sociology of the Buraku discrimination). Hihyosha. Yamaguchi, M. (1998). Ronso Futsugakkyu-deno shogaiji kyoiku (Discussion: Education of children with disabilities in regular classes). In O. Fujita (Ed.), Futsugakkyu-deno Shogaiji kyoiku (Education of children with disabilities in regular classes) (pp. 15–72). Akashishoten.

7 ENIGMA OF AUTISM SPECTRUM INTERSECTING DICHOTOMY OF VARIABILITY AND FUNCTIONALITY Santoshi Halder

Introduction Society has always created fertile ground where all sorts of diversities, over the course of time, flourish and strive together cohesively. This willingness of the majority human tribe to accept and adapt so as to accommodate the minority human tribe, with all its natural variations, has been repeatedly witnessed in history ... (Lollini, 2018). There has been a polymorphic manifestation of the autism spectrum (Lollini, 2018) since Kanner coined the term ‘autism’ in 1943 (Kanner, 1943) or Hans Asperger described high-functional autism in 1944 (Asperger, 1944, 1991). While there are differences in the way both have described autism, some of their concepts are overlapping too. Interestingly, both have endorsed the abilities, strengths, and potentialities that this marginalized neurotribe displays. The trajectory of understanding the autism spectrum has been dynamically overhauled and still continues for many valid reasons. First, there has been an unprecedented increase in the prevalence of autism globally, as well as the manifestation of inter- and intra-country differences. Second, there has been an exponential increase in the representation of autistic people as self-advocates, as a result of which their voices are more impactful. Third, researchers from various disciplines have been intrigued by the variability and uniqueness of autism and in the course have been constantly trying hard to find the underlying mechanisms and the resulting external outcomes and have revealed varied evidence-based insights into autism and its multiple aspects. Fourth, many of the outcomes from the robust evidence-based researchers worldwide in the course have come out with significant strengths with respect to this neurodiverse population.

DOI: 10.4324/9781003379034-8

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Understanding neurodiversity The term ‘neurodiversity’ refers to a highly variable cluster of atypical neurological mechanisms, which underpin a broad spectrum of cognitive, linguistic, and learning functions and early-onset neurobiological conditions that causes significant variations in the individual’s capacity for social understanding, social interaction, learning, pragmatic and semantic communication, resulting in atypical neurological functioning and behavioral responses (Lollini, 2018). Such differences and diversities are considered by the neurotypical majority as atypical, since they vary widely from the way the majority themselves would respond and behave. Neurodiversity has been broadly used as a philosophy of social acceptance and equal opportunity for all individuals regardless of their neurology (Ventura, 2020). Advocates of neurodiversity claim that the states of being neurodiverse or neurotypical are merely different manifestations of human existence and hence part of human developmental variations; instead of being stigmatized or discriminated against, they should be provided the right to equality like any other human natural variations (Baron-Cohen, 2017). The philosophy underlying neurodiversity posits that such natural variations need not be treated as disorders or abnormalities; instead, they need to be appreciated, respected, and embraced to thrive in its entirety (The Human Neurodiversity Laboratory, 2010). Neurodiversity challenges existing oppressive social norms, stigmas, and rejections while pleading for an expansion of support systems such as inclusion-focused services for people with disabilities including autism (Mc Gee, 2012).

Evolutionary trajectory of neurodiversity The discourse around neurodiversity originated at the end of the twentieth century with the journalist Blume (1998) claiming it as natural as biodiversity that has now become a common universal voice with a strong impetus worldwide. In its current form, neurodiversity stands for all cognitive diversities including autism, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, Alzheimer’s disease, bipolar disorder, dyslexia, dyspraxia, depression, epilepsy, Tourette’s Syndrome, and any number of other psychiatric and neurological classifications (Mc Gee, 2012), and is constantly gaining grounds claiming acceptance, embrace, and respect for all diversities existing in society (Mc Gee, 2012). Moreover, the neurodiversity movement received strong impetus when Judy Singer, an Australian activist and sociologist with autism, coined the term ‘neurodiversity’ through her own research in the 1990s, voicing for accounting autistic differences as a natural variation and hence advocating for their acceptance as any other diversities existing in society (Singer, 1999). Her voice went viral and many people including autistic and non-autistic both supported her and joined in her advocacy movement from all parts of the world, demanding equal rights and acceptance, respect, and dignity for the neurodiverse community. Since then, movements have taken place in various spheres, adding to the collective strength of the neurodiverse advocacy movement. Incidentally, and quite evidently,

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the present stage can be marked as a transition phase toward the acceptance of neurodiverse people in society. However, this needs to be mentioned that this is perhaps just the beginning of a long-lasting struggle for the common good.

Dichotomy of autism spectrum through the neurodiverse lens Autism spectrum disorder (APA, 2013), a natural variation among humans, is a neurocognitive difference that impacts 1% of the global population. The autism rights crusade has been the most prominent component of the neurodiversity movement (Caruso, 2010). Advocates of the latter have become extremely active over the past two decades in their demand for acceptance and normality. At a political level, this endorses the philosophy of neurodiversity as an attempt to demand acceptance and equality as a claim to reconceptualize autism and even to prompt or instigate some toward the recategorization of autism from disability or disorder. The current understanding of autism is that of extreme variability in terms of inter- and intra-autistic differences manifested through different levels of functioning between people with and without autism. Now, the concerns are that the attempts toward recategorization or declassification may erode some of their already existing support systems and also limit their rights to claim further national support, which follows being tagged under disability or disorder status. Hence, there is a need for autism advocates to thoroughly understand both sides of neurodiversity claims with a view to safeguarding the human rights of autistic people while simultaneously claiming support rights as well. Considering the broad conception of neurodiversity, a paradox is apparent with respect to autism. If neurodiversity is accepted by society as another kind of natural diversity, then the subset of people with autism who do require care and support ( Jones et al., 2001) may face challenges in receiving them because, ironically, their state of being will be regarded as just a natural variation. Meanwhile, people on the high-functioning end of the autistic spectrum who may not need major support will likely be blissfully unaware of this irony and believe themselves to be free of the onerous tags of ‘deficit’ or ‘disability’ or ‘disorder’. This may not be beneficial for low-functioning autistic people as the high-functioning ones do need care in specific areas to function at an optimal level. The probability of such a dichotomy, that is the paradox resulting from the tagging and un-tagging emerging out of the neurodiversity movement, needs to be addressed. On one hand, after the ratification of UNCRPD (UN, 2006), developing countries are experiencing the impetus to add autism as a disability category following the DSM-5 (APA, 2013) while, on the other hand, some of the western countries on the verge of debating the pros and cons of decategorizing autism from the DSM classification of disability or disorder. Findings from neurocognitive scientists postulate that the differences found in the autistic brain do not claim a disorder or disability but rather just differences. At the same time the advocates of the neurodiversity movement, led primarily by self-advocates on the highly functional side

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of the spectrum, are strongly voicing robust rationales and justifications to account for such decategorization from the disorder or disability list.

Intra- and inter-autistic variabilities Considered one of the most complex neurodevelopmental disabilities, as per DSM-V (APA, 2013), autism includes a spectrum of intra- and inter-differences and variabilities within its broader domain. The variability is extreme, ranging bi-directionally along the most basic, common, classic sub-components of the autism spectrum triad: communication (non-verbal to verbal), social interaction (aloof, passive, active), repeated behavior and restricted interests (mild to marked), sensory processing (hyposensitive to hypersensitive), learning style (strong visual-spatial skills, visual learner, kinesthetic Gestalt learner, poor executive functioning, detail-focused), and intellectual ability (severely below average IQ to above average IQ). It is evident that there exists huge diversity in the functionality of autistic people, due to the wide range of variability that manifests through the sub-components. Also, there may exist functional variations based on the level; mild, moderate, or severe continuum. All these parameters are strong predictors of how intrusive support may be needed for some autistic people but not for all, and also how the nature of support will need to vary from case to case. It is imperative and quite evident that there are strong variations in the support needs, based on the subcomponent criteria as well as the challenges posed by the level of severity or functionality. A specific child with autism may not need much intrusive support and may be able to function quite independently with just a few adaptations and accommodations while another needs moderate environmental support and yet another needs extensive intrusive support throughout, failing to function without it. Bundling all these varied forms of autism into one category may be problematic and hinder appropriate support or facilities from the government as well as addressal of unique, individualized needs by the practice group. On one hand, parents and advocates on the severe end of the spectrum struggle hard to avail the needful government services and support benefits to meet the unique and differential needs of their autistic wards or children. On the other hand, the advocates of the neurodiverse movement are steering concerned stakeholders at various levels, national and international, toward accepting autism just as a natural occurrence, just like any other human developmental variation. There are few selected robust instances voicing toward decategorization and redefinition of autism. Decategorizing autism from being called a ‘disorder’ may be justified so that the medical community can stop considering autists as patients in need of treatment. However, that does not imply that this minority neurotribe does not require any support. As a matter of fact, they surely need differential alternative support but the perspective of the general average people of the society needs to be altered and that needs to be served through a neurodiverse lens. It is equally essential that the neurodiversity claim is well understood and that such a lens is deployed with a sense of acceptance, respect, embrace, and dignity coupled with an awareness of support needs.

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The paradox of strengths and deficits The neurodiversity movement is opposed to focusing only on impairments and asserts that autistic individuals possess a complex combination of cognitive strengths and challenges (Lollini, 2018). A thorough review of the existing, cross-disciplinary literature on autism demonstrates that the evolutionary trajectory of autism has a marked focus on deficits. Most identification and diagnosis of autism spectrum predominantly begins with deficits and deficiencies. Thus, so far, nearly the entire quantum of identification and assessment of autism spectrum has been based on the deficits-focused triad (impaired social interaction, difficulties in communication, and rigid, repetitive, restricted behaviors and interests). Even the early red flag indicators of autism spectrum have been based on a comparison with the milestones crossed by a neurotypically average child. Any variation from neurotypical parameters is considered a deficit and an underscore of their autistic traits. Such an assessment outcome offers the autistic child, the parents, and other stakeholders merely hopelessness and helplessness, as it does not encompass any of the positive traits or abilities, which may also exist simultaneously in the child. Such an evaluation based on a deficit-focused approach can be problematic when the autist may also possess potentialities, which may be substantial enough to claim as strengths. Moreover, the challenging behavioral component disposition existing in more than 60% of the autistic population mostly tends to overpower significant time and efforts invested in service delivery. The targeting of behavioral interventions is often considered a separate function while it may be completely regulated by many underlying differences (strengths and abilities) in the way autists think and find associations in their environments. Addressing only behavioral challenges as a separate function sometimes undermines the larger part of the teaching-learning intervention plan. Instead, understanding behavioral issues as a subset of all the traits of the autistic person may provide significant insights to create functional pathways toward an effective intervention plan. Many behavioral issues can be addressed effectively if they are juxtaposed with the strengths, abilities, or interests of the autist.

Valorizing the strengths Various exceptional (10% of autistic people) and non-exceptional abilities in autistic people have been accounted for in autism literature by several researchers in specific areas (Markram et al., 2007; Rentenbach et al., 2017). It has been reported that given the appropriate environment and interventions, if such early markers are identified early enough in the childhood years with assistance from appropriate adult coaches, many of their inherent abilities have the potential to develop into beneficial, functional life skills for independent living (Halder & Bruyere, 2021). The most common specific skills noticed in the autistic population are musical ability, artistic acumen, attention to detail, mathematical and calculation skills, etc. (e.g., Baron-Cohen, 2009; Russell et al., 2019; Rutter, 2011; Steiner, 2010; Treffert, 2009).

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Neuroscientists have provided robust explanations for the differences in brain mechanisms, positing variations in the way an autistic person thinks, compared to a neurotypical person. Temple Grandin, an autistic self-advocate, has divided the autistic thinking pattern into three broad categories: visual thinkers, verbal/logical thinkers, and musical/mathematical thinkers including a fourth one that is the mixed type combining with one or more (Grandin, 1984, 1995; Grandin & Duffy, 2004; Silvertant, 2019). Based on their nature of thinking, Grandin has reported a set of four types of thinkers in autistic people: bottom-up, analytical, lateral, and associative. To describe the differences, Grandin explains that people with autism are ‘details-before-the-concept’ thinkers (i.e., the bottom-up approach). Moreover, an autistic mind is not constrained by prior learning and is thus more likely to generate novel ideas and find innovative solutions (Grandin, 1984, 1995). Nevertheless, the autistic mind is bombarded with sensory information, thus being forced to process a greater extent of information, which can be utilized for innovative thinking (Grandin, 1984; Silvertant, 2019). Grandin explains that people with autism have an associative rather than linear way of thinking, hence their thoughts are an interconnected web of related and loosely associated concepts; this is why they are more proficient at making unusual word associations and more capable of generating creative and scientific ideas (Griffin & Pollak, 2009). Furthermore, autistic people tend to reason in a more logically consistent manner, as compared to neurotypicals, and are excellent problem solvers, working at a much faster speed than neurotypical people (Lawson, 2009). Now there are also some robust bases of the strength-focused claims offering quite a different perspective of autism. First, it becomes imperative to review selected neurocognitive research findings that refute differences as disorders or deficits. Rather what they have so far found is just differences, when compared to a neurotypical brain (Kapp et al., 2013). Some researchers claim that there is an association between some common traits of autism spectrum to the potentiality of certain abilities and, thus, strengths. For instance, Baron-Cohen (2009) proposes the empathizing–systematizing (E-S) theory, where he confirms that there is a proportional difference in autistic people in these two important dimensions of behavior, empathizing and systematizing. It has been found that autistic people may lack empathy yet score very high in systematizing traits, which are crucial to decode the rules or patterns of any system. High levels of such systematizing traits have been found high in neurotypical people more inclined toward technology, mathematics, and science, especially physics. BaronCohen (2009) also claims that systematizing may be independent of empathy but not completely hence there may be certain associations between empathizing and systematizing. The restricted and repetitive behaviors that have been found in approximately 60% of autistic people have, in some cases, accounted for certain strengths or abilities. It has been found that if their narrow and repeated interests can be identified early and matched to their abilities, via appropriate tasks or engagements, it can prove to be miraculous and significant. Often, navigating certain pathways of

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intervention and support models that matched well with their traits has been found to be exceptionally noteworthy in terms of opening multiple opportunities and is the best possible manifestation of their inner potentialities. In order to work on the deficits, there is a paramount need to identify the strengths as well. There are numerous instances of significant outcomes achieved by addressing the deficits and weaknesses of autists through their strengths and abilities (Steiner, 2010). Such an approach also makes the intervention program easier to implement and delivers swifter and effective results for the child as well as the practice group, be it of parents or of teachers. Beginning with the strengths instead of the deficits develops a sense of positivity in the parents and teachers toward the child and also boosts the child’s self-esteem, thus nurturing confidence, enhancing well-being, and fostering overall development.

Autism spectrum as an emerging neurotribe The neurodiverse autistic tribe share characteristics based on differences from neurotypicals in terms of how they speak, how they relate with others, how they understand the world, how they interpret verbal and non-verbal cues, and so on (Georgescu et al., 2014). Just like in H.G. Wells’ short story ‘The Country of the Blind’ (Stringer, 2011), autism might be gradually emerging as a unique tribe with a culture of its own with perfect harmony with their own shelves and in acceptance of their natural human variation along with their inherent traits even when confronted by an outsider to the culture or a neurotypical person. Autistic people have a communication style that is different from that of typical people (Denworth, 2018). Prince-Hughes (2005), an Asperger Syndrome autobiographical theorizes, ‘We individuals, with our cultures of one, are building a culture of many’. As Joyce and Orsini (2013) concorded to the distinctive autistic styles of communication, particularly online, which they call Wittgensteinian ‘language games’ (Thomas, 2017). A study has found that about 40% of college students in the science stream possess some autistic traits (Connor, 2015). Autism should be accepted, embraced, and accommodated not only because it is a natural variation but also because this neurodiverse tribe demonstrates significant abilities and strengths, some even superior to those of the majority tribe of neurotypicals. Their atypical ways of problem solving and their out-of-the-box ideas may provide ingenious solutions to complex challenges. In essence, autistic people possess something special that has to be protected, else they may be at risk of being swallowed up by the majority culture and losing their unique identity ( Jaarsma & Welin, 2012).

Alternative inclusive pathways to accommodate neurodiverse autistics There is strong evidence that the Internet is a comfortable medium of communication and social interaction for many autistic people, as they find it attuned to their autistic patterns. Such matching pathways have been found to be significant in

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evoking the best inherent potentials of autistic people keeping intact their natural selves in their own comfort shells. Such modes of communication help release their stress and anxiety, which otherwise consume a large part of their consciousness and limit their potential to deliver significant outcomes. Using the Internet seems to be a solution to some psychosocial problems that high-functioning autistic people encounter in the face-to-face physical mode of social communication. The new virtual environment is much more autism-compatible than the regular social environment, which has become increasingly autism-incompatible over the past few centuries. Networking via the Internet has also nurtured higher interconnectivity with the autistic tribe locally as well as globally. Similar pathways have also been identified to facilitate teaching–learning processes in homes and educational institutions.

Conclusion Subsuming all autistic people together into a single nomenclature, namely ‘autism spectrum disorder’, and then navigating the same pathways of support for all would be extremely counterproductive. In fact, such a move may be devastating for people with distinct and differential autistic traits, be they deficits or strengths, and may prevent them from creating their true identity. Such pathways would limit or impede the planning of strategies appropriate for all types of autists, as per their needs and challenges. The neurodiversity movement is essential to demand the right to acceptance with dignity. However, the intersection with various associated factors and the consequences needs to be understood well before moving toward decategorization or declassification of autism spectrum. Surely, the existing way of classifying all variations under one umbrella term needs thorough revision. However, it is also necessary to understand both deficits and strengths of autism spectrum and to valorize the needful. The support model needs to be differentiated and flexible enough to accommodate the differential needs of the inter- and intra-differences of autism spectrum.

References APA. (2013). Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM–5). American Psychiatric Association. https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.books.9780890425596 Asperger, H. (1944). Die ‘Autistischen Psychopathen’ im Kindesalter. Archiv fur Psychiatrie und Nervenkrankheiten, 117, 76–136. Asperger, H. (1991). ‘Autistic psychopathy’ in childhood. In U. Frith (Ed.), Autism and Asperger syndrome (pp. 37–92). Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/ CBO9780511526770.002 Baron-Cohen, S. (2009). Autism: The Empathizing-Systemizing (E-S) Theory. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1156, 68–80. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1749-6632.2009. 04467.x Baron-Cohen, S. (2017). Editorial Perspective: Neurodiversity – A Revolutionary Concept for Autism and Psychiatry. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 58(6), 744–747. https://doi.org/10.1111/jcpp.12703

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Blume, H. (1998, September 30). Neurodiversity. The Atlantic. http://www.theatlantic.com/ magazine/archive/1998/09/neurodiversity/305909/ Caruso, D. (2010). Autism in the U.S.: Social Movement and Legal Change. American Journal of Law & Medicine, 36(4), 483–539. https://doi.org/10.1177/009885881003600401 Chiarotti, F., & Venerosi, A. (2020). Epidemiology of Autism Spectrum Disorders: A Review of Worldwide Prevalence Estimates Since 2014. Brain Sciences, 10(5). https:// doi.org/10.3390/brainsci10050274 Connor, S. (2015). Autism experiment reveals scientists and engineers are more likely to have autism traits. https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/health-news/autismexperiment-reveals-people-technical-professions-are-more-likely-have-autistic-traitsa6719956.html Denworth, L. (2018). Where communication breaks down for people with autism. https://www. spectrumnews.org/features/deep-dive/communication-breaks-people-autism/ Elsabbagh, M., Divan, G., Koh, Y. J., Kim, Y. S., Kauchali, S., Marcín, C., Montiel-Nava, C., Patel, V., Paula, C. S., Wang, C., Yasamy, M. T., & Fombonne, E. (2012). Global Prevalence of Autism and Other Pervasive Developmental Disorders. Autism Research, 5(3), 160–179. https://doi.org/10.1002/aur.239 Georgescu, A. L., Kuzmanovic, B., Roth, D., Bente, G., & Vogeley, K. (2014, October 15). The Use of Virtual Characters to Assess and Train Non-Verbal Communication in HighFunctioning Autism. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 8(807). https://doi.org/10.3389/ fnhum.2014.00807 Grandin, T. (1984). My Experiences as an Autistic Child and Review of Selected Literature. Journal of Orthomolecular Psychiatry, 13(3), 144–174. Grandin, T. (1995). How people with autism think. In E. Schopler & G. B. Mesibov (Eds.), Learning and cognition in autism (pp. 137–156). Springer US. https://doi.org/ 10.1007/978-1-4899-1286-2_8 Grandin, T., & Duffy, K. (2004). Careers for individuals with Asperger syndrome and high-functioning autism. Autism Asperger Publishing. Griffin, E., & Pollak, D. (2009, 2009/02/01). Student Experiences of Neurodiversity in Higher Education: Insights from the BRAINHE Project [https://doi.org/10.1002/ dys.383]. Dyslexia, 15(1), 23–41. https://doi.org/10.1002/dys.383 Halder, S., & Bruyere, S. M. (2021). Self-Reported Impediments at Home, School, and Community: Autistic Adults’ First-Person Accounts of Their Life Trajectories and Derived Pathways. International Journal of Developmental Disabilities, 1–13. https://doi.org/ 10.1080/20473869.2021.1917111 Hoang, V. M., Le, T. V., Chu, T. T. Q., Le, B. N., Duong, M. D., Thanh, N. M., Tac Pham, V., Minas, H., & Bui, T. T. H. (2019, 04/29). Prevalence of Autism Spectrum Disorders and Their Relation to Selected Socio-demographic Factors among Children Aged 18–30 months in Northern Vietnam, 2017. International Journal of Mental Health Systems, 13(1), 29. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13033-019-0285-8 Jaarsma, P., & Welin, S. (2012, 2012/03/01). Autism as a Natural Human Variation: Reflections on the Claims of the Neurodiversity Movement. Health Care Analysis, 20(1), 20–30. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10728-011-0169-9 Jones, R. S. P., Zahl, A., & Huws, J. C. (2001, 2001/05/01). First-hand Accounts of Emotional Experiences in Autism: A Qualitative Analysis. Disability & Society, 16(3), 393–401. https://doi.org/10.1080/09687590120045950 Joyce, D., & Orsini, M. (2013). The shifting horizons of autism online. In D. Joyce (Ed.), Worlds of autism: Across the spectrum of neurological difference (pp. 285–303). University of Minnesota Press. Kanner, L. (1943). Autistic Disturbances of Affective Contact. Nervous Child, 2, 217–250.

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Kapp, S. K., Gillespie-Lynch, K., Sherman, L. E., & Hutman, T. (2013). Deficit, Difference, or Both? Autism and Neurodiversity. Developmental Psychology, 49(1), 59–71. https://doi. org/10.1037/a0028353 Lawson, W. (2009). Single attention and associated cognition in autism (SAACA). Deakin University. Lollini, A. (2018). Brain Equality: Legal Implications of Neurodiversity in a Comparative Perspective. International law and Politics, 51(69), 69–133. Markram, H., Rinaldi, T., & Markram, K. (2007, October 15). The Intense World Syndrome - An Alternative Hypothesis for Autism. Frontiers in Neuroscience, 1(6). https:// doi.org/10.3389/neuro.01.1.1.006.2007 Mc Gee, M. (2012). Neurodiversity. Context, 11(3), 12–13. https://doi.org/10.1177/ 1536504212456175 Prince-Hughes, D. (2005). Songs of the Gorilla nation; My journey through autism. Broadway Books. Rentenbach, B., Prislovsky, L., & Gabriel, R. (2017, 2017/05/01). Valuing differences: Neurodiversity in the classroom. Phi Delta Kappan, 98(8), 59–63. https://doi.org/ 10.1177/0031721717708297 Russell, G., Kapp, S. K., Elliott, D., Elphick, C., Gwernan-Jones, R., & Owens, C. (2019, 2019/06/01). Mapping the autistic advantage from the accounts of adults diagnosed with autism: A qualitative study. Autism in Adulthood, 1(2), 124–133. https://doi.org/10.1089/ aut.2018.0035 Rutter, M. L. (2011, 2011/04/01). Progress in understanding autism: 2007–2010. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 41(4), 395–404. https://doi.org/10.1007/ s10803-011-1184-2 Silvertant, M. (2019). The experience of overwhelm in autism. https://medium.com/@ msilvertant/the-experience-of-overwhelm-in-autism-6906053a7905 Singer, J. (1999). ‘Why can’t you be normal for once in your life?’ From a ‘problem with no name’ to 425 the emergence of a new category of difference. In M. Corker & S. French (Eds.), Disability discourse. Open University Press. Steiner, A. M. (2010, 2011/07/01). A strength-based approach to parent education for children with autism. Journal of Positive Behavior Interventions, 13(3), 178–190. https://doi.org/ 10.1177/1098300710384134 Stringer, A. L. (2011). HG wells: The country of the blind. Intermediate graded reader. EnglishReaders.org. The Human Neurodiversity Laboratory. (2010). Pro-neurodiversity website. Retrieved 15/09/2010 from http://eckertlab.org/neurodiversity Thomas, M. (2017). Wittgenstein and the philosophy of language: The legacy of the philosophical investigations. Cambridge University Press. Treffert, D. A. (2009). The savant syndrome: An extraordinary condition. A synopsis: Past, present, future. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 364(1522), 1351–1357. https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2008.0326 UN. (2006). Convention on the rights of persons with disabilities and optional protocol. United Nations. Ventura, P., de Giambattista, C., Spagnoletta, L., Trerotoli, P., Cavone, M., Di Gioia, A., & Margari, L. (2020, Aug 7). Methylphenidate in autism spectrum disorder: A long-term follow up naturalistic study. Journal of Clinical Medicine, 9(8), 2566. https://10.3390/ jcm9082566

PART II

Inclusive Classrooms and Educational Interventions

This part explores ideas around how schools and educational systems can respond to diversity and lessons learned about how to improve capacity for further inclusion.

DOI: 10.4324/9781003379034-9

8 INCLUSIVE EARLY LITERACY PRACTICES FOR EMERGENT BILINGUALS Kimberly McDavid Schmidt, Ekta Ghosh and Rashida Banerjee

Inclusive Early Literacy Practices for Emergent Bilinguals When home and school language and literacy practices are emphasized, emergent bilinguals benefit greatly, both social-emotionally and academically (August & Shanahan, 2006). Family language and literacy practices that include the cultural knowledge of families coupled with their funds of knowledge, such as oral storytelling practices, are an integral part of literacy development (Moll et al., 2013). In addition to family literacies, children develop school literacies that include the encoding and decoding of texts and metalinguistic knowledge of language (speaking and listening) and literacy (writing and reading). Building from the National Reading Panel (2000) with a focus on evidence-based literacy practices: phonics, phonemic awareness, fluency, and vocabulary, we emphasize that emergent bilinguals need both language and literacy supports in their homes and schools, to promote academic development (Goldenberg, 2013, 2020). Extensive research on Reading for Understanding (Cervetti et al., 2020) emphasizes the importance of “oral language skills, which support decoding and listening comprehension in young readers and plays a critical role in students’ success as readers as they move through school” (Cervetti et al., 2020, p. 161). The science of reading is a phrase that supports the foundational components of literacy reported by the National Reading Panel (2000) and the simple view of reading, whereby reading is defined as decoding words and language comprehension of evidence-based best practices determined by studies using the scientific method (Petscher et al., 2020). Scholars agree that foundational skills, such as systematic phonics, phonemic awareness, and fluency are essential for all learners, preschool through third-grade contexts (August & Shanahan, 2006; National Reading Panel, 2000). The research is conclusive: emergent bilinguals benefit from an emphasis on language and metalinguistic awareness, as well as foundational skills. DOI: 10.4324/9781003379034-10

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The science of reading research is applied to policy and practice with an emphasis on decoding, often excluding language comprehension, a crucial focus for young emergent bilinguals (Shanahan, 2020). When emergent bilinguals acquire foundational biliteracy skills, they benefit from a focus on language comprehension, the integration of skills in meaningful contexts, such as connected texts, and the development of decoding and language comprehension in multiple languages (Foorman et al., 2016; Goldenberg, 2020; Noguerón-Liu, 2020). Given the importance of language and literacy development for young learners, coupled with the widening achievement gap between emergent bilinguals and their monolingual peers, a focus on evidence-based practices that are inclusive of emergent bilinguals in preschool through to third-grade settings is vital. In this chapter, we argue for the importance of literacy for all young learners and expand the focus on the science of reading and simple view of reading in the United States to include evidence-based and recommended practices for language and literacy development for emergent bilinguals. We argue for the inclusion of oral language development, oracy, and play with early literacy strategies such as shared reading and scaffolded reading experiences with culturally responsive pedagogies that include culturally relevant texts. In our subsequent review of the research, we discuss the following questions: (a) What evidence-based and recommended literacy practices are effective for emergent bilinguals in homes and early childhood contexts (preschool through to the third grade)? (b) How is the evidence-based research on inclusive literacy practices applied to home and classroom settings? Our review includes a representative sample of evidence-based and recommended inclusive literacy practices with examples both in the home and classroom.

United States and Global Perspective on Bilingual Learners In 2017, an increasing number of school-aged children in the United States, over five million or 10% of children, in ten different states were identified as English Language Learners (ELLs) (NCES, 2020). While Spanish, Arabic, Chinese, and Vietnamese are examples of languages spoken in the homes of children in American schools, close to 75% of all ELLs speak Spanish as their first language. Although the label ELL is used to identify second-language learners for language programming in schools in the United States, we utilize the asset-based term emergent bilingual in support of bilingualism over English language learning, with a focus on reading, writing, speaking, and listening. In utilizing the term “emergent bilingual,” we emphasize the importance and value of learning multiple languages in homes, schools, and communities with a full linguistic repertoire of languages that are used both strategically and meaningfully (Gort, 2019). Emergent bilinguals develop language and literacy simultaneously in homes and in schools, with different languages utilized throughout the day based on the context and purpose (Alzahrani, 2018; Fránquiz et al., 2015), or develop language and literacy sequentially, where children learn English after their home language, when they are enrolled in an education program (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services & U.S. Department of Education, 2016).

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According to the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) using the fourth-grade reading assessment, ELLs continue to underachieve in U.S. schools. Specifically, children who identify as Hispanic show a persistent and large reading achievement gap, compared to White children in schools, unchanged from 1992 to 2019 (NCES, 2020). Due to the rapid increase of emergent bilinguals in the United States, particularly in early childhood education, coupled with an increased focus on the science of reading, educators need to identify reading practices that are inclusive of emergent bilinguals and their families. Previous reading research identified practices for teaching the science of reading to young learners (National Reading Panel, 2000) but did not address the language and cultural needs of emergent bilinguals and their full linguistic repertoire and cultural resources. In the global context, The Washington Post (Noack & Gamio, 2015) reported there are at least 7,102 living languages around the world. Mandarin Chinese is the most commonly spoken language followed by Hindi, Urdu, and English—the latter being widely used as the official language in many countries, but often not the language that citizens use to communicate with each other. Ball (2011) provides numerous policy and practice recommendations to support home languages. These include: • • •

•

Clear and sustained political commitments to bi/multilingual education in policy frameworks and administrative contexts at national and local levels; Recruitment of bilingual teachers who are fluent in the language of instruction; Quality pre-service and in-service teacher preparation to ensure that teachers have the disposition, can engage in effective pedagogy, be culturally competent, and have subject-matter knowledge for the academic level they teach; and Use of “mother tongue” or home languages as the basis for assessment of young children’s cognitive and language abilities.

Further, the International Literacy Association argues that “dual language [emergent bilingual] students are preparing for accelerating knowledge acquisition throughout their lives and for very diverse life experiences in the 21st century. Their deeply proficient bilingualism and biliteracy will serve them well” (ILA, 2019, p. 9).

Importance of Home Language The inclusion of children’s home languages or primary languages in early childhood classrooms improves language and literacy outcomes and fosters communication between children and their families, who may speak only the home language. Barac et al. (2014) found that children in English-only early education settings demonstrated decreased rates of growth in their home language. For example, children experienced fewer opportunities to engage in discussions at home and the relationships between home environments and school were strained. Thus, practitioners should consider family communication patterns and create opportunities to include home languages in classrooms. Practitioners can create supportive environments that value the cultural and linguistic diversity of emergent bilinguals

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through curriculum modifications that will promote connections between home and school for children and represent the sociocultural and historical backgrounds of children (Bialystok, 2015). Additionally, practitioners can establish procedures to ensure that communication from the school is accessible for families and children who are emergent bilinguals. This can be successfully implemented by writing newsletters in multiple languages and practicing frequent home visits for effective family–school partnership. When home languages are not valued and respected by practitioners in ways that disrupt family communication patterns, all children are placed at risk (Durán et al., 2016).

Evidence-Based and Recommended Early Literacy Strategies In the following sections, we present evidence-based and recommended practices for families and school professionals to support emergent bilinguals in both oral language and literacy development. We recognize the term “family” includes extended family members and community members and builds from funds of knowledge and cultural resources. Further, we describe school settings, with a focus on preschool through to the third grade. We integrate research and strategy descriptions for core classroom literacy practices (all children and families) and small group supports (small groups) to meet the differentiated needs of children.

Oral Language Strategies Storytelling—Family and Funds of Knowledge Storytelling is considered one of the oldest forms of human communication. It is an effective pedagogical tool used in the acquisition of language skills in multiple languages. As an important oral language practice, storytelling helps children increase their vocabulary, advance grammatical structure, acquire and use complex oral sentences, improve pronunciation and oral fluency, and provides children with the opportunity to actively retell the stories they heard (Lucarevschi, 2016). Storytelling is a process with a narrative structure, where dramatic and mental imagery are performed for an audience, who provide verbal or non-verbal feedback. Various types of oral and written stories and story formats can be used to understand the role of storytelling when learning multiple languages. For example, families may share fantasy tales and traditional folk tales that enhance the literacy and language skills of young, emergent bilinguals. Use of stories describing personal experiences has a positive impact on the development of bilingual learner’s language acquisition. These can also be shared in the classroom to promote home–school continuum. When children share stories from their families and culture, teachers may ask open-ended questions that encourage them to extend their language and stimulate teacher–student dialogues (Smadja et al., 2019). In storytelling, it is important to remember that the sharing of personal experiences can be challenging for many children, especially emergent bilinguals who may have lived through traumatic

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experiences and may choose to answer questions or tell stories. Various types of stories and story formats can be used to understand the role of storytelling in second-language acquisition. Therefore, it is important to present a range of topics while asking questions to the emergent bilinguals such as “Who is someone that you admired when you were a small child? Who do you admire today?”

Oracy The Literacy Review Panel (August & Shanahan, 2006) analyzed evidence-based literacy practices for emergent bilinguals stressing the importance of oral language development, specifically oracy for all children, but in particular emergent bilinguals. Children bring rich oral storytelling practices and familial discourse patterns that foster language learning to school settings (Curenton et al., 2008). Practitioners and researchers can expand children’s oracy, or spoken vocabulary (words), syntax (phrases), and dialogue (discussions), connecting children’s home language practices (storytelling and discourse patterns) to early childhood and grades K-3 home classroom practices. In doing so, professionals develop academic vocabulary and reading comprehension in young, emergent bilinguals (Cervetti et al., 2020). Oracy is one aspect of oral language that includes the development of language structures, vocabulary, and dialogue to expand language use and development in the classroom (August & Shanahan, 2006; August et al., 2009; National Reading Panel, 2000; WIDA, 2014). Vocabulary practices can be collaborative and shared, contextualized in readings and experiences, and should foster comprehensible input and output. When words are introduced, such as the academic word “habitat,” a simple visual helps students to understand the meaning of the word. Further, children can dramatize and act out the habitat of a grizzly bear and then reflect upon the use of the word in reading or in play. At the sentence level, we focus on grammatical structures by providing sentence stems, “Bears live in ___________, where _________.” Through the use of sentence stems, children can both speak and write words and phrases in ways that expand a child’s linguistic repertoire to communicate phrases clearly. In dialogue, children engage in meaningful open-ended conversations about topics: What do you think this means? Which habitat is in danger? Why do you think so? How do you know? In this instance, children discuss topics with the teacher and with one another as they “turn and talk.” Children are developing communicative competence as they use language based on a clear purpose, content, language demands, and background knowledge, all in a meaningful context (Cummins, 1980). Through the dramatic play center, children may play in a “restaurant” using social and academic vocabulary, such as mathematical terms as they compute the restaurant receipts and culturally relevant foods as they create a menu from their community to serve their customers (Dutro  & Helman, 2009). Specifically, we consider language functions (ask, compare, or describe) in a context they are immersed in (e.g., the restaurant), where the language demands vocabulary words (menu, cashier, money, credit card) are used in meaningful phrases (May I help you? May I take your order? I would like _____) in a

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restaurant when interacting with children. We integrate children’s prior knowledge and community funds of knowledge as they expand vocabulary words and phrases in authentic contexts, such as community restaurants.

Home Language Use in the Classroom Home language is a resource for children’s oracy development in classrooms and may be integrated through play, sheltered content, and ESL Instruction, or in biliteracy contexts (Wright, 2010). An emergent bilingual has fluid language and cultural practices with a full linguistic repertoire that includes multiple languages, not separate language entities. When children utilize their home language as a resource, at times they may translanguage or strategically switch between languages as they communicate and express themselves at home and in schools (García et al., 2017). Utilizing children’s linguistic repertoires, educators can integrate home languages in the classroom community, throughout lessons, and through listening, speaking, reading, and writing opportunities. Educators may label key elements of classrooms in multiple languages, create wall displays with content words in multiple languages, as well as display cognate word walls, to foster the connection of cognates, or words that sound, look, and have similar meanings across languages. In addition to language displays, educators can also provide and encourage the use of bilingual dictionaries, resources, and texts. In addition, a teacher may introduce a lesson in English but elaborate at times in the child’s home language, such as Spanish. They may preview and review the lesson in children’s home languages, such as French, to maximize comprehensible input and introduce all other elements in English. Or an educator can encourage children to activate their background knowledge about a topic such as life cycles in their home language. Also, children may work with partners or small groups who speak the same language, encouraging home language use, or English proficiency, where children support one another in both their home language and English language development. Ideally, family and community members can participate and engage with children in their home languages in the classroom, especially in instances where teachers do not speak all of the languages of their children (García et al., 2017).

Culturally Relevant Play Young children are engaged in play every day, and learning through play is a common teaching and learning approach in early childhood settings. Using different types of play improves early literacy learning among children from different language backgrounds. Additionally, children learn to use language for conflict resolution, cooperative work, accepting of others’ viewpoints, and recognizing real and pretend differences during play (Banerjee et al., 2016). Using literacy materials during make-believe playtime, especially during center-based dramatic and block play, helps to increase children’s verbal language, communication, social language, and overall understanding of the processes of reading and writing.

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Banerjee et al. (2016) present two types of strategies for enhancing language and literacy development in young children during dramatic play in preschool and early elementary classes: adults as facilitators and enhancing language richness of the environment. These strategies may include: •

Preparing children about the play they are engaging in and expectations before the start of playtime; • Using culturally appropriate props (e.g., chopsticks and different types of beans typically found in the child’s home in the dramatic kitchen area); • Providing functional reading materials in the play areas (e.g., magazines in the play area representing a doctor’s office or a salon); and, • Adults supporting the play as an actor (playing with the child), an observer (watching and observing the play development), a stage manager (providing the props for the child), or a mediator (helping with problem solving should a conflict arise between children during play). For bilingual young children, these strategies can contribute to naturalistic and informal interactions during play to support language and early literacy development.

Milieu and Incidental Teaching Another strategy frequently used with young bilingual children in home and preschool settings to support language development is Milieu Teaching (Kaiser & Hester, 1994). Milieu teaching involves adult–child interactions that take place during naturally occurring daily routines and activities whereby the adult follows the child’s lead to expand and enhance child’s language, communication, and social interactions. A typical milieu teaching routine involves four progressively less intrusive activities that the adult utilizes: modeling, mand-modeling, incidental teaching, and time-delay. The adult models a response and waits (e.g. when a parent notices that the child wants a cookie, they may look at the child and say, “Can you say, I want a cookie?”). When using the mand-model procedure, the adult builds on a model procedure by providing a mand (directive, e.g., “Tell me what you want?”); then the adult waits for a response and provides prompts, if necessary. The delay procedure is less intrusive where the adult may look at the child and wait for the child to ask for the cookie. When using the incidental teaching procedure, the adult may select any one of the three procedures mentioned above during a typical routine (e.g., mealtime, bedtime, or bath time) in a natural environment (e.g., home, school, or playground) and based on the child’s interest. The intent is to help the child generalize the skill. Milieu teaching may also be expanded during storybook reading.

Family Involvement and Partnership Tailoring evidence-based strategies according to a family’s culture and interaction style, as well as knowledge about early literacy and language development, enhances

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the linguistic abilities of bilingual children. Practitioners can increase the language and vocabulary development of emergent bilinguals by including familiar activities and family routines, discussing beliefs about language acquisition, valuing bilingualism, facilitating play-based interaction strategies, and indulging children in joint activities around the child’s interest. Practitioners can also hold discussions about interaction-based strategies with parents to assist them in the teach–model–coach– review procedures that support multiple interactions with siblings, peers, and other family members (Guiberson & Ferris, 2019). Moreover, the school can ask families to share various types of literacy materials from their home language for reading and writing in the classroom. This engaging technique builds awareness about the importance of relationships between school and literacy practices at home. Parents and relatives of the children are invited to work with them, to show that their language knowledge is an asset for their children’s biliterate education (Delbridge & Helman, 2016). Strategies that support bilingualism encourage parents to participate in evidencebased strategies in their home language even if they have limited proficiency in the mainstream language. Family strategies improve parent-child interaction and give children the opportunity to practice using words and syntactic structures that improves the children’s speech complexities, vocabulary, and verbal output (Durán et al., 2016).

Literacy Strategies Shared Story Book Reading Milburn et al. (2013) reveal that shared reading between adults and children helps children acquire new vocabulary without explanations of word meanings and receptive vocabulary where adults enhance the language abilities of children. Shared storybooks are produced collaboratively with the child and adults, such as caregivers, parents, and teachers. When children’s identities are integrated into the stories, they meaningfully mirror the culture and daily life activities of their lives to develop affective bonds of literacy (Gutiérrez-Clellen, Simon-Cereijido, & Sweet, 2012). Adults can use home and English languages simultaneously while reading and discussing pictures, as well as target vocabulary. In this way, emergent bilinguals expand their vocabulary in both English and their home languages (Guiberson & Ferris, 2019). There are many benefits of reading to and with children, especially for emergent bilinguals. Shared reading is child focused and involves careful planning to consider interactive opportunities for a range of learners. Prompting is a good technique to help emergent bilinguals in their language acquisition. For example, to elicit deeper responses, parents and teachers can ask questions from the text such as, “What kind of animal was after the three little pigs?” based on the student’s response, the adults may ask “Yes, it was a wolf. What else do you see?” Encouraging emergent bilinguals to reread a text to find clues and words, recognize phonics patterns, and sequence

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pictures are useful techniques that lead to divergent thinking and linguistic development (Fountas & Pinnell, 2016).

Dialogic Reading In dialogic reading, children actively participate during shared reading for optimal language development (Whitehurst et al., 1988). Three broad principles guide dialogic reading: (a) encourage the child to participate actively, (b) provide feedback to the child, and (c) adapt the reading to the growing linguistic abilities of the child. In dialogic reading, the reader uses evocative techniques to encourage the child to use language actively. Adults ask “wh” (who, what, why) and “how” questions, rather than “yes–no” questions. For example, while pointing to a picture, the adult reader may ask, “What type of feet does this animal have?” or open-ended questions like, “What is happening in this part of the story?” Second, the reader provides feedback to the child, such as recasting what the child has said, expanding their phrases, providing positive reinforcement, and correcting errors. Finally, the reading style of the reader evolves as the child matures (Gutiérrez-Clellen et al., 2012). Hence, dialogic reading provides children with opportunities to express themselves and build upon existing language with structured questions to enhance their expressive vocabulary. Importantly, dialogic reading is a conversation between the adult and child that includes academic language and new vocabulary, such as story components like setting and character and the development of narrative skills when speaking in a narrative form. Dialogic reading, when used thoughtfully by parents and teachers can also improve skills such as print awareness, phonics, and decoding. Adults can model how to be thoughtful and strategic readers to the children because metacognition and explicit strategic instruction are particularly beneficial for emergent bilinguals (Brannon & Dauksas, 2014).

Culturally Responsive Literacy Opportunities There is currently a dearth of children and young adult’s literature that illustrates and celebrates differences between race, cultures, and languages, yet it is imperative that children see themselves in new ways in interactive and independent reading and writing experiences. A majority of children’s books are authored about white characters (50%), then animals (27%) followed by African/African American (10%), Asian Pacific Islander/Asian Pacific American, Latinx (5%), and American Indians/ First Nations (1%) (Cooperative Children’s Book Center, 2018). When books are culturally responsive, books are “mirrors, windows, and sliding glass doors” that reflect young children’s worlds, shine light on new perspectives, and offer new possibilities (Bishop, 1990). Children may see themselves in interactive reading experiences, such as in The Librarian of Basra (Winter, 2005) when they relate that they experienced the loss of educational experiences due to war. Further, books may be bilingual or strategically integrate two languages, where the authors utilize multiple languages within one text to translanguage or

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strategically integrate their home language to communicate an idea that they prefer to express in another language. In these powerful models, children may understand key vocabulary as they read texts in more than one language or write in multiple languages to express their cultural and language identities through the strategic use of keywords and phrases in multiple languages in their writing pieces, either a journal, story, or short story narrative (García et al., 2017).

Language Experience Approach While the Language Experience Approach was developed for native English speakers, there is much value in utilizing this approach for emergent bilinguals. In this approach, children dictate an “experience,” either individually or collectively in a small group or class as the teacher scribes the experience verbatim in the child’s language as a vignette or story, such as a field trip, a science experience, a thank you letter, or the news of the day. This text is written either collectively with multiple children or individually during times such as calendar, literacy, or science. In this culturally relevant experience, their words become print or a written text for children to reread in ways that reflect their lives and expand their language, reading, and shared writing in authentic and comprehensible ways (Dixon & Nessel, 1983). In the Language Experience approach, teachers scribe words for emergent bilinguals, where children are learning the English language system, such as text organization, sentence syntax or grammar, and how to spell and record both sight words and words that can be decoded with the English alphabetic system. Prior to the writing experiences, teachers scaffold learning experiences by brainstorming events and key vocabulary words to support the sequencing of important events. In these English dictation experiences, the teacher can repeat or revoice, as they write student words with correct English grammar. Through these dictations, teachers gain formative assessment data about children’s language development in order to teach and model the correct use of language while writing the story (Herrera et al., 2010). To honor the home languages of children, teachers may model dictations in their home languages and encourage children to do the same. In this way, texts are written in a child’s home language, either through a knowledgeable teacher, paraprofessional, or community member who knows their language well. For children at beginning and emerging levels of language acquisition, teachers can draw pictures to make the print meaningful or may use photographs taken during the experience to inspire their retellings. Also, as children retell or read their written text, they can act out the story or draw pictures to express their understanding of the shared experience. As children comprehend the language of the written text, they can reread or retell the text multiple times with expression as they develop their reading and speaking fluency.

Sheltered Instruction for Young Readers While sheltered instruction is an integral evidence-based practice that supports readers and writers in elementary and secondary content areas through scaffolds

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that support reading and writing development, it can be greatly beneficial for young children as well (Echevarria & Graves, 2007). In all lessons, it is important that educators and caregivers are clear about learning objectives and reading purposes; provide opportunities for children to interact with text by pausing to act out a word; and ask children to turn to a neighbor to share their questions and connections to the text. Practitioners can intentionally build and connect the content of a text to readers’ lives (Graves et al., 2020). For example, prior to reading a book such as Each Kindness, by Jacqueline Woodson, a picture book that focuses on social issues such as poverty and bullying, an educator can ask children to share a time they felt bullied or had their feelings hurt by their friends. Further, they might ask children to share the ways they have shown kindness to their friends that made them feel included and special. When children are reading or writing a text about unfamiliar content, educators can build background knowledge through a shared experience, a picture, or a brief video, or facilitate a collective brainstorming session that helps children understand the context of the story that they will read or write, such as a habitat they have never seen. Throughout the reading and writing process, educators can provide opportunities to develop academic language and encourage children to interact with one another and the text. Explicit vocabulary instruction is linked to increased reading comprehension and should include visuals, connections across languages, and multiple opportunities to recognize, use, and revisit key vocabulary words throughout literacy experiences. Before, during, and after a reading experience, children can orally respond and share while following a sentence frame such as, “The grizzly bear lives in a ______.” Sheltered instruction can also support interactions between children and their families in their homes with explicit attention toward vocabulary, discussions, acting out, and exploring keywords or elements of the text, and pausing to discuss the text in a variety of languages, all to support both engagement and reading comprehension.

Conclusion There is no doubt that oral language and literacy development has numerous benefits for young emergent bilinguals in homes and in school settings (August & Shanahan, 2006). There are two questions: • What evidence-based and recommended literacy practices are effective for emergent bilinguals in homes and early childhood contexts? • How is the evidence-based research on inclusive literacy practices applied to home and classroom settings? To answer these questions, we describe many inclusive literacy strategies for young learners with a focus on language and literacy development. The context for literacy learning for emergent bilinguals in the United States differs from the world, where multiple languages, including English, are valued, and bilingualism is centered on English language knowledge. However, we illustrate that when we value

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the needs of our young emergent bilinguals through an emphasis on language and literacy development within a culturally relevant context, we extend the science of reading with an emphasis on decoding skills toward language comprehension and valuing multiple languages and cultures. Specifically, we highlight the importance of interactive opportunities for young children to talk with families and schools that honor the cultural backgrounds of children through storytelling, an important practice often passed down through generations, to oracy as linked to literacy, and the importance of play in fostering a rich language and literacy environment in our classroom. Because language and literacy are inextricably linked, we emphasize shared reading, culturally responsive text, and the importance of scaffolding language throughout literacy experiences with caregivers, homes, and schools, through explicit vocabulary instruction, the use of visuals, and continual interaction throughout read-aloud. We highlight several evidence-based and recommended practices to provide new possibilities for practitioners, caregivers, families, and teachers, who support and grow the language and literacy development of young, emergent bilinguals every day.

References Alzahrani, M. (2018). Children and simultaneous language acquisition. Doctoral thesis, Saint Louis University. August, D., & Shanahan, T. (2006). Developing literacy in second-language learners: Report of the National Literacy Panel on Language-Minority Children and Youth. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Publishers. August, D., Shanahan, T., & Escamilla, K. (2009). English language learners: Developing literacy in second-language learners—Report of the National Literacy Panel on LanguageMinority Children and Youth. Journal of Literacy Research, 41(4), 432–452. Ball, J. (2011). Enhancing learning of children from diverse language backgrounds: Mother tonguebased bilingual or multilingual education in the early years. United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). Banerjee, R., Alsalman, A., & Alqafari, S. (2016, 2016/07/01). Supporting sociodramatic play in preschools to promote language and literacy skills of English language learners. Early Childhood Education Journal, 44(4), 299–305. https://doi.org/10.1007/ s10643-015-0715-4 Barac, R., Bialystok, E., Castro, D. C., & Sanchez, M. (2014, 2014/10/01/). The cognitive development of young dual language learners: A critical review. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 29(4), 699–714. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecresq.2014.02.003 Bialystok, E. (2015). Bilingualism and the development of executive function: The role of attention. Child Development Perspectives, 9(2), 117–121. https://doi.org/10.1111/ cdep.12116 Bishop, R. S. (1990). Mirrors, windows and sliding glass doors. Perspectives: Choosing and Using Books for the Classroom, 6(3), ix–xi. Brannon, D., & Dauksas, L. (2014). The effectiveness of dialogic reading in increasing English language learning preschool children’s expressive language. International Research in Early Childhood Education, 5, 1–10. Cervetti, G. N., Pearson, P. D., Palincsar, A. S., Afflerbach, P., Kendeou, P., Biancarosa, G., Higgs, J., Fitzgerald, M. S., & Berman, A. I. (2020). How the reading for understanding

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Herrera, S. G., Perez, D. R., & Escamilla, K. (2010). Teaching reading to English language learners: Differentiated literacies (1st Ed.). Allyn & Bacon. ILA. (2019). Literacy leadership brief: The role of bilingualism in improving literacy achievement. International Literacy Association. Kaiser, A. P., & Hester, P. P. (1994). Generalized effects of enhanced milieu teaching. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 37(6), 1320–1340. https://doi.org/10.1044/ jshr.3706.1320 Lucarevschi, C. R. (2016). The role of storytelling on language learning: A literature review. Working Papers of the Linguistics Circle, 26(1), 24–44. Milburn, T. F., Girolametto, L., Weitzman, E., & Greenberg, J. (2013, 2014/03/01). Enhancing  preschool educators’ ability to facilitate conversations during shared book reading. Journal of Early Childhood Literacy, 14(1), 105–140. https://doi.org/10.1177/ 1468798413478261 Moll, L. C., Soto-Santiago, S. L., & Schwartz, L. (2013). Funds of knowledge in changing communities. In International Handbook of Research on Children’s Literacy, Learning, and Culture (pp. 172–183). https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118323342.ch13 National Reading Panel. (2000). Teaching children to read: An evidence-based assessment of the scientific research literature on reading and its implications for reading instruction: Reports of the subgroups. NICHD Clearinghouse. NCES. (2020). English language learners in public schools. National Center for Educational Statistics, US Department of Education. https://nces.ed.gov/programs/coe/indicator_ cgf.asp Noack, R., & Gamio, L. (2015). The world’s languages, in 7 maps and charts. The Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2015/04/23/ the-worlds-languages-in-7-maps-and-charts/ Noguerón-Liu, S. (2020). Expanding the knowledge base in literacy instruction and assessment: Biliteracy and translanguaging perspectives from families, communities, and classrooms. Reading Research Quarterly, 55(S1), S307–S318. https://doi.org/10.1002/rrq.354 Petscher, Y., Cabell, S. Q., Catts, H. W., Compton, D. L., Foorman, B. R., Hart, S. A., Lonigan, C. J., Phillips, B. M., Schatschneider, C., Steacy, L. M., Terry, N. P., & Wagner, R. K. (2020). How the science of reading informs 21st-century education. Reading Research Quarterly, 55(S1), S267–S282. https://doi.org/10.1002/rrq.352 Shanahan, T. (2020). What constitutes a science of reading instruction? Reading Research Quarterly, 55, S235–S247. Smadja, M., Aram, D., & Ziv, M. (2019). The impact of variations in text presence in children’s storybooks on preschool teacher discourse. Journal of Research in Childhood Education, 33, 194–211. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, & U.S. Department of Education. (2016). Policy statement on supporting the development of children who are dual language learners in early childhood programs. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. https://www2. ed.gov/about/inits/ed/earlylearning/files/dll-policy-statement-2016.pdf Whitehurst, G. J., Falco, F. L., Lonigan, C. J., Fischel, J. E., DeBaryshe, B. D., ValdezMenchaca, M. C., & Caulfield, M. (1988). Accelerating language development through picture book reading. Developmental Psychology, 24(4), 552–559. https://doi. org/10.1037/0012-1649.24.4.552 WIDA. (2014). 2012 Amplification of the English language development standards, kindergarten– grade 12. Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System. Winter, J. (2005). The librarian of Basra. A true story from Iraq. Harcourt. Wright, W. E. (2010). Foundations for teaching English language learners: Research, theory, policy, & practice. Caslon Publishing.

9 DEVELOPING DYSLEXIA-FRIENDLY EFL CLASSROOMS IN GREECE The Teachers’ Perspective Maria Reraki

Introduction Inclusion for learners with dyslexia means providing curriculum adaptations and appropriate interventions so that these are enabled to access education. The significance of teachers’ knowledge of and attitudes towards inclusion has been demonstrated by a number of researchers (Gwernan-Jones & Burden, 2010; Knight, 2018) as both these factors influence the extent to which inclusive attempts are successful (Reid, 2019). Several studies in the field of inclusion have shown that teacher training in Special Educational Needs (SEN) education is an essential prerequisite for inclusive developments in mainstream settings as it influences teachers’ response to inclusive attempts (Sharma et al., 2008). Although literature on the effectiveness of programmes that prepare teachers for inclusion has remained sparse, an emphasis on practical strategies and reflective practice appears to reduce teachers’ concerns regarding the implementation of inclusive practices (Sharma et al., 2008). The present study looks at the practice of English language teachers in Greek primary English as a Foreign Language (EFL) classrooms where learners with dyslexia are found. English language teaching is widely developed in Greece, and learning to speak and write in English is considered a major asset for study and employment opportunities (Sifakis, 2012). Although there are both private and state schools in Greece to promote English language learning, the attempts to include dyslexic learners in the EFL context have so far been limited (Rontou, 2012). In addition to this, although Greek EFL teachers show interest in learning difficulties such as dyslexia (Nicolaidis & Mattheoudakis, 2008), they receive limited or no training on SEN. Studies have shown that English language teachers in Greece lack the skills, knowledge and confidence in supporting language learners with dyslexia (Rontou, 2013). The limited language teacher training in the field of dyslexia stems from the overall approach to supporting learners with dyslexia in mainstream Greek schools DOI: 10.4324/9781003379034-11

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as in either state or private settings mainstream teachers are not held responsible for the support of learners with dyslexia. In private settings, it relies on the teacher and the school to include dyslexic learners in mainstream classrooms, while in Greek state education, specialist teachers are the only professionals held responsible for the support of learners with dyslexia and other types of SEN. As a result of this specialist provision for learners with SEN in Greece, inclusive education has taken the form of accommodating SEN learners through the expansion of special provision in mainstream schools (Boutskou, 2007). Learners with dyslexia in mainstream schools are taught outside the mainstream classroom in the two core subjects of Greek language and mathematics, while there is limited or no cooperation between mainstream and specialist teachers (Constantopoulou, 2002). The outcomes of this approach to dyslexia support have not permitted the design of practices that have the potential to be employed in mainstream settings. The overall approach to inclusion for dyslexia in Greece has resulted in the provision of inadequate and, in some cases, inexistent support provided to dyslexic learners in EFL classes (Reraki, 2020). This, in combination with the limited knowledge of dyslexia that many English language teachers have (Lemperou et al., 2011), poses a number of challenges to Greek EFL teachers who have dyslexic learners in their classrooms (Rontou, 2012). These factors prohibit learners with dyslexia from accessing the EFL curriculum (Rontou, 2013). The present study looked at the development of inclusive Dyslexia-Friendly (BDA, 2018) environments for EFL learners with dyslexia in Greek state primary schools. The dyslexia-friendly practices were introduced as a way of providing the EFL teachers with tools and ideas for supporting learners with dyslexia in their classrooms. The aim was to explore how the EFL teachers experienced the implementation of these practices in their classrooms and the training they received on dyslexia. The outcomes of this study aim to develop the field of inclusion for language learners with dyslexia and inform the practice of language teachers.

Literature Review Although dyslexia is a field that has been widely researched in education and other areas such as biology or psychology (Armstrong & Squires, 2015) the studies in the field of language learning and dyslexia inclusion are limited (Martin, 2013). This contradicts the current global challenges (e.g. migration) and the high numbers of linguistically and culturally diverse learners in schools (Gorter & Cenoz, 2017) that pose the need for inclusive language learning curricula. In the case of learners with dyslexia, adaptations in the language teaching approaches are required for their support in language classes. A prerequisite for this is to identify dyslexic language learners’ characteristics so as to address their needs in the processes of language learning. While this is a difficult process because dyslexic learners’ difficulties might be masked because of the new language, dyslexia identification in language settings has been extensively researched. Studies in the field have shown that due to their cognitive differences dyslexic language learners are posed with

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additional challenges in the processes of language learning (Caravolas et al., 2013). Manifestations of dyslexia may differ across languages, and difficulties in learning a new language are linked to phonological processing difficulties and motivation variables (Sparks & Ganschow, 1993). These phonological weaknesses will persist regardless of the language system (Borodkin & Faust, 2014; Ziegler & Goswami, 2005), while the orthography of the new language (e.g., how transparent or opaque the writing system is) might pose additional visual learning demands (Brunswick, 2012). Hence, dyslexic language learners will continue to struggle with the acquisition of reading skills (Geva & Massey-Garrison, 2012; Helland & Kaasa, 2005; Kormos & Mikó, 2010), and difficulties with spelling and syntax might also be experienced (Ndlovu & Geva, 2008). Studies have also shown areas of strength for dyslexic bilinguals (e.g., see Lindgren & Laine, 2010). Considering that dyslexic language learners have complex characteristics, it becomes crucial that they are identified and supported by teachers who have the appropriate knowledge and skills. Studies in the field of language learning and dyslexia support have shown that teaching approaches that focus on the development of phonological awareness (Goudi, 2010; Yeung et al., 2013), phonics instruction (Partanen & Siegel, 2014) and use of ICT (Mortimore et al., 2012) improve literacy outcomes for dyslexic language learners. Apart from individualised tuition practices, it is important that teachers embed inclusive teaching practices for dyslexia in mainstream classrooms. This cannot be achieved without teachers’ knowledge of dyslexic learners’ difficulties and the provision of teacher training (Kormos et al., 2010; Reraki, 2020; Wight, 2015). Research on teachers’ role in inclusive development has found that the provision of training in SEN support educators in understanding the needs of SEN learners and enables them to provide support in class (Sharma & Sokal, 2015). With appropriate knowledge and skills, teachers are motivated to form part of inclusive attempts (Sharma & Sokal, 2015) and show positive attitudes to inclusion. Although other factors influence teachers’ motivation and efficacy for inclusion, for example, direct experiences of successful inclusive models, fruitful contact with people with disabilities (Sharma & Sokal, 2015) and awareness of SEN characteristics remain one of the core elements in teachers’ needs ( Joshi et al., 2009a; Joshi et al., 2009b). In the context of language learning, limited are studies that have explored language teachers’ role in inclusive education (Kormos et al., 2010). This is the result of insufficient research on inclusion for dyslexia in language classes (Kormos, 2017) and the lack of teacher training on SEN and inclusion in language education (Duranovic et al., 2011; Lemperou et al., 2011). As a result of this, language teachers have not kept pace with current inclusive developments and lack the skills and knowledge to provide support to dyslexic learners (Elias, 2014; Nijakowska et al., 2018).

Aims of Study The present study aimed to shed light on language teachers’ needs for inclusive developments by exploring their experiences of an inclusive intervention in an

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EFL setting. The researcher introduced dyslexia-friendly practices in three EFL classrooms in primary schools in Greece to explore how these were implemented and developed by the EFL classroom teachers. The impact on teachers’ attitudes and practices was also addressed. Hence, this chapter will discuss the following question: How do EFL teachers experience the introduction of dyslexia-friendly practices in their classrooms?

Methodology The term ‘experiences’ refers to teachers’ attitudes, beliefs, views, feelings and commitment (affective experiences) and how these influenced action inside the classroom (e.g., towards dyslexic pupils) and outside the classroom (e.g., attending meetings with the researcher). Hence, the discussion that follows will focus on the practice and the views of the EFL teachers in the process of developing more inclusive teaching practices for learners with dyslexia in their settings. The ultimate aim was to provide recommendations for inclusive developments in the field of language teaching and dyslexia. The research questions of this study were approached by employing a case study approach (Yin, 2017). The case study design allowed for a deep exploration of the changes in classroom teaching as a result of the introduction of dyslexia-friendly practices. This was met before the dyslexia-friendly practices were introduced (pre-intervention) and during their implementation in the teachers’ practice (intervention). The qualitative study explored teachers’ experiences at both stages.

Participants The classrooms were typical of public Greek EFL education comprised of dyslexic and non-dyslexic learners. In this study, dyslexic learners were considered only those who had been identified as dyslexic by the Centres for Educational and Consultation Support (CEC), established by the Hellenic Ministry of Education (MNER, 2018). All the pupils were in the final stages of primary school and their ages ranged from 9 to 12 years. The EFL teachers were newly appointed in the participating schools and had an average of two to four years of teaching experience. Although all of them had experience working with learners with dyslexia in their classrooms, none of them had received training in the area of SEN.

Data Collection The first step of the study was to introduce the teachers to dyslexia-friendly practices. However, it was considered essential that the teachers had at least some knowledge of dyslexia and of dyslexia characteristics to employ the practices. As all three teachers had stated from the beginning of the study that their awareness of dyslexia was limited, dyslexia awareness training workshops were provided for four weeks at the pre-intervention stage. Apart from the workshops, regular meetings

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were held with the teachers at this stage as they identified a need for support before the intervention. The data collection methods were the same for both stages of the study so as to compare and contrast the findings from the pre-intervention and the intervention stages. The focus was on exploring whether inclusive developments were taking place and the way these occurred with the introduction of dyslexia-friendly practices. The researcher conducted interviews with the teachers and unstructured classroom observations while a personal research diary the researcher kept throughout the whole process was an additional method of self-observation and reflexive investigation of the research process.

Data Analysis The data were analysed following a realist paradigm (Bhaskar, 1979; Sayer, 2000), which borrows as well as rejects assumptions from positivism and constructivism as, according to realists, reality exists though we cannot entirely apprehend it (Godfrey  & Hill, 1995). Realism supported the researcher in exploring the changes that occurred with the employment of pre-defined theories (Pawson & Tilley, 1998) about the impact of dyslexia-friendly practices in classroom settings (Fernando, 2012; Mortimore et al., 2012). The analytical method employed was thematic analysis as themes and patterns across the data were identified (Braun & Clarke, 2013) after the transcription processes were completed. Computer-assisted data analysis (NVivo 10 – 2012) helped the researcher organise and handle the data and create ‘consistent coding schemes’ (Robson, 2013). A ‘template approach’ was followed (Crabtree & Miller, 1992) where the key codes (referred to as ‘nodes’ in NVivo software) resulted from the data (data-retrieved) and from pre-defined concepts (‘apriori’). After the results of each classroom were obtained, a cross-case analysis (Yin, 2017) followed, which aided the researcher to compare and contrast the findings and answer the study’s research questions.

Findings and Discussion Despite the limited training the EFL teachers had received on dyslexia and the lack of school support, all three of them responded well to the researcher’s suggestions at the intervention stage. The consultancy role the researcher took at both phases of the study aided this process as it made the teachers feel more confident in embedding dyslexia-friendly practices in their lessons. The teachers’ responses, commitment and attitudes towards the resources on dyslexia introduced in the first part of the study varied. This was influenced by many factors such as contextual conditions, their workload, personal characteristics and teacher stance.

Pre-intervention At the pre-intervention stage, it was evident that the Greek EFL context was triggering teachers’ negative feelings towards inclusion. The highly centralised Greek

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education system (OECD, 2018) was resulting in the teachers having a strong need for support at both stages of the study. All three EFL teachers at the pre-intervention stage were faced with several problems. Examples are the lack of appropriate resources and support, the mixed-ability learners found in their classrooms and the limited teacher training provided in state schools for SEN. The austerity measures in Greece (Hellenic National Reform Programme 2012–2015) were enhancing the teachers’ negative attitudes towards their context due to the limited resources in state schools. School conditions were also impacting the way the teachers were experiencing the intervention. Teachers’ responses and attitudes towards this study were influenced by their school culture. In one classroom, where the school was enhancing teachers’ professional development, the EFL teacher was motivated to read the resources on dyslexia and participate in my study from the start of the project. This teacher also saw this study as an opportunity to improve her teaching practice. The school’s high status and the head teacher’s positive attitudes towards research projects triggered the EFL teacher’s positive response to the resources provided as part of the study. Other studies on teacher’s practice have shown similar findings; in schools where there is a commitment to school improvement, teachers enhance opportunities for engagement and professional development (Deal & Peterson, 2009). Data on the teacher who appeared as less engaged at the pre-intervention stage showed that no accommodations or adjustments were being made for the diverse learners in his classroom (e.g., ADHD, immigrant learners). This could be the result of the lack of legislative support provided to subject teachers for the support of learners with SEN (Vlachou, 2004). This finding confirms the claim that teachers need support at a legislative level so as to develop positive attitudes towards inclusion (Sharma et al., 2008). Personal factors were also influencing each teacher’s stance and response to my study. Although all three EFL teachers appeared motivated to participate fully at both stages of the study, two of them engaged with the resources provided at the pre-intervention stage. This could be the result of differences in personal values, characteristics and views of their profession, as supported by Deal and Peterson (2009). Despite the lack of engagement from one teacher at the pre-intervention stage, all of the EFL teachers employed the practices. The engagement of all the teachers at the intervention stage could be the result of an increased interest in the training workshops that the researcher provided. It could also be that the teacher less engaged in the pre-intervention stage needed more practical tools for supporting learners with dyslexia in his classroom. This finding confirms Avramidis and Norwich’s (2002) claim that teachers’ negative attitudes at the start of inclusive developments might change ‘as a function of experience and the expertise that develops through the process of implementation’ (Avramidis & Norwich, 2002, p. 134) and is in agreement with Sharma et al.’s (2008) suggestion that direct experiences of inclusion create positive attitudes in teachers. A common element that appeared among the three teachers was their low confidence in supporting learners with dyslexia. This finding was the result of limited or non-existent support from the state school settings in Greece, in combination

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with the limited training the EFL teachers had received. This finding is similar to Sharma & Sokal’s (2015) study, which showed that lack of training on special needs negatively affects teachers’ efficacy. Another common element among the teachers, particularly at the pre-intervention stage, was the limited interaction they had with the learners with dyslexia. This was stemming from their limited, or lack of, knowledge of dyslexia. This finding echoes a study that found that Greek teachers’ lacked confidence in teaching pupils with difficulties due to limited pre-service training on special education they received during their studies (Stampoltzis et al., 2018). The claim that Greek mainstream teachers do not view dyslexia as their responsibility (Papalouka, 2011) was confirmed in the case of all the EFL teachers at the pre-intervention stage. The teachers were not aware of the number of dyslexic pupils in their classrooms and were not providing them support or differentiating learning activities. However, the finding that two of the teachers were motivated to learn more about dyslexia, a finding that confirms the suggestion that language teachers are willing to learn more about dyslexic learners’ inclusion (Győrfi & Smythe, 2010) and consider dyslexia as a significant matter (Nicolaidis & Mattheoudakis, 2008).

Intervention In contrast to the dyslexia training where EFL teachers’ responses varied, the use of dyslexia-friendly practices was positively embraced by all the teachers. Teachers’ negative or neutral feelings at the beginning of the intervention changed. A reason for this could be the researcher’s support throughout the whole process. This result confirms Sharma and Sokal’s (2015) claim about the importance of addressing teachers’ concerns when asked to implement inclusive practices. Besides, the provision of continuous support enables teachers to deal with complex situations (Avramidis & Kalyva, 2007). The importance of previous training on teachers’ response to inclusion (Sharma et al., 2008; Sharma & Sokal, 2015) was confirmed in this study. The way dyslexiafriendly practices were employed was based on teachers’ stance, background and knowledge of dyslexia. The teaching approaches already employed by the teachers also shaped the way dyslexia-friendly practices were used. Although the teachers were feeling more comfortable in practising the same language skills as before, in some cases, new tasks were added, influenced by the focus of the technique they chose to employ (e.g., using a film to practice listening skills). Besides, as it had been guided by relevant literature (Collins & White, 2002), the practices were given to the teachers in such a way that there was room for them to decide which ones to adopt or try out. Furthermore, the teachers were adapting dyslexia-friendly practices according to their own teaching approaches and their own context. This finding mirrors Kumaravadivelu’s (2003) suggestion that specified teaching approaches cannot be prescribed to the teachers, as these are always adjusted to the various teaching contexts (learners, teachers’ cognition, culture, teachers’ stance, etc.).

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The teaching practices that one of the teachers was employing at the pre-intervention stage had many similarities with some of the dyslexia-friendly practices. However, at the intervention stage, this EFL teacher’s practices enhanced the dyslexic pupils’ inclusion in the classroom as she started approaching the pupils with dyslexia more than before the intervention. During the intervention stage, the most significant differences were found in the teaching practice of the teacher who was less engaged at the pre-intervention stage. It appeared as if his sense of responsibility increased with increased engagement from all the learners in the classroom. This finding confirms Sharma and Sokal’s (2015) claim that teachers’ direct experience of inclusive motivates teachers towards implementing inclusive developments. Studies have shown that inclusion causes anxiety and concerns for teachers who have not received relevant training (Sharma & Sokal, 2015). This was confirmed by two EFL teachers, which later admitted that they were originally feeling uncertain as to whether they could employ dyslexia-friendly practices in the EFL classrooms. However, they both noted that it was the training and support provided by the researcher that increased their motivation towards embedding the dyslexia-friendly approach in their lessons. This agrees with findings from other studies in monolingual and language settings that teachers’ attitudes to inclusion are improved with appropriate SEN training (Kormos et al., 2010). Although all the teachers started using dyslexia-friendly practices, they required more training in the field of dyslexia as they encountered difficulties in employing some of the practices. This agrees with the claim that limited awareness of, and training on, learners’ needs affects teachers’ practice when implementing inclusive models (Rontou, 2012; Sharma et al., 2008) and causes them anxiety (De Boer et al., 2011). The limited training one of the teachers received on dyslexia negatively influenced the way dyslexia-friendly practices were employed. Although dyslexic learners’ inclusion was increased, the way this EFL teacher was using the practices was not reflecting their ‘friendly’ character. It must also be noted that the particular EFL teacher was more in favour of the medical view of dyslexia ( Jordan & Stanovich, 2003). Therefore, he was not assigning the difficulties to more social factors such as the teaching approaches. This could be another reason this EFL teacher was not using dyslexia-friendly practices in an inclusive manner. This confirms Skidmore’s (1999) suggestion that teachers closer to the pathognomonic approach to learning difficulties have less effective teaching skills for the creation of inclusive environments. Lee and Smith’s statement is indicative of this: ‘There appears to be a high correlation between the extent to which a teacher articulates a belief in making a difference, and rejects deficit models of students and their families, with the quality of their pedagogies’ (Lee & Smith, 2001, p. 37).

Conclusion The findings of this study showed the importance of exploring inclusive attempts from the teachers’ perspective in language education. The teachers’ experiences

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influenced the extent to which inclusion was developed and how dyslexia-friendly practices were introduced. In this study, the EFL teachers were in favour of dyslexia-friendly practices by the end of the project, despite the fact that they were feeling insecure about employing these in their lessons. The EFL teachers preferred the dyslexia-friendly practices over the resources of dyslexia the researcher provided them with. This finding demonstrates that language teachers favour suggestions that can be immediately transferred into practice. The introduction of the resources on dyslexia and the dyslexia-friendly practices increased two EFL teachers’ knowledge of dyslexia and advanced all EFL teachers’ practice. Teachers’ experiences were also positive towards the intervention because the researcher was providing them with support throughout the study. This demonstrates that inclusive attempts in language education should provide continuous training and encouragement to language teachers. This is a factor that contributes to the successful inclusion of dyslexic pupils in language education. Data shows that limited or lack of provision of resources did not discourage this inclusive attempt. The lack of government funding might, in some cases, hinder inclusion but it does not make inclusion insurmountable. Despite the limited provision of resources, training and whole-school support shown in this study, positive effects of dyslexia-friendly practices were still shown. ‘Bottom-up’ developments can enhance inclusion in cases where the central education system is highly centralised to embrace new inclusive practices. Although the interest and willingness of relevant stakeholders are essential for developing inclusion, teachers’ cooperation plays an important role in inclusive attempts. Further research in language classrooms (and perhaps other fields) will enlighten future inductive attempts to inclusion. The study enhances the development of inclusive language settings by exploring teachers’ perspectives and providing recommendations for language educators in the area of SEN. Although the unique aspects of the Greek EFL setting were impacting the inclusive developments, the study showed the significance of teacher training for inclusion. The study aims to advance both the fields of dyslexia and language learning by promoting the inclusion of dyslexic pupils in language education through the training and practice of teachers.

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10 THE EDUCATION OF STUDENTS WITH VISUAL IMPAIRMENTS IN THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY IN HUNGARY Judit Gombás and Beáta Prónay

Introduction The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted in 1948, was the first-ever legal instrument to state that education is a human right to be enjoyed by every person on equal terms. The Convention on the Rights of Persons1 with disabilities (CRPD), adopted in 2006 (so far ratified by 181 governments, ratified by Hungary in 2007), and its optional protocol (signed by 96 countries and regional integration organizations), is the first comprehensive human rights treaty of the twenty-first century. CRPD clarifies and qualifies how all categories of rights apply to persons with disabilities and identifies areas where adaptations have to be made for persons with disabilities to effectively exercise their rights and areas where their rights have been violated, and where protection of rights must be reinforced. (United Nations [UN], 2006) Article 24 of the CRPD declares that education must be free, accessible, and inclusive for students with disabilities, providing all necessary individualized support and accommodations, and declares that States Parties recognize the right of persons with disabilities to education. With a view to realizing this right without discrimination and on the basis of equal opportunity, States Parties shall ensure an inclusive education system at all levels and lifelong learning…. (UN, 2006)

DOI: 10.4324/9781003379034-12

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According to United Nations Children’s Fund2 (UNICEF), worldwide 93 million children live with disabilities, almost 50% of whom do not attend school. UNICEF also pinpoints that disability is the most serious barrier to education (UNICEF, n.d.). In this chapter, we first pinpoint some essential conceptual principles of inclusive education. These create an important framework and perspective for the introduction of the education of students with blindness or visual impairment (BVI) in Hungary. The chapter does not intend to analyze theoretical considerations and explanations of the concept of inclusion. The reader may now wonder why it is important for a wider public to get familiar with the education of a tinny population of students living in a tiny Central-Eastern European country. According to the Organisation of Economic Co-operation and Development3 (OECD, 2003), a comparison of the inclusion practices of different countries may promote inclusion by reflecting upon challenges and introducing good practices alike. The authors of the chapter believe that some or many of the issues discussed below are present in numerous countries in Central Europe and elsewhere. Familiarity with the strengths and challenges of the Hungarian practice of inclusive education may foster international (and perhaps interdisciplinary) cooperation of general and special educational needs (SEN) teachers, rehabilitation professionals, and policymakers across borders.

Essentials of inclusion Worldwide inclusion is defined in many different ways (Haug, 2017). This study does not intend to examine different definitions; therefore, all along the study inclusive education or inclusion is referred to in line with the definition of the Alliance for Inclusive Education (n.d.): education that includes everyone, with non-disabled and disabled people (including those with ‘special educational needs’) learning together in mainstream schools, colleges, and universities. UNICEF (n.d.) underlines that inclusion provides real learning opportunities for every single child, irrespective of his or her ethnic background, socioeconomic status, religion, disability, etc. Inclusion means students share the same learning spaces and are provided equal access to learning. All typical and atypical students are active, equal, and valued members of the student community, and get personalized support, tailored to their individual needs, in achieving their full potential. The idea and practice of inclusive education for all children of diverse racial or ethnic backgrounds or disabilities are far from being a new educational and social concept in many parts of the World. In the United States, the Education for All Handicapped Children Act dates back to 1975. It required public schools all over the states to provide an equal and appropriate education for all children. However, the act did not specify what was meant by appropriate education (Esteves & Rao, 2008); this resulted in a lack of unified and generalized teaching standards in the

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education of students with special needs. The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, the currently binding Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act, and the recent Every Student Succeeds Act of 2015, together with other pieces of legislation, guarantee a consistent understanding and provision of access and equal opportunities in education (Boroson, 2017). However, segregated education is not unknown in the U.S. history of education. Until the 1970s, during the so-called isolation phase, students with disabilities were often denied to get equal treatment in free and compulsory public education (Hossain, 2012), and not more than one in five students with disabilities attended mainstream schools (DudleyMarling & Burns, 2014). In the United States today, more than 90% of all students with disabilities receive education in mainstream schools, and more than half are included in the general classroom for at least 80% of the day (Snyder, de Brey, & Dillow, 2016 in Boroson, 2017). Segregation was, and in many parts of the World still is, a widely accepted practice in the education of children with SEN, but, similarly to the U.S. federal legislation, international efforts were made to promote inclusive education. At the World Conference on Inclusive Education, in June 1994, representatives of 92 governments and 25 international organizations adopted the Salamanca Statement4, a new framework for the full accommodation of students with SEN in their local educational institutions. Inclusion is a broadly investigated and argued dimension of education. Haug (2017) underlines that the principle of Inclusion is ‘easy to accept and difficult to be against or even criticize’. Inclusion is clearly a value in developed countries, but there is often a huge gap between theory and implementation (Graham & Jahnukainen, 2011). A great barrier to bridge in both developing and many developed countries is the education of general teachers on how to include students with SEN in mainstream groups, providing equal access and the same quality of education for each and every child (Rieser, 2014). In a study introducing best inclusion practices, Körner et al. (2018) underline that in different European countries, methodological standards of inclusive education, together with those of general teacher training with a focus on inclusion, are far from unified.

Inclusive education in Hungary General consideration In Hungary, like in the neighboring countries, the segregated education of almost all students with disabilities was common practice until the 1990s. It was widely accepted that teaching is most effective in homogeneous groups of students with the same disability. The legislative pathway for inclusive education opened up as a result of the 1993 modification of the Law on Public Education, which declared that parents have the right to decide which school their children attend. The 1990s were suitable for such a fundamental change because schools were in need of students due to a general decrease in the school-aged population (Somorjai,

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2008). Children with severe disabilities are counted as three students, which means all-inclusive classes are smaller in number than classes without students with SEN. Another significant consequence of the growing number of students with SEN in mainstream education is the obvious decrease in students in segregated institutions. Currently, around 67% of Students with SEN study in mainstream institutions (Perlusz, 2019). However, since 1993, no comprehensive national research has investigated the implementation of inclusive practices in Hungarian schools (Perlusz, 2019). Students in mainstream schools are either assisted by SEN teachers, working full- or part-time in the school, or, more characteristically, itinerant SEN teachers visit the student and provide counseling for the school staff. The 2003 amendment of the Public Education Act allowed establishment of Unified Special Education Methodological Centres (EGYMI) as a school unit in segregated schools. EGYMI staff support the education of children with SEN in integrated settings. The services offered by EGYMIs are counseling, early development and care, development support/training, speech therapy, conductive pedagogical care, and physical education. Further, itinerant SEN teachers provide general teachers with educational information on how to best accommodate a student with SEN, while they are also responsible for teaching disability-specific skills to students. In Hungary, the education of general teachers and SEN teachers is fully separated. In the times of segregated education of all students with disabilities, this was surely a useful practice. However, as inclusive education is gaining ground, it has become clear that SEN-related educational content should form part of the formation of general teachers, while institutions responsible for SEN teacher training must also shift their focus from segregation to inclusion. At present, teachers are trained in the following schema: lower elementary teachers are trained at the bachelor level, in eight-semester higher education courses, and are qualified to teach all school subjects in grades 1–4. SEN teachers may specialize in working with one or two different SEN populations. Eötvös Loránd University of Sciences (ELTE) Bárczi Gusztáv Faculty of Special Needs Education is the only institution that provides specialization in the education and rehabilitation of all sorts of disabilities. Since 2017, nine other institutions of higher education offer SEN teacher training, typically for intellectual disabilities, speech and language disorders, and emotional and behavior disorders (Felvi, 2020). So far, ELTE is the only university that educates qualified teachers of visually impaired students (QTVI), of students with hearing impairment and with physical disabilities. Though the number of universities training SEN teachers is growing, there is still a high demand for qualified professionals all over the country.

The population of Hungarian students with blindness or visual impairment The classification of visual impairment in Hungary is in accordance with the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-10) and the revision proposed by

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WHO: normal vision is considered if VA ≥ 6/12, EVI refers to VA < 6/12–6/18, MVI refers to VA < 6/18–6/60, SVI refers to VA < 6/60–3/60, and blind refers to VA < 3/60 (Szabó et al., 2018). Although functional vision assessment is used in segregated educational and assessment institutions as well as in rehabilitation services the results are only applied in their practice. Hungary is a small country with a decreasing population. According to the latest data provided by the Central Statistical Office (Központi Statisztikai Hivatal, KSH), in January 2021, the total population is 9.493.293 (KSH, 2021). The number of individuals with BVI was last mapped in the census of 2011 when the total number was 85.846. Little is known about the number of minors with BVI. As long as families had no choice but to send their child with BVI to one of the few segregated schools, it was easy, to sum up school-age students. However, with the increasing number of students with BVI in mainstream schools, there are only estimates concerning the size of the population. Kiss (2020) in her research examined the visual and educational status of 1.263 children with BVI aged 4–14. According to her findings, the number of those attending mainstream educational institutions, with moderate VI is 36%, followed by students with moderate VI in segregation (26%); 25% of blind students learn in a segregated institution, while only 13% attend a mainstream school (Kiss, 2020). Complex pedagogical visual assessment of students is carried out by the Centre for Eye Testing, Special Pedagogical Support, and Early Intervention (a single center in Budapest, the capital of Hungary). The assessment includes psychological testing of the child, familiarization with the social (family and kindergarten/school) background, and a comprehensive pedagogical eye test battery (a thorough examination of relevant visual functions, such as visual acuity, light and color perception, and visual field).

A brief history of the education of students with BVI In Hungary, the formal and organized education of students with BVI started in 1827, thanks to the efforts and advocacy of a teacher, Rafael Beitl. By 1836, the number of students grew from the initial 3 to 4 to 20, and the first school building specifically for BVI students was opened. The institution kept growing, and in 1907 the first group of kindergarten-aged children were admitted (Pajor, 2017). The Kindergarten, Primary and Vocational School, Unified Methodological Centre, and Child Care Home for blind students is currently a complex segregated educational institute, which supports blind and deafblind students and those with multiple disabilities and VI (MDVI), serving the whole country as the only institution of its kind. The first separate school for low-vision students opened in 1956 in Budapest, and the second one in 1972 in Debrecen (Eastern Hungary). Due to a severe decline in the number of students, the latter one is currently an inclusive school, open to all sighted and visually impaired students (Pajor, 2017). Another institution, the Rehabilitation Centre, Kindergarten and Primary School and Dormitory for Students with VI, was opened in Pécs (South Hungary) in 1990, by Világ Világossága Foundation. Similarly, to the institution in Debrecen, this

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school has been broadening its student profile, due to the decline in the number of students with VI. It currently serves a wide SEN population, and vocational education is also available since 1994 (Világ Világossága Foundation, n.d.). In Hungary, primary education is eight years long. In the 1990s, after parents were given the right to choose a school for their child with BVI (preferably near their home), students characteristically joined mainstream institutions in upper primary school (grade 5 or older), after completion of the first four years in a segregated institution. Other families chose to send their children to a segregated school for the first two years, and went on to mainstream settings once the child has gained proficiency in adapted reading and writing (i.e., Braille, large-print, or use of CC-TV, magnifiers, or magnification software) (Somorjai, 2008). Mainstreaming in secondary education, without specialized support, was characteristic long before EGYMI was founded, since there were no segregated secondary schools or special classes for students with BVI (Schiffer, 2005).

Current challenges and success in inclusion Although the Hungarian legislation supports inclusion and families have an increasing tendency to choose inclusion, it is hard to find mainstream schools that are open to inclusion (Cs. Czachesz & Radó, 2003). While inclusive education is widely investigated, there is a small number of BVI-specific research focusing on the inclusive education of children and young people with BVI (hardly any study tackles adult education or lifelong learning for individuals with BVI), all of which work with small samples. In continuation, some of the relevant research is introduced with special foci on challenges and successes of inclusion. In Hungary, the binding definitions of visual impairment are varied depending on the domain (e.g., education, employment, legislation) which the definition relates to. Decree 32/2012 (X. 8.) of the Minister of Education on the issue of the Guideline for kindergarten education of children with special educational needs and of the Guideline for the school education of learners with special educational needs, defines disability as follows: Visual disability (blind, sight impairment, low vision): a state occurring because of impairment of the eye(s), the optic nerve, or the pallial visual area, which affects cognitive functions, adaptability, and personality. For special education purposes, learners whose visual acuity is between 0 and 0.33 – even with two eyes and if corrected (by glasses) – compared to full vision (visual acuity: 1) are visually impaired. In particular: • learners who have no visual acuity (visual acuity: 0) are blind; • learners with severe sight impairment are those who can sense light and see larger objects (visual acuity: a sense of light to 0.1); • the visual acuity of people with low vision ranges between 0.1 and 0.33. (European Agency for Special Needs and Inclusive Education, 2018)

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One of the pioneer investigations, carried out by Schiffer (2005), mapped the initial experiences of including blind children in lower primary education. Fourteen general teachers of blind pupils filled in Schiffer’s questionnaire in the academic year of 1999–2000, which was the fifth year when pupils with BVI attending regular schools and their teachers were provided with organized special educational support provisions. An important goal of the research was to clarify what resources help general teachers in teaching a blind student. Eleven out of the 14 respondents found written literature, while nobody saw videos about teaching a blind child. Five respondents participated in a training provided by the School for the Blind. Seven teachers wrote they had learned to read and write Braille. Physical education was underlined as a school subject in which special preparation of teachers would be highly necessary. Only five teachers were supported by the work of an SEN teacher working at the school, others had support from the itinerant teachers of the EGYMI with varying frequency. When asked if they would be open to teaching other blind students, nine of the 14 general teachers answered they would only say ‘yes’ if improved educational settings (i.e., provision of material in Braille, special educational tools, more support from itinerant QTVIs and local SEN teachers, and more opportunities for training) were provided. An urging need for BVI-specific training is pinpointed by Vargáné (2011) who found that general teachers complained of their lack of BVI-specific knowledge. They, therefore, felt that inclusion was their lonely struggle, and they had no one to turn to with their questions. This is important because the majority of teachers are open to broadening their knowledge of special education and inclusion (Papp, 2011). In a comprehensive study, Somorjai (2008) investigated factors supporting the integrated education of students with BVI. Interviews were made with 12 students, 12 parents, and 12 general teachers. Students accounted for no severe difficulties in their everyday work and felt they were able to learn the study material and meet requirements. Students’ impression was their knowledge was assessed on equal terms with their sighted peers and accounted for more challenges in their social life (making friends in the peer group) than in learning. Parents underlined that the regular support of their children in their daily preparation for school was necessary and was a challenge for the families. Teachers said the greatest challenge was modeling in sciences and agreed that work is generally slower in an inclusive classroom. The number of partial or total exemptions (i.e., the blind student either participates in the class, studies together with non-disabled fellows but gets no grade, or does not participate in a given school subject) was low and was not at all part of the practice in five of the schools which the responding students attended. The author underlined that successful inclusion is what a blind student, parents, and general teachers are happy with, and this is sometimes different from what an itinerant SEN teacher would consider a success. Somorjai (2008) believes the most important component in successful mainstreaming/inclusion is the blind student’s personality. Sümegi (2012) in her research aimed at understanding the sociometric status of 8 students with BVI (4 blind, 4 VI), and surveyed their teachers’ attitudes. The research concluded that students with BVI felt their teachers had the same

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expectations toward them as those of their typical peers. Students also underlined that they spent more time learning at home than their non-disabled classmates, which inhibited inclusion in the class community. In recent qualitative research, Füller (2019) attempted to get a comprehensive picture of secondary-school students with BVI, exploring factors that influence their choice of school, assessment patterns, subjects which they are partly or fully exempted from, their difficulties in getting access to study material and their overall access to school facilities. The research showed that secondary schools are chosen by the students and their parents together, meaning the students’ opinion also counts. An important factor in the decision is geographical closeness. Information students get from their teachers is mostly verbal, and access to interactive materials or printed images is eventual. Similarly, to Somorjai’s research in 2008, Füller a decade later still found that access to digital or Braille course books is, in many cases, problematic, for example, students get their adapted books months after the academic year started. This may be the reason why most students learn exclusively from the notes they take during the lessons. Füller’s research shows a frightening tendency: while a decade earlier Somorjai found that blind students were occasionally exempted from certain school subjects, Füller found an alarming proportion of students not participating in different school subjects, or being partly or fully left out of assessment, due to their VI. TABLE 10.1 Number of Students with BVI Exempted from Secondary-School Subjects

(Füller, 2019) No participation required Maths

No assessment

Partial exemption No participation from assessment in primary school either

6 students: 3. 12. 5 students: 1. 15. 5 students: 2. 4. 17.18. 22. 23. 16. 19. 24. 5. 6. 8. P. E. 15 students: 1. 3. 1 student: 2. 2 students: 5.6. 4. 7. 8. 9. 12. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 20. 22. 24. Physics, 1 student: 3. 11 students: 1. Chemistry 2. 4. 6. 8. 9. 12. 13. 14. 18. 19. English 1 student: 2. Arts, Art History 10 students: 3. 4. 1 student: 15. 1 student: 19. 5. 6. 8. 9. 12. 14. 17.18. Biology 1 student: 3. Geography, 7 students: History 8.13.14. 15.16. 18.22. IT 6 students: 4. 10. 2 students: 6.18. 12. 14. 15. 23.

2 students: 2. 5 students: 2. 3. 7. 15. 17. 1 student: 2.

1 student: 15.

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Füller (2019) concluded her research by asking respondents to give younger fellow BVI students advice on how to get on in inclusive settings. Their advice goes as follows: - - -

Initiate communication with your classmates and teachers Be open to clarifying issues related to your VI as early as possible Don’t hesitate to ask for help. Be patient, most people will simply know nothing about BVI - Be as independent as possible - Advocate for yourself - Be proficient in using technical aids (i.e., laptop, scanner, smartphone) and digital materials - Be ready to type/write a lot and quickly - Try yourself in many different things, be part of the community (Füller, 2019) Lendvai, Pap, and Nguyen (2019) interviewed 31 adults with BVI (mean age 32.8 yrs) about their experience in inclusion, with a special focus on social connections. 19 respondents were blind, 8 had severe, and 4 had moderate VI. Thirty-one out of the 32 respondents had attended both segregated and inclusive institutions; there was a single respondent who did not study in segregation. More than 70% of the respondents had a college or university degree. In segregated schools, the number of students in a class is typically less than ten students in Hungary, and it was so in the past, too. Some respondents underlined how familiar these groups were and said they had close bonds with their classmates. Others however felt that those who were not accepted by the class were in a very difficult situation due to the small group size. The majority of respondents disliked the secondary school and felt that their classes were ill-functioning communities (note that until 2018 there were no segregated secondary schools in Hungary, except vocational). Many respondents recalled the negative attitudes of teachers toward them. One respondent said ‘my classmates were told off any time they didn’t help me’. Many respondents complained about occasions of positive discrimination and moments when the teacher compared the blind student to the class: ‘See, he did his task better than you. I think this was a step backward for me to be accepted by my classmates’. Respondents were typically on the periphery of their classes and had either no friends or their friends were also on the margins of the group. Some respondents pinpointed the negative impact of their parents’ overprotective attitude on their peer relationships in the mainstream school.

Conclusion Inclusive education is a multifactor process. As success depends on many human (student, parents, teachers, classmates, itinerant SEN teacher) and material (access to the school building, access to study materials, access to special aids) factors, it is

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evident that in such a complex process, any of the elements may be dysfunctional. It is, therefore, crucial to understand the complexity of inclusive education and identify the roles and duties of all participants in the process. There is an urgent need for a deep understanding and comprehensive investigation into the practices of mainstreaming/inclusion in Hungary because services cannot be improved without mapping gaps in the support system. A key to inclusion is sharing good practices. In Germany, the ISAR project (https://www.isar-projekt.de) was developed with the aim of giving general teachers a database and online resource pool of good practices they can implement in their work with students with BVI. In 2018, the Hungarian Federation for the Blind and Partially Sighted (MVGYOSZ) launched a project titled ‘Future Perspectives’ (A jövő kilátásai), based on the experience of the ISAR project (Prof. Emmy Csocsán, PhD, is a cofounder and professional leader of both projects). Both databases are increased with the help of SEN teachers and general teachers, who have good practices in working with students with BVI. These are exceptional initiatives, which may reach and support wide numbers of general teachers in their efforts for inclusion only if constant funding and human resources are provided to guarantee their sustainable functioning.

Notes 1 United Nations Enable (n. d.) Convention on the Rights of Persons with disabilities and its optional protocol. https://www.un.org/development/desa/disabilities/convention-onthe-rights-of-persons-with-disabilities.html 2 United Nations Children’s Fund (n. d.). Inclusive education. https://www.unicef.org/ education/inclusive-education 3 OCED Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (2003). Education policy analysis. http://www.oecd.org/education/school/26527517.pdf 4 UNESCO (1994). The Salamanca Statement. http://www.csie.org.uk/inclusion/unescosalamanca.shtml

References Alliance of Inclusive Education (n.d.). What is inclusion? https://www.allfie.org.uk/definitions/ what-is-inclusive-education/ Boroson, B. (2017). Inclusive education: Lessons from history. Educational Leadership, 74(7), 18–23. Czachesz, E. & Radó, P. (2003). Oktatási egyenlőtlenségek és speciális igények. In Halász, G. & Lannert, J. (eds.), Jelentés a magyar közoktatásról (pp. 349–376). Budapest: Országos Közoktatási Intézet. Dudley-Marling, C. & Burns, M. B. (2014). Two perspectives on inclusion in the United States. Global Education Review, 1(1), 14–31. Esteves, K. & Rao, S. (2008). The evolution of special education: Retracing legal milestones in American history. Alexandria, VA: National Association of Elementary School Principals. European Agency for Special Needs and Inclusive Education. (2018). Country information for Hungary – Legislation and policy. Retrieved November 28, 2022 from https://www. european-agency.org/country-information/hungary/legislation-and-policy

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FELVI. (2020). Gyógypedagógia. Retrieved January 15, 2020 from https://www.felvi.hu/ felveteli/szakok_kepzesek/szakleirasok/!Szakleirasok/index.php/szak/34/kepzest_ indito_intezmenyek Füller, N. (2019). Látássérült tanulók tapasztalatai az integrált középiskolai oktatásról (BA thesis). Budapest, Hungary: ELTE Bárczi Gusztáv Gyógypedagógiai Kar. Graham, L. J. & Jahnukainen, M. T. (2011). Wherefore are thou, inclusion? Analysing the development of inclusive education in New South Wales, Alberta and Finland. Journal of Education Policy, 26(2), 263–288. https://doi.org/10.1080/02680939.2010.493230 Haug, P. (2017). Understanding inclusive education: Ideals and reality. Scandinavian Journal of Disability Research, 19(3), 206–217. http://doi.org/10.1080/15017419.2016.1224778 Központi Statisztikai Hivatal. (2021). Magyarország népességének száma nemek és életkorok szerint. https://www.ksh.hu/interaktiv/korfak/orszag.html Hossain, M. (2012). An overview of inclusive education in the United States. In Aitken, J. E., Pedego Fairley, J., & Carlson, J. K. (eds.), Communication technologies for students in special education and gifted programs (pp. 1–25). Hershey, PA: IGI Global. Kiss, E. (2020). Magyarországon élő, 0-14 éves látássérült gyermekek és szüleik populációjellemzőinek átfogó vizsgálata. Doctoral dissertation (manuscript). Budapest, Hungary: Semmelweis Egyetem. Körner, I., Tisdal, K., Ulhmann, S., Schmid, B., Freyhoff, G., & Rígrová, D. (2018). Best Practices in inclusive education. Retrieved February 04, 2022 from https://www.inclusioneurope.eu/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Best-Practice-Education_EN-FINALWEB.pdf Lendvai, L., Pap, A., & Nguyen, L. L. (2019). A látássérült diákok kortársakkal kapcsolatos megélt tapasztalatainak jellemzői. Gyógypedagógiai Szemle, 47(2), 98–118. Pajor, E. (2017). Látássérülés – sérült látás? Budapest, Hungary: ELTE BGGYK. Papp, G. (ed.) (2011). Középiskolás fokon?! Sajátos nevelési igényű tanulók együttnevelése a középiskolában. (pp. 9–22). Budapest, Hungary: ELTE Bárczi Gusztáv Gyógypedagógiai Kar – ELTE Eötvös Kiadó. Perlusz, A. (2019). Applicational component. In Lechta, V. (ed.), Key components of inclusive education (pp. 14–23). Bratislava, Slovak Republic: VEDA, Slovak Academy of Sciences. Rieser, R. (2014). What’s happening with inclusive education around the World? World of Inclusion Ltd. http://worldofinclusion.com/whats-happening-with-inclusive-educationaround-the-world/ Schiffer, C.S. (2005). Tanítók tapasztalatai a vak gyermekek integrációjáról. Gyógypedagógiai Szemle, 33(3), 181–195. Somorjai, Á. (2008). Integráltan és szeparáltan tanuló vak fiatalok. In Bánfalvy, Cs. (szerk.), Az integrációs cunami (pp. 77–112). Budapest, Hungary: ELTE Eötvös Kiadó. Sümegi, Cs. (2012). Látássérült középiskolások beilleszkedése látó osztályközösségbe. (BA thesis). Budapest, Hungary: ELTE Bárczi Gusztáv Gyógypedagógiai Kar. Szabó, D., Sándor, G. L., Tóth, G., Pk, A., Lukács, R., Szalai, I., Tóth, G. Z., Papp, A., Nagy, Z. Z., Limburg, H., & Németh, J., (2018). Visual impairment end blindness in hungry. Acta Ophthalmologica, 96(2), 168–173. Vargáné Mező, L. (2011). A látássérült tanulók középiskolai együttnevelésének kérdései 2010-ben Magyarországon – helyzetelemzés. In Papp, G. (szerk.), Középiskolás fokon?! Sajátos nevelési igényű tanulók együttnevelése a középiskolában (pp. 92–120). Budapest, Hungary: ELTE-Bárczi Gusztáv Gyógypedagógiai Kar – ELTE Eötvös Kiadó. Világ Világossága Foundation (n.d.). History. Retrieved January 14 from http://www.vva. hu/koszonto

11 EDUCATIONAL INCLUSION OF MIGRANT CHILDREN IN THE DISCOURSE AND PRACTICES OF TEACHERS IN PRIVATE AND PUBLIC RUSSIAN SCHOOLS Maria Kozlova, Tatiana Ryabichenko, Igor Mikheev and Mike Titterton Introduction The mass movement of peoples across Europe in search of a better life is a contemporary phenomenon currently grabbing the headlines and attention of policy makers and others. The impact on societies and their infrastructures and systems has been significant (EMN, 2006; Metcalfe-Hough, 2015). Not least has been the sector of education, which is presently facing its biggest challenge in decades in terms of addressing the needs of its new pupils and facilitating their inclusion in school and everyday life in European countries. A range of international and national stakeholders has drawn attention to the plight of those children struggling to fit in ( Janta & Harte, 2016; UNESCO, 2019; UNHCR et al., 2019). Countries like Russia and other states in the post-Soviet region face additional hurdles in this respect (Payin & Susarov, 1996 see also, e.g., https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/ odr/russia-refugee-children-school). Our interest here lies in the educational strategies and everyday practices applied by elementary and secondary school teachers to facilitate the educational inclusion of students from the families of migrants. We examine these issues in respect of migrant children in Russia and the discourse of their teachers in the context of private and public schools. Intensive growth of migration flows started in Russia during the last decade of the 20th century. While initially it was repatriation migration of the Russian and Russian-speaking population from the Former Soviet Union countries, migration since the 2000s has mainly comprised economic and labour migrants. The contemporary migration situation in Russia is a reflection of West European scenarios, if 30–40 years behind (Demintseva et al., 2018). About 95% of migrants come from the CIS countries (Belarus, Ukraine, Moldova, Kazakhstan, countries of Transcaucasia and post-Soviet Central Asia). However, in recent years migrants from the countries DOI: 10.4324/9781003379034-13

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of post-Soviet Central Asia, particularly Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, have dominated numerically (Demintseva et al., 2018; Mkrtchyan & Florinskaya, 2018). There has been an increase in the number of women and those who are oriented to long-term or circular migration, as opposed to seasonal migration (Mukomel, 2016). Most of the international migrants are concentrated in the Central Federal District; of these, according to 2016 data, 46% are in the Moscow region, which is also a centre of attraction for internal migrants (Mkrtchyan & Florinskaya, 2018). However, Russia’s attractiveness to international migrants has consistently decreased over time, and, more than that, the pool of ethnoculturally similar migrants from the post-Soviet territory is nearly depleted (Demintseva et al., 2018; Trubin et al., 2019). This is why the issues arising from the attraction to new migrants should be put at the forefront, along with the issues of decrease of their dropout and increase of their assimilation in the country. This is opposed to cultural and social isolation that may lead to the growth of negative attitude towards migrants in receiving society (Mukomel, 2016; Trubin et al., 2019). According to the interviews with labour migrants from post-Soviet Central Asia, they are constantly looking for an optimal choice between “leave” and “stay”, while the final decision depends on the normative requirements regarding proper behaviour and opinions of relatives and friends and family interests. In such a case, migrants are more likely to make a decision to stay in the receiving country, if the migration was carried out as a collective family action. The transnational nature of modern migration does not exclude the use of such integrative practices as a study of language, an expansion of contacts or even an acquisition of citizenship by migrants (Abashin, 2016, p. 40). Hence, some of these labour migrants could stay in Russia and become completely integrated into Russian society; however, apart from existing problems of acquisition of legal status, one can also name, as the main obstacles for migrant integration, absence or inefficiency of state policy and naturalisation programmes focused on teaching of language and civics (Demintseva et al., 2018). Migrant children, who are taught at schools, can become not only promising workers but also both agents of culture in their own family and agents of culture of the country where they were educated in case of repatriation or moving to another country (Mukomel, 2014). But there are no special adaptation programs for migrant children in schools, as well as programs that could assist teachers and students in solving the language problem (Demintseva et al., 2018). Education and migration policy are the two fields directly connected to the issues of construction of civic and ethnocultural identities, consolidation of representatives of various ethnic groups in the statewide context and constructive integration of population. The key value of the internalisation of learning environment is stated as equality of all the participants of educational process: Education, qualification, specialization is not just an intrinsic value, but also an instrument, a way of achieving goals, investment asset. In this instrumental (or perhaps utilitarian) sense provision of opportunities in the sphere of education suggests further access to other public goods. (Konstantinovsky, 2010)

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However, according to the evaluation of educational achievement following the results of large-scale monitoring, such as TIMSS/PIRLS and PISA, in the majority of highly attractive for migrants countries (OECD, as well as RF) immigrant children are behind on educational achievement by more than two years in comparison with the children of the representatives of majority (Buchmann & Parrado, 2006; Stanat & Christensen, 2006). Migrant families are typically oriented to education of children in schools with lower indicators of educational achievement and students’ competitiveness, frequently characterised by negative incidents and unfavourable conditions in classes. In the overwhelming majority of the countries included in the PISA research, at least 25% of immigrant children of the second generation attended schools, with more than 50% of immigrants within the total number of students. Moreover, in several countries, immigrant children of the second generation do not show better results than immigrant children of the first generation. At the same time in those countries with a high level of immigration, where there is a proper organisation of language support programs in the sphere of preschool and elementary school education, in which objectives, standards and evaluation systems are clearly defined, performance of the second-generation immigrant children is much closer to an average country level, which suggests a role for state social policy in this sphere (EUMC, 2004). Children and adolescents who leave their native country face significant difficulties during the first stages of their life in the new country. This is defined not only by the challenges of migration as such but also by the necessity to study and adapt to a new social and cultural environment. A number of stressors affect the everyday life of young migrants. These include separation from the family or a new family structure that may cause difficulties in parent–relative–child relationships; social and legal pressure on migrants; prejudices and discrimination among children in school (Pratt-Johnson, 2015); and the disappointment that migrants can feel, when they compare their previous expectations with the reality in the country of arrival (Rogers-Sirin et al., 2014). Although children are less likely to develop long-term negative responses (Sigal & Weinfeld, 2001) and over time become more stable and adaptable than adults, during the first year of migration children suffer more than their parents (Levitt et al., 2005), which can be the consequence of the absence of control over the migration experience. Educational experience serves as a significant factor in adaptation to new cultural and social contexts because pedagogues can support or complicate integration of migrant children and adolescents depending on the peculiarities of their own interpretation of educational objectives (Berry & Vedder, 2015). Realistic goals, support from significant adult figures and social interaction with other children help to protect the students trying to build their future in a new country. Vice versa, limited relations with peers, educational objectives not oriented to students and absence of guidance from adults may lead to failure of adaptation and increase of the risk of low economic results, unemployment and involvement in criminal activity (MottiStefanidi et al., 2012). In view of the social responsibility that lies with pedagogues, we looked at the everyday routine of inclusive education from the point of view of the teachers

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directly involved in working with children from immigrant families. Based on the analysis of semi-structured interviews with teachers working in different organisational contexts (comprehensive schools and a special project providing help for adaptation of non-native speaking children), we attempt to explicate value and normative attitudes of teachers towards non-native speaking students. We also review a set of issues related to teachers’ views on conditions, prospects and barriers to their professional activity in the contexts aimed at adaptation of migrant children to the Russian school environment and integration into the Russian society. The questions determining the research structure and this paper are: • What techniques and methods of management of cultural diversity do the teachers use directly in the course of teaching and out-of-class activity? • What are the institutional and cultural facilitators and barriers to inclusive learning environment development from the point of view of teachers as key actors in educational space? • Preceding the description of the design of performed research and presentation of the results, we highlight a number of its characteristic features in order to provide a fuller picture of teachers’ professional activity in Russian schools1. First, it should be noted that Russian teachers’ workload is significantly higher than that of their foreign colleagues: on average, 46 hours per week in comparison with 38 hours for European pedagogues (TALIS, 2018). Of these, the teaching itself occupies just 23.5 hours, while the rest of the time is spent on preparation for lessons and administrative work, which takes up to 9% of working hours. In Finland, UK, France and Netherlands, there is less time assigned for teaching than in Russia: 16.9 to 20.6 hours per week (TALIS, 2018). In these countries, significant attention is paid to planning and preparation for lessons, communication with parents and guardians, consultation for children and providing assistance to those who are behind the program. Second, Russia is top regarding the professional level of pedagogues, calculated on the basis of three criteria: knowledge, autonomy and partnership with colleagues. In addition, while under the first criterion Russia takes first place and under the latter shows a high level comparable with the level of the countries with the most successful educational systems, such as the UK and Singapore, the indicators of Russian teachers’ autonomy level are low and their activity is excessively regulated and does not allow for the chance to choose or develop on one’s own preparation programs and systems of assessment tools. Third, Russian teachers’ area of competence includes not only educational process but also out-of-class interaction with students and parents, and a disciplining function. Moreover, the high administrative load, with a large number of students per class (20 to 30 persons), forces teachers to spend some part of personal time working with children. However, despite its significance, the teaching profession in Russia is still perceived as non-prestigious and is not highly paid. The non-prestigiousness of the profession in Russia is attributed to the heavy workload, a high bureaucratisation of educational process and, most significantly, low salary.

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We review two types of educational institutions: general comprehensive secondary schools in which the share of migrant children comprises 3 to 36% of the total number of students and a specialised project, aimed at adaptation of migrant children. Specific characteristics and organisational features are described in detail later.

Methodology An empirical study of the attitudes of the teachers of comprehensive schools was carried out using semi-structured interviews. These provided an in-depth view of teachers’ notions of ethnocultural differences, desired prospects and actual limitations and possibilities of adaptation for migrant children, as well as integration of representatives of various ethnocultural groups involved in the educational process. On the basis of this representation, we detected and analysed not only the special aspects of social inclusion processes within the educational process but also the general specifics of working with cultural differences in various types of educational institutions. This method was actively applied in the study of adaptational situation of migrant children during the survey of Moscow schools’ teachers (Demintseva et al., 2017), in the research of evaluation of essentialist discourse of Danish Muslims (Siebers & Dennissen, 2015) and within the framework of other research, where relevance to set tasks was revealed.

Participants Interviews were conducted with the teachers who live and work in the schools of Moscow and Moscow Oblast. This is because it is this region that was the most attractive for migrants during the whole post-Soviet period; therefore, the teachers of this region have the longest experience of working with migrant children. The participants were recruited among primary and secondary teachers with expertise in working with migrants, using snowball sampling. Thus, non-probability sampling of the researched cases was complemented by a targeted approach to the choice of respondents. For the collection of interviews with the teachers of comprehensive schools, these were undertaken till area saturation, that is, appearance of repetitive answers. Ten interviews were collected, of these 6 were with elementary school teachers (grades 1–4), 4 – with subject teachers in secondary and high school (grades 5–11). Among informants, there were 9 women and 1 man; 2 respondents were under 30 years of age, and the rest 30–45 years old. Therefore, the list of respondents reflected the demographic composition of Russian schoolteachers2. During the research of the attitudes of the teachers and mentors included in the project Pereletnye Deti (Migratory Children), there were collected 5 interviews, which was due to a limited number of the pedagogues participating in the project.

The Case of Pereletnye Deti The project Pereletnye Deti is carried out within the private lyceum Kovcheg-XXI (Ark of the 21st Century). It is a charitable educational project, financed by the

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lyceum’s funds and private donations. The programme is intended for a one-year period of education for children from migrant families in a Russian-speaking environment. Children are provisionally divided into two groups: junior (7–10 years) and senior (11–17 years). De jure non-native speaking students are enrolled in the existing lyceum class, while de facto they are arranged in separate teams where they start learning activities. The teaching staff for Pereletnye Deti consists of subject teachers and learning group mentors; the duties of the latter include class supervision of the group, instructional support of the project and maintenance of public relations. Mentors who were employed for work within the adaptation initiative guide the social inclusion process. Subject teachers worked in the lyceum before the beginning of the program but did not complete special training for working with non-native-speaking students.

Interview Schedule The interview guide included the following sections: •

Informant’s biographical situation. This includes questions about job title and length of work experience in education in general and in specific educational institutions, general assessment of educational institutions, working conditions, teaching staff and students. • Experience of working with migrant children. Within this section, an informant is asked to talk about the actual situation and experience of working with the children of migrants for whom the state (Russian) language is not native. In addition, the informant is encouraged by interviewer to describe both specific situations of interaction with a non-native speaking child and members of their family and generalised assessments of progress and results of the educational process in the classes with migrant children. Finally, there were questions about actually implemented and desired, in informant’s opinion, forms and resources of teaching activity aimed at facilitation of adaptation and integration of migrant children. • Interactions with parents. This comprises questions that encourage an informant to describe forms of work, barriers and achievements of working with migrant parents, as well as the questions aimed at obtaining of information on teachers’ assessment of everyday upbringing practices of migrant parents. • “Expert assessment of situation”. This implies introduction to informants extracts from the Federal Law “On Social and Cultural Adaptation and Integration of Foreign Nationals in the Russian Federation” and the State Migration Policy Concept of the Russian Federation through to 2025 (approved by the President of the RF on June 13, 2012). Since extracts presented to the informant included very abstract wording, they make up a kind of a projective situation. This is achieved by the informant’s own assessment of the migration situation and prospects of its change, as well as their own views on school’s possibilities in facilitation of adaptation and integration of migrant

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children. Within this section, informants were also encouraged to assess recognition and demonstration of cultural differences and integrative potential of the existing educational programs and educational materials. The guide for the interview applied in the project Pereletnye Deti also included a block of questions about the specifics of the project and informant’s role in it. In the course of the analysis of the interview transcripts, it was intended to distinguish a set of categories and codes (open coding of units of analysis) that characterise pedagogues’ interpretations of cultural differences and their view of social inclusion process proceeding during the learning period of non-native speaking children.

Findings Results are presented according to the sequence of research questions, simultaneously comparing statements of the teachers of comprehensive schools and pedagogues involved in Pereletnye Deti. •

• •

•

Attitudes of comprehensive schoolteachers and teachers involved in the special project towards educational inclusion of migrant children: teachers’ attitudes towards cultural diversity and migrants, and educational inclusion of migrant children; Techniques and methods of management of cultural diversity that teachers use directly in the course of teaching and out-of-class activity; Institutional and cultural facilitators and barriers to the development of inclusive learning environment from the point of view of teachers as key actors in educational space, such as inclusive school environment, freedom of activity planning for teachers, teaching staff structure (presence of tutors, experts in cross-cultural communication), teacher training; Cultural facilitators and barriers to inclusive environment development, includ­ ing inclusive culture of educational institutions, out-of-school communities (neighbourhood communities) and Russian society in general.

Research Question 1: Teachers’ Attitudes towards Educational Inclusion Our informants assessed migrant children’s academic performance in general as lower in comparison with the performance of children receiving society representatives: “achievements are not too good, frankly speaking” (f., teacher of history and social studies, comprehensive school). The teachers explained the absence of academic achievements by a number of objective factors, for example, difference of educational programs in general and programmes on certain subjects in exodus countries and in the Russian Federation “In their native countries schooling is

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organised in a completely different way, some subjects are even missing” (f., teacher of history and social studies); insufficient Russian language skills, “besides comprehending new material that is taught in a non-native language, children need to somehow ‘connect’ it all in their head – this constant translation from one language to another inside one’s head – and somehow arrange this new knowledge” (f., English language teacher). However, in order to understand teachers’ attitudes, it is interesting to review teachers’ explanations of the performance of migrant children by the factors that are based on subjective assessment of cultural and psychological features of students and members of their families. Specifically, low academic motivation of migrant children is interpreted by teachers as a result of cultural features: They feel perfectly well and don’t worry at all because they can fail an exam. And, well … even with some aggression perceive teacher’s aspiration to encourage to pass an exam. They show laziness and lack of responsibility, don’t read books because they often think that the culture of the country where they live now is of little interest to them. They are proud to be Azerbaijanis and very often they say that I didn’t do it because…, or I wrote an essay poorly because I went to my native country for a weekend or for holidays, and we didn’t speak Russian there, I didn’t have time. You know, in other words, keeping their self-esteem, which is, in my opinion, is a sign of lack of culture and reluctance to acquire the language that surrounds them and with which they will have to deal during their life in Russia. ( f., teacher of Russian language and literature) The role of individual, culturally independent factors in the interpretation of success is, on the contrary, large; moreover, overcoming of cultural differences is interpreted as a key success factor: “Many of them are far from stupid and even gifted and quite gifted . I don’t think that in this case nationality is of great importance. These are ordinary human factors, after all” (m., history teacher). Our informants tend to interpret cultural features with a disposition to ethnicity essentialisation: Migration flow isn’t controlled and people who are not aware of their own actions come very often. That is to say, they use in Russia ways of communication or behaviour that were natural for them in their environment. It very often contradicts the national traditions. When a person is uneducated, doesn’t know how to behave properly in an unfamiliar cultural environment, it’s not right. It’s risky for a Russian. (f., teacher of Russian language and literature) In the above-mentioned statement, orientation of migrants to exodus culture is interpreted as something similar to mental disorder (“people who are not aware

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of their own actions come very often. That is to say, they use in Russia ways of communication or behavior that were natural for them in their environment”), therefore, as a hardly surmountable issue that not only reduces migrants’ chances to achieve success in receiving society but also makes them dangerous for this receiving society (“risky for a Russian”). Attribution of a fixed and unchangeable set of properties to culture and characterisation of entities with different properties as “unjoinable” is revealed through the evaluation of other cultures using the criteria of one’s own culture, which in some cases is displayed as overt ethnocentrism: “Only if they respect my culture and my traditions, they have a right to reside in my country” (f., teacher of Russian language and literature) and xenophobia: I think that this (migration) flow should be a little bit stopped There was a migrant hostel not far from our summer cottage. And there were these huge buses that drove them away in the morning and drove back in the evening, and when there are crowds of noisy, hot-tempered, not understanding anything in our language, shouting, talking, it was scary to pass through such crowds. (f., elementary school teacher) The above statement shows a pronounced perceived threat the source of which is essentially obscurity of migrants’ language and behaviour. The established interpretation of the reasons for migrant children’s academic failures/achievements in teachers’ everyday experience suggests that ethnocultural aspects are viewed as obstacles to receiving an education, while the cases of academic (of children) and professional/career (of their parents) achievements are explained by “liberation” of an individual from the influence of exodus culture (“Many of them are far from stupid and even gifted and quite gifted . I don’t think that in this case nationality is of great importance. These are ordinary human factors, after all” (m., history teacher)). Thus, education as a “perfect type” is viewed by pedagogues as a “free of culture” acquiring of knowledge. But with a caveat that all of this doesn’t refer to Russian culture. A child should “break free” of non-Russian culture, while acquisition of Russian culture, on the contrary, is viewed as a reliable basis for success. What is more, only in such a case when it is internalised, learnt at mother’s knee: Of course, children are purposeful and they show better results in other subjects But he obviously can’t Russian language at the level of a native speaker, a person who thinks in this language, who was read fairy tales in this language since childhood. ( f., teacher of Russian language and literature) The indicated interpretations reproduce the logic of differentialism (Balibar & Wallerstein, 1991), which, while often declaring “noble” objectives (preservation

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of  diversity of traditional culture, national security, in our case, best interests of the  child), strengthens intergroup boundaries and, consequently, ideologically excludes the possibility of inclusion as such in educational space and polyculturalism in different contexts of intergroup interaction: I am very well disposed towards migrants, towards people in general, but I’d like to say that children with non-native Russian should be taught separately from children with native Russian. Because when they go to Russian school it is a great ordeal and stress for them because they can’t show themselves in the best light, they aren’t successful. It causes insecurities, it is difficult for them, it requires significant intellectual efforts and a child is not always able to get good grades. It causes irritation and hatred of teachers and the environment where they find themselves. I think that there should be organised separate classes, if the school commits to educate such children. ( f., teacher of Russian language and literature) Thus, teacher informants of comprehensive schools reproduce dominant in a public space differentialist discourse emotional and evaluative aspects of which are worsened by everyday difficulties of professional activity implementation, pressure of educational program requirements, school administration that demands growth of performance indicators, etc.

Research Question 2: Techniques and Methods of Management of Cultural Diversity An integrative practice implemented in the Pereletnye Deti project is designed for the step-by-step introduction of children-participants of the project to regular classes. It is carried out both within the framework of class learning activity itself – for instance, children go to regular lessons on the subjects to which the students themselves show inclination and abilities: Apart from studying in a “migratory class”, over time we send them to Russian-speaking groups, by twos, threes, and if a child is about 14, they can be easily put to, let’s say, seventh grade . It is, of course, very complicated, we start with one or two subjects, depending on how a child demonstrates their abilities That is to say, initially everybody studies in a migrant class, and later, by the end of the year, everybody should integrate into Russian-speaking ones. In other words, first we formally admit them to some class, that is, there’s a boy (name), he’s 15, he’s enrolled in 7А, but in September he doesn’t attend lessons with this class yet, just during the year he starts to gradually attend various subjects, but by the end of the year he should attend the maximum possible number of subjects, if not all. (mentor, f., 25 years) In the course of out-of-class school-wide activities (both outdoor and organised in the lyceum):

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Our custom in the Ark is that children are involved in some kind of joint activity, go to an excursion together, or to a theatre, and initially PD go together with the class in which they are enrolled to by age. Apart from taking part in this kind of activities, such as outdoor ones, local and school holidays, the children have folklore lessons, that is, an instructor with a balalaika comes to them, they learn not just songs, but also proverbs and folk games, and some opening sequences, and so on. PD like it, it’s something unusual, unfamiliar, in addition they start to share some of their own traditions, if they see that there’s a similar game in their traditions, they start to let themselves go – and we play like this, they themselves also start to teach us. That’s so great. For example, a game with a coin in which you need to put stealthily a small coin in somebody’s hands, they exist virtually in every culture, and they start to tell what they sing and say while playing. It’s so great that it happens unobtrusively. (mentor, f., 25 years) In comprehensive school, teachers state the necessity of individual approach to migrant children education: “individual approach is never a bad thing. It always produces more results than something average and brought to a common standard. One could highlight the things that are the most difficult for such children in educational process” (m., history teacher). In practice, as admitted by informants, the possibilities of individual approach implementation are quite limited: When we talk about present-day school, ordinary school … What teacher would spend a huge amount of time and energy on each single student, perhaps in defiance of some school programs, when they are paid 20000 RUB per month. It’s so obvious. In other words, one needs to subsist, eat something, wear something and so on. Huge inconsistency. In this case, lots of things are by all means desirable, and they are all would be positive, but it’s unsubstantiated …. (m., history teacher) Elementary school is probably an exception: the lower “density” of educational programs and higher difference in the level of student preparation, regardless of their ethnocultural origin, allows to organise catch-up lessons in order to eхplain difficult topics. Moreover, the key factor specifying elementary school education is probably elementary school teacher’s attitude towards their students like towards “little ones” who require greater attention, “nursing”: “The only thing that could be done is to make allowances when performing some tasks, in terms of comparison of their previous results with the present” (f., elementary school teacher). Elementary school also offers some other organisational types of activities that expand opportunities for interaction and additional pedagogical support for the children who experience difficulties in comprehension of the educational program: There are children who attend the after-school group. For example, I’ve just taken a group of such children who have this problem with Russian language.

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Parents addressed me as a teacher, as a homeroom teacher, and said: “I can’t help my child to learn Russian and teach him to read and write correctly because I don’t know it well myself ”. And it’s great that she herself understands that and seeks some outside help. ( f., elementary school teacher) Elementary school also provides more opportunities for involvement of parents in educational process and out-of-school activities: “When children see that their parents are interested in educational process, it definitely brings results, they themselves also try to participate in everything. And other children also see that migrant parents are no different from their own parents” (f., elementary school teacher). Elementary school teachers on the whole positively evaluated the educative effect of the subject taught in elementary school, “The World Around”: It is basically aimed at everything, not only Russia, but also other countries, and quite a lot of attention is paid to nationalities, customs, traditions, there are even sections dedicated to some nationality. That is why children, whether they want it or not, anyway get acquainted with them, and it’s a chance for migrant children to tell in more details, as a person who lives there, how it happens in reality. It’s so great for children, both for emigrants and Russians, in such a way they expand their horizons. ( f., elementary school teacher) For example, there is a topic “Russia is a Multinational Country”, and children and I prepared reports by drawing lots: who takes which nationality. More than that, we study both Russian and foreign literature, plus a festival of national culture is organised in the school for a second year in a row, where each class demonstrates culture, costumes, some rules of different nationalities. ( f., elementary school teacher) Teachers discussed special activities aimed at preventing or overcoming xenophobia among students: There was a situation in our school when a homeroom teacher prompted an excursion to the Tolerance centre. Because a child was bullied due to their ethnicity: derogatory terms, something nasty about skin colour, about origin, etc. As far as I know, the conflict was settled to some extent. ( f., English language teacher) Therefore, comprehensive school does not provide teachers with systemic opportunities for high-quality education of migrant children in the absence of organisational capacities for the work focused on their socio-cultural integration. As a

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result, an “individual approach” becomes just a rhetorical expression because it is not only impossibility caused by limited time, finances, or maybe pedagogue’s competence, that excludes or at least complicates implementation of an individual approach, but also conviction of its danger in the context of a child’s educational prospects: We try to make them think that they are the same as Russian children, that they will have no allowances, that they should get accustomed to it at once and afterwards, when they’ll take exams, there will be no allowances for them. In other words, it turns out that if we give them some advantage, they will get accustomed to it and there will be problems for them later. ( f., elementary school teacher)

Research Question 3: Institutional Facilitators and Barriers Three key factors that characterise structural aspects of our informants’ professional activity were distinguished from the content of their statements. We will review them consecutively.

Inclusive School Environment According to our informants’ statements, the administration is responsible for acceptance of inclusive values and implementation of inclusive development strategy. In the case of the private educational project, the founder and principal of the lyceum appears as a sole creator and moving spirit of the inclusive project, and his individual biographical experience becomes the main driving force: That was an idea of our principal, he went to France, travelled a lot and adopted European practices. And once he was in a French school where there were a great many children, about 10 representatives of different nationalities per class, and there were Muslims who wore veil, and Hindus, and black children from Africa, and everybody reacted to it calmly. He was surprised, he thought: I’m going to get into some kind of ghetto, there are too many immigrants, I’ll be robbed but in the end he said that nothing happened, and his daughter Masha went to buy some pizza at night, and everybody is safe and sound, that is to say, absolutely civilized city … And there was also in principal’s office and in some classroom a poster with a black angel and inscription “Freedom of movement”. When he asked the school principal what it meant, he answered: “Any child has a right to education. They can come to any country and get an education there. Children shouldn’t suffer because their parents take some decisions, whether forced or not”. And he was taken by the idea that in Russia it should also be like that. (Pereletnye Deti, mentor, f.)

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On the contrary, in comprehensive schools, teachers bemoan the absence of support for administrative staff, encountering pressure instead of support from school administration: “The administration turn a blind eye and pretend it’s not their problem” (f., teacher of Russian language and literature). Therefore, administrative support of pedagogues’ attempts aimed at helping in adaptation and integration of migrant children appears to be a “random” factor, hardly predictable and uncontrollable. It is not included in any organisational and legal framework (except, of course, the most general, stipulated by applicable Russian legislation, for instance, by the Federal Law on Education and by the Federal Law “On Social and Cultural Adaptation and Integration of Foreign Nationals in the Russian Federation”). However, the abstract nature of the Russian legislative provision does not allow teachers to appeal to it in particular situations of professional activity.

Freedom of Activity Planning for Teachers This factor, according to informants’ testimony, appears to be extremely important for adaptation of curricula and both structural and substantive aspects of a lesson to the task of integration of non-native speaking children. In state schools, teachers are severely limited by school hours, large numbers of students per class (30+ people) and standards, first of all determined by the content of BSE (Basic State Exam) and USE (Unified State Exam): Children with non-native Russian appear in class, nevertheless, they should take USE in Russian, as if Russian is a native language for them. And if they fail it, then the teacher who didn’t teach well is to blame. And the fact that he doesn’t know half of the words in Russian, didn’t read books that were read by all the Russian children because they grew up in this cultural environment, it’s of no concern to anybody. It is, by all means, very careless on behalf of administration. ( f., teacher of Russian language and literature) Pedagogues employed in the lyceum Kovcheg-XXI and, in particular, in the project Pereletnye Deti define freedom as an opportunity to vary style and content within the framework of educational standard in order to increase the cognitive motivation of children and, consequently improve achieved academic results (academic performance) Most of all I like freedom, in class I can do whatever I see fit, what will really be useful to children, what is interesting to me and to children and in such a way that is interesting to them. (Pereletnye Deti, teacher, f., 25) through addressing the reality of students themselves:

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We got to know their national writers, they read in their own language, we read in Russian, wrote what we think, tried to compose something ourselves, read fairy tales. Initially I asked to recite some poems or name favorite books of their national authors, or some fairy tales, for example. They have lots of interesting folk tales, they told them, I heard many of these stories for the first time. They sang lullabies that their parents sang them, we watched traditional lullabies, and they even recognized some, when there were common language group. And poems, somebody found about love, somebody something else, they named these authors, we printed these poems, we read these poems, this is how we worked, children selected themselves. They read poems in their own language, and we read in Russian some short stories, novellas. In the end we all agreed that we finished reciting poems and we started to study Chinghiz Aitmatov. He was a Soviet writer, he was Kyrgyz . It was about traditions… (Pereletnye Deti, teacher, f., 25) Apart from solving didactic and educational problems as such, greater autonomy and freedom for teacher creates preconditions for transformation of the whole school community, both teaching staff and student body: Previously I worked in a state school, surely the system is different because it’s a private school, more open-minded, the atmosphere here is absolutely different regarding relationships between teachers, that is, it’s less formal here, the teachers here communicate with each other more like teammates who have a common cause and let’s say there’s no such authoritative hierarchy in principal’s treatment of teachers, teachers’ treatment of children, so everybody here is treated on equal terms, of course, I like it so much. (Pereletnye Deti, mentor, f., 25) Equality and agency of the participants of educational process create markedly different basis for realisation of the objectives of interaction in class. Under such conditions, both children and teachers focus on the content of education instead of achievement of formal performance indicators.

Teaching Staff Structure In comprehensive schools, teachers involve, if possible, supplementary education teachers, school psychologists and social workers for communication with the families of non-native speaking children, holding supportive lessons with them. Teachers view as necessary the activity of such a cultural mediator, pedagogue or educator with a special training in cross-cultural communication, ideally with knowledge of the languages of the most numerous migrant groups. He or she should also be oriented to facilitating the process of mutual adaptation of migrants and receiving

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population and integration of migrant children into receiving society in general and into school/class in particular Perhaps it would be reasonable to involve the speakers of their native language who are equally proficient in Russian. So that there was an atmosphere of such… friendliness to them. So that they could communicate, I understand that it’s extremely difficult, but that probably would be ideal. Teachers who also speak their native language. ( f., English language teacher) but by no means always available. In some cases, this role is taken by a member of teaching staff, typically with the experience of migration or identifying themselves as ethnocultural minority. “Psychologist, she’s Armenian, and now and then she talks to parents with language problems, she talks to them in their own language in order to explain in simple terms, to pass them information” (f., elementary school teacher). Thus, we again face the effect of an apparently random and uncontrollable factor: not every teaching staff is fortunate enough to have a member focused on assistance to representatives of ethnocultural minorities and possessing such a valuable resource as national languages. In the project Pereletnye Deti, the structure of the teaching staff is markedly different from that of comprehensive schools: there is a mentor in each class who addresses the issues of leisure time organisation, supplementary education and interaction of groups from Pereletnye Deti with regular classes in the lyceum. Further, there is a project mentor who supervises Russian language courses, which are organised with methodical guidance of the lyceum in other educational institutions, as well as a public relations specialist, who, among other things, provides legal support for the students and their families, and preparation of the documents necessary for enrolment in comprehensive schools. That is why subject teachers who work on the project Pereletnye Deti are able to focus on the taught subject.

Research Question 4: Cultural Facilitators and Barriers of Inclusive Environment Development The society outside of school is evaluated by teachers as an environment, if not hostile, then at least not oriented to support for educational and acculturation successes achieved in class and inclusive values formed by the school. Teachers of comprehensive schools and pedagogues in Pereletnye Deti tend to see the root of the trouble in the absence of tolerance culture in Russian society as a whole: Local society perceives such children, such people differently. The atmosphere created in school differs from what people observe outside of school. That is why children live quite reclusively, they basically communicate with the family, with some close friends. In other words, it’s a life inside the school and around the school (inclusive environment in school) is useful, but

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the problem is that I know firsthand that children, when they exit the school, face the real situation, where everything is fundamentally different. Children exit wearing rose-colored glasses. This moment of meeting with the world becomes for them quite difficult. ( f., English language teacher) The teachers themselves reproduce the same discursive practices. Differentialist racism strengthens and justifies inequality relations between “native” and “non-native” ethnicities and constructs a system where civic identity is replaced by an ethnic one (Shnirelman, 2013). The reasoning of differentialism in teachers’ discursive practices reaches its apotheosis in the situation of an interview when it is suggested that an informant moves beyond their pedagogical experience as such and analyses actual educational and national policy from their point of view: - What risks for Russian society involve migration flows, in your opinion? - Risks are only in regard of mixing of bloods, in this regard, apart from that there are no special risks. Well, maybe also cultural ones … There’s often interracial misunderstanding… ( f., elementary school teacher) In this case, “differentialism”, which lays claim to the right to preserve cultural integrity and authenticity, takes the form of traditional racism based on the fear of genetic mixing. As a result, there appear attitudes to the segregation of migrant children: - How, in your opinion, can migrant parents help their children? - The most important thing that parents can do is to send the child, for whom Russian is not native, to the school where he will be enrolled to the class where he will be taught according to the programs for non-native Russian (but) they are sure that the child will be able to cope. Ambitions and ignorance! They don’t understand what the requirements to the child will be in an exam and that is why they are sure that he will be able to cope with everything. ( f., teacher of Russian language and literature)

Conclusion The research was devoted to the study of didactic and educational strategies and everyday practices applied by elementary and secondary-school teachers to facilitate educational inclusion of students from the families of migrants. The results revealed a number of barriers to successful integration of migrant children, ingrained in the established attitudes of teachers and typical practices. At the core of structural barriers to inclusive culture is a gap between declared multicultural ideology and educational activity possibilities in a real-life class.

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Teachers noted the insufficiency of institutional support, first of all, in the sphere of professional training, methodical supervision and organisational and legal support of teaching activity. They feel isolated in everyday work, forced to use situational practices established in the course of everyday professional activity, insufficiently thought through and thus unpredictable both for children and parents and for pedagogues themselves. Therefore, the creation of an enriched professional environment would allow teachers to have an opportunity to develop the competences of polycultural education and exchange successful practices. Most importantly, it would allow them to critically interpret them, while preserving the value core of inclusive culture that implies sensitivity to cultural features and differences. Along with active support of inclusion of all the students from the very first days in a new learning environment, this should form the main practical task. Creation of such an environment would encourage development of skills of teaching in a polycultural class, consistency of practice and advanced training over a period of the whole teaching career, the necessity of which being emphasised on numerous occasions ( Jokikokko & Uitto, 2017). Apart from mastering new techniques and teaching methods, natural and inevitable transformation of teachers’ perception of cultural differences and attitudes towards representatives of ethnocultural and religious minorities forms the most important outcome of continuous professional training of the teachers working in polycultural classes. In the research by Rothstein-Fisch et al. (2009), it was demonstrated that acquaintance with cultural differences and development of skills of their understanding, increasing the detailed elaboration of theoretical knowledge of cultures, contributes greatly to the increase of respect for cultural differences. For teachers this is the ground for the development of understanding of necessity and intention to form systematically active, equal and therefore mutually enriching relationships with students’ families and cultural and local communities. Thus, school becomes a subject of more large-scale changes, transforming through the bottom activity of local communities (neighbourhoods) the attitudes towards minorities and practices of everyday interaction between receiving population and migrants. The guidelines of this trend should be set by a compound system of (re)training of pedagogues, which would be able to connect theoretical and legal dimensions of intercultural education with the best practices. This should be accompanied by a multidimensional system of monitoring of inclusivity of learning environment that takes into account the challenges of teaching and learning in polycultural context along with the opinions of all participants in the educational process (Kiel et al., 2017). Teachers, as key subjects of this process, should be aware of their responsibility for promotion and support of educational climate of social responsibility ( Jokikokko & Uitto, 2017). This implies not only assistance to migrant and refugee students in a new educational context but also working with the whole class in order to facilitate intercultural exchange and mutual respect. Moreover, school pedagogues can contribute to the development of environment connected to everyday life of students (Hedegaard, 2003), by increasing community participation (involving family, community, NPO, other educational and recreational institutions, etc.).

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However, empirically observed situations help to significantly revise methodological guidelines for the educational system but also its ideological reconstruction in the context of complicated objectives of introduction of all the actors involved in the educational process (parents, pedagogues, administration, students) in relation to notions of diversity. This should encourage them to solve common problems, train teaching staff to work under complex conditions of diversity, and manage conflicts of norms and values. This will also allow for a response to adaptation demands, along with a demonstration of flexibility and creativity in removal and prevention of discrimination, and stimulation of cooperation among all participants. The provision of inclusion and integration carried out in schools should shift from being a function of goodwill of the educational institution and teachers’ intuitions and to being based on certain ideas and values of multiculturalism. This will be implemented on the basis of certain programs with the consideration and use of certain (predictable for all the participants of educational process) professional pedagogical skills and competences. This research represents the first step and can be used for the development of more large-scale, qualitative research with the involvement of a greater number of participants. Importantly, it can contribute to the development of programmes and events on advanced training for teachers, which it is clear are necessary for working within the conditions of polycultural school and the active dissemination of reflective approach to inclusive teaching.

Acknowledgement This work is an output of a research project implemented as part of the Basic Research Program at the National Research University Higher School of Economics (HSE University).

Notes 1 The special aspect of Russian teachers’ professional activity are reconstructed on the basis of the statistical information obtained within the scope of statistical research of teaching environment and teachers’ working conditions in comprehensive educational organizations (TALIS, 2018). 2 According to (TALIS, 2018), the share of teachers aged 30–45 in Russian schools comprised 44–48% of the total number; of teachers over 60, 9–13%; under 30, 10–14%; 86% of teachers are women; moreover, it is virtually unreal to encounter a male teacher in elementary school, while in secondary and high school their number doesn’t exceed 12–14% of the whole teaching staff.

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Berry, J. W., & Vedder, P. (2015). Adaptation of immigrant children, adolescents, and their families. In U. Gielen & J. Roopnarine (Eds.), Childhood and adolescence: Cross-cultural perspectives and applications (2 ed., pp. 321–346). Praeger. Buchmann, C., & Parrado, E. A. (2006). Educational achievement of immi-grant-origin and native students: A comparative analysis informed by institutional theory. In D. Baker & A. Wisman (Eds.), The impact of comparative education research on institutional theory (pp. 345–377). Elsevier JAI Press. Demintseva, E., Mkrtchyan, N., & Florinskaya, Y. F. (2018). Migration policy: Diagnostics, challenges, proposals. [In Russian]. Centr strategicheskih raz-rabotok. Demintseva, E., Zelenova, D., Kosmidis, E., & Oparin, D. (2017, 12/25). Adaptation of migrant children in the schools of Moscow and the Moscow region. Demographic Review, 4(4). https://doi.org/10.17323/demreview.v4i4.7529 EMN. (2006). Impact of immigration on Europe’s societies. European Migration Network. EUMC. (2004). Migrants, minorities and education. EUMC analytical reports of education. European Union Monitoring Centre. Hedegaard, M. (2003, 2003/03/01). Cultural minority children’s learning within culturallysensitive classroom teaching. Pedagogy, Culture & Society, 11(1), 133–152. Janta, B., & Harte, E. (2016). Education of migrant children: Education policy responses for the inclusion of migrant children in Europe. RAND. Jokikokko, K., & Uitto, M. (2017, 2017/01/02). The significance of emotions in Finnish teachers’ stories about their intercultural learning. Pedagogy, Culture & Society, 25(1), 15–29. Kiel, E., Syring, M., & Weiss, S. (2017, 2017/04/03). How can intercultural school development succeed? The perspective of teachers and teacher educators. Pedagogy, Culture & Society, 25(2), 243–261. Konstantinovsky, D. L. (2010). Inequality in the sphere of education: situation in Russia [in Russian]. Public Opinion Monitoring, 5(99), 40–65. Levitt, M. J., Lane, J. D., & Levitt, J. (2005, 2005/09/01). Immigration stress, social support, and adjustment in the first postmigration year: An intergenerational analysis. Research in Human Development, 2(4), 159–177. Metcalfe-Hough, V. (2015). The migration crisis: Facts, challenges and possible solutions. Overseas Development Institute. Mkrtchyan, N., & Florinskaya, Y. F. (2018). Labor migration in Russia: International and internal aspects. The Journal of the New Economic Association, 1, 186–193. Motti-Stefanidi, F., Berry, J. W., Chryssochoou, X., Sam, D. L., & Phinney, J. (2012). Positive immigrant youth adaptation in context: Developmental, acculturation, and social psychological perspectives. In A. S. Masten, K. Liebkind, & D. J. Hernandez. (Eds.), Capitalizing on migration: The potential of immigrant youth (pp. 117–158). Cambridge University Press. Mukomel, V. I. (Ed.). (2014). Migrants, migrant-phobias and migration policy Moscow Bureau for Human Rights. “Academia”. Mukomel, V. I. (2016). Labor migrants in the context of Russian demographic, economic, and social development problems. In M. S. Rozanova (Ed.), Labor migration and migrant integration policy in Germany and Russia (pp. 23–33). The Print House “Scythia-Print”. Payin, E. A., & Susarov, A. I. (1996). The political context of migration in the former soviet union. In J. R. Azrael & E. A. Payin (Eds.), Cooperation and conflict in the former soviet union: Implications for migration (pp. 49–59). RAND Corporation. Pratt-Johnson, Y. (2015, 2015/11/01). Stressors experienced by immigrant and other non-native English-speaking students in U.S. schools and their families. Journal of Social Distress and Homelessness, 24(3), 140–150.

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Rogers-Sirin, L., Ryce, P., & Sirin, S. (2014). Acculturation, acculturative stress, and cultural mismatch and their influences on immigrant children and adolescents’ well-being. In R. Dimitrova, M. Bender, & V. F. Van De (Eds.), Global perspectives on well-being in immigrant families. Advances in immigrant family research, vol 1. Springer. Rothstein-Fisch, C., Trumbull, E., & Garcia, S. G. (2009, 2009/10/01/). Making the implicit explicit: Supporting teachers to bridge cultures. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 24(4), 474–486. Shnirelman, V. A. (2013). The soviet paradox: Racism in the country of the “Friend-ship of Nations”? [in Russian] In E. Demintseva (Ed.), Racism, xenophobia, discrimination. How we saw them… (pp. 97–115). NLO. Siebers, H., & Dennissen, M. H. (2015). Is it cultural racism? Discursive exclusion and oppression of migrants in the Netherlands. Current Sociology, 63(3), 470–489. Sigal, J. J., & Weinfeld, M. (2001). Do children cope better than adults with potentially traumatic stress? A 40-year follow-up of Holocaust survivors. Psychiatry: Interpersonal and Biological Processes, 64(1), 69–80. Stanat, P., & Christensen, G. (2006). Where immigrant students succeed. A com-parative review of performance and engagement in PISA 2003. OECD. TALIS. (2018). The OECD teaching and learning international survey. 2018. Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development. Trubin, V., Nikolayeva, N., Myakisheva, S., & Khusainova, A. (2019). Population movement in Russia: Trends, problems, solutions. [in Russian]. The Analytical Center under the Government of the Russian Federation. UNESCO. (2019). Migration, displacement and education: Building bridges, not walls. United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. UNHCR, UNICEF, & IOM. (2019). Access to education for refugees and migrant children in Europe. UNHCR.

12 DISABILITY IN SCHOOLS Segregation, Full Inclusion or Free Inclusion? Patrick Dwyer

Position Statement The author of this chapter is an autistic person. The ideas expressed in this chapter are informed by his own negative experiences in mainstream education, which in his view forced him and his family to resort to distributed education (essentially, homeschooling). However, the author is also deeply concerned about the exclusion of other disabled children from mainstream settings against their will.

Historical Context: Shifts in Thinking about Placement Disabled1 children spend a considerable in school, which has a large influence on their life experience. School is a hub for peer relationships; social relations and rejection are linked to disabled children’s mental health (Eussen et al., 2013; Mrug et al., 2012; Whitehouse et al., 2009). Similarly, disabled people’s experiences of peer victimization are associated with mental health symptoms and suicidality (Baumeister et al., 2008; Becker et al., 2017; Holden et al., 2020). Moreover, just as the demands of working in schools can contribute to teacher burnout (Brissie et al., 1988; Friedman, 1991), so too can high environmental demands lead to experiences of burnout for autistic people (Raymaker et al., 2020). Ultimately, the sheer amount of time that children spend in school ensures its centrality. Interventions taking place in brief, weekly sessions could have less opportunity to impact children’s lives than a school they regularly attend for six or seven hours a day. It is therefore essential for disabled children to be placed in a school environment conducive to their mental health, which will help them to thrive and make their experience meaningfully inclusive. This might well be the most useful intervention possible in many disabled children’s lives. DOI: 10.4324/9781003379034-14

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Unfortunately, historically it has been difficult to ensure that disabled children are placed in supportive, inclusive educational environments. Indeed, many disabled children – particularly those with intellectual disabilities – have faced the danger of being detained within psychiatric institutions. Such institutional settings are rightly subjected to intense criticism. Within institutional settings, horrific conditions – violence and abuse, neglect and indifference, filth and overcrowding, restraints and confinement, denial of learning and denial of personal freedom – have been documented; such conditions could compare unfavourably to many prisons for nondisabled criminal offenders. These conditions have not only been observed historically in the Global North (Donvan & Zucker, 2016; Maisel, 1946; Rivera, 1972; Sheffer, 2018) but remain a concern in some developed countries such as Greece and Japan (Hadjimatheou, 2014, 14 Nov; Saruta, 2014). Similar institutions are seen contemporaneously in developing countries (Ćerimović, 2016; Larsson, 2016; Sharma, 2014). In response to these institutions, advocates globally have demanded access to school, and more specifically, access to a mainstream education alongside nondisabled peers. This was, in many ways, an obvious response to institutional psychiatry: schools could not only provide supervision for disabled children while family members worked, but they could help children acquire skills and education that would be useful in adult life. Moreover, any abuse directed against disabled children in the mainstream might have to be carried out in a more public setting than abuse in segregated institutions. Admittedly, disabled children’s access to education is far from universal, even in some advanced economies. A lack of universal access to education for disabled children can also be a serious problem in developing economies today (Bakhshi et al., 2017; Martínez, 2015; Singal, 2016). For instance, school attendance among autistic children in France has considerably increased in recent years, yet some autistic children still do not attend school (Rattaz et al., 2020). Moreover, of those disabled children who do have access to education, not all are educated alongside nondisabled peers. Even in advanced economies such as the United States, some disabled children are educated outside mainstream settings, while others only participate alongside nondisabled peers for part of their school day (U.S. Department of Education, 2020). Nevertheless, the drive for access to the mainstream has had many triumphs. In the United States, legislation encouraging the placement of disabled children in the “least restrictive environment,” or alongside nondisabled peers to the maximum possible extent, was enacted in the Education for All Handicapped Children Act (1975). A similar provision exists in the author’s home province of British Columbia in Canada (M150/89, am 235/07). In the United Kingdom, the Warnock report also had the effect of increasing access to mainstream education (DES, 1978; Warnock, 2010). Furthermore, the 1994 Salamanca Statement and the 2006 United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities have extended the principle that disabled children should be educated in integrated settings to the international level (UN, 1989, 2006).

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Increasing access to education may also have changed the landscape of disability itself. For example, while “autism” refers to a quantifiable behavioural phenomenon, its meaning and boundaries have shifted, emphasizing its socially constructed nature (Grinker et al., 2012; Nadesan, 2008). Observed increases in autism prevalence (Coo et al., 2008; King & Bearman, 2009; Williams et al., 2006) appear to reflect changes in diagnostic practice, not true increases in autistic characteristics in populations (Arvidsson et al., 2018; Lundström et al., 2015). While autism is now understood to exist along a heterogeneous dimensional spectrum, or even as a heterogeneous multidimensional constellation (Hearst, 2016), the dominant view of autism was once much narrower and based on the obviously neurodivergent cases originally described by Kanner (1943). Interestingly, subtler forms of what we now call autism were described in the research literature on a number of other occasions beginning as early as 1926 (Asperger, 1991; Robinson & Vitale, 1954; Simmonds & Sukhareva, 2020), yet this idea did not “catch on” until reintroduced by Wing (1981). While epidemiological and twin studies (Folstein & Rutter, 1977; Wing & Gould, 1979) may have helped to support a broadening of the definition of autism, the movement towards mainstream education likely also drove this expansion. Before mainstreaming became a reality, disability supports were often attached to institutionalization, making them rather unattractive. In contrast, after mainstreaming, special education supports became available within mainstream schools, which may have made diagnoses more useful to many disabled individuals and their families. This may also have contributed to increasing diagnosis of other disability categories such as ADHD (Polanczyk et al., 2014; Visser et al., 2010) and specific learning disabilities (Hallahan, 1992). Thus, the world of disability today appears very different than it did a half-century ago.

Theoretical Considerations Dominant Theoretical Approaches In the years since institutional psychiatry started to fall out of favour in advanced economies, support for the principle that disabled children should be educated alongside nondisabled peers in mainstream schools has become widespread. However, in practice, this sort of inclusion has proved to be challenging. Briefly, disabled children in busy classrooms with other students may encounter barriers and require accommodations or supports that general education teachers, due in part to a lack of adequate training, are ill-equipped to provide; they might also behave in ways that teachers find challenging and disruptive (Buell et al., 1999; Forlin, 2001). Moreover, disabled children may find themselves physically present but meaningfully excluded: they might struggle to participate socially or in lessons alongside nondisabled peers, and could even find their paraprofessional supporters inadvertently further restricting their participation (Cummins & Lau, 2003; Feldman et al., 2016; Giangreco & Broer, 2005; Sparapani et al., 2016). One can distinguish between two major theoretical reactions to these sorts of problems: the

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“selective” (or “moderate”) and the “full” (or “universalist”) approaches to inclusion (Cigman, 2007). In the selective approach, although physical integration of disabled and nondisabled students is understood to be desirable (Cigman, 2007; Hornby, 1999), it is not thought to be essential. If a disabled student is not considered well-matched to a mainstream environment, that student may be placed in a specialized educational setting. These specialized educational settings are quite distinct from the segregated institutions discussed earlier in this chapter – the former are generally daytime educational programs for students who live with their families, not inpatient hospitals. However, selective inclusionist usually seem to assume that educational authorities will make judgements regarding the appropriate educational environments for students (Vaughn & Schumm, 1995; Warnock, 2010); certainly, many selective inclusionists focus on the importance of basing decisions on evidence and data (Kauffman et al., 1995; Kavale & Forness, 2000; Lindsay, 2007; Simpson & Sasso, 1992). The agency of students and their families is generally not emphasized – although, fortunately, some scholarship defies this trend by drawing attention to the need for students and families to have choices (Cigman, 2007; Low, 2007; Spurgeon, 2007). Importantly, students who exhibit disruptive behaviours or who have intellectual disabilities are more likely to be directed towards, and to find themselves educated in, specialized settings (Eaves & Ho, 1997; Lauderdale-Littin et al., 2013; Segall & Campbell, 2014). This is revealing, especially as research suggests that students with intellectual disabilities generally do at least as well or better in mainstream settings than in specialized settings and that their presence in mainstream classes does not appear to negatively impact other students (Carlberg & Kavale, 1980; Cole & Meyer, 1991; Dessemontet et al., 2012; Freeman & Alkin, 2000). Moreover, some students without intellectual disabilities or disruptive behaviours could still have negative experiences of sensory overload, peer victimization, or social isolation in mainstream schools (Goodall, 2020). These students might be overlooked if school systems focus on intellectual disability and disruptive behaviour when assigning educational placements. Why then would systems focus on these variables? Disruptive behaviours and intellectual disabilities can make the lives of teachers more stressful and difficult (Forlin, 2001). This raises an important question: for all that selective inclusionists might defend their approach on the grounds of logic and evidence, is it possible that placement decisions made by teachers and administrators within educational systems are biased by their own interests, not those of students? The full inclusion approach differs strikingly from the selective approach. While full inclusionists do not ignore the challenges that including all students in mainstream classrooms can pose, they adopted a very different solution. Moving beyond the old idea of “integration” of disabled students into mainstream schools, they adopted a concept of “inclusion” that emphasizes meaningful participation of all students – disabled and nondisabled alike – as members of mainstream school communities (Ferguson, 1995; Sebba & Ainscow, 1996). This change of objectives and terminology allowed full inclusionists to bypass considerations of placement. When disabled students struggle in the mainstream, this is not, to full inclusionists,

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evidence that their placement should be reconsidered – rather, it is evidence that the mainstream setting in question was not “inclusive.” As a result, for full inclusionists, the question ceases to be one of whether students should be placed in the mainstream or not. For them, the only remaining question is how to make the mainstream inclusive for all. In the author’s anecdotal experience, many full inclusionists today simply refuse to engage with the suggestion that specialized placements may have value: they merely repeat the refrain that, while there may be some difficulties in the mainstream now, with more resources and better practices, full inclusion of all will someday be possible. The uncompromising nature of the full inclusionists’ stance probably reflects the deeply normative underpinnings of their position. Full inclusionists conceptualize their efforts as part of a struggle to challenge oppression, enhance social justice and indeed help build a better society (Lipsky & Gartner, 2010; Oliver & Barnes, 2010). They suggest that they are defending the “right” of disabled people to access mainstream and indeed inclusive education (Lipsky & Gartner, 2010; Ravet, 2011), and this understanding of a “right” has even been embedded into international conventions (UN, 2006). These commitments seem admirable, especially when contrasted against aspects of the selective inclusionist position that might, in practice, promote the interests of educational systems, rather than students. However, the statement that the full inclusion position embraces a “right” to inclusion and integration is not accurate (Cigman, 2007). A “right” is exercised by an agent who has a choice. Although the full inclusion position claims to champion the disabled, it leaves surprisingly little freedom for them, or their families, to exercise agency. What if disabled individuals feel that environments outside the mainstream are more inclusive for them?

Ableist Assumptions in Special Education The selective and full inclusionist approaches’ denial of agency to disabled people and their families appears troubling. Furthermore, many contemporary approaches to disability may be premised on ableist assumptions: assumptions that reflect some level of prejudice or stigma towards disabled people. Most obviously, disabilities are often understood to be “disorders” and “deficits,” and accordingly, professionals aim to “normalize” disabled individuals to eliminate these “deficits.” For example, stutterers are to be taught to speak more fluently (Bothe et al., 2006) and autistics to have better social skills (Bellini et al., 2007); in both cases, these normalization-focused approaches have been criticized, as inauthentic attempts to appear normal may be unhelpful or counterproductive (Bottema-Beutel et al., 2018; Constantino, 2018; Hull et al., 2019; Sasson et al., 2017). More broadly, this pathological focus can itself be problematic (Armstrong, 2010, 2012). Not only does it distract from students’ strengths, but it sends the message to the student that there is something wrong with them. Autistic people’s mental health is related to the degree to which they and others around them accept their autism (Cage et al., 2018), so the pathologizing message could be harmful. Moreover, even the idea that professionals provide a service to help disabled people has its dangers. Viewing oneself as a person in need

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of special help may not be conducive to self-esteem. While supports and teaching of useful skills are necessary, care should be taken to ensure they are provided respectfully. They could simply be viewed as a natural extension of the supports most neurotypical children need for learning, such as explicit instruction to help them learn mathematics. Movements such as disability pride, the neurodiversity approach and cultural models of disability could work to counter pathologizing assumptions and disability stigma. Both disabled and nondisabled students could learn about the history of disability communities and their advocacy struggles, just as they might learn about the history of any other community in society. As suggested by (Armstrong, 2010, 2012), disabled children could be introduced to positive role models with their own disabilities. Neurodivergent children could be deliberately encouraged to take pride in their unique minds and brains. This solution differs starkly from another reaction to the dominant pathologizing model. Many special educators, particularly those within the full inclusion camp, recognized the problems associated with medicalization and pathology but reacted by attempting to avoid the use of disability labels entirely (Gallagher, 2001; Lipsky & Gartner, 2010; Vislie, 2003). This approach, though more extreme, arguably resembles the person-first (e.g., “person with deafness”) approach to disability language, which aims to verbally separate disabilities from individuals in order to emphasize the personhood of the latter. Though controversy remains (Bury et al., 2020), many disabled advocates and organizations oppose person-first language (Murray, 2018; Sinclair, 2013; Streeter, 2010) and favour identity-first constructions (e.g., “Deaf person”). Person-first language’s goal of separating disability labels from the person arguably reflects stigma towards disabilities (Gernsbacher, 2017): if one saw nothing wrong with being disabled, why would one try to separate the disability and the person? And this is a far less extreme case than the position that disability labels should be avoided entirely: if putting a person before a disability label reflects stigma towards disability, then would not avoiding these labels entirely reflect still greater stigma? Moreover, disability labels can serve useful functions. They can promote positive identity and pride; for example, individuals receiving diagnoses of autism or ADHD in later life can report better self-understanding, self-acceptance and agency post-diagnosis (Fleischmann & Fleischmann, 2012; Hansson Halleröd et al., 2015; Leedham et al., 2020; Stagg & Belcher, 2019). Labels have practical utility in the organization of the supports and accommodations that students can require to address disability-related barriers. Furthermore, disability labels can promote teacher–student understanding (Ravet, 2011). Neurotypical individuals can struggle to understand the perspectives of neurodivergent individuals (Edey et al., 2016; Milton, 2012), and individuals with power over others (such as teachers with power over students) are less likely to recognize the perspectives of those over whom they have power (Galinsky et al., 2006). Because of these misunderstandings, teachers have been known to punish disabled students for engaging in behaviours that were not intended to be disruptive (Lucas et al., 2009; Sciutto et al., 2012;

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Whitaker,  2007); these punishments can be traumatic (Honkasilta et al., 2016; Pfeffer, 2016). Labels could be used positively, not to dehumanize disabled students or cast them as outgroup members but to help teachers better understand the challenges disabled students face and the reasons for their behaviours. At the very least, disabled people should not be made to feel that disabilities are shameful things to be hidden, nor should they be denied identities that may help them understand and accept themselves.

The Dismissal of Disabled Communities While there are doubtless further ableist assumptions that could be discussed here, one particularly relevant to inclusion is the devaluation of social connections between disabled people. As we have seen, full inclusionists place such value on disabled people’s contact with nondisabled individuals that they demand inclusion should be achieved in mainstream settings; specialized settings are not considered an option. Even selective inclusionists would prefer for students to be educated in the mainstream if possible. Why? Some arguments simply suggest that disabled individuals benefit from exposure to nondisabled students. For example, there is a prevailing notion that autistic individuals will best learn social skills through exposure to neurotypical peers (Roberts & Simpson, 2016). While this might be true for younger individuals, the social behaviours of older neurotypical children become increasingly complex. These more complex and competitive social behaviours might fall outside the Vygotskian zone of proximal development, leaving many autistic individuals struggling to keep up, or finding themselves too intimidated to try to interact with neurotypical peers (Belmonte, 2020). Notably, a social skills intervention delivered to a segregated group of autistic children was more effective in promoting social engagement than an intervention delivered to integrated classes of autistic and non-autistic children (Kasari et al., 2016). Furthermore, bullying of disabled children is a further risk associated with exposure to nondisabled children. Thus, the assumption that mere exposure to nondisabled students will invariably benefit the disabled may require re-evaluation. Indeed, while disabled children should certainly not be denied the right to associate with nondisabled peers if that is their desire, why should disabled children be discouraged from connecting with other disabled children if they want to? As eloquently noted by Sinclair (1998), such discouragement explicitly devalues disabled people and conveys the impression that disabled people are undesirable as peers. Nevertheless, another argument in favour of placing disabled children alongside nondisabled peers deserves attention. Advocates of integration suggest that contact between disabled and nondisabled children can encourage nondisabled children to be more accepting of disability and diversity (Lipsky & Gartner, 2010; Roberts & Simpson, 2016). There is, indeed, some evidence to support this position (Beelmann & Heinemann, 2014). However, quantity of intergroup contact is arguably less important than its quality. Intergroup contact maximally reduces prejudice when groups are equal in status, when they cooperate and pursue common goals,

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and when authority encourages this positive contact (Pettigrew & Tropp, 2006). Negative intergroup contact experiences can increase prejudice, and these negative experiences may even be more influential than positive experiences (Barlow et al., 2012; Graf et al., 2014). Witnessing a disabled student being socially rejected may cause attitudes towards the disabled student to become less favourable (Tonnsen & Hahn, 2016). Thus, although mainstreaming of disabled individuals who have positive experiences in integrated settings appears likely to reduce stigma, forcing disabled children to undergo negative experiences in mainstream school might not have any salutary effect on stigma and prejudice.

Social Construction and Environmental Adaptation One final question this chapter must address relates to the origin of disability and its implications for the creation of inclusive environments. The social model of disability suggests that disability is created or constructed by inaccessible and exclusive environments and societies, not by individuals’ own physical impairments, sensory differences and neurological differences. The interactionist approach preferred by the present author does not go quite so far, as it allows both the individual and their surrounding environment to contribute to disability, but it still emphasizes the important role that disabled people’s environments can play in constructing barriers. The role society plays in constructing disability is sometimes understood to require mainstream educational placements (Oliver & Barnes, 2010), but this conclusion does not necessarily follow. If someone’s environment is imposing disability-related barriers on them, then clearly the environment must be changed. However, this change does not necessarily require attempting to make a mainstream environment more inclusive, rather than providing an alternative, non-mainstream environment. The social construction of disability might be better understood to emphasize that disabled people should be entitled to expect that the mainstream will be as inclusive and accessible as possible if they choose to exercise their right to a mainstream placement. It is intriguing here to compare the availability of choices in childhood and adulthood. Adults have considerably greater freedom than children: for example, they are able to pursue employment opportunities in different career paths. Although disabled individuals clearly experience considerable barriers to adult employment, partly due to discrimination (Ameri et al., 2018), disabled people can still try to use the diversity of employment options available to them to find a niche that takes advantage of their strengths and interests, and that avoids their disability-related challenges (Grandin & Duffy, 2004; Hendricks, 2010). In contrast, if disabled children are required to attend mainstream schools, they might lack the freedom to choose an educational environment that best meets their needs. One might object by arguing that universal design principles could be used to create this individualized, optimal environment within the mainstream school. However, while it is necessary to make every effort to include disabled students within the mainstream if they choose to be there, universal design offers no

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guarantee that this will be wholly successful. One must be realistic about the changes and adaptations that will and will not be possible in practice. For example, physically rebuilding a school to prevent overcrowding in hallways is realistically unlikely to be available for students who experience sensory overloads when exposed to crowds. Furthermore, there may be cases where the needs of different students are at odds, such that accommodating some students will disable others. Education for the Deaf may offer an example of this latter case. The placement of Deaf children in mainstream settings with hearing peers can result in experiences of social isolation, especially for those who communicate primarily through signs rather than orally (Antia et al., 2011), and provision of sign interpreting may not adequately convey educational content to Deaf students (Marschark et al., 2005). Thus, a mainstream educational environment might not be inclusive for a Deaf native signer unless everyone else was required to communicate using sign. However, as few hearing teachers and students are native or fluent signers, such an environment would be exclusionary for them. Clearly, universal design has limits.

A New Approach: Free Inclusion The centrepiece of the approach to inclusion proposed by this chapter, which might be called “free inclusion,” is the emancipation of disabled children and their families from educational placement decisions imposed on them. Given that promoting freedom has sometimes been identified as a major objective of human development (Sen, 1999), increasing the agency of disabled children and their families to select an appropriate school environment seems a natural and progressive step. Specifically, this chapter proposes (1) that disabled students and their families should have an absolute right to an educational placement in the mainstream if that is their preference, (2) that mainstream teachers should accordingly receive considerably greater mandatory special education training, including training in disability pride and disability cultures, and (3) that every effort should be made to provide disabled students and their families with a variety of alternative options if they do not desire a mainstream placement. There are potentially many alternatives to mainstream schools which could be presented to give disabled children and their families the best chance of finding an environment optimally suited to their needs. Unfortunately, in the author’s anecdotal experience, many North American families searching for non-mainstream placements are currently forced to turn to tuition-charging independent schools for disabled children. To prevent the development of a two-tier system, it will be important to develop alternative, non-mainstream options within the free and public educational system, or at least as free, government-funded, non-profit options. Perhaps the most obvious alternative to the mainstream is to create specialized schools for disabled individuals. These would be most suitable in areas with sufficient population densities to support them. Architecturally, specialized schools can be designed with the sensory needs of their students in mind (Mesibov & Shea, 1996;

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Mostafa, 2014), and they can be smaller and less overwhelming than large mainstream schools. These schools would ideally be in a position to promote disability pride by introducing their students to the history of disability communities, cultures and advocacy. Schools should be specialized for appropriate subsets of the disabled population. For example, while one might expect that autistics, ADHD people, and dyslexics would be able to get along fairly well, adding some other students – such as those with “conduct problems” – to the mix might prove problematic (Sainsbury, 2009; Wing, 2007). Relying entirely on disability labels would seem to be a crude method of evaluating the appropriateness of a particular school for a child: brief trial periods could be a more appropriate method, as long as evaluations of appropriateness are based on the effects of a placement on other students, not on disruption to teachers, which should be clearly established in policy and legislation. Interestingly, there may be opportunities for pursuing intergroup contact with nondisabled individuals within a specialized school model. Groups of students from specialized schools could occasionally visit or be visited by nondisabled peers in situations that foster cooperation, encouraging positive experiences of intergroup contact. One intriguing alternative to the fully specialized school is a hybrid model: a small school with both disabled and nondisabled students. For example, some schools in the United Kingdom not only specialize in teaching disabled students but also specialize in particular subjects, such that nondisabled students interested in these subjects can attend the schools (Spurgeon, 2007; Warnock, 2010). This might also provide excellent opportunities for intergroup contact. Another option is to develop classrooms specialized for disabled students within mainstream schools. This might be possible even in situations where population density does not allow for the development of specialized schools. Unfortunately, opportunities for school-wide architectural changes to promote sensory accessibility might be limited, but specialized classes might allow for greater intergroup contact between disabled and nondisabled students than fully specialized schools, albeit perhaps in a less controlled manner. Homeschooling and distributed education (i.e., learning remotely within the public education system) are a very different set of options from those presented above, and they come with both advantages and disadvantages. On the positive side, homeschooled children may be shielded from peer rejection and bullying, as well as from environmental triggers of sensory distress. Homeschooling may provide students with opportunities to begin learning and studying more independently, which might prepare them well for postsecondary education (Dolan, 2017). Parents of homeschooled disabled children report greater satisfaction with the special education services they receive than parents of children in traditional public schools (Cheng et al., 2016). Furthermore, homeschooling has the advantage of being possible in any location, and it should therefore be available as an option to all families. However, as was emphasized during the COVID-19 pandemic, homeschooling is not appropriate for all disabled children. It can provide

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relatively few opportunities for social contact, which may make it unsuitable for extroverted individuals. It may be difficult for students who struggle with time management. Finally, it may require parents to give up work to remain at home with their children, or demand access to technological devices and quiet study spaces that may not exist in all households. One final option may be to develop a customized educational program for a child in which each disabled child should be allocated a certain amount of government funding. If no other suitable option is available in the community, groups of families should be allowed to access and pool these funds to develop their own programs. If some or all of these options were available, disabled students and their families would need to choose from among them. In this model of free inclusion, the caregivers of disabled children and the children themselves would be provided with information regarding the schools in their area (including adjacent jurisdictions within reach of transportation). England presently offers something like this through the “local offer” (DfE, 2014), but often the information provided or the extent of the offer is inadequate (NAS, 2016). Thus, clear policies would need to outline the minimum information that should be provided regarding both mainstream and specialized settings. Caregivers would need to be reassured of their inalienable right to access a mainstream placement, which would be mandated by law. Caregivers and their children would be encouraged to visit any schools that interest them, including specialized schools or any of the other options that have been outlined. Disabled adults and experienced parent-advocates should be available to advise caregivers on these decisions. Involving children in these decisions would give them and their caregivers an opportunity to resolve any disagreements about placement choices. As noted earlier, personnel within the school system might be biased by a desire to reduce the challenges facing school personnel. This potential bias is a key reason for giving parents the principal role in placement decisions. While a chosen program might not always succeed, a negative experience could then motivate parents to transfer a child to a different option (Bernstein & Martin, 1992). A cynic might be concerned that mainstream schools could still find ways of pressuring families to remove their disabled children from the mainstream. While this author believes that most teachers are motivated by a genuine desire to support students, they could still be tempted to unconsciously introduce obstructions to encourage families to remove disruptive children. Personalized funding might help to counter this temptation. In the free inclusion model, disabled children would be allocated a substantial amount of government funding for any support needed. This funding would then be placed in an account available to whichever school the children attended. If the family had serious concerns regarding the quality of the support they were receiving in the school, the family would be able to switch to another placement, denying the funding to the school. This financial pressure could incentivize the school to provide enough support that the family and student would not feel obliged to leave.

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Conclusion To summarize, this chapter proposes a “free inclusion” model of inclusive education for disabled children that differs from the full inclusion model. Although disabled children would have a right to attend mainstream schools, they would not be compelled to attend them against their families’ will. Instead, families would be free to access alternative placements for their disabled children if the children experienced these as more meaningfully inclusive. Students and families’ right to access the mainstream, and the emphasis on agency within this approach, also strikingly differentiate this model from the selective approach to inclusion. Another key aspect of the free inclusion model is its emphasis on disability identity and pride. Wherever students were placed, special education support must be delivered respectfully. Given the importance of school in the life experience of a disabled child, the author hopes that the “free inclusion” approach will promote children’s mental health, well-being and thriving.

Note 1 A note on terminology: due to concern that person-first language may reflect stigma (see Gernsbacher, 2017), this chapter will use identity-first language, except where individuals with a given disability appear to prefer person-first language (as in “person with intellectual disability”).

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group, E. s. (2020, 2020/02/01). School inclusion in children and adolescents with autism spectrum disorders in France: Report from the ELENA French cohort study. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 50(2), 455–466. https://doi.org/10.1007/ s10803-019-04273-w Ravet, J. (2011, 2011/07/01). Inclusive/exclusive? Contradictory perspectives on autism and inclusion: The case for an integrative position. International Journal of Inclusive Education, 15(6), 667–682. https://doi.org/10.1080/13603110903294347 Raymaker, D. M., Teo, A. R., Steckler, N. A., Lentz, B., Scharer, M., Santos, A. D., Kapp, S. K., Hunte, M., Joyce, A., & Nicolaidis, C. (2020). “Having all of your internal resources exhausted beyond measure and being left with no clean-up crew”: Defining autistic burnout. Autism in Adulthood, 2(2), 132–143. https://doi.org/10.1089/aut.2019.0079 Rivera, G. (1972). The last great disgrace. http://index.geraldo.com/folio/willowbrook Roberts, J., & Simpson, K. (2016, 2016/10/02). A review of research into stakeholder perspectives on inclusion of students with autism in mainstream schools. International Journal of Inclusive Education, 20(10), 1084–1096. https://doi.org/10.1080/13603116.2016.1145267 Robinson, J. F., & Vitale, L. J. (1954). Children with circumscribed interest patterns. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 24(4), 755–766. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1939-0025.1954. tb06145.x Sainsbury, C. (2009). Martian in the playground: Understanding the schoolchild with Asperger’s syndrome (Rev. ed.). SAGE. Saruta, S. (2014). Without dreams: Children in alternative care in Japan. Human Rights Watch. https://www.hrw.org/report/2014/05/01/without-dreams/children-alternative-carejapan Sasson, N. J., Faso, D. J., Nugent, J., Lovell, S., Kennedy, D. P., & Grossman, R. B. (2017, 2017/02/01). Neurotypical peers are less willing to interact with those with autism based on thin slice judgments. Scientific Reports, 7(1), 40700. https://doi.org/10.1038/ srep40700 Sciutto, M., Richwine, S., Mentrikoski, J., & Niedzwiecki, K. (2012). A qualitative analysis of the school experiences of students with Asperger syndrome. Focus on Autism and Other Developmental Disabilities, 27(3), 177–188. https://doi.org/10.1177/1088357612450511 Sebba, J., & Ainscow, M. (1996, 1996/03/01). International developments in Inclusive schooling: Mapping the issues. Cambridge Journal of Education, 26(1), 5–18. https://doi. org/10.1080/0305764960260101 Segall, M. J., & Campbell, J. M. (2014, 2014/01/01). Factors influencing the educational placement of students with autism spectrum disorders. Research in Autism Spectrum Disorders, 8(1), 31–43. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rasd.2013.10.006 Sen, A. (1999). Development as freedom. Anchor Books. Sharma, K. (2014). Treated worse than animals’: Abuses against women and girls with psychosocial or intellectual disabilities in institutions in India. Human Rights Watch. https://www. hrw.org/report/2014/12/03/treated-worse-animals/abuses-against-women-and-girlspsychosocial-or-intellectual Sheffer, E. (2018). Asperger’s children: The origins of autism in Nazi Vienna. W. W. Norton. Simmonds, C., & Sukhareva, G. E. (2020, 2020/04/01). The first account of the syndrome Asperger described? Part 2: The girls. European Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 29(4), 549– 564. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00787-019-01371-z Simpson, R. L., & Sasso, G. M. (1992). Full inclusion of students with autism in general education settings: Values versus science. Focus on Autistic Behavior, 3(7), 1–13. Sinclair, J. (1998). Concerns about inclusion from within the disability community. https://web. archive.org/web/20000301072128/ http://members.xoom.com/JimSinclair/inclusion.htm

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Sinclair, J. (2013). Why I dislike “person first” language. Autonomy, The Critical Journal of Interdisciplinary Autism Studies, 1(2), 2–3. http://www.larry-arnold.net/Autonomy/index. php/autonomy/article/view/OP1 Singal, N. (2016, 2016/03/01). Education of children with disabilities in India and Pakistan: Critical analysis of developments in the last 15 years. Prospects, 46(1), 171–183. https:// doi.org/10.1007/s11125-016-9383-4 Sparapani, N., Morgan, L., Reinhardt, V. P., Schatschneider, C., & Wetherby, A. M. (2016, 2016/03/01). Evaluation of classroom active engagement in elementary students with autism spectrum disorder. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 46(3), 782–796. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-015-2615-2 Spurgeon, W. (2007). Diversity and choice for children with complex learning needs. In R. Cigman (Ed.), Included or excluded: The challenge of the mainstream for some SEN children (pp. 57–65). Routledge. Stagg, S. D., & Belcher, H. (2019, 2019/01/01). Living with autism without knowing: Receiving a diagnosis in later life. Health Psychology and Behavioral Medicine, 7(1), 348– 361. https://doi.org/10.1080/21642850.2019.1684920 Streeter, L. E. (2010). The continuing saga of people-first language. Braille Monitor. https:// www.nfb.org/sites/www.nfb.org/files/images/nfb/publications/bm/bm10/bm1005/ bm100509.htm Tonnsen, B. L., & Hahn, E. R. (2016). Middle school students’ attitudes toward a peer with autism spectrum disorder: Effects of social acceptance and physical inclusion. Focus on Autism and Other Developmental Disabilities, 31(4), 262–274. https://doi.org/ 10.1177/1088357614559213 U.S. Department of Education. (2020). 41st Annual Report to Congress on the Implementation of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. Department of Education. Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services, Office of Special Education Programs. UN. (1989). Convention on the rights of the child. United Nations. UN. (2006). Convention on the rights of persons with disabilities and optional protocol. United Nations. Vaughn, S., & Schumm, J. S. (1995). Responsible inclusion for students with learning disabilities. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 28(5), 264–270. https://doi.org/10.1177/ 002221949502800502 Vislie, L. (2003, 2003/03/01). From integration to inclusion: Focusing global trends and changes in the western European societies. European Journal of Special Needs Education, 18(1), 17–35. https://doi.org/10.1080/0885625082000042294 Visser, S. N., Bitsko, R. H., Danielson, M. L., Perou, R., & Blumberg, S. J. (2010). Increasing prevalence of parent-reported attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder among children – United Stares, 2003 and 2007. Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. CDC, 59(44), 1439–1443. https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm5944a3.htm Warnock, M. (2010). Special educational needs: A new look. In L. Terzi (Ed.), Special educational needs: A new look (pp. 11–45). Continuum. Whitaker, P. (2007). Provision for youngsters with autistic spectrum disorders in mainstream schools: What parents say — and what parents want. British Journal of Special Education, 34(3), 170–178. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8578.2007.00473.x Whitehouse, A. J. O., Durkin, K., Jaquet, E., & Ziatas, K. (2009, 2009/04/01). Friendship, loneliness and depression in adolescents with Asperger’s Syndrome. Journal of Adolescence, 32(2), 309–322. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.adolescence.2008.03.004 Williams, J. G., Higgins, J. P. T., & Brayne, C. E. G. (2006). Systematic review of prevalence studies of autism spectrum disorders. Archives of Disease in Childhood, 91(1), 8–15. https:// doi.org/10.1136/adc.2004.062083

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13 INCLUSIVE CAPABILITY IN EDUCATION SYSTEMS AND SCHOOLS Swedish experiences in international light Per Skoglund

Introduction This chapter is a synthesis of proven experiences (Skoglund et al., 2020) and research results on challenges, obstacles, operating factors and mechanisms for inclusion in contemporary Swedish society. The main argument is that there is a need for a deeper understanding of uncertainty in complex systems, as well as a conceptualization based on this understanding. Ultimately, inclusion is about support for and ability to learn among school professionals and the system’s political decision makers. Mainly, it is not as much a regulatory or financial problem, as it is a cultural thought-action-mode problem (Persson & Persson, 2011; Skoglund & Stäcker, 2016; Argyris, 1991; Schein, 1992). The purpose is to provide a nuanced, multilevel and dynamic understanding of improvement in education systems, schools and teaching practices, mainly by moving from the dichotomy of inclusive school to non-inclusive school and especially the earlier dominating placement conceptualization of inclusion.

Challenges and development 2005–2020 in the Swedish education system The Swedish education system from preschool to adult education (basic and upper secondary level) involves approximately 2.5 million persons attending school every day. If all professionals are counted, we come close to 3 million citizens involved (Persson, 2019, p. 17; Skolverket., 2018). A complex system of public and independent schools, on the one hand, regulated and governed by national government and, on the other hand, governed and financed in large by local political authorities, responsible for the performance of principals and teachers. The main question debated for two decades is why there is a lack of equity and goal achievement in the Swedish system over two decades. DOI: 10.4324/9781003379034-15

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In 2010, a new Education Act was passed, which implied major reforms concerning all levels from preschool to adult education, reflecting the current division of responsibilities between central and local government. The Education Act (SFS, 2010) states that access to equivalent education for all is the guiding principle from childcare to young adulthood. A pupil at risk of not achieving the minimum requirements or meeting difficulties in the school situation may, however, need special support. The underlying idea is that students in need of special support should be provided with the support they need in the regular class setting. (SFS, 2010). In 2014, a governmental clarification in law followed with the Education Agency’s advice (Skolverket., 2014) stating the adoption of a three-level model: general support within the classroom, extra accommodation within the classroom and special support based on an investigation and an action provision plan. During the period 2009–2018, the National School Inspectorate indicated a steady pattern. Among those municipalities and schools inspected, there have been between 50–65% of schools that were found “having difficulties” in providing extra accommodation and special support and in managing systematic quality assurance focused on improving the learning environment for all pupils, which in part can explain the decline in results in, for example, PISA investigations up until 2017 (Skolinspektionen., 2014; Skolverket., 2015; compare with Berhanu, 2011; Gadler, 2011; Persson & Barow, 2012).

Proven experience: inclusion in local context, a matter of complexity and uncertainty Inclusion has been pointed out as one key element for more sustainable development of societies worldwide in international declarations and conventions (UNESCO, 2001). In the practical context of schools, the tendency, however, in all Scandinavian countries, seems to be towards an ambition of “including all”, while there remains a great deal of diagnosis and placement of pupils in special groups (Hansen & Qvortrup, 2013; Nes, 2013; Skoglund, 2013; Ström, 2013). Statements such as “inclusion benefits all” are frequent, but what does it really mean? “Inclusion has gone too far”, stated former minister of Education, Jan Björklund (2018), and a Swedish leading newspaper followed up by: “The thought was fundamentally good; of course, shall children, as far as possible, be in a common class, but the idea of inclusion has gone too far, and it hits hardest on those who have the greatest difficulties”. (Dagens Nyheter, 2018). How is it possible to state something like that, when approximately 15–25% of compulsory pupils do not qualify for upper secondary school? There seems to be a lack of a deeper and common understanding of the concept! The following case illustrates the complexity of inclusion. In 2003, a request for “help” came, to the Swedish National Agency for Special Needs Education and Schools (SPSM) providing special pedagogic support, from a municipality eager to create more “inclusive schools” (Skoglund & Larsson, 2004). The intention of the management group in the spring was we want to include all pupils now.

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A development group was appointed and we, the agency’s advisors, first asked the management group how do you know that everyone wants to include all pupils now? The answer was well, actually we don’t know that, but please evaluate our work so far, concerning those in need of special support. When asked if they had any methods to investigate what they needed to know, the group suggested the use of the Focus Group Method involving stakeholders. We advised the development group to investigate the notion of “professional diversity”. They picked out 16 different actor groups, from politicians to day-care holders, and asked them about their views on inclusion. The results were scattered with 16 rather different ideas and anticipated challenges of inclusion. The management group concluded that they could not have one process of inclusion, as initially anticipated; rather they realized that they had to meet the needs of 16 different political and professional agendas (Skoglund, 2013)! The investigation clarified the complexity: teachers felt “alone” and the staff in support functions (i.e., the special pedagogues) felt “insufficient”. Almost all actor groups indicated a lack of clear leadership, whereas the local authorities regarded the special support functions as those who should drive and implement an inclusive attitude of mind through a challenging work mode. However, teachers did not see themselves as a part of the support system for pupils’ health and learning. The way the special support functions was organized had led to a situation where they were considered as a “replacement” to teachers rather than a complement to learning. The conclusion in the Agency (SPSM) report was that the most formatting and developing factor is a well-functioning 6–8 hours in the classroom, breaks and lunches. If there is low awareness, lack of observing and discoveries in the base of the organisation, the rest of the system, which is more distanced, do not play any significant role. (Skoglund & Larsson, 2004, pp. 17–18) These patterns have repeatedly occurred in many of some 50,000 cases of advisory support from the National support agency (SPSM) between 2003 and 2021. One tendency, during the first decade of the 21st century, can be named the sequence of “leaving the hard question over to someone else”, meaning that the question of inclusion is left to special support functions, rather than carried by those responsible for the steering chain (politicians, head of schools, principals and teachers) (Persson, 2001, pp. 92–93; Skoglund, 2013; Skoglund et al., 2020; Västra regionen, 2018). To meet this challenge, it is not enough to have a law, local plans, support functions or more financial resources. Most Swedish local school systems have built up their capacity of competencies, but the key challenge seems to be how to use and connect them. Therefore, there is a great need of constructive local leadership and organized deep learning processes among teachers, supported by skilled support functions. These leadership and learning processes are the core of the work towards higher inclusive capability leading to greater pupil achievement (Ainscow & Sandill, 2010; Persson & Persson, 2011; Skoglund & Stäcker, 2016; Skolinspektionen., 2014).

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However, the Swedish School Inspectorate’s inspection of 2010 shows that of the 15% of all schools that were inspected, 72% of compulsory schools and 65% of upper secondary schools have deficiencies in at least one of three areas that are decisive for pupils’ ability to achieve educational goals: systematic quality work, in the special support for students, or in the adaptation of teaching to the student’s conditions (Skolinspektionen., 2010, pp. 3–4). In about half of the schools examined, teaching is characterized by a lack of student activity, of room for joint reflections, of adaptation to students’ different conditions and needs and of low expectations of students’ abilities (Skolinspektionen., 2011). It was indicated that in 62% of the compulsory schools and 55% of the upper secondary schools there was a lack of principals’ responsibility for the schools’ results being analysed. The same pattern was indicated in 2014, especially pinpointing that between half and two-third of the inspected schools lacked extra accommodations for pupils’ needs within the frame of the classroom, as well as providing special support by other functions in the classroom or by special arrangements. Behind this a lack of systematic quality work, based on deep analysis, in a dominating part of these schools and school authorities – municipal or independent was indicated (Skolinspektionen., 2014; Skolverket., 2015). This contradictory situation can partly be explained by too little focus on policy, practice as well as research, on the basic professional learning challenge regarding inclusion. The professionals have been assumed to be able to learn before they are challenged and have received support to learn from the current way to work and its effects. New ideas and methods have been exposed and spread, but without enough base in strong self-analysis by those “receiving help”. Therefore, many actors rely on the assumptions by which they have long been permeated (Langelotz, 2017; Liljeroth et al., 2011; Skoglund & Erkinger, 2007).

What do we really know about inclusion through international research? Here is a selection of recent research, relevant to factors and mechanisms that hinder or contribute to inclusion. The following obstacles are often highlighted: • • •

•

Inclusion processes are characterized by complex requirements and uncertainty: (Baglieri et al., 2010; Muijs et al., 2011; Persson, 2001, 2007). Teachers feel that they lack experience and knowledge: (Allan, 2008; European Agency, 2011; Pijl & Frissen, 2009; Skolverket., 2011; Ware et al., 2011). School problems are highly individualized by heads of administration, principals and teachers: (Gerrbo, 2012; Giota & Emanuelsson, 2011; Göransson et al., 2012; Haug, 2012; Skolverket., 2008; Tetler, 2012). Lack of conceptual clarity and methodological weaknesses complicates research communication: (Haug, 2012; Hicks-Monroe, 2011; Nilholm & Göransson, 2013; Persson & Persson, 2011).

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International research identifies a number of crucial factors promoting inclusion which, together with systematic reviews on excellent teaching and excellent school development, provide a starting point for understanding promotive factors: •

•

•

•

Functional management team, with distribution of leadership and school-to-school collaboration (Ainscow & Sandill, 2010; Burnett, 2005), and by that clear school leader and teacher commitment combined with effective competence development, planning of time and support in the classrooms (Gerrbo, 2012; Ware et al., 2011). Collegial learning between teachers and researchers as critical friends (Carrington & Robinson, 2006; Langelotz, 2017), focused on crucial questions in practice (Waldron & McLeskey, 2010), the local context and its learning history (Skoglund & Erkinger, 2007) and on the necessity of systematic process support in order to come to deeper action learning (Andersson et al., 2020). Excellent teaching is crucial in explaining pupil achievement (Håkansson & Sundberg, 2012; Hicks-Monroe, 2011) with characteristics such as confidence in and understanding of students’ ability to learn; well-organized, planned, reflective teaching based on solid subject knowledge; effective treatment of the knowledge in relation to the students through varied, challenging and inspiring approaches that encourage the students to become independent subjects; and well-structured qualitative goals and challenging projects, just beyond the students’ current horizon. Consideration and analysis of students’ experiences in terms of community, participation and results (Ainscow & West, 2006; Nilholm & Göransson, 2013; Vianello & Lanfranchi, 2009) and a mobilization of actors outside the school (Carrington & Robinson, 2006).

Sundberg and Håkansson point out that it is not about traditions, autonomy, resources or type of development strategies. Rather, the key to all changes is to begin to redefine current ways to think about school development – to construct a new map of the current conditions…It is about building a sustainable theory of change which is able to mark possible roads to walk on…this is a harsh message. (Sundberg & Håkansson, 2016, p. 251) A complex phenomenon, as inclusive school development, is however hard to capture only by systematic reviews and surveys concluding by lists of facilitating factors. Therefore, we turn back to some context-based studies in Sweden.

Context-based studies in Sweden for a deeper understanding Pettersson (2005) and Pettersson and Liljeroth (2011) followed the schooling of a boy with autism spectrum disorder for ten years. The findings emphasize the importance of courage, leadership and creating knowledge and confidence in

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finding effective ways of working. In 2001, the special educator formulated that “we are not good at children like Oscar. How can we become better?” The statement was based on the experiences made in the preschool class of “chaos” and “constant outbursts”. The principal tried to instil courage in the strained situation: Oscar is going to grow up and live in his hometown. Then he should be able to go to our school with the other children. We cannot say that Oscar cannot go to our school if we have not even tried. (Pettersson & Liljeroth, 2011, p. 15) Pettersson (2005) describes what led to a functioning pedagogical everyday life: information about who Oscar was and how he functioned in different situations, the principal’s decision that two educators would initially work with Oscar and the gradual creation of concrete and reflected planning that worked for Oscar. The core was the creation of a good relationship with Oscar, to understand his motivation and attitude to content and forms, and that the work team created a kind of “step-before-strategy”. Eventually, Oscar became part of a group of 40 children. Clarification was made for Oscar by adapting the content, explaining how long different activities lasted and telling where he would be and with whom (Pettersson & Liljeroth, 2011, pp. 20–22). The following factors proved to be effective: conscious strategies for dialogue between pupil, family and school staff; an expectation that everyone had something to contribute within the process; a conscious approach to how to treat pupil and family and a treatment that was characterized by respect, empathy and unpretentiousness. A crucial mechanism for a changed way of thinking and working at school was systematic collegial observation, documentation and reflection that provided a common knowledge and action basis for thinking and acting (Pettersson & Liljeroth, 2011, p. 100). Persson and Persson (2011) did a three-year study of a school’s development in the Swedish municipality of Essunga, with a follow-up study on the further development of a selection of pupils in different upper secondary schools (Persson & Persson, 2016). This school development is a kind of “tipping-point-case”, which shows that it is possible for educators, with the support of management and support functions, to actually meet and include all students with higher impact, at the same cost. The outcome is remarkable: in 2007, the municipality was one of Sweden’s worst municipalities in terms of the proportion of students with upper secondary school qualifications (76%), students who achieved the goals in all subjects and the average credit value. In 2010, the municipality was one of the three highest ranked in Sweden and all students had upper secondary school qualifications (Persson & Persson, 2011, pp. 164–171). The factor behind was an authoritative and distributed leadership, where collaboration between the principal and the special educator was crucial for the development of a new common style of thinking: a clear pedagogical leadership in the classroom, a common structure in teaching, effective lesson time, “iron check” on students’ development, individual solutions, homework help and their ambition to succeed (Persson & Persson, 2011).

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In a follow-up study of pupils, identified as “pupils with challenges” during their compulsory years in Essunga, the focus was on experiences and outcomes in different upper secondary schools in other municipalities. The study found that the years in grades 7–9 in the Essunga school had provided the pupils with enough self-efficacy concerning what they need to manage and to communicate their need for support in a new foreign school environment (Persson & Persson, 2016). In connection with the two studies above, Malmqvist (2016) did a comparative case study of three schools based on the following research questions: •

•

Are there any schools situated in the same Swedish municipality that have the same socio-economic conditions in their catchment areas but have substantial long-term differences concerning exclusion rates to Pupil Referral Units? How do schools with the same socio-economic conditions in their catchment areas, but with substantial differences in exclusion rates to Pupil Referral Units, work with special needs provision in relation to inclusion and exclusion?

Malmqvist (2016) concluded that there are disputes about the definition of inclusion and the definition of behavioural difficulties, which makes it hard to provide the present knowledge. He refers to Dyssegaard and Sørgaard (2013) and states that it is unclear what is required for successful inclusion, as well as a lack of knowledge on how inclusive educational practices can prevent pupils from being excluded. The school results related to work towards either inclusion (school A) or exclusion (schools B and C) focus on a very small minority of children in school. Pupils “with” emotional and behavioural difficulties are regarded as one of the greatest challenges to inclusion. These children are often described as having behavioural difficulties that may be viewed by some as personal traits. The results from this study indicate that the number of children viewed as having behaviour problems, and thus facing the risk of being excluded, is closely related to the quality of their schools regarding work with special needs education. Malmqvist used a retroductivecomparative approach. It provided unequivocal outcomes of inclusion via exclusion rates as it revealed schools with almost the same socio-economic conditions in their catchment areas but substantial long-term differences concerning exclusion rates to PRUs. This answered the first research question in the affirmative and also prompted a ‘Why?’. The case studies by Malmqvist made it clear that whereas school A worked strongly towards inclusion in their work with special needs provision, schools B and C did not. The study also made clear that the accomplishments of school A in its work towards inclusion, at the same time as preventing deep exclusion had been achieved without any indication that it had negatively affected academic goal attainment among peers.

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The results from this study, completed in an era when behavioral difficulties are most often seen as behavioral difficulties within children call for a redirection of focus from individuals’ behaviors to educational factors. More precisely, the approach used in this study, coming at causality backwards. resulted in important educational findings of differences between schools. School A, especially, with its use of inclusive-related practices, provides a convincing example to learn from in work towards inclusion and in preventing [emotional and behavioural difficulties]. (Malmqvist, 2016, p. 358f ) In 2012, Ifous, a Swedish non-profit research institute, initiated a large-scale, longitudinal R&D program on inclusive learning environments in schools. The program involved 12 municipalities and 31 schools in Sweden. The general research conclusion from the program was that there is no single model to follow in order to develop more inclusive learning environments; each school must do their own process, by exploring the concept of inclusive learning environments and by analysis of the school’s position and conditions (Tetler et al., 2015). The conclusion about creating more inclusive learning environments is that greater capacity requires a systematic and coordinated development process on several levels – over time. It is fundamental that one is creating a common understanding of challenges, causes, alternative ideas and work modes, which is owned by all actors: local politicians, development support functions, pupil health team, principals and teachers, pupils and their parents (Skoglund et al., 2015; Tetler et al., 2015). In 2017–2019 Ifous ran another program, consisting of seven municipalities and 42 preschools and schools. Nine research studies on how to raise inclusive capability showed replicated results from the first program. A shift is indicated concerning the concept of inclusion. After the program the focus was more on the interaction between the pedagogical environment and the pupils, but: Despite this, efforts in many of the municipalities are directed toward single pupils with diagnosis and “difficulties”. One challenge is still to handle the tension between the program’s ambition, the local school authorities’ sayings about inclusive learning environments and what actually is done in preschools and schools…In order to breakthrough all the way to the practice, it is important that both the individual as well as the collective capacity is strengthen on all levels of the organisation. (Persson, 2020, p. 11f ) Interconnected to these results, a growing field of research in Sweden emerged about Pupil Health in schools. Since the School law of 2010, the pupil health system is highlighted. How shall support functions such as the special pedagogue, the psychologist, the social curator and the medical profession be organized and work in order to promote health and learning and prevent risks of illness and low achievement? (Hjörne & Säljö, 2008; Hylander & Guvå, 2017; Hylander & Skott, 2020; Löfberg, 2018). The same growing interest in support functions is shown

196  Per Skoglund

in recent quantitative and qualitative studies in Iceland. They focus on mandatory municipal school’s support system. The results indicate a high emphasis on clinical approach, diagnosing pupils’ weaknesses, trying to find a way to adapt pupils to the school system and less on consultation with schools, teachers and principals. There were few initiatives from the support system on supporting leadership, professional development and learning communities (Svanbjörnsdóttir et al., 2020). The overall tendency in this process of knowledge building is towards a more systemic perspective on the pupil health within a local education system. From viewing it as a separate “thing” as a team of support functions focused mainly on special support by Action Provision Plans to highlighting the necessity of using the competence in order to strengthen the learning environment at large. In the latest study in Sweden, Hylander and Skott (2020) followed principals and Pupil Health Teams (PHT) from 19 schools after their participation in a development-oriented course by the National Agency (SPSM) “To raise the schools pupil health competence -a process work for an equitable education”. The course gave helpful support for the development of health-promoting and preventive work with pupils’ health. The study was grounded on two theoretical models: one for coordination of the schools’ work with pupil health and another for the development of inter-professional Pupil Health Teams (4–5 specialist professionals led by the principal). The study clarifies the importance of coordination of all parts in the local school system, analysis of the local context and its complexity, synchronization of the leadership by the principal, development of the PHTs, cooperation between PHTs, teachers and other professionals in school and responsibilities and participation of the local authorities in the development process. This aspect of a whole-system-strategy is also illustrated in an eight-year-follow-up study of one mid-size municipality in west Sweden. The study did find that to have long-term outcomes from a national development program, named “Special pedagogy for learning”, it is not enough to engage and train process supporters who lead dialogue in teacher teams. The local authorities (heads of schools), the principals and the schools’ PHT need to be deeply involved. Making local school systems function in a more inclusive way requires neither top-down nor bottom-up strategies but rather a combination of them both (Andersson et al., 2020, pp. 21–23): • A central common frame with conceptual clarity and an assignment to all schools to develop inclusive capability • Central development support functions that can coordinate the processes, the learning between parts and train selected staff members at each school in process leadership. • Adaption to local circumstances, challenges and needs of support, based on a local analysis of quality of the learning environment and its current outcomes • A continuous dialogue focused on the quality provided and the pupils’ achievement, between levels (teacher-principal-head of schools-local politicians) These findings are closely related to some results on the general field of “successful schools” (Höög & Johansson, 2011, 2014; Jarl et al., 2017). There seems to

Inclusive Capability in Education Systems and Schools  197

be a widespread agreement that successful schools are characterized by goal and result orientation, consensus and coordination between the local authority (political board, heads of schools) and principals who have the capability to build trust between the levels. Underneath it all, Höög and Johansson (2014) point at four subsystems that have to be coordinated: structure, culture, politics/power and individuals (motivation and cognition). This supports the findings of Ainscow and Sandill (2010) pointing out the importance of leadership, coordination and professional learning processes that promote school development: …the starting point must be with staff members: in effect, enlarging their capacity to imagine what might be achieved, and increasing their sense of accountability for bringing this about. This may also involve tackling taken for granted assumptions, most often relating to expectations about certain groups of students, their capabilities and behaviours…Our argument is, then, based on the assumption that schools and their communities know more than they use and that the logical starting point for inclusive development is with a detailed analysis of existing arrangements. This allows good practices to be identified and shared, whilst, at the same time, drawing attention to ways of working that may be creating barriers to the participation and learning of some students. However, as we have stressed, the focus must not only be on practice. It must also address and sometimes challenge the thinking behind existing ways of working. (Ainscow & Sandill, 2010, p. 412)

Conclusion The past two decades of proven experience and research results have increased our understanding: it is not enough to give directives to teachers to “include all”, rather local school systems have to move from a situation of loosely connected parts, towards coordination not only by structure but also in terms of culture and understanding of what is necessary to do in order to increase the system’s inclusive capability? To make structures alive and develop culture, there is a need of more engaged and curious leadership and strengthened support functions working close to the learning within the core practice of teaching and learning. The knowledge has grown from both different perspectives and sometimes vague conceptualization of inclusion to more comparability and coherence. It is also coherent with the synthesis of the past 20 years’ work by the European Agency for Special Needs and Inclusive Education, showing the tendency to a more deep-going understanding of how to develop school systems towards more inclusive environments (Watkins & Ebersold, 2016). However, some fundamental aspects still must be addressed, in order to avoid the patterns and gaps described above. To break those patterns, the four national education agencies together proposed (to the Ministry of Education) some key factors for success, focusing on needed quality development at all levels, systematic means to break segregation, national governance and a much closer support to local school reality to ensure

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local governance, school leadership and improvements towards a more inclusive environment (Skolverket, 2020, pp. 9–17). This can be read as a sign of trust building, based on both research results and proven experience. But still there needs to be a long-term focus on some vital factors: the meaning of school and inclusion, knowledge and skills on how to avoid reactive school behaviours leaving principals and teachers alone with handling pupils’ variation.

To avoid the risk of reactive output from the education system and its schools It is still a great risk to create an education system that gets stuck in what can be labelled as the “find-deficit-loop”. The reason for this, according to Skoglund and Stäcker (2016), is an underestimation of the complexity and uncertainty of the everyday classroom. Teachers in this situation easily become reactive trying to handle different difficulties. In law and the Swedish curriculum of 2010, they are recommended to be preventive, but that is easier said than done. In the work during 20 years with 68 municipalities and its thousands of schools, the following underlying pattern is indicated: Schools change leaders, staff and pupils, organization and ideas, but have a hard time handling the underlying pattern (Figure 13.1). Teachers do work in a very complex context with maybe 30 pupils and thousands of impulses every day, which easily produce reactive behaviour. When several teachers come into a reactive manner, it can be “scaled up” to the principal, who has to handle many complaints such as “I cannot handle this diversity, you need to do something”. It is recognized that many principals are isolated in handling this, and they also easily become reactive and escalate it. In the end it can be an education Constructive/Promotive -theory & learning on functioning qualities

p”

fic

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o Lo

s oe td ha W

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“B

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Local Heads of education

ui

ld

-S

ch W oo ha l-L tw oo or ks p” ?

Principals Teachers & pupils in classrooms

Reactive

Preventive

-difficulties & decifits in pupils FIGURE 13.1 

-prevent risks of difficulties

From find-deficit-loop to build-school-loop (Skoglund & Stäcker, 2016)

Inclusive Capability in Education Systems and Schools  199

system in panic, where different stakeholders ask for quick changes. At every level and in the system as a whole, it can be a question of shooting solutions from the hip. In the Swedish education system, something like that appeared at the national political level between 2008 and 2014, with some 25 reforms initiated in a very rapid manner (Skoglund et al., 2020). To successfully manage this, the core seems to be one of agreement and trust in a common development process of a “build-school-loop”. Such a loop is grounded on sound evidence from research and proven experience on “what works” at each level of the system. It is also grounded on a capability to constructively relate between the levels (Persson & Persson, 2011; Persson, 2013; Skoglund, 2013; Skoglund & Stäcker, 2016).

Build on deep knowledge about how to transform a school In 2006, I experienced, together with some national advisors, the situation in Essunga municipality and the Nossebro school, trying to support the school to improve the inclusive capability and pupil achievement (European Agency, 2013; Persson & Persson, 2011; Skoglund, 2013). During the same period the German municipality, Flensburg, and especially one school, Waldschule, showed the same amazing move from low quality to high quality in terms of inclusive capability and pupils’ achievement (European Agency, 2013; Skoglund & Stäcker, 2016). Both processes showed some interesting mechanisms for learning and change among professionals illustrated in Figure 13.2: The fundamental trigger was that suddenly the principals and the teachers realized that they were producing bad outcomes. Some 25–30% of the pupils did not reach upper secondary high school. Earlier both schools’ predominant explanation for this had been a blame on the students, the parents or the poor socio-economic situation in the community. This time this cause-effect model was challenged by two things. First, in both contexts external researchers or advisors started to influence the thinking of what was causing bad results. Second, the schools started 4. The need for an explicit idea of school and pupils built on research

1. Reality

2. Oneself as causal factor

3. To move from resource allocation to resource use FIGURE 13.2 

Learn and change by accepting

7. The professional ability to learn as fundamental to pupil learning and school innovation

5. The need for change in thinking and acting – visibility, support, variation 6. The need to build a stronger community of practice – support each other

Mechanisms for transformation (Skoglund & Stäcker, 2016)

200  Per Skoglund

to systematically ask the pupils how they perceived the school. The results were dark. A huge amount of the pupils did not really want to be in school and did not feel helped. With this recognition, a new understanding of cause and effect grew up: It revealed that oneself, the school and its staff could be the causing factors of outcomes. This influenced the third factor. Earlier when meeting diversity or pupils that did not “fit in”, the schools had transferred the problem by more resources, that is, placement in separate groups to a much higher cost, but no positive results. Now it was not anymore about “more resources” but rather about an analysis of how one is using the current resources. All these movements could possibly have happened without any real changes as results. The fourth factor was that the schools reached out from their own “black box” or horizon and turned to alternative ways to think and act mainly based on research results and proven experience by others. By studying this material in small groups with assignments to draw conclusions for practice, a change occurred in practice. The teachers became more open and visible to each other, by sharing and supporting. Over time a more common agreement on how to introduce, instruct and monitor grew stronger, and there was an increase in variation and differentiation in teaching established. Finally, the schools also realized the importance of continuously striving towards a stronger community of practice (concerning what is the direction, goals, attitudes and means that can meet the challenges and preconditions the pupils do have). The fundamental shift was the acceptance of the importance of professional learning in everyday work, in order to be able to support pupils’ learning (Skoglund & Stäcker, 2016). However, I have realized that the sustainability factor needs to be highlighted. It is great to change from bad results to good results, but it is another to make the situation sustainable. Here we need more knowledge on how to sustain positive results.

Constructive reflections: a conceptual model about inclusive capability The risk of simplification is always alive in large systems, and to really improve the professional inclusive capability, “inclusion” cannot continuously be treated as a technical and instrumental question besides everyday education, because then very little will happen. It is rather about a transformative process where it is necessary to see, understand and handle humans, and especially political and professional complexity, uncertainty and learning in order to better reach out and support the aspiration, access, attainment and achievement of our children (Ainscow & Sandill, 2010; Blandford & Knowles, 2013; Skoglund, 2013). Based on some years of work reviewing research on inclusion, I recognized both a lack of logical clarity in concepts and shivering empirical ground (Skoglund, 2013). First, “inclusion” broadly was used in practice and by some researchers as a matter of placement of kids with functional disability or SEN in “mainstream classes” (Nilholm & Göransson, 2013). This is not a sufficient way to understand inclusion. Second, few studies took the whole chain Preconditions–Processes–Outcomes into

Inclusive Capability in Education Systems and Schools  201

consideration (as shown by Persson & Persson, 2011; Skoglund, 2013; Watkins & Ebersold, 2016). Inclusion is not a state but a process striving towards increased professional inclusive capability. By this, I mean the capability in action to see, understand and adapt to pupils’ needs. This is not a one-actor thing; it is about the education system’s and the sole school’s common capability to lead, organize and develop resources and competencies in order to help raising all pupils’ achievement. Five key dimensions of inclusive capability seem to be (Skoglund, 2013, 2014a, 2014b): • Equivalent treatment: the school’s capability to see/hear and understand the sole pupil’s preconditions, needs and talent • Accessibility: the school’s capability to accommodate and adapt teaching, localities and social community (the learning environment) to the diverse needs • Participation: the school’s capability to stimulate all pupils to take part: learning to be led, to lead oneself and to interact with and lead others. • Proactive development support: support functions capability to provide promotive support close to the core activity of teaching and learning. • Constructive leadership: the school authorities’ and the principals’ capability (based on research results and proven experience) to lead and organize towards more equivalent treatment, accessibility and participation. The complexity of transformative changes in culture and institutions shows that it is neither about ad hoc changes nor quick fixes. There is a need for more deep-going work in education systems and schools. The following model is based on the terms in UN conventions and the Swedish school law (Equal access, Equity, Accessibility and Participation) but systematized into a more coherent model. Inclusion is then a question for those responsible for (Politicians and Heads) and in schools (Principals and Teachers). It is about the constant strive to increase the capability to meet diverse needs (Skoglund, 2013, 2014b; Skoglund & Stäcker, 2016) (Figure 13.3). Constructive Leadership

‘Reactive’ special support

‘Proactive development support’ Adaptive teaching Understand See/Hear Meet Offer Equal access

Equity

Pupil Participation

FIGURE 13.3 

Model of inclusive capability

• recognition • deep investigation • create action plan • work out action plan • evaluate outcomes

Accessibility

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The model shows that in order to make a shift, we cannot only build more “special capacity” besides the everyday practice, in the form of reactive special support for individuals. Most support resources in Sweden still go to this reactive kind of support (Hylander & Skott, 2020; Skoglund, 2014b). To make improvements, the municipal authorities and the school leaders need to provide a more constructive way of prioritizing and organizing the resources, to create more proactive support to the teachers and their collaboration in order to offer, meet, see/hear and understand each pupil. This is the fundament for being able to adapt curriculum and teaching to the pupils’ needs. The ideas of “implementing” inclusion have far too often been based on a too technical view of human development and change. There seems to be a need for a “theory of change” that is much more elaborated to handle the loosely coupled education system: national actors, municipal and independent school authorities, professionals and parents (Sundberg & Håkansson, 2016). In essence, it is a matter of a three-factor sequence. It is not enough with stored professional capacity, there needs to be a transformation to collaborative inclusive capability in action, and better follow-up and monitoring with the students on how it is functioning. Do the pupils’ sense coherence and positive belonging; do they feel challenged and supported; and do they reach their potential personally, socially and academically?

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Muijs, D., Ainscow, M., Chapman, C., & West, M. (2011). Collaboration and networking in education. Springer Science & Business Media. Nes, K. (2013). Norsk skole anno 2013: Ökende ekskludering under dekke av inkludering? Paideia, Tidsskrift for professionel paedagogisk praksis, 5(13), 40–51. Nilholm, C., & Göransson, K. (2013). Inkluderande undervisning-vad kan man lära av forskningen? FoU skriftserie nr 3. Specialpedagogiska skolmyndigheten. Persson, B. (2001). Elevers olikhet och specialpedagogisk kunskap. Liber. Persson, B. (2007). Specialpedagogik vid vägskäl eller vägs ände? In C. Nilholm & E. BjörckÅkesson (Eds.), Reflektioner kring Specialpedagogik – sex professorer om forskningsområdet och forskningsfronterna.Vetenskapsrådet. Stockholm. 52–62. Persson, B. (2019). Elevers olikhet och specialpedagogisk kunskap. Liber. Persson, B., & Barow, T. (2012). Inkludering i svensk lärarutbildning. In T. Barow & D. Östlund (Eds.), Bildning för alla. En pedagogisk utmaning. Högskolan i Kristianstad. 222–232. Persson, B., & Persson, E. (2011). Inkludering och måluppfyllelse- att nå framgång med alla elever. Liber. Persson, E. (2013). Raising achievement through inclusion. International Journal of Inclusive Education, 17(11), 205–1220. https://doi.org/10.1080/13603116.2012.745626 Persson, E. ed. (2020). Inkluderande lärmiljöer. Kompetens för likvärdig utbildning i ett demokratiskt samhälle. Ifous rapport 2020:2. www.ifous.se. ISBN: 978-91-985535-4-3 Persson, E., & Persson, B. (2016). Inkludering och socialt kapital, Skolan och ungdomars välbefinnande. Studentlitteratur. Pettersson, L. (2005). Vi är inte bra på barn som Oscar – hur kan vi bli det?. Specialpedagogiska institutet. Pettersson, L., & Liljeroth, I. (2011). Oscar visar vägen – att lära av en elev med autismspektrumstörning i skolan. Specialpedagogiska skolmyndigheten. Pijl, S. J., & Frissen, P. H. (2009). What policymakers can do to make education inclusive. Educational Management Administration & Leadership, 37(3), 366–377. Schein, E. (1992). How can organizations learn faster? The challenge of entering the green room. Sloan Management Review, (Spring 1992. WP#3409-92.). 1–18. https://dspace.mit. edu/bitstream/handle/1721.1/2399/SWP-3409-45882883.pdf SFS. (2010). 2010:800. Skollagen. Svensk författningssamling. Sveriges Riksdag. Skoglund, P. (2013). Inkludering och skolans osäkerheter – att stödja professionella att lära. PaideiaTidsskrift for professionel paedagogisk praksis, 5(13), 20–29. Skoglund, P. (2014a). Fundamental challenges and dimensions of inclusion in Sweden and Europe. How does inclusion benefit all? La nouvelle revue de l’adaptation et de la scolarisation, 65(1), 207–221. https://doi.org/10.3917/nras.065.0207 Skoglund, P. (2014b). Om mellanrummet mellan ‘esse’ och ‘essens’. Aktuellt och evigt på Aktualitetskonferensen 2014. Specialpedagogiskt Tidskrift, 2, 4–9. Skoglund, P., & Erkinger, V. (Eds.). (2007). A collection of ways to understand and promote learning in practice. Specialpedagogiska institutet. Skoglund, P., Larsson, Å., Nilsson, G., Sandstedt, E., & Westerberg, C. (Eds.). (2020). Utforskad rådgivningspraktik. Verksamhetsutveckling med fokus på statligt specialpedagogiskt stöd. Specialpedagogiska skolmyndigheten, Rådgivningsenhet 5 och 6. Skoglund, P., & Larsson, L.-Å. (2004). Översyn av insatser för barn i behov av särskilt stöd i Alingsås. Specialpedagogiska Institutet. Västra regionen. Skoglund, P., Mauritsson, I., & Lindström, J. (2015). Tolv kommuners arbete för att skapa inkluderande lärmiljöer - en analys av FoU-programmet och SPSMs stöd 20–29. In Ifous (Ed.), Att forma skolan efter eleverna. Vägar till inkluderande lärmiljöer i tolv svenska kommuner. Styrgruppens rapport. 2015:1. www.ifous.se.

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Skoglund, P., & Stäcker, H. (2016). How can education systems support all learners? Tippingpoint leadership focused on cultural change and inclusive capability. In A. Watkins & C. Meijer (Eds.), Implementing inclusive education: Issues in bridging the policy-practice gap. (pp. 111–136). Emerald Books. Skolinspektionen. (2010). Rätten till kunskap. En granskning av hur skolan kan lyfta alla elever. Kvalitetsgranskning. Rapport 2010:14. Dnr 40–2009:2037. Skolinspektionen. Skolinspektionen. (2011). Olika elever – samma undervisning. Skolinspektionens erfarenheter och resultat från tillsyn och kvalitetsgranskning 2010. Dnr 40–2011:4396. Skolinspektionen. Skolinspektionen. (2014). Från huvudmannen till klassrummet – tät styrkedja viktig för förbättrade kunskapsresultat. Skolinspektionens erfarenheter och resultat från tillsyn och kvalitetsgranskning. Dnr 2014:6739. Skolinspektionen. Skolverket. (2008). Särskilt stöd i grundskolan. En sammanställning av senare års forskning och utvärdering. Skolverket. Skolverket. (2011). Skolverkets Lägesbedömning 2011. Del 2. Bedömningar och slutsatser. Rapport 364. Skolverket. Skolverket. (2014). Arbete med extra anpassningar, särskilt stöd och åtgärdsprogram. Stockholm. Skolverkets allmänna råd med kommentarer. Skolverket. Skolverket. (2015). Skolverkets lägesbedömning 2015. Rapport 421. Skolverket. Skolverket. (2018). Barn och elever 2016. Skolverket. www.skolverket.se/statistik-och-utvärdering/ Skolverket. (2020). Skolverkets lägesbedömning 2020. Skolverket. Ström, K. (2013). Excellens, likvärdighet och fokus på lärande-ett finländskt perspektiv på inkludering. Paideia, Tidsskrift for professionel paedagogisk praksis, nr, 05(13), 30–39. Sundberg, D., & Håkansson, J. (2016). Utmärkt skolutveckling: forskning om skolförbättring och måluppfyllelse. Natur och kultur. Svanbjörnsdóttir, B. M., Gunnþórsdóttir, H., Elídóttir, J., Sigþórsson, R., & Sigurðardóttir, S. M. (2020). Skólaþjónusta sveitarfélaga við leik- og grunnskóla Niðurstöður spurningakönnunar til leikskólastjóra, grunnskólastjóra og forsvarsaðila skólaþjónustu. University of Akureyri. Tetler, S. (2012). Undervisningsdifferentiering…som den inkluderade skolens store utfordring. In T. Barrow & D. Östlund (Eds.), Bildning för alla. En pedagogisk utmaning. Högskolan i Kristianstad. 213–222 Tetler, S., Elandsson, M., Lutz, K., Öhman, M., Kotte, E., Andersson, H., Assarson, I., Ohlsson, L., Östlund, D., Lang, L., & Thimgren, P. (2015). Från idé till praxis: vägar till inkluderande lärmiljöer i tolv svenska kommuner. Forskarnas rapport, 2015, 2. www.ifous.se UNESCO. (2001). The open file on inclusive education. United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. Västra regionen. (2018). Arbetsberättelse 2017–2018. Specialpedagogiska skolmyndigheten, Västra regionen. Vianello, R., & Lanfranchi, S. (2009). Positive effects of the placement of students with intellectual developmental disabilities in typical class. Life Span and Disability: An Interdisciplinary Journal, 14, 75–84. Waldron, N., & McLeskey, J. (2010). Establishing a collaborative culture through comprehensive school reform. Journal of Educational and Psychological Consultation, 20, 58–74. Ware, J., Butler, C., Robertson, C., O’Donnell, M., & Gould, M. (2011). Access to the curriculum for pupils with a variety of special educational nededs in mainstream classes. An exploration of the experiences of young pupils in primary schools. Research report no. 8. National Council for Special Education. Watkins, A., & Ebersold, S. (2016). Efficiency, effectiveness and equity within inclusive education systems. In A. W. C. Meijer (Ed.), Implementing inclusive education: Issues in bridging the policy-practice gap (pp. 229–254). Emerald Books.

PART III

Community Inclusive Practices and Strategies

The chapters in this part highlight the role of the appropriate, timely intervention that contributes to inclusivity. This starts by considering individual factors and then moves on to thinking about how diversity can be supported at the individual level or at the societal level through appropriate support systems in various environments; home, school, and communities.

DOI: 10.4324/9781003379034-16

14 INCLUSIVE FOOTBALL COMMENTARY Should radio commentary learn from audio description to create a richer experience for audiences who cannot see the match? Lindsay Bywood, Inma Pedregosa, Barry Ginley and Alison F. Eardley

Introduction Football is arguably the most popular and influential sport in the world, with approximately 3.5 billion supporters globally (FIFA, 2018). The importance of sport, and in particular football, is beyond simply a leisure activity or pastime and is defined as part of our cultures (UN, 2009). It has been described as a new religion, as a result of the passionate and powerful emotions it engenders in fans (Eyre, 1997; Fulconis & Pache, 2014). Given the global importance of football spectatorship as a cultural experience, it might be expected that access provision for fans with disabilities would be well developed. Indeed, access to football, live or secondary, is underpinned by a moral mandate, with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) stipulating that everyone has the right to freely participate in the cultural life of the community. For some fans, their experience of football matches is live, but for the majority, matchday experiences are mediated through TV (often at a cost) or radio. Despite the importance of football, access for people who are blind or partially sighted (BPS) is surprisingly underdeveloped. In-stadium access is dependent on the provision of audio description (AD), traditionally defined as the translation of visual into verbal information (Fryer, 2016), a service that has only really begun to be offered formally in stadiums in the UK in the last 20 years. For fans reliant on secondary access, either through television or radio, AD provision in the UK is limited. In the UK, unlike other televised content, live sports have never been audio described. This approach is justified by the broadcasters and the regulator on the grounds of the impracticality of audio describing an event where the intervention of the commentator is entirely unpredictable (ITC, 2000). Audio description is inserted in the gaps between other relevant speech such as dialogue (for film and TV) or commentary (sports), so it is argued that the difficulty in predicting the placement of such commentary justifies the sports DOI: 10.4324/9781003379034-17

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exemption, which has been ratified by the UK regulator OFCOM (2019). As the number of football fans grows globally (FIFA, 2018), so does the number of radio listeners (e.g., Conlan, 2018). This chapter considers the current access provision for BPS users, explores the live matchday experience and secondary sources, and considers what access could be, in particular in the case of radio.

Accessibility in stadiums Considering first the live matchday experience, within the UK, there is a legal requirement (Equality Act, 2010) for football clubs (along with all other businesses and organisations) to make ‘reasonable adjustments’ to ensure access, so as not to discriminate against anyone because of their disability. The first coordinated attempt to improve access to football for BPS people in the UK came in the form of Soccer Sight, a Royal National Institute for the Blind (RNIB) project, developed and delivered in collaboration with BBC Sport, and partially informed by the work of the Rex Blind Parties charity in the Scottish football leagues. Working with 12 clubs from the Scottish Premier League and 17 clubs in the English and Welsh football leagues, Soccer Sight aimed to improve the accessibility of football clubs for BPS people, and had audio description (AD) at its core (RNIB, 2009). The traditional purpose of AD has been to translate visual information into verbal description, in order to render the information accessible to someone who is blind or partially sighted (Fryer, 2016). Within a football match, AD is more commonly described as Audio-Described Commentary (ADC). AD within sports is the newest branch of this form of audio-visual translation, although provision has been growing – in-stadium AD has now been provided at major sports competitions such as the Olympics, including the opening ceremony – the FIFA World Cup since 2010 (Atherton & Macbeth, 2019), and the UEFA European Football Championships since 2008 (Michalewicz, 2014). In the UK, while bigger clubs are increasingly working towards a professionalised provision for ADC, in smaller clubs the provision may be delivered by volunteers if it is available at all. In Europe, several football clubs in Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Poland, UK and Ukraine provide AD for match-goers. Nevertheless, although in-stadium AD provision is growing globally, access is restricted to the limited number of BPS football fans who are able to attend matches.

Accessibility through radio? Access to audio-described matches for BPS fans not attending the match in the UK is very limited. Nevertheless, it is the case that radio commentary is available for some matches, either through national radio or local radio. However, questions need to be raised about whether or not this radio commentary meets the access needs of BPS football fans. At first glance, one might assume it does: radio has been described as a ‘blind medium’ (Crisell, 1994), that is, a medium that does not use or assume access to visual information to tell a story or communicate an item of

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news. Indeed, for the first ever radio sports commentary in the UK (an England v Wales rugby game in 1927), a blind army veteran was asked to sit in front of the commentary box in the ground, so that the commentator could address him, as the audience (Wakelam, 1938). This first broadcast was described in The Times newspaper as ‘vivid and impressive’ (cited in Adams, 2002). That commentator, Teddy Wakelam, continued to use this style of sports commentary throughout his career. Wakelam and other early commentators were accompanied by an anonymous second announcer whose sole role was to state the portion of the pitch where the football was at all times, aiming to provide comprehensive spatial information about where the action was for those listening at home (Haynes, 1999). In 1930, the head of Outside Broadcasts at the BBC suggested that radio was the medium by which people who were unable to see live matches (identified by him as ‘the blind, the invalid and the poor’) could ‘renew and keep alive their interest in a national sport’ (Cock, cited by Haynes, 1999, p. 147). Müller (2008), in an article comparing the historical evolution of English and German commentaries from the 1920s to the 2000s, noted that the focus on accurate description of the play seems to have been greater in England than in Germany (where commentators were more concerned with capturing the atmosphere). Although it is possible that early radio commentary in the UK may have provided satisfactory access to BPS football fans unable to attend a matchday experience, anecdotal evidence from present-day BPS football fans tells us that mainstream radio commentary (in its current form) no longer provides adequate access. Simply put, modern radio football commentary does not provide the degree of description of the visual events that is needed to facilitate match ‘access’ (Morgan, 2018; Hassell, 2019; Thompson 2018). BPS fans have stated that radio commentators fail to sufficiently describe the details of play, so it is not possible to get an impression of the order of play and the events on the pitch (Morgan, 2018, Thompson, 2018). Given the global reach of football as a spectator sport, the importance of this shared cultural experience, and the moral and legal mandates that underpin the human right to access culture, it seems incredible that enhancing accessibility for BPS supporters both within stadiums and through secondary sources such as television and radio has not been prioritised.

Accessibility as a niche requirement Arguably, one reason why access provision for BPS football fans is not better is the fact that such provision is assumed to only benefit a minority of football fans. However, recent research on AD in the context of museums has challenged the ghettoisation of AD as relevant to only BPS audiences (Eardley et al., 2016; Eardley et al., 2017; Hutchinson & Eardley, 2019; Hutchinson & Eardley, 2021; Hutchinson & Eardley, In press), and has provided evidence that AD experiences are not only equally as enjoyable and interesting to an average audience as non-AD facilitation, but also crucially that AD enhances memorability of artworks within a museum context (Hutchinson & Eardley, 2021; Hutchinson & Eardley, In press).

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This is an example of ‘blindness gain’ (Thompson, 2017); a concept that explores the ways in which the experience of blindness, and the tools designed to enhance that experience, can enhance the experience of sighted individuals (see also Bauman & Murray, 2014). Although many sighted football fans might not feel the need to listen to additional audio-described commentary whilst in a live matchday experience, AD could potentially enhance the experience of all radio listeners (see also Trede, 2007). Radio listeners might see real benefits from the use of AD techniques in radio commentary, as has been shown to be the case in the museum context.

The experience of AD There has been surprisingly little research examining the experience of AD in BPS users. Given the fact that the largest application of AD is currently within television and film (Fryer, 2016), where a spoken description is pre-recorded and embedded into the auditory experience of the film, it is unsurprising that the majority of the research on user experience is within this domain. Research has suggested that AD adds to the enjoyment and understanding of the original programme (Schmeidler & Kirchner, 2001; Rai, Greening & Petré, 2010). In a study by Schmeidler and Kirchner (2001), 73% of participants, all of whom were BPS, stated that AD makes the experience of television more inclusive, by making participants considerably more comfortable or a lot more comfortable in talking about television programmes with sighted people. For BPS audiences, film audio description also enriches understanding, by layering up the levels of comprehension of the events that are taking place, which enhances enjoyment (Rai, 2009). It is worth noting that for both people with sight and people without, cinematic AD can enhance feelings of presence, such that people feel more immersed in the experience (Fryer & Freeman, 2012). There is anecdotal evidence to suggest that AD enhances imagery (Fryer, 2016; Walczak & Fryer, 2017), but the nature of imagery resulting from AD and the impact that this has on experience need to be explored more systematically. The lack of research on user experience potentially arises from the assumption that AD is by definition beneficial to those who are blind and partially sighted, given that the goal is the communication of information that is not easily available. However, this simple assumption potentially raises complex questions about what needs to be translated or described within AD, which are particularly pertinent to experiences such as matchday spectatorship. Arguably, this is more complex and challenging a question for football AD than any other branch of Audio Description.

What is being described in AD? Audio description, both a profession and an academic discipline, grew out of the need to translate visual (television/film/stage) information into verbal information, to enhance access for people who were blind or partially sighted (Fryer, 2016). Central to early guidelines for screen AD was the need for describers to

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be as objective as possible in their descriptions. In the UK, ITC guidelines (2000, p. 20) advise against reflecting ‘the personal view of the describer’, stipulating that objective adjectives (dark green, moth-eaten) are preferred over subjective ones (e.g., hideous). Similarly, the American guidelines recommend the use of objective statements to avoid patronising listeners and let them ‘draw their own conclusion’ (cited by Audio Description Coalition, 2009, p. 3). This principle of objectivity is summed up by the aphorism What You See Is What You Say (WYSISYS) (Snyder, 2014). However, while audio describers will clearly describe something they see, what is not clarified is what in particular and how to describe it. Over the years, researchers have challenged the aim of objectivity. For some, it has been through an acknowledgement that subjectivity is central to any decision made by an audio describer (Marzà Ibáñez, 2010). For others, it has been a more profound challenge to the value of objectivity to the user experience (Neves, 2012, 2016; Szarkowska, 2013). Researchers have already noted the importance of emotion to AD; Iglesias, Martínez and Chica (2015) showed that mood congruence enhanced the ability to understand the emotions of a scene, for the majority of participants. Similarly, in a study with 40 participants (20 sighted, 20 non-sighted) exposed to two AD versions (one more descriptive, one more narrative), Ramos (2016) showed that for scenes involving fear or sadness, the narrative version prompted a stronger emotional reaction. However, there was no difference between the two types of AD for scenes involving disgust. Underpinning some of these challenges is a broadening of the notion of the ‘source text’ – the ‘text’ for translation – to include more than simply ‘visual’ information translated into words. The use of creative AD, which may incorporate metaphor, emotion and subjective description, has been advocated within film AD (e.g., Szarkowska, 2013) and within museum environments (e.g., Neves, 2012, 2016). The use of emotional language has also been shown to enhance memorability (Sadoski & Quast, 1990; Kensinger & Corkin, 2003). However, recent research has also argued that creative AD needs to think beyond the traditional ‘text’; within museum AD, it has been argued that the ‘experience’ within a museum, and certainly the experience of an object or painting, can be broader than simply seeing the colours and shapes of that object but rather can be an emotion, or a thought generated alone or through social interaction (Hutchinson & Eardley, 2019; Hutchinson, Loveday & Eardley, 2020). Similarly, for the football match experience, a strict intersemiotic transfer from the visual to the verbal would arguably fail to accurately translate the experience of a football match. However, to understand what might need to be translated in football AD or radio commentary, it is necessary to examine the nature of the matchday experience.

What is the matchday experience? A nationwide English Football League survey of almost 30,000 match-going spectators (EFL, 2019) found that, for 84% of those surveyed, ‘the atmosphere in the stadium and amongst the fans’ motivated them to attend live matches.

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Atmosphere scored higher in this case than attending to show loyalty to their club, although this was also an important motivation for 71% of supporters. This suggests that there is something special about the in-stadium experience. Researchers have argued that football as an industry is driven more by emotions than by economic reasoning, and it is specifically on matchdays when those emotions are heightened (Shakina, Gasparetto & Barajas, 2020). Arguably, understanding the source and power of those emotions is crucial to understanding the matchday experience, and to being able to translate the matchday experience for radio or audio description. Koegnigstorfer, Groeppel-Klein and Kunkel (2010), in a large-scale survey of fans in the English and German leagues, found that both English and German fans rate stadium atmosphere as the second-most attractive aspect of their top league, second only to the league’s perceived competitiveness. Similarly, within one Premier League club, 59.7% of respondents rated crowd noise (e.g., singing/cheering) as the most important feature contributing to the creation of atmosphere (Charleston, 2008). In an exploration of the role of chants and singing within the football experience, Clark (2006) argued that they were integral to the formation and reinforcement of place-based cultural identity, in relation to football. Although research on non-league clubs and supporters highlights the importance of singing and chanting to the formation of atmosphere, it also looks beyond these aspects to include what Ashmore terms ‘quieter moments’, that is comments and words of support, and running spectator commentary; weather, particularly bad weather; and the movements of fans around the ground in the creation of atmosphere (Ashmore, 2017). Similarly, Wilhelm (2020), using on-site diaries of neutral spectators recording their perceptions of the stadium atmosphere at Hertha Berlin during a game, establishes that the wide range of bodily sensations, emotions and changes of mood reported by the participants are determined not only by the incidents of the game but by the actions of the crowd (e.g., singing and other rituals) and the space surrounding them. Drawn together, these different areas of research begin to underpin the fact that the importance of the matchday experience, and football spectatorship, consists of much more than solely following the action on the pitch. This has significant implications for the nature of football audio-described commentary and, potentially, radio commentary.

Matchday audio description Within film and television, the user experience includes dialogue and the sound­ track, both of which are available to individuals who are BPS. Similarly, the sounds of the crowd are available within a matchday experience. However, music is added to film and television as a way of enhancing the atmosphere or emotion created by the dialogue and images (Prendergast, 1992). In football matches, the crowd is at once the source and recipient of the noise. All fans, irrespective of their level of vision, can sing their support for their team. However, the shouts, the cheers, and

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the groans are arguably a reaction to the action on the pitch, or in the stadium more broadly (e.g., home and away fans engaging with each other). This shared emotional experience has positive impacts on identity and relatedness among fans (Neville & Reicher, 2011). Although BPS fans can access the sounds of the crowd, without mediation of the visual aspects of the game, it becomes harder to get the full details of the shared emotional experience and relatedness that forms an important part of the matchday experience. Football Audio Description is defined by RNIB (2009) as a continuous and live commentary of the action, provided by a commentator specifically trained for this, enabling BPS listeners to know exactly what has happened at the same time as everybody else in the stadium. The Centre for Access to Football in Europe (CAFÉ) describe ADC as commentary that: …describes all significant visual information such as body language, facial expression, scenery, action, clothing, colours and anything else that is important to conveying the image, venue, match, event or surrounding ambience. During the match, the commentator should describe the on-pitch action rather than talking about statistics or tactics or providing lengthy summaries of previous action. (CAFE, n.d.) In line with this, Ginley, one of the authors of the paper, an avid football fan who is blind, believes that effective AD commentary helps to paint the picture: first, by setting the scene before and during play, for example, starting with the fact that the ground is half empty and we have five minutes before kick-off; describing the orientation of play, which way the teams are kicking for example, ‘left to right towards the Kop’; then describing the team colours. Useful AD commentary then describes things as they happen, including the weather, for example, ‘the rain has stopped, and the sun is coming out’, and describes the crowd response to on-the-field action, or a manager looking agitated on the touchline following a VAR decision. Each description helps provide the supporter with the details needed to fill in the visual blanks, thus adding to the matchday experience. In line with Schmeidler & Kirchner (2001), Ginley suggests that a good AD commentary enables the BPS supporter to discuss elements of the game with family or friends during a post-match drink or when travelling home. Up to now, very little research has explored what should be ‘translated’ through football audio description. Trede (2007) argued that the describer’s role is to select the most salient information of everything happening in the stadium as well as to contribute to communicating the excitement of the game while keeping silent when needed (e.g., immediately after a goal). The trainee audio describers for the Euro 2012 Championship were encouraged to describe in real time all facets of the game, from the location of the ball to whether the spectators were doing a Mexican wave (Michalewicz, 2014). If the objective is to enable listeners to react at the same

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time, enabling full participation in the matchday experience, Thompson (2018) suggests that for some at least, these goals are met: …good ADC should enable anyone – whether they are blind or non-blind – to understand what is happening on the pitch (and off it) as it happens…As I know from my own experience at the 2016 Euros in Toulouse, good audio description can transform the matchday experience. If I can imagine the movement of the ball, I feel immersed in the action of the game. What has yet to be explored in football AD is the relationship to ‘objectivity’, both in terms of the choices of what to describe, and the role of the describer’s voice, in terms of pitch, speed and volume. Trede (2007) advocates the use of two commentators, as a way of creating a more objective description. At the Euro 2012 Championship, commentators working in pairs were encouraged to use subjective descriptions while remaining accurate (Michalewicz, 2014). Michalewicz (2014) noted that the approach provided freedom of interpretation and the use of colloquial language that normally contradicts the more objective style of AD. Given the role of emotion within the shared matchday experience, it is also questionable whether or not a neutral delivery as prescribed by some theoreticians and practice guides (see Machuca, Matamala & Ríos, 2020) is either desirable or appropriate. Having said that, it is interesting to note that some BPS fans have suggested that radio commentators get too carried away by the emotions of the game (Morgan, 2018; Hassell, 2019).

Radio football commentary Similar to audio description guidelines, both professional radio commentators and training programmes for sports commentators talk about painting a picture, or facilitating the creation of images, as being important for the experience of listeners (e.g., Crisell, 1994; Green, 2000; Booth, 2008; Fleming, 2010). However, anecdotal evidence from BPS football fans suggests that there is not enough description in secondary sources, such as radio or television, aimed primarily at sighted audiences, to really enable the creation of images: TV and radio commentary…comment(s) on the action without describing it, and thus relies on the listening public also having visual access to what is happening…all I have is general reflection on the players’ performance, I feel completely isolated from the fans around me. (Thompson, 2018) Given this discrepancy between objective and outcome, it becomes necessary to explore the nature of radio football commentary, in order to consider whether, through the use of more descriptive techniques, it can not only become more inclusive but also create a richer experience for all listeners.

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Researchers have tried to establish the different categories of discourse inherent in a sports commentary. Crystal and Davy (1969) made a simple distinction between informative and descriptive content; Delin (2000) established four distinctive commentators’ actions: narrating, evaluating, elaborating and summarising, and Müller (2007) distinguished between description and elaboration. Popov (2019) analysed radio and TV football commentary, comparing games from 1996 and 2015. He broke down the content into three distinct categories: action, analysis and background (e.g., extra information ranging from the weather to statistics). Although the data is only descriptive, it suggested that radio commentaries contained a higher percentage of action in 2015 (40.58%), compared to 1996 (33.92%). Analysis had also increased from 1996 (16.33%) to 2015 (36.69%). Both of these have increased at the expense of background (1996: 49.75%; 2015: 22.78%). In thinking about the comparison of television commentary to radio commentary, it seems clear that television commentators are assuming visual access, because description of action is low (1996: 28.69%, 2015: 21.20%) (Popov, 2019). In line with this, Clarke (2016) identified a greater use of spatial language in radio, compared to television commentaries. Although it is not surprising that radio commentary devotes more airtime to describing action, and is more likely to embed that in spatial language, it is noteworthy that Popov’s (2019) analysis suggested that over 50% of the content is devoted to background and analysis, rather than action (although some information in ‘background’ – such as weather descriptions, would form part of an audio description). Arguably, this could explain why BPS listeners are frustrated and are left lamenting: ‘…that this assumption of visual access routinely happens in mainstream radio commentary is beyond disappointing’ (Thompson, 2018). While content is clearly an important part of football commentary, given the role of emotion, both for football fandom (e.g., Eyre, 1997; Fulconis & Pache, 2014) and matchday experience (e.g., Shakina et al., 2020), the manner of delivery must also play a role. Researchers exploring the prosody of radio commentary, as a form of spontaneous spoken language, have shown that the timing and the prosodic features of the commentators’ utterances mirror, with some accuracy, the live-action events happening on the pitch (Müller & Mayr, 2007). Kern (2010) showed how the commentator’s voices create drama (e.g., with a higher pitch and faster speech rate, for instance), which potentially adds to the listeners’ sense of shared experience and relatedness to the collective fan-based identity (Neville & Reicher, 2011). Indeed, in a rare reception study, Samlowski, Kern and Trouvain (2018) explored empirically how listeners perceived suspense and concluded that what is said is not as relevant as how it is said (e.g., with a sudden pitch increase). Taken together, this suggests that a neutral tone is neither preferable within radio commentary nor audio descriptive commentary. At the same time, it is worth considering the degree to which emotion has to equate to bias. Arguably, national and local radio have different target audiences. Local radio may broadcast a matchday commentary for a home club in their area, and as such could be forgiven for assuming they are talking more to home fans than away fans, and as a result, it is perhaps not surprising that a local radio broadcaster would declare his commentary ‘partisan…but not biased’

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(Fleming, 2010, p. 172). This raises interesting questions about the nature and role of objectivity in what is, essentially, an audio-visual translation.

Conclusion: should radio commentary become more inclusive? The British Standards Institute (2005, p. 4) defines inclusive design as the ‘design of mainstream products and/or services that are accessible to, and usable by, people with the widest range of abilities within the widest range of situations without the need for special adaptation or design’. If radio commentary could, through the use of audio descriptive elements, provide an accessible matchday experience for blind and partially sighted listeners, without compromising the experience for other users, this would be a successful example of inclusive design. For BPS users, research has suggested that AD results in an increased understanding of the details (Rai, 2009), enhances the sense of presence (Fryer & Freeman, 2012), and enriches imagery experience (see Fryer, 2016; Walczak & Fryer, 2017), for an experience for which visual information is limited or non-existent. Research has also shown that, even where visual information is available to sighted viewers, audio description can enhance the experience within a museum or gallery context (Hutchinson & Eardley, 2021; Hutchinson & Eardley, In press). For many BPS football fans, including Ginley, radio commentary and ADC should be one and the same, given they both work towards describing the visual to the audience who do not see it. Even acknowledging the fact that both national and local radio also have other pressures on their time than dedicated ADCs, detracting from on-the-pitch action – including providing up-dates at other games, travel reports and advertising notices – Ginley argues that the art of the radio commentator should be to describe what is happening on the field of play to both people in the ground and at home. However, for Ginley, as well as other fans, unlike the early radio commentaries, current football radio commentary is less about describing play, and more about summarising. If this is the case, it becomes necessary to ask why. In a personal communication to Ginley, one BBC (British Broadcasting Cooperation) executive once said: ‘commentary is the entertainment, we don’t want listeners to tune away’. This seems to be underpinned by an assumption that, unlike BPS listeners, sighted listeners do not want to have the depth of description so as to be able to ‘picture’ the game. However, particularly in the context of creative AD, Thompson (2017) argues that audio description should be considered as an example of ‘blindness gain’. In other words, football commentary is an area in which the experience of sighted listeners could be enhanced by a provision developed to provide access to the BPS community. Given that radio listeners, whether they have sight or not, cannot be assumed to have visual access to the match play, the evidence suggests that the use of AD within radio commentary could enhance the experience of both BPS and sighted radio listeners. Indeed, the link between audio-described commentary and radio football commentary has already been made in Germany, where ADC has been situated as a

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journalistic, broadcasting discipline (Trede, 2007) as it is considered a ‘new’ form of live football commentary (Trouvain, 2015). Despite these links, further research is needed to explore the matchday experience, not only of those within the stadium but also those listening at home, to better understand whether or not the transition of radio commentary to audio-described radio commentary would have a negative impact on the experience of any group of listeners.

References Adams, A. (2002). Radio football down the years. BBC Sport, January 14th. Retrieved from http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/1760579.stm Ashmore, P. (2017). Of other atmospheres: football spectatorship beyond the terrace chant. Soccer & Society, 18 (1), 30–46. doi:10.1080/14660970.2014.980743 Atherton, M., & Macbeth, J. (2019). Disability and football. In Hughson, J., Moore, K., Spaaij, R., & Maguire, J. (Eds.), Routledge Handbook of Football Studies. Abingdon; New York: Routledge, pp. 279–292. Audio Description Coalition. (2009). The Audio Description Coalition Standards for Audio Description and Code of Professional Conduct for Describers. Retrieved from: https:// audiodescriptionsolutions.com/the-standards/ Bauman, H., & Murray, J. (2014). Deaf Gain: Raising the Stakes for Human Diversity. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. Booth, D. (2008). Talking of Sport. The Story of Radio Commentary. Cheltenham: SportsBooks. British Standards Institute. (2005). Design Management Systems — Part 6: Managing Inclusive Design – Guide. BS 7000-6:2005. BSI. ISBN: 0 580 44902 5 CAFE (n.d.). About audio descriptive commentary. Centre for Access to Football in Europe. Retrieved from https://www.cafefootball.eu/what-is-adc Charleston, S. (2008). Determinants of home atmosphere in English football: a committed supporter perspective. Journal of Sport Behavior, 31(4), 312–328. Clark, T. (2006). ‘I’m Scunthorpe ‘til I die’: constructing and (re)negotiating identity through the terrace chant, Soccer & Society, 7(4), 494–507. doi:10.1080/14660970600905786 Clarke, B. (2016). Representation of experience in the language of televised and radio football commentaries: patterns of similarity and difference in transivity. In Caldwell, D., Walsh, J., Vine, E. W., & Jureidini, J. (Eds.). (2016). The Discourse of Sport: Analyses from Social Linguistics. Oxford: Taylor & Francis. pp. 46–76. Conlan, T. (2018). Radio scores as fans enjoy World Cup ‘feelgood factor’. The Guardian 22nd June. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/football/2018/jun/22/bbctalksport-radio-world-cup-increase-engagement Crisell, A. (1994). Understanding Radio. 2nd edition. Abingdon: Routledge. Crystal, D., & Davy, D. (1969). Investigating English Style. Abingdon: Routledge. Delin, J. (2000). The Language of Everyday Life. London: Sage. Eardley, A. F., Fryer, L., Hutchinson, R., Cock, M., Ride, P., & Neves, J. (2017). Enriched audio description: working towards an inclusive museum experience Halder, S., & Assaf, L. C. (Eds.), Inclusion, Disability and culture: An Ethnographic Perspective Traversing Abilities and Challenges (Vol. 3). Cham, Switzerland: Springer. pp. 195–207. Eardley, A. F., Mineiro, C., Neves, J., & Ride, P. (2016). Redefining access: embracing multimodality, memorability and shared experience in Museums. Curator: The Museum Journal, 59(3), 263–286. EFL. (2019). 2019 Supporters Survey. (English Football League). https://www.efl.com/ contentassets/5fd7b93168134ee0b9da11fa8e30abd0/efl-supporters-survey-2019-report.pdf

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Machuca, M.J., Matamala, A., & Ríos, A. (2020). Prosodic features in Spanish audio descriptions of the VIW corpus. In Richart-Marset, M. & Francesca, C. (Eds.). Traducción y Accesibilidad en los medios de comunicación: de la teoría a la práctica / Translation and Media Accessibility: from Theory to Practice. Monographies in Translation and Interpreting, 12, 53–77. doi:10.6035/MonTI.2020.12.02 Marzà Ibáñez, A. (2010). Evaluation criteria and film narrative. A frame to teaching relevance in audio description. Perspectives, 18, 143–153. Michalewicz, I. (2014). Audiodeskrypcja po Euro 2012 – zawrotne tempo akcji para w gwizdek? Przekładaniec, 28, 153–162. doi:10.4467/16891864PC.14.011.1718. Morgan, K. (2018). Wrexham’s football commentary for visually impaired fans. BBC Wales. Retrieved from https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-46482677 Müller, T. (2007). Football, Language and Linguistics. Time-critical Utterances, their Relation to Non-linguistic Situations and Events. Tübingen: Gunter Narr. Müller, T. (2008). An important type of unplanned spoken language: a brief history of football commentary in England and Germany. Brno Studies in English, 34(1), S14, 64–78 Müller, T., & Mayr, R. (2007). Speech rate and emotion in football commentary. In Weinert, R. (Ed.). Spoken Language Pragmatics. An Analysis of Form-function Relations. London: Continuum. pp. 160–181. Neves, J. (2012). Multi-sensory approaches to (audio) describing the visual arts. MonTI. Monografías de Traducción e Interpretación, 2012(4), 277–293. Neves, J. (2016). Enriched descriptive guides: a case for collaborative meaning-making in museums. Cultus, 9(2), 137–154. Neville, F., & Reicher, S. (2011). The experience of collective participation: shared identity, relatedness and emotionality. Contemporary Social Science, 6(3), 377–396. OFCOM. (2019). Television channels required to provide access services in 2020. Retrieved from https://www.ofcom.org.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0022/154921/channels-accessservices-2020.pdf Popov, A. (2019). Live Sports Commentating: A Comparative Study of Cricket, Football, Horse Racing and Tennis Commentaries [Unpublished doctoral dissertation]. University of Zurich. Prendergast, R. M. (1992). Film Nusic. A Neglected Art: A Critical Study of film Music in Films. New York, NY: WW Norton & Company. Rai, S. (2009). Bollywood for all. The demand for audio described Bollywood films. Royal National Institute of the Blind. Retrieved from https://www.rnib.org.uk/sites/default/ files/2009_09_Bollywood_AD_report.pdf Rai, S., Greening, J., & Petré, L. (2010). A comparative study of audio description guidelines prevalent in different countries. Royal National Institute of the Blind. Retrieved from http://audiodescription.co.uk/uploads/general/RNIB._AD_standards1.pdf Ramos, M. (2016). Testing audio narration: the emotional impact of language in audio description. Perspectives, 24(4), 606–634. doi:10.1080/13556509.2014.994853 RNIB. (2009). Soccer Sight A guide to providing a service for blind and partially sighted football supporters. Royal National Institute for the Blind. Retrieved from https://www. rnib.org.uk/sites/default/files/soccer_sight_guide.doc Sadoski, M., & Quast, Z. (1990). Reader response and long-term recall for journalistic text: the roles of imagery, affect, and importance. Reading Research Quarterly, 25, 256–272. Samlowski, B., Kern, F., & Trouvain, J. (2018). Perception of suspense in live football commentaries from German and British perspectives. Proceedings of the International Conference on Speech Prosody. 40–45. doi:10.21437/SpeechProsody.2018-8 Schmeidler, E., & Kirchner, C. (2001). Adding audio description: does it make a difference? Journal of Visual Impairment and Blindness, 95(4), 197–212. doi:10.1177/ 0145482x0109500402

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15 EARLY CHILDHOOD INTERVENTION PROGRAMS IN UNDER-RESOURCED COMMUNITIES Reflections on practice Sadna Balton and Shakila Dada

Early childhood intervention Early childhood intervention refers to the experiences and opportunities that young children with, or at risk for, disabilities and delays are afforded by their parents, caregivers, and service providers (Dunst, 2007). Early childhood intervention aims to enhance the competence and confidence of children’s caregivers to ensure that children develop to their maximum potential (Dunst, 2011). At the core of early childhood, intervention is a family-centered practice, which focuses on building family capabilities and strengths (McWilliam, 2016). Developing an understanding of the complexity of families is integral to the success of a partnership with families. There are different types of families in South Africa: families could be a large multigenerational network of people who are closely involved in the daily affairs of the household and who support each other on a regular basis, or they could be a small nuclear family. They may be related by blood ties of marriage or by close personal relationships (Hall & Richter, 2018). Other important types of families include skip-generation households, child-headed households, same-sex partnerships, polygamous partnerships, and migrant families (Hall & Mokomane, 2018; Samuels, Slemming, & Balton, 2012; Schlebusch, Samuels, & Dada, 2016). Over 62% of children in South Africa live in an extended family system, and 41% of households are headed by women (Hall & Mokomane, 2018). About 84% of South Africans depend on the public health sector for their healthcare needs (Maphumulo & Bhengu, 2019). Early childhood intervention services to the majority of children and their families are therefore provided in a public healthcare setting (Samuels et al., 2012). The vast majority of healthcare professionals working in these settings come from middle-class, English-speaking backgrounds. A recent study has shown that 59.7% of Speech-Language Therapists/Pathologists DOI: 10.4324/9781003379034-18

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and Audiologists registered with the Health Professionals Council South Africa have identified themselves as white (Pillay, Tiwari, Kathard, & Chikte, 2020). Service provision is furthermore hampered by a lack of indigenous models of intervention (Khoza-Shangase & Mophosho, 2018). Theoretical ideas and methods generated are often aligned with beliefs about human nature and scientific methods specific to Euro-American cultures and norms, which are far removed from the realities of the families with which these professionals may work (Abrahams, Kathard, Harty, & Pillay, 2019). The dissonance between the training models healthcare professionals experience and the realities in which they are expected to function is gradually decreasing as a result of the “Rhodes must fall” and “#FeesMustFall” campaigns (Bitzer & Costandius, 2018; Khoza-Shangase & Mophosho, 2018). These student protests highlighted the lack of access to, and financial exclusion from, higher education (Booysens, 2016). They also emphasized the structural inequalities that still exist in South African universities (Godsell & Chikane, 2016). These campaigns led to a national call in South Africa to explore ways of developing and designing locally relevant and responsive curricula (Bitzer & Costandius, 2018; Le Grange, 2016). University programs training healthcare professionals are increasingly becoming aware of this dissonance and are attempting to ensure that the training moves from “thinking locally” and “acting globally” toward “thinking globally” and “acting locally” (Chaudhary & Sriram, 2020). This chapter will describe a caregiver-child program developed by a speechlanguage therapist working at the largest state hospital in South Africa. An autoethnographic approach will be used to display the dissonance experienced by the therapist and reflect on how this was and, continues to be, navigated. An autoethnographic approach was selected as it explicitly links concepts from the literature to the narrated personal experience. It invites personal connection rather than analysis, exploring issues of personal importance within context (Wall, 2008). Maréchal (2010, p. 43) defines autoethnography as “a form or method of research that involves self-observation and reflexive investigation in the context of ethnographic fieldwork and writing.” Autoethnography allows researchers to draw on their own experiences to understand a phenomenon (Méndez, 2003) and connect this to the cultural, social, and political context (Ellis, 2004), thereby decreasing the dissonance experienced. While an autoethnographic approach is utilized in this chapter, it is coauthored to strengthen the theoretical framework and underpinnings of the chapter, as well as the components of reflective practice.

Reflective practice Schön (1983, p. 3) introduced the “reflective practitioner” as an individual who uses reflection to revisit an experience in order to learn from it, and to frame the “messy and confusing problems.” The reflective practice draws attention to the ways in which knowledge is generated, and its application to speech-language therapy has been highlighted (Caty, Kinsella, & Doyle, 2016). The call for greater attention to the ways in which practice-based knowledge is generated and contributes to

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professional practice was made by Gabbay and le May (2011). Reflective practice has also been highlighted for its ability to contribute to theory and address the theory-practice gap (Eraut, 1994). However, Sackett, Rosenberg, Gray, Haynes, and Richardson (1996) cautioned against the lack of balance between evidence-based practice and reflection on clinical experience (which informs clinical expertise). Reflective practice has a role to play in the cultivation of ethically guided practice involving reflection on one’s personal values and beliefs and assessing the impact on actions in the workplace (van der Gaag & Mowles, 2005).

Training Between 1948 and 1994, South Africans lived under a racist system of laws called Apartheid. During Apartheid, racial and discriminatory policies impacted all aspects of life – socially, economically, politically, and culturally – especially among the black population (Tshishonga, 2019). I lived and schooled in an area that was designated for South African Indians, and my first contact with people of other races in a learning space was at university. I (first author) graduated with a degree in Speech Therapy and Audiology from a South African University in 1990, during the later years of Apartheid. My training was based on a Eurocentric-American model (Le Grange, 2016), with limited exposure to resources and approaches relevant to the South African context. The discriminatory, race-based policies that epitomized this era meant that I was one of only two black students in a class of about 30. My lecturers were predominantly white, English-speaking South African women who had limited or no understanding of me or my context and made no effort to find out more. This was exemplified when I was continually questioned about why I would arrive late for lectures and why I could not get to practicals that were offsite. I depended on irregular public transport to get to university and did not have my own car like many of the white students in my class. I was not afforded some of the same student clinical practical opportunities as white students because, during Apartheid, I was not allowed into some spaces. I also discovered that white patients who attended the university clinic were first asked if they would mind me treating their child. My clinical practicals were predominantly in well-resourced settings where I was exposed to one-on-one therapy with English-speaking children from nuclear family structures. My experience at university highlighted the inequities of Apartheid (Mzangwa, 2019) and the dissonance experienced on so many levels. This would become more prominent and discomforting after I graduated and started working in independent practice.

The dissonance I had a rude awakening about the relevance of my training when I started working at the largest state hospital in the country, which caters to a population of over 1.5  million people (Statistics South Africa, 2019). I was one of six Speech

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Therapists and Audiologists employed at the hospital at the time. I used the approach I was taught at university in a context that was very different from the settings I was exposed to in my pre-service clinical training. I started seeing children for 30-minute individual therapy sessions at the hospital. Parents or caregivers were not invited into the session and when they were, their role was primarily observational. I took on the role of the expert in teaching the child skills with limited caregiver involvement. Children only attended once a month due to the high caseload and limited human resources. The hospital I worked at was designated for treating black African patients, and thus the patient-to-staff ratio was significantly higher when compared to a similar-level hospital that catered for white patients (Price, 1986). Caregiver involvement was limited to the caregiver bringing the child for the appointment and carrying out the prescribed home programs, which consisted of isolated activities with limited understanding of the home context. Service provision was child-centered and treatment-focused (Rouse, 2012), based on what I believed from my training to be the most appropriate intervention for the child. Feedback from caregivers focused on whether they were able to carry out the activities and not whether the activities were relevant to the context. It became evident that this approach was not working as there was a high default rate and a personal sense of dissatisfaction with what I was doing. I had to reflect on why I was failing and what the solutions would be. This process was difficult as I felt that I did not have the tools required to change my practice. My self-reflection was important because I needed to critically look at why my training did not adequately prepare me for context. I had to look at approaches to intervention that would resonate with the needs of children and their families and match this to the resources available. Reflecting on my training, it was evident that the European and North American literature that underpinned the philosophy of the curriculum (Le Grange, 2016) was disconnected from the realities of what was being experienced in context. These philosophies in which I was trained were based on providing services in middle- to high-income contexts, which was atypical to the socio-demographic characteristics of the majority of families in South Africa. It recommended intervention approaches that were based on well-resourced, nuclear family structures. Therapy was also provided in English, which differed from my work context where families primarily spoke an African language. It was evident that the profile of children and families I saw at the university clinic did not match the profile of children and families I met in practice. Serpell and Marfo (2014) state that the absence of local content and pedagogy has left professionals to bear the additional burden of making sense of professional education that accords limited significance to local knowledge. My reflection led me to consider changing my approach and understanding how I needed to transform my practice. Reflection provides an intrinsic resource for the practitioner to develop their capacity to understand different contexts and relationships and the ethical issues that may arise from them. I spent time learning more about the families I worked with by changing assessment processes to include getting to know families. I also made a concerted effort to find out more about what was happening in the community by reading

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the local newspapers and discussing events with caregivers to gain insight into their perspectives. I attempted to develop more culturally appropriate resources with input from the speech therapy assistants who worked with me. I felt underprepared to meet the needs of the community I served. I, therefore, committed to furthering my knowledge and education by completing postgraduate studies in Remedial Education in 1992 and obtaining my master’s degree in Early Childhood Intervention in 2002. I completed my Ph.D. in 2009, which looked at family-based activity settings of children in a low-income African context (Balton, Uys, & Alant, 2019). With over 50 years of research supporting the effectiveness of early intervention for infants and young children (Bruder, 2010), my first realization was that I needed to start intervention earlier as my focus was predominantly on schoolaged children. The importance of early intervention to children’s development and family well-being has been well acknowledged by the international community (Guralnick, 2017). The majority of children in South Africa who are at risk or have an established risk for developmental delays are not identified early enough (Samuels et al., 2012). The average referral age of children into our outpatient services during the 1990s was four years. In 1994, the country became a democracy, and changes in health policy in post-apartheid South Africa introduced free healthcare for children under six years of age (South African Government, 2004), thereby improving access to services for more children and not just those from certain racial groups. One of the consequences of this was that the protocol at the tertiary-level hospital where I worked changed, with school-aged children being referred to other levels of healthcare and an increased focus on children under six years. This contributed to a change in focus toward younger children. However, the limited understanding of early referral for communication intervention was a concern, as caregivers reported that they related their concern to doctors and other healthcare workers about their child’s delayed communication but were told to wait until they were three years old. Pediatric primary care settings are uniquely positioned to offer preventive interventions like early referrals (Cates, Weisleder, & Mendelsohn, 2016). However, communication difficulties and learning difficulties are often missed by primary healthcare providers (McLinden et al., 2018). One of my first activities conducted was an active education and advocacy campaign on early communication intervention. I conducted talks and workshops for doctors, nurses, and other rehabilitation staff at the hospital. My focus was on the impact of late identification of communication difficulties on school outcomes (Rosetti, 2001).

Transition to including families Family-centered services are considered to be the foundation of early childhood intervention (Bruder, 2010; Epley, Summers, & Turnbull, 2010) and support the development of the child (Dunst, Hamby, Trivette, Raab, & Bruder, 2000) within the context. Research shows that when parents commit to their children’s development, better outcomes are achieved – not only for the child with the disability but for the entire family (Dunst, Hamby, & Brookfield, 2007; Dunst & Trivette, 1996).

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Early intervention impacts the family by enhancing parents’ sense of confidence and competence about their child’s current and future learning through focusing on parenting opportunities and experiences that promote and enhance parenting abilities (Bruns & LaRocco, 2017; Dunst, Bruder, & Espe-Sherwindt, 2014). It was evident that I had to get families more involved in the services I offered and that the individual, once-a-month, child-focused therapy had to change. While my work context restricted my model of intervention to hospital-based intervention, I attempted to provide families with sufficient information about the program and what it entailed to assist their decision-making. Families are given an overview of the program in the orientation session, which is explained below, and commit to the program according to the resources they have available. The knowledge that I was exposed to in my master’s program helped me refine my approach to families. I was introduced to ecological system thinking (Bronfenbrenner, 1986, 1999, 2005), Guralnick’s (2017) model on how the characteristics of families influence children’s development, and Dunst and Trivette’s (1996) resource-based model. This provided me with stronger theoretical underpinnings for my clinical approach.

Working with families My work with families started in 1999 when I designed a caregiver-child program for children and their families that evolved from my years of interaction and listening to families. As my knowledge from my master’s and Ph.D. studies grew, the program began to evolve and started to incorporate an ecological perspective, viewing the child as part of an interdependent system, within a broader ecological context (Bronfenbrenner, 1986). The program evolved over time and now also considers principles outlined by Dunst (2007), including (i) that experiences and opportunities afforded infants and toddlers with disabilities should strengthen children’s self-initiated and self-directed learning; (ii) parent-mediated child learning is effective to the extent that it strengthens parents’ confidence and competence in providing their children with development-instigating and development-enhancing learning experiences and opportunities; and (iii) my role as an early intervention practitioner in parent-mediated child learning is to support and strengthen parent competencies. The program is based on building and sustaining respectful, collaborative relationships with families (Bruns & LaRocco, 2017) and recognizing “parents as children’s first and most enduring teachers” (Blackburn, 2016). Today, based on my knowledge and experience gained, the program consists of two parts: group sessions for children and caregiver workshops aimed at caregivers. Referral criteria for the caregiver-child program include children under the age of six for the caregiver workshops and children under the age of three for the caregiver-child groups. There are no exclusions in terms of underlying diagnosis, language, and geographical location. All caregivers who are referred to the program are invited to an orientation workshop. This workshop focuses on information about the program in terms of the logistics, that is, the number of sessions and the

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expectations of both the service provider and caregivers. The session starts with an introduction where caregivers are asked to relay something about themselves in terms of their hobbies and interests. Most caregivers start describing their concerns about their child and have difficulty talking about themselves. This could be attributed to the nature of previous conversations they may have had with healthcare practitioners trained within child-centered medical models of intervention (Samuels et al., 2012), or that their lives with a child with a disability have mainly focused on childcare and they have compromised on self-care. Caregivers are thus encouraged to talk about themselves as individuals and their own interests, of which baking, cooking, watching television, cleaning, and spending time with the child have been foremost. From their descriptions, I gauged that most of the activities mentioned by caregivers tended to happen within the home context and with limited mention of community-based activities. This could be attributed to the caregivers’ reported concern about safety in the community (Balton et al., 2019). Over the years, these discussions with caregivers have deepened my insight into the community with which I am working. I have also become more comfortable sharing information about myself, which goes against what I was taught at university. Two videos are shown to caregivers in the orientation session. The first is “Experiences build child development” (Center on the Developing Child, 2011). The second is an inspirational video of Derek Redmond, an Olympic finalist, being assisted by his father to cross the finish line after being injured (https:// www.youtube.com/watch?v=RM3ccY55KLs). A discussion is then held with caregivers about the important role they play in facilitating the child’s development. Appointments are scheduled according to what caregivers are able to commit to, that is, groups and workshops, or just one of the two. Appointments for the duration of the entire program are scheduled to allow caregivers an opportunity to inform their employers and to look at the availability of family members to attend the sessions. The expectation from me is that there be a consistent caregiver accompanying the child to group sessions, while a different caregiver could attend the workshops. The families are encouraged to invite any other adults that have an impact on the child’s life. In many black South African families, the care of children is not the sole responsibility of the immediate family but of the extended family and community (Makiwane, Nduna, & Khalema, 2016). Acknowledging diverse family structures was therefore important in designing the intervention program within my context. Attendees at the workshops have included preschool teachers, neighbors, aunts, uncles, pastors, grandparents, and siblings. Initially, there were 12 group sessions but, due to financial constraints facing caregivers, the sessions were reduced to 7. The group sessions consist of about 6 caregiver-child pairs who attend for an hour. An attendance register was kept as children received a certificate of attendance at a graduation ceremony hosted at the completion of the program. The format of the session includes an icebreaker to set caregivers at ease. Thereafter, the facilitation technique is explained and demonstrated. Caregivers then practice the technique with their child. These interactions are video recorded by me. Video-based programs have been reported to offer

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important benefits as a broad educational tool for parents and may also shorten the time required for intervention without compromising outcomes, thereby increasing cost-effectiveness (Cates et al., 2016; Travis & Brestan-Knight, 2013). A study conducted by Cates et al. (2016) showed the success of a video-based intervention program with families from low-income backgrounds. Their sessions were facilitated by an interventionist, where parent–child dyads were video-recorded for approximately five minutes. This program showed sustained enhancements in cognitive stimulation in the home 1.5 years after completion of the program. A discussion is held with caregivers to identify positive aspects of the interaction and areas for further development. Caregivers are encouraged to provide feedback to each other before I provide input in the form of coaching. The video is paused at teachable moments for discussion where I coach caregivers about the use of techniques. Models of coaching have been proposed in the field of early intervention based on the adult learning literature. A study done by Brown and Woods (2016) showed that providing parents with opportunities to practice, with the interventionist providing feedback, guided parents’ active use of intervention strategies. Caregivers are also encouraged to train other family members. In recent years, parents have started using their smartphones to record interactions in the home setting to follow a similar format to the hospital-based session. According to Pew Research Center (2015), over 80% of South Africans own a smartphone, which indicates that most families have access to a device to record at home. Early communication intervention that involves parents is important because language abilities during the preschool years are the most important predictors for learning and literacy development over time (Rosetti, 2001). The impact of the risks associated with persistent language delays strongly suggests that providing effective early intervention may be essential for children’s long-term learning and development (Heidlage et al., 2020). Each session focuses on different early communication techniques (Pepper & Weitzman, 2004; Schreibman et al., 2015). The first session focuses on Allowing your child to lead, where caregivers are trained to identify what the child is interested in and how to respond to their interests and communicative attempts. The next three sessions focus on specific techniques to extend the child’s communication and build their vocabulary. In the fourth session, caregivers conduct a self-review of their use of the communication strategies by evaluating their performance in a video-recorded engagement with the child. A discussion is held on the areas of improvement that each caregiver has identified for themselves, as well as celebrating their growth. The first two sessions are difficult for caregivers as they are used to direct the communication and get the child to follow their lead. A  change in caregiver behavior starts becoming evident in session three. At this stage, caregivers are also more comfortable with me and with one another. Caregivers initially choose toys for children and when advised to allow the child to choose their own toys, gender-based beliefs are challenged when boys choose dolls. It is interesting that they do not display the same discomfort when girls choose cars. Toys play an important role in children’s gender socialization and educational pathways, stimulating pretend and social play, as well as the development of cognitive skills. However, many toys are stereotyped as appropriate for one gender, rather than

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the other (Kollmayer, Schultes, Schober, Hodosi, & Spiel, 2018). Developmentally through engaging with dolls, which is a popular toy choice for children in the home and in childhood settings, children imitate what they see or experience in the adult world and start practicing the skill of physically and emotionally caring for others (Hodgins, 2014). Children’s choice of dolls may also be related to more exposure to females in the household due to the nature of family structures, as discussed earlier. The fifth session focuses on playing with objects around the home and playing with water. Some ideas shared within this session include how to use empty boxes for stacking, discarded plastic bottles as skittles, and the tops of deodorant cans as stacking cups. Play with water is integrated into routines that caregivers are already performing at home, these include play during bath time as well as washing dishes. My Ph.D. study allowed me further insight into the activities that children and families engage in within their home and community context. I have used my findings to assist in expanding on the experiences that children have. For example, my study found that water play is not encouraged because water is an expensive commodity and that children are not exposed to sand play because parents are unable to afford to maintain gardens (Balton et al., 2019). Caregivers are encouraged to use the language facilitation techniques learned during the session on play with objects from home. The therapist spends time with each family assisting in facilitation through coaching the caregivers. The last group session concentrates on listening skills, where caregivers and children engage in various activities to facilitate the different stages of listening (Williams, 1995).

Group session: Fun with water

FIGURE 15.1 

Group session: Play with objects around the home

Group session: Exploring the senses - making a fruit salad

Group sessions

Workshops Caregivers attend a series of workshops that run parallel to the group sessions. The children do not attend the workshops unless the caregivers have childcare challenges. The workshops follow the principles of adult education, and varied methods and designs are utilized to facilitate active engagement and learning. Table 15.1 shows the format followed for each workshop. A register was kept monitoring attendance, as caregivers receive a certificate of attendance at the end of the program. Some caregivers have added these certificates to their curriculum vitae to assist with employment. The welcome is an informal

232  Sadna Balton and Shakila Dada TABLE 15.1  Workshop Design

Introduction Main session

Conclusion

Signing of register Welcome Icebreaker Lecturette Group work Feedback from group work Tea break Demonstration/videos Practical Lessons learned Handouts Reminder of next workshop

30 minutes 1.5 hours

30 minutes

chat about anything current in the country or in the news. The icebreaker serves as an introduction to the workshop as it would be related to the content of the workshop. The main session consists of a lecturette related to the topic of the workshop. New concepts are introduced and explained, with a consistent attempt to link input to knowledge that caregivers already have. Group work consists of caregivers completing a task; an example is discussing developmental milestones and brainstorming activities to carry out at home for a particular area of development. A tea break allows time for caregivers to get to know one another and establish support networks. Online support platforms such as WhatsApp groups have emanated from these discussions. It is interesting to note that caregivers start reprimanding one another for missing sessions or late coming as they become familiar with each other. Videos and demonstrations are used to highlight areas discussed in the workshop to allow caregivers further opportunities to consolidate the new knowledge and skills. The practical aspect provides an opportunity for further group work and focuses on applying the new skills to something tangible that could be used within the home environment, for example, making toys and books from waste products. All workshops conclude with a reflection on lessons learned and how these would apply to the home context. Pamphlets to reinforce the content covered are also handed out to caregivers. These are used by caregivers to share information with other family members. Table 15.2 shows the topics and facilitators of the workshops hosted. TABLE 15.2  Workshop Topics

Workshop title

Facilitator

Communication The confidence workshops Play Early literacy Having fun with movement Healthy eating routines

Speech therapist Life coach Speech therapist Speech therapist Speech therapist & occupational therapist Dietitian Speech therapist

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A book made by a caregiver: The Senses

FIGURE 15.2 

A toy made from waste products by a caregiver

Caregivers making books from waste products

Workshop activities

Continuing my journey with families After families have completed the caregiver-child program, an evaluation session is held between myself and the caregiver to discuss the areas of improvement and current concerns. Recommendations are made in accordance with the child and family’s needs. These have included referral for further therapy (individual or group) at the hospital or at the community level, referral to other specialized clinics, such as the Autism Assessment clinic, referral to another professional, referral to a creche, or discharge. A graduation ceremony is hosted for caregivers after they have completed the group sessions and workshops. The graduation includes a review of what caregiver perceptions are of the child’s improvement, as well as their own improvement. Caregiver feedback on the child’s progress includes improvement with listening, play, communication (making more sounds, words, and gestures), socialization, and independence, as well as increased imitation, requesting, focus, movement, confidence, participation in routines, and interest in books. Caregivers reported that they had improved in the following areas: being more patient with the child, improved understanding of the child and the child’s development, using language facilitation strategies during routines and play, making more time for the child, creating more opportunities for learning, increased belief in the child’s potential, handling tantrums better, and doing more activities with the child and as a family. Caregivers also highlighted that they were more confident talking about their child’s difficulties to others. Some have even given talks at local churches or community groups to raise awareness. A critical aspect of empowerment is that parents become natural advocates for their children (Bruns & LaRocco, 2017). Caregivers who attend all six workshops receive a certificate of attendance. The winners of the toys and books from the waste competition are also announced at the graduation ceremony, and the prizes are handed out. The graduation ceremony ends with a meal catered by participants and many “selfies” and group photos to capture the special celebration are taken. My own reflection on lessons learned since the inception of the caregiver-child program has been remarkable. I have learned how to apply the principles of adult

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learning in a way that facilitates transactional learning, allowing me to learn from participants as I shared my own knowledge and skills. I learned about family structures and how diverse they are and that I needed to challenge my own stereotypes about who should be involved in the program. Over the years it also became evident that fathers functioned very differently in group settings and those activities needed to be understanding and inclusive of their needs. I also needed to challenge the manner of input provided to caregivers, transitioning from a “lecturer,” who had all the answers to a facilitator and coach who follows the lead of participants and provides them with an opportunity to showcase their own knowledge and learning. Most importantly, I learned to become relevant to my context and I continue learning and growing with each child and family I have the honor of meeting along this journey.

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16 SOCIAL SUPPORT AND ACCEPTANCE Transgender People’s Lived Experiences with Social Media as an Alternative Space Santana Parui and Santoshi Halder

Introduction Transgender people, one of the most secluded and marginalized groups of society, have a strong historical existence in India. “Transgender” identity is the fourth pillar and ally of the LGBTQ+ community, which literally means “beyond gender.” Although they are acknowledged across numerous cultural contexts and civilizations from ancient times to the present day, the explanation of diversified gender expressions may vary across cultures. In India, transgender identity has a wide range of indigenous cultural figures, having culturally associated roles such as Hijras, Kinnars/Aravanis, kothis, Jogtas/Jogappas, and shiv Shaktis (Narrain, 2009). To uniform the transgender identity across the country “The Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act, 2019” (Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, 2019) described a transgender person as A person whose gender does not match with the gender assigned to that person at birth and includes trans-man or trans-woman (whether or not such person has undergone Sex Reassignment Surgery or hormone therapy or laser therapy or such other therapy), person with intersex variations, genderqueer and person having such socio-cultural identities as kinner, hijra, aravani and jogta. It is estimated that 0.3% of the total adult population in Asia and the Pacific region may be hijra-identified transgender women; however, this crude estimation doesn’t occupy other transgender-identified people (Winter, 2012). In India alone, there are almost 4.88 lakh people who recognized themselves as transgender, of which over 66% of the population identified as the third gender lived in rural areas (Planning Commission, 2011). Low literacy level ( just 46%, compared to 74% of the gender DOI: 10.4324/9781003379034-19

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population) and lower rate of working status (38%, compared to 46% of the general population) in comparison with the overall Indian population are some of the common cruxes associated with this community. In most conventional societies where gender binary role is the only legitimate gender, the concept is often challenged by many transgender persons, which is the basic source of their poor livelihood characterized by discrimination, stigmas, and other difficulties (Marciano, 2014). Basic human rights violations against LGBTQ+ community have been well documented by Indian and international human rights organizations, which generally regulate at the micro-level (individual, interpersonal), meso-level (community), and macro-level (institutional) across their life span (Chakrapani et al., 2017; Dutta et al., 2019; Ganju & Saggurti, 2017).

Transgender Lives in India: Social Stigma, Ostracism, and Health Risks Ganju and Saggurti (2017) revealed that transgender persons faced pervasive stigma and violence for having multiple marginalized social statuses. Also, higher levels of multisystemic structural violence and social stigma against them accompanied by economic and housing insecurity, employment discrimination, and poverty assign them to vulnerable HIV status (Ganju & Saggurti, 2017). Previous research on Indian transgender people also evidenced a synergistic relationship between the high prevalence of syndemic conditions, including depression, alcohol use and victimization, and ongoing HIV risk (Chakrapani et  al.,  2017). Transgender women not only in India but all over the world “are a very high burden population for HIV” (Baral et al., 2013). In India, transgender women were 11 to 12 times higher in average HIV prevalence than the general population in the year 2010/2011 (National AIDS Control Organisation, 2012). Lack of employment opportunity and workplace harassment often leads transgenders toward unsafe commercial sex practice, which in turn create a context for HIV vulnerability (Ganju & Saggurti, 2017). As transgender persons are mostly engaged in sex work and street begging and are unable to reproduce, their public visibility of gender non-conformity in India is driven by pervasive stigma and violence (Kalra, 2012). Researchers also advocate that a lack of proper knowledge and understanding among the general population often creates a transphobic environment where transgender people have to face disdain, societal isolation, lack of resources, rejection from family, community, and healthcare providers, and a myriad of barriers. The study conducted on American and Indian samples investigating their attitudes toward transgender youth found moderately negative attitudes in India in comparison with the United States, which was best predicted by religion-based disapproval and environmental causal attributions (Elischberger et al., 2018). Therefore, in India where a rigid social system exists characterized by gender dichotomy limiting offline support systems for transgenders and their opportunity for socializing in the mainstream society, social media has become a revolutionary substitute “safe space” to express themselves and create

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a social network with invisible members and obviously without any fear of physical harm (Lucero, 2017).

Social Media in the Lives of Transgender People Acknowledging the social stigma and persistent discrimination transgender people worldwide are going through, “Yogyakarta principle” (2008) on the application of Human Rights Law has addressed a number of recommendations for several social institutions including the mass media as a potential factor. For the mass media, it was suggested to “…avoid the use of stereotypes in relation to sexual orientation and gender identity, and promote tolerance and the acceptance of diversity of human sexual orientation and gender identity, and raise awareness around these issues” (Yogyakarta Principles, 2008). Among the mass media, the internet is one of the most relevant forms that support several networking domains, including social media. Earlier literary works support the facts that cyberspace has become a unique social sphere (where, social processes like transactions between individuals and groups, resources, and the organization of resources are some of the main activities) especially valuable for LGBTQ+ individuals, where unlike offline context coming out or gender transitioning, meeting people, sharing life experiences, developing communities, and support networks are more preferable due to relatively less presence of prejudice and stigma online (Marciano, 2014; Ybarra et al., 2015). The social evils characterized by discrimination and marginalization, lack of support, limited offline access to LGBTQ+ peers, and health information have made the social media platform very much attractive to transgender persons (Marciano, 2014). Social support is the “safe feeling” in a particular environment and for the young LGBTQ+ people who lack social support in-person, online spaces and relationships are likely to be supportive for their well-being (Ybarra et al., 2015). According to Marciano (2014), the role of the internet in the lives of transgender users can be understood at three different levels, namely “personal materialistic level” (viz., source of information, support, and consultation), “communal level” (viz. facilitating trans activism in the socio-political sphere), and “identity level” (viz., self-experience through virtual community). In addition to that, earlier, as identified by Idriss et al. (2009), several marginalized groups of society including LGBTQ+ people observed positive influence of internet use where the key factors of their online involvement were attributed to the availability of resources, convenience, access to good advice, and lack of embarrassment while dealing with personal issues. The internet also has played a pivotal role in the growth of the queer movement in South Asia including India; however, unlike the west, the Indian transgender community has a very recent journey through the digital medium (Dasgupta, 2017). Researchers documented those digital technologies have become the most useful tools for the Indian queer people living in suburban and rural areas to redefine relationships and companionship and connect with others for establishing a sense of identity and community (Dasgupta, 2017).

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Although, the existing body of literature shows that several attempts have been taken to explore transgenders’ online and offline interactions for identity development and media representations, the dearth of knowledge base to understand this new avenue of social communication in the life of a transgender person has created a large scope for more substantial research in this field. Specifically, whether and how social media substantiated as a “safe space” (Lucero, 2017) making transgenders’ lives more acceptable in the default cis-normative world should be studied in depth.

Rationale for the Study In the recent past, a growing interest has been observed among researchers worldwide or specifically concentrated in western countries on transgender people’s life experiences with social media. However, in India, the least is known about transgender people – the extremely marginalized group of society and their life experiences with social media. To the researchers’ best knowledge, this study is among the first few types of research in India that particularly attempted to explore the role of social media in transgender people’s lives with specific reference to their social support and acceptance in mainstream society.

Methodology Research Questions and Research Design The present study was guided by the key research question: How do transgender people perceive their social support and acceptance in mainstream society with the use of social media? The present study adopted a qualitative research design using a phenomenological approach for making a clear understanding of the proposed research question. Since limited literature exists on transgender people and their social acceptance through social media, the present study sought to apply inductive thematic analysis where the themes would emerge from the respondents’ given data and not from the preconceived hypotheses.

Participants A total of 12 participants (n = 12) were recruited by adopting a combination of purposeful and snowball sampling residing in the state of West Bengal, an eastern state of India. Participants were qualified to be included in the present study using the following inclusion criteria: (i) persons who self-identify/herself with gender non-conformity, (ii) gender non-conforming persons who use social media on regular basis, (iii) gender non-conforming persons above the age of 18 years, and (iv) persons who voluntarily agreed to participate in the interview session with the consent for recording. For ethical considerations, a duly signed copy of the written

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consent letter was received. For protecting the participants’ personal identities, each of them was assigned pseudonyms. A small monetary compensation was given to all the participants for devoting their time to this study. Among 12 participants five (n = 5) persons self-identified as genderqueer who want to come out as transwomen, two (n = 2) were transmen, and five participants (n = 5) reported themselves as transwomen. One of the transwomen self-identified as “Hijra,” which is basically a socio-cultural transgender community in north-eastern India. Participants of the study were aged between 20 years and 46 years (Mean ± SD = 29.08 ± 8.34). All of the participants revealed that they identify themselves as heterosexual, that is, they were romantically interested in people of their opposite gender preference. There was also a variation in their demographic profiles in terms of highest educational qualification, occupation, and residential area (see Table 16.1). TABLE 16.1  Demographic Profile of the Transgender Persons (N = 12)

Participants with Identified Pseudonyms Gender Ritam Priyam Dipto

Present Age

Highest Educational Qualification

Keya

Transman 29 years Graduation Transman 32 years Graduation Genderqueer 20 years Higher Secondary Genderqueer 20 years Pursuing graduation Genderqueer 20 years Pursuing graduation Genderqueer 25 years Graduation

Pamela

Transwoman 27 years Graduation

Nayna

Transwoman 46 years Class 7 dropout

Shaoni

transwoman

Surya Pritha

28 years Class 7 dropout

Occupation

Residential Area

Business Govt. employee Professional dancer

Semi-urban Urban Semi-urban

Student, part-time dancer Student, part-time dancer Tuition teacher, a professional dancer (as a permanent job), part-time theatre artist, and drawing teacher Civic police, part-time driver CBO president, sex worker, a part-time dancer in Badhai ceremony Social work, secretary of CBO (part-time sex worker, and dancer in Badhai ceremony)

Urban Urban Urban

Urban Urban

Semi-urban

(Continued)

Social Support and Acceptance  243 TABLE 16.1 (Continued)

Participants with Identified Pseudonyms Gender Saurav Madhu

Venu

Present Age

Highest Educational Qualification

Occupation

Genderqueer 26 years Higher Family business, Secondary part-time singer Transwoman 42 years Graduate Artist (dancing (Hijra) and painting), transgender social activist Lawyer, professional Transwoman 34 years Graduate dancer, dance teacher, trans activist

Residential Area Urban Urban

Urban

Research Instrument A semi-structured interview schedule was prepared by the researchers to obtain detailed narratives of the transgender individuals’ lived experiences with social media in their social support and acceptance. Each interview session lasted between 30 and 35 minutes.

Data Analysis A phenomenological approach was undertaken to discover overarching theoretical categories by employing the traditional method of organizing and managing qualitative data.

Results Transgender People’s Experience of Social Support and Acceptance with Social Media Researchers sought to explore how transgender people view their social support and acceptance of the use of social media, and on the basis of the participants’ discussions and lived experiences researchers came up with five major themes that include (i) Social media as the gateway to access information among transgender people, (ii) Developing and reconstructing relationships, (iii) Catalytic role of social media in the upliftment of trans community, (iv) Suicidal risks: regulating suicidal thought among transgender people, and (v) Conflicts within the LGBTQ+ community itself. Whereas the first three themes were identified by the researchers as positive or favorable approaches to social media, the rest two themes were identified as the contradictory role of social media as per participants’ own lived experiences. Several sub-themes were presented and discussed below under each major theme.

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Social Media as the Gateway to Access Information among Transgender People Three sub-themes identified under this major theme are discussed below: Access Information for Social Awakening. The various kind of information available on social media ranging from health-related information to people’s whereabouts and other updates, news to job advertisements – were reported by the participants as the most identified social media advantage. “Pritha” (20 years old, genderqueer) stated: I am being able to know about several things on which I have had very little knowledge before; look, through Facebook nowadays it is possible to know about several things; even the very new ideas…or it is not always possible to visit doctors on any lesser health issue, in that case, I can search-related websites to know about the problems immediately. Participants also talked about the online group of their communities where they can get information related to community events, programs, workshops, and job fairs, as well as others’ views and opinions of their community from different localities through posts, pictures, or videos shared on social media. One more important aspect of social media in the lives of the participants was to access information updates on various incidents happening with the community people from different parts of the country related to transphobia. According to them due to Facebook and other social media, it is possible to upload and share video clips and pictures of incidents of transgender people who are getting harassed, through online community groups. One participant called it “Jagran” (awakening). “Madhu” (42 years old, transgender woman) gave a statement that reflects the above scenario: When I use social media and can see that some other people are too getting harassed; suppose look, someone is getting harassed today in Delhi and I came to know about it just sitting here in my residence… many people thus come to know about such incidents…it is like ‘Oh! At least some people know that something had happened’. This is ‘Jagran’ (awakening)…this ‘Jagran’ is very much required in today’s life. Disseminating Knowledge about Transgender People among the Masses. “Social media is nothing but a stairway…through it, one could reach the ‘masses’” said “Saurav” (26 years old, genderqueer), one of the participants. Access to information through social media has been perceived by the participants as a significant way to bring about awareness in society from several aspects. First, according to some of the participants increasing awareness helps to set aside all the existing stereotypical myths on transsexualism engrained among common people and replace them with a concrete explanation of transgender identity, its different biological and socio-cultural sects. For example, “Ritam” (29 years old, transman) stated:

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Earlier everyone tends to place the transgender community under hijra community…now, they came to know the broader aspect of transgender community… Second, some participants enunciated that social media is creating a platform where open discussions over different gender identities appeared as a new positive trend that subsequently brought about changes in people’s attitudes toward transgender lives. “Pritha” (20 years old, genderqueer) narrated that: As it is easier through Facebook nowadays…umm, they also many times come across our posts, pictures and activities. So, you know as all normal public are watching these types of posts related to us, many times they come forward to talk to us too… Third, the interaction of ideas among transgender and cisgender people made it possible to develop an understanding of their attitudes toward each other. “Surya” (20 years old, genderqueer) stated that: Umm…good sides are that we are being able to know people’s ideas about us…like, who is thinking in what way; and that’s the most important thing… other people are also able to know about people like us through social media. Fourth, participants are optimistic that social media itself is being modified and is coming up with more gender-sensitized versions, which may be a reflection of an honest attempt to establish an inclusive society. “Pamela” (27 years old, transwoman) had drawn the reference to the “Facebook” setting, where people can customize their gender identity according to their preferences; for example, Facebook provides a “custom” option along with “male” and “female” sects to set one’s gender identity in their profile. She stated: Maybe the awareness is increasing…why! because previously I saw there were only ‘male’ and ‘female’ options but now I can see there is a ‘transgender’ option too; I myself have set my gender identity as ‘transgender’ in the space of gender on Facebook; I never set as ‘male’ or ‘female’. Disclosing and Developing Gender Identity Became Easier. Perhaps the advent of social media featuring anonymity and indirect communication and privacy setting has the most crucial role to play in the gender expression of gender non-conforming groups. Easy access to information as well as finding a comfortable zone to come out with one’s preferred gender identity were reported by the majority of the participants. Participants noted some factors that influenced the process of disclosing one’s gender expression; first of all, social media made it possible to develop an idea of transsexualism among the novice who started experiencing

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gender non-conformity but had no prior idea about these differences. “Ritam” (29 years old, transman) explained that: Before that, I used to think that I am a single person in this world who is like that (transgender)…and there was one of my family members, he is also a trans-person; female to male…my cousin. So, normally it seemed to me that it was only my family issue… there is nobody else in this world who is like so; and…one day it was surprising to find out that there is not only me, rather there are lacs of people like me in India…it was totally possible for Mark Zuckerberg, you know, due to Facebook. Second, participants think that due to social media coming out in open has become more indirect where there is the least face-to-face contact while self-expression happens through uploading posts, videos, or pictures on social media. For example, “Keya” (25 years old, transwoman) said: It would not have been possible if there was no Facebook; maybe then I had to face them to disclose my gender identity…but due to Facebook I never had to tell them anything about it directly…they gradually got to know me about what I am actually. Thus, social networking sites have become a congenial alternative for transgender persons. However, an interesting finding has been obtained related to disclosing and developing gender identity online for two participants who reported having two active Facebook profiles at a time suggesting different gender identities for each. They preferred to activate two Facebook accounts by deliberately differentiating between their professional and personal life for avoiding unnecessary disturbances. They are also, however, much concerned about their real identity while dealing with both accounts at the same time. “Ritam” (29 years old, transman) narrated that: Umm…all my works or jobs are conducted through Rittika Dey’s (female gender ascribed profile) account, Okay! I held it somehow my professional area…and, Ritam Dey (male gender ascribed profile) is Me, I mean that is real Me and Rittika Dey’s profile or my official profile is like the communication medium of my office, or workplace or school… However, “Priyam” (32 years old, transman) told that he had chosen both the accounts open to all his personally known and unknown people. I have basically one profile for my profession and another one is for my personal life. But the matter is not like that I don’t have any personally known people in my orientation-specific profile (personal Facebook profile) or vice versa.

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Development and Reconstruction of Relationships From the participants’ shared experiences, three sub-themes were identified under this theme. Enhancement of Social Cohesion through Befriending. Accessing resources on social media becomes most effective and useful when transgender people find out social media as a platform to build up new relationships that include both cisgender people and their community people (LGBTQ+). Participants noted that a sense of belongingness is likely to develop when they meet new people online. “Pritha” (20 years old, genderqueer) stated that: … social media somehow helped me. I can get some more new friends over there, or at least I am able to know them. Although already I have many friends who are known to me but on these platforms, I can get in touch with some new friends…there are some good and broad-minded people too with whom I met on Facebook and they love me a lot. Moreover, some participants reported that through the use of Facebook it has become more convenient than before to know others who have similar gender preferences and also who think and work like them. For example, “Priyam” (32 years old, transman) made a straightforward approach to convey that their social acceptance is improving. I do think social media has a great impact on our life…normally the acceptance has increased…umm mainly more than acceptance social media has become a necessary thing to know for people like me and their existence in the surroundings. Parental Acceptance. Participants also pointed out how social media served as a pathway to bring awareness among the parental figures to redefine their thinking on different gender expressions. Although most of the participants in the study had supportive families and were approved in their families as they come out or at some point, they managed to convince their families after confronting several challenges and struggles, but all of them valued social media as a great weapon for bringing out some significant changes in their parents’ thought process. According to them: Like, when I showed my parents through Whatsapp or Facebook that “look, I am not alone, there are many people like me who are fighting; all of them had to go through a process, some died and some also committed suicide…” and then only they could know and eventually accepted me. (Madhu, 32 years old, transgender woman, Hijra) Some participants viewed that their familial acceptance level increased when social media mediated to bring a social status online for their involvement in respectable

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activities instead of street begging or sex work. “Pamela” (27 years old, transgender woman driver and civic police) stated: (my) Parents also have welcomed me when they saw that: No, I am doing good or like I stood on my own feet and never earn my daily bread by clapping on the streets or doing anything like that…social media is now preaching… those…who were not aware of the fact that transgender people are uplifting themselves. Getting Support in Emergency. Participants reported social media as not only a means to access the information they require but also that they can get assistance when needed. For example, the first interviewee of this study, “Ritam” (29 years old, transman) stated that: It may not be possible to make a call every time or it may be like…suppose, my cell phone will no longer be with me now onwards for at least a while. In that case, I can send a text message beforehand to one such person who can support me that time. However, he further stated that as he held two Facebook accounts with different gender identities when he requires any help or support regarding his gender identity, he posts on the alternate Facebook profile that denotes his present gender preference, seeking community people’s assistance. He said: If I post any such thing online then normally my community people who joined my community Facebook account, will certainly give me a positive response and they generally do so.

Catalytic Role of Social Media in the Upliftment of Trans-Community Two sub-themes emerged from the participants’ views, which fall under this broad theme. Approval of “Good Work” and Valuing Social Activities of the Trans­ gender People. As social media is an open social platform where people can share their activities, stories, opinions on any issue, or just their day-to-day life’ updates it became an easier way for the gender minority people to appear with their special skills like their artistic subsistence, aesthetic sense of life, good works, and overall participation to various aspects in the society at large. Thus, it has been possible for them to get the approval of their “good work” as a means of social participation from the rest of the society. Like, most of the participants revealed how they are being welcomed in society. For example, “Surya” (20 years old, genderqueer participant) revealed that: Umm…it is like, when I was in my school, that time I had some classmates who used to laugh at me for my feminine gestures. But when they noticed on

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social media that I have joined a dance course in a reputed university where people don’t usually get a chance to pursue study…they understood that… “(s)he is good”. So, now they’ve started introducing me as their friends what they never did before. “Keya” (25 years old, transwoman), who is a professional dancer, a tuition teacher, and a part-time job cum hobby, often does theatre also explained how people’s attitudes changed overnight when she started “updating whereabouts” and “uploading dance performance pictures,” which she perceived as a true judgment to her social acceptance among both the cisgender and transgender people: When they came to know about my abilities, they treat me like: ‘we did not know that you are so good at dance, it is very nice to see you doing dance performance’…both the cisgender and transgender people think about me this way. According to “Venu” (34 years old, transwoman), who is a lawyer as well as a professional dancer, social media not only made social approval of their “good work” possible but also helped in introducing their success in various fields to the mainstream society. As she stated: All the respects, honors and everything whatever I’ve got today people came to know through social media… Gaining Confidence over Time. Participants emphasized the point that when their “good works” are valued by society at large, it boosts their self-confidence. Some participants also included how they were frightened to disclose their identity on social media but the situation started changing when they received appraisals from society via digital social platforms like Facebook, and it resulted in increasing their participation. “Keya” (25 years old, transwoman) explained: …after uploading a couple of my pictures when I would get positive feedback like “you are looking very good”, “It is awesome” and like these than I thought, maybe everybody liked it…since then I became regular on updating my whereabouts and started uploading my dance performance pictures. So, I would say really Facebook has helped me a lot…for establishing my identity. Participants also mentioned how social media helps in refuting all confusions or myths and misconceptions related to gender expression rather than building up confidence and bringing about changes in their attitudes specifically when social media becomes a common platform to meet likeminded people from every corner of the globe; “Ritam” (transman) said: It may be like, I dwell in such a remote village where… you know, there are many trans-persons who are female to male and who are forced to wear

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a saree…so, when those people are on social media like Facebook, they are getting in touch with similar people, and getting confidence that: there are some people too like me; yes, they may be in better position…but if I try, I will be able to reach to that position too. Okay!

Suicidal Risk: Regulating Suicidal Thought among Transgender People Participants also reported how the usage of social media among the gender minority group has a high potential in regulating any kind of suicidal thought or self-harming behavior, which is very common in this section of society. Interviewees of the present study opined a very interesting fact that there is an equal chance of coming up with a suicidal thought in mind or not; as they perceived that through social media when a deprived and poorly treated transgender individual sees others of his or her community in a better position or accepted from various aspects in the mainstreaming society s/he might develop any of the two intents, that is, s/he might develop a sense of withdrawal or might build up a strong sense of self-determination to overcome the hurdles of his/her life regarding self-gender expression. For example, “Ritam” (1st interviewee) explained it in the following way: Look, the effects can be fifty-fifty, suppose, on Facebook, I saw a transman who is in a very good position…who is getting educated and has persuaded his family at any cost… from this, maybe I can take a positive vibe like: okay, he is doing so, then I can also try and go ahead gradually; …this was one view, another view can be like: they have done everything in their life and I am still left behind… they have already that much acceptance, have their partners, have families, are adopting children, doing jobs, have a business, are eating out, traveling here and there, but here…I have such a poor condition! I have no chance anymore to get up in life, so, what will I do with this life… it’s better to commit suicide. So, you see, there can be two outcomes both positive and negative.

Conflicts within the LGBTQ+ Community Although social media can be viewed as a great tool for making the gender expression process easier and plays a significant role in the upliftment of this highly marginalized community, yet its dual role is unavoidable. Participants mentioned how self-expression of one’s gender preference sometimes appears to be a problem and creates a conflict within their own LGBTQ+ community which reflects clearly in some of their given statements. “Ritam” (29 years old, transman) confirmed how misconceptions within the LGBTQ community itself spread out through social media, which often led to bullying in the cyberworld. The conflicts between gender identity expression and one’s sexual orientation harshly impact upon their mental health. The conflicts among

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the gender minority and sexual minority groups regarding their self-expression often turn into a dispute on social media platforms which eventually creates confusion among the upcoming gender minority youth regarding their gender expression. He stated that: Now suppose, if a lesbian woman regularly provokes a transman by saying: “why are you doing this! As you are attracted to a woman you should live with a woman being a woman yourself… why do you want to express yourself as a male!” you know…it builds up mental pressure on a regular basis that, what should I do!

Discussion The present findings are significant in several aspects as the participants provided some valuable insights on their social media use and how it shaped their social lives.

Multidimensional Interactive Role of Social Media on Social Acceptance of Transgenders Social support was defined as “interpersonal communication and interaction, love and understanding, caring and concern, affection and companionship, financial assistance, and respect and acceptance” (Rausa, 2008). In addition, social acceptance occurs when there is a willingness among other people to include someone in their groups and it ranges from tolerating that person’s presence to actively pursuing a relationship with him/her (DeWall & Bushman, 2011). Therefore, readdressing the research question sought to answer in the present study researchers found an interactive role in the multidimensional context, which altogether create a pursuit of interpersonal acceptance, recognition, support, and in a broader sense social acceptance. However, the result of the present study has been discussed here in light of the three types of social support and the course of acceptance in terms of the functioning of social media.

Informational Support: A Key to Well-being of the Gender Minorities Giving advice, providing guidance and information – all are referred to as informational support that may help someone to solve the problem (Kort-Butler, 2017). Participants in this study mentioned that they search websites for accessing necessary medical information (Blotner & Rajunov, 2018). The same was observed in the previous studies that transgender youth and adults are more inclined to search online health information to gain clarity on gender dysphoria and information related to sex reassignment surgeries, HIV and STD testing, the contact information of inexpensive offline services of LGBTQ+ friendly medical professionals and centers instead of relying on the health centers for their well-known discriminatory behaviors (Blotner & Rajunov, 2018). Many participants also noted that getting

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in touch with updates on community events offline community people’s views was possible due to Facebook, which awaken them about their present status in society. Findings from the previous studies also suggest that social media is the primary source for transgender people to access high-quality information, real-life experiences, connect with people of similar experiences, and LGBT events and services because they can’t access this information offline anonymously (Cannon et al., 2017). However, although accessing information was a direct benefit of social media for the participants of this study, results also show few transgender people may develop a sense of withdrawal when they compare their own lives with other transgender persons’ healthy livelihoods which they come across on social media, often leading to self-harm behavior and suicidal attempt.

Emotional Support: A Key to Stress-free Come Out Emotional support acts as a non-tangible protective factor, which includes but is not limited to the quality of relationships one possesses, providing a sense of caring, love, trust, companionship, bonding, valuing, sympathy, and most importantly encouraging the vulnerable ones (Kort-Butler, 2017; Rausa, 2008). Figure 16.1 demonstrates that accessing information for social awakening has made transgender youths’ gender identity disclosure process easier than before and disclosing identity also influences participants’ confidence level. It is evidenced that disclosing gender identity is the most vital and stressful stage in transgender lives which affects their mental health (Burnes et al., 2010; Craig & McInroy, 2014; Haimson, 2019). Their overall experience of gender disclosure increases positive sentiments when they receive support from others which Facebook was perceived to be an effective medium for mass disclosure (Haimson, 2019). The findings of the present study revealed anonymity, indirect communication, and the free choice of privacy setting has made transgender people’s revelation process less stressful. Least face-to-face exposure (anonymity) helps them to come out through uploading posts, pictures, or videos (indirect communication). To some participants, social media is a means for selective disclosure as they can manage their identity using privacy settings and multiple accounts (e.g., Facebook) for avoiding unnecessary disturbances. Moe et al. (2011) called this selective disclosure a “mature approach” to avoiding offline stigma. Previous studies also demonstrated that the use of social media as a more secure and private space enhances the experiences of coming out and helps them to develop confidence prior to coming out offline, which is consistent with the present findings (Cannon et al., 2017; Craig & McInroy, 2014). Few participants, who use multiple Facebook account also indicated that they often change their names on Facebook account to get a sense of identification, which was in line with the findings by Jenzen (2017). An interesting finding from the present study also emerged when some participants who were genderqueers discussed the internal conflicts within the community during disclosing their identity online which they observed as very hostile and threatening to their transformation process. Participants also mentioned a few

Social Support and Acceptance  253 Social media

Favorable approach

Contradictory approach

Access information for social awakening Social media as the gateway to access information among transgender people

Developing and reconstructing relationships

Disseminating knowledge about transgender people among the masses Disclosing and developing gender identity became easier Enhancement of social cohesiveness through befriending

Suicidal risk: regulating suicidal thought among transgender people

Conflicts within the LGBTQ+ community

Parental acceptance Getting support in emergency

Catalytic role of social media in the upliftment of transgender community

Approval of ‘good work’ & valuing social activities of the transgender people Developing confidence over time Social support and acceptance

FIGURE 16.1 

Social media influence on social acceptance

incidents of cyber harassment that emerged from these conflicts where they mostly emphasized the anonymous nature of social media which became a threat to their social acceptance. There was some evidence of cyberbullying from the earlier findings where participants of that study felt that anonymous nature of cyberspace let transphobia more explicit, which was in concordance with the present findings

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(Cannon et al., 2017; Craig & McInroy, 2014). The researchers also reported on the scope of cyber harassment and verbal assaults among transgender people, while Lucero (2017) advocated that social media was perceived as more comfortable and safe space to the majority of transgender people and hardly had a chance to cyberbullying. However, for the present study the findings of conflict within LGBTQ+ community and the incidents of cyber harassment appeared as the contradictory role of social media, which may affect their social acceptance status.

Affirmation of Values and Attitudes: A Key to Get Along with the Mainstream Society Findings presented that social media create opportunities to make friendships online with both gender-conforming and non-conforming people. Participants in this study indicated that the love and respect received from cisgender people make them feel accepted in society and facilitated to get needful support. It was observed from the previous research that transgender participant turned to the internet very often for interaction and for getting connected with LGBTQ+ peers and heterosexual people, which create cohesion within society and build a sense of belonging ( Jenzen, 2017). The community groups they form in SNSs allow them to feel validated, and group members may increase their self-esteem and overall well-being, increase active participation, and social skills and mitigate loneliness (Cannon et al., 2017). Thus, “affirmation of values and attitudes” occurs as Rausa (2008) earlier remarked that it is the knowledge and understanding of a person on the similarities of beliefs and attitudes with others that provide membership and acceptance in a group. Social media also offers support to transgender people in an emergency through community members in connection. As is presented in Figure 16.1 that social cohesion through befriending has a direct influence on the support, they get in an emergency. It is because transgender people create online community groups by making new friends, they are more likely to help each other when someone asks for assistance by uploading posts to sort out problems in their life. In a similar vein, previous studies were found to reflect that transgender people develop their personal support community on social media like Facebook and Tumblr as a source to provide social support by developing a sense of connectedness and positive interpersonal relationships (Cannon et al., 2017; Craig & McInroy, 2014). Earlier, Ybarra et al. (2015) also advocated that LGBT youth have more supportive friends whom they met solely online compared to their in-person friends.

Interpersonal Communication Leads to Acceptance Participants in this study viewed social media as a stairway to reach the masses because it allowed debunking the existing myths regarding the broad spectrum of transgender identity and developing a concrete idea of its different biological and socio-cultural sects. Haimson (2019) also observed in his study that internet

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provides the sensitive information on transgenders’ transformations to those people unaware of transgender identity and has a discriminatory attitude toward them which reflects the present findings. The present findings also include that it resulted in bringing about people’s attitudinal changes toward transgender lives as well as developing mutual understandings, which is a signal of interpersonal acceptance in society. Thus, it can be seen that in developing social cohesion and bringing awareness to the masses social media have a significant influence, which is represented in Figure 16.1. However, not only social media has become a platform for transacting thoughts and bringing about awareness, but participants are also optimistic about the recent changes in the Facebook settings, where they mentioned the gender customization option which allowed them to go along with their preferred gender identity profile. Participants perceived that as an honest attempt to establish an inclusive society. It can be observed from Figure 16.1 that when social media brings about changes in people’s attitudes, they are more likely to accept and welcome transgender people and their special skills, which represent their artistic subsistence, aesthetic sense of life, good works, and overall participation in the society. Additionally, increasing the visibility of transgender people in online media gives a message to society about their positive representations. Participants of this study also explained that their social media use has a direct and indirect impact on parental acceptance of their transformation. People’s knowledge of transgender issues and approval of their recreational activities brings acceptance at the parental level, allowing them to acquire concrete knowledge of different gender identity, which in turn makes the path smooth and easier in terms of social support. However, in summary, the result of the present study vividly explored the catalytic role of social media, which mediates transgender people’s upliftment within the Indian society where transgender people still tussle for their social acceptance. Acceptance, as referred to by Rose et al. (2012), can be established when there is a reciprocal sense of respect, acknowledgment, and trust among society members. Henceforth, social media as a potential factor is playing an important role in multidimensional aspects of the social acceptance of transgender people by grounding the future path toward constructing an inclusive society.

Social Acceptance to Social Inclusion: A Future Prospect As a clear notion built from the participants’ perceived evolving social status, social media emerged as an informal setup for constructing and consolidating recognition through mutual trust and respect. In this study, participants viewed a trend of spectacular positive changes in the attitude of cisgender people by jeopardizing the existing myths on the concept of gender non-binary existence. These changes at the level of one’s thought process increase the recognition and approval of transgender people’s activities and create an open society where transgender people feel belongingness and desired acceptance. Rose et al. (2012) advocated that acceptance is an essential component and fundamental indicator of social inclusion of marginalized  youth.

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Moreover, collective responsibility and reciprocity are required to build up an inclusive social context, and it is being possible because these attitudinal changes are occurring not only in the cis-normative world but also among the transgender community as a result of open discussions on transgender issues in social media platform. However, increasing overall social acceptance starting from interpersonal acceptance and recognition at the ground level can lead to social inclusion, which will enable a trans-person to come out from their marginalized status and meet their educational need and further employment and training (indicators of social inclusion, Rose et al., 2012). Social inclusion may occur at interpersonal and social context levels (Morgan & Parker, 2017), so considering it as a continuous process, the present findings propose a future prospect for the social inclusion of transgender people through acceptance in society. Figure 16.2 is a persuasive model of social inclusion through social acceptance, which can be taken into account for further understanding of transgender people’s overall social upliftment.

Practical Implication The findings can be very insightful for those who are dealing with counseling or clinicians working with LGBTQ+ populations. Previous work has shown that social support provides reinforcement for healthy behaviors, reduces stress and depression, and quickens the recovery from any physical or mental illness, moreover, improves self-esteem (Pellicane et al., 2021; Rausa, 2008). Therefore, as the present findings suggest that social media serves as a source of support and acceptance for transgender people clinicians and counselors should encourage social media use in this population. Findings also suggest that health workers who are working with the transgender community should organize awareness programs about health-related issues and present scientific knowledge and information through the online communities of LGBTQ+ people so that they can actively take part in their physical and mental well-being. In addition, a study earlier found that the interventions that make the families of homosexual and bisexual youths become more accepting have some health benefits, including lowering anxiety levels and physical pain (Wang et  al., 2018). Therefore, community-based organizations (CBO) and NGOs are suggested to organize online parental and societal awareness programs on LGBTQ+ related issues so that the existing stigma regarding transgenders’ gender and sexual expression can be quashed and more acceptance can be assured.

Interpersonal acceptance and support FIGURE 16.2 

Recognition

Social acceptance in mainstream society

Refuting marginalized status

Social inclusion

 persuasive model of social inclusion through social support and A acceptance

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Limitations and Further Research Direction The present study also has some limitations that need to be reported. First of all, due to the difficulty of accessing the target population, small sample size was recruited, which limited the scope of generalizability. However, according to Creswell (2014), the recommended sample size is 5 to 25 for a phenomenological study that was met in this study. Second, the participants were mostly from urban or semi-urban areas and comparatively from progressive socio-cultural backgrounds except for a few. Hence, the findings may vary when participants from rural areas and of underprivileged backgrounds without family acceptance will be investigated. Third, participants’ transgender spectrum identities and their socio-cultural distribution were not representative because, only transgender women (one hijra identified), trans men, and genderqueer people were interviewed. There are several other sects of the transgender community, including pangender, transvestites, intersex, and also several socio-cultural transgender identities like kinnar, aravani, Kothi, and jogappa, who were not represented in the study resulting in limited generalization of the findings from the overall community perspectives. Some recommendations are suggested for future research. There is a scope to explore transgenders’ live experiences with other traditional media, including mass media like TV, newspapers, movies, and Web series, and their media visibilities in the Indian socio-cultural context. To extend the findings and generalizability in a larger context, quantitative and qualitative research design in mixed methods research is also warranted on this target population using a larger sample.

Concluding Remarks The present study explored how social media usage is shaping transgender livelihood in an optimistic and positive direction and increasing their overall social acceptance upliftment, especially in terms of accessing information, developing community belongingness, gaining social support, disclosing gender identity, and moreover building up a sense of confidence. Transgender people also observed that social media is possibly the best convenient platform through which they could reach the masses by often making “new friendships” and mitigating the evils of transphobia by spreading awareness and transacting thoughts. Furthermore, the findings of the present study can contribute to the practice of education and research by helping counselors and medical professionals to develop insights into transgender lives on social media as an alternative avenue for effective interventions.

Acknowledgments We acknowledge our sincere gratitude to all the participants in this study for devoting their time and sharing their valuable experiences and insights. The first author acknowledges her sincere gratitude to the University Grants Commission (UGC) for funding her research work and this article is a part of the findings from the research.

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Funding The present research was funded by University Grants Commission, Delhi.

Conflict of interest The authors declare no conflict of interest.

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17 INCLUSION Responding to diversity and ideological confusion Garry Squires

Inclusion: Responding to diversity and ideological confusion Darwin’s interest in the natural variation within species reminds us that no two individuals are truly identical (Darwin, 1859). Even monozygotic twins have subtle differences as they have been exposed to slightly different environments during early development within the womb. We are all different; diversity is natural and under certain environmental pressures, it is advantageous to the species. This idea was picked up by Galton who believed that how intelligent someone became was inherent in their characteristics, and the contribution of intelligence can be measured in how well that person perceives the environment, evaluates their circumstances and can make responses (Galton, 1883). He set in motion an idea that some brains are better wired than others and are marked out for success while others will not be so lucky. It gave scientific credence to justifying inequality in society. His view proposed that differences in success was largely down to within-person differences and ignored the importance of environmental influences such as how society is organised, or political power exercised. This in turn led to the eugenics movement, in which some human beings were deemed less worthy than others. In its most extreme form, eugenics suggests that biologically weaker individuals should be removed from the gene pool, either by compulsory sterilisation or by abortion before birth or by execution after birth. The milder view that some people are less worthy than others, while not openly phrased in this way, remains deeply entrenched in society and needs to be challenged directly. Why is it that some people or groups of people are marginalised and excluded from education or employment or society? In what ways are some people seen to be so different that they are not accepted? How can we respond to diversity in a way that embraces all human beings and enables them to contribute to society and to benefit from what society can offer? DOI: 10.4324/9781003379034-20

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In thinking about inclusion from a human rights perspective, the international community has set out a general position that all human beings should be treated equally and without discrimination. For instance, the Convention of the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) Article 2 sets out the rights of the child to be treated without discrimination, “irrespective of the child’s or his or her parent’s or legal guardian’s race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national, ethnic or social origin, property, disability, birth or other status” (UN, 1989, p. 1). These are high ideals and consistent with the views expressed in earlier chapters of this book. It is the opposite of eugenics, marginalisation, exclusion, or “keeping some people in their place (so that others can have more)”. It is a respectful position that values all human beings and has an underpinning belief system that all people can make a contribution to society and enrich the lives of others. My experiences are from working in education, first as a teacher in a large secondary school, then as an educational psychologist in a local authority in England responsible for around 400 schools, and then as a researcher working with schools and policy makers. These experiences led me to focus on why some schools are very good at responding to diversity while others are challenged and tend to exclude learners that are different from the majority. Over that time, attitudes have changed, sometimes towards greater inclusion and sometimes away from inclusion. Overall, there has been a positive shift to trying to make all schools more inclusive along with societal changes to one that is less homophobic, less sexist, less racist, less xenophobic, and more tolerant of different faiths and religions. Worryingly, however, there has been a recent political shift to the right that is being seen in many countries with increasing hostility to immigration and a rise in local nationalism. So how does inclusion fit with this wider contextual ideological confusion and can society and education in particular respond to diversity in a respectful way? These are challenging questions that have stimulated my academic research around educational inclusion and one of the reasons why I was very pleased to edit this book and to gain insights from all the authors that have contributed. Although some of the chapters do not focus on education per se, the issues raised by the other chapters remain pertinent and informative of alternative ways of thinking about inclusion. There are themes running through the different chapters and tensions and disagreements, and these will be brought out in this concluding chapter in which I think about two questions that intrigue me: Why is it that some schools can become more inclusive while others are not? And, how it is that some schools are better at responding to diversity while others seem to want to have homogenic cohorts of learners?

A brief history of societal influences on educational inclusion in England Historically in England, there has been a move to include more and more children in education. Following the industrial revolution, the 1850 and 1870 Education Acts made education compulsory for all children aged 5 to 10 years. The education

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system was modelled on that offered previously by the Church and by privately funded schools. It aimed to teach basic literacy and numeracy skills to improve the skills of future workers and to contribute towards the country’s economic competitiveness. However, children from poorer families could not attend because their parents could not pay the fees, so in 1891 fees were abolished. In 1899 the age range of compulsory education had been extended to 12 years of age. There were still some children who were considered not able to benefit from the limited curriculum of reading, reckoning and recording (‘the 3 Rs’), and these children did not attend school and were labelled as being ‘uneducable’ (Squires, 2012b). Within a decade the first special schools for blind, deaf and physically impaired children were set up (Living Heritage, 2010). In this early development of compulsory education, we can see that the governments of the day and charitable organisations were trying to ensure that children had access to a basic education and steps were being taken to deal with differences in socio-economic status (SES) and observable disabilities. There was a desire to provide good quality basic education for as many children as possible. Political pressure came to bear when concerns were raised about low standards in education and the belief that some teachers were ‘incompetent or lazy’ and that public money was being squandered. The government responded to this by setting up a school inspection system in which children were tested each year for their ability in the three narrow areas of the curriculum. For each test that each child failed, the school had to return one-third of the money it had received. If a child failed all three tests, then the school had effectively had the child for a year in school but received no funding (Rapple, 1994). Those schools that had more children achieve the standards received higher levels of funding and became sought after; both as a place for teachers to work and as a place for parents to send their children. The unintended consequence of trying to improve school standards effectively led to some teachers and schools wanting to only give places to those children likely to pass the tests and to exclude others who would not make the progress required. This story repeats itself in English history in 1988 when the government was also concerned about ‘lazy or incompetent teachers’, and there was a call to root them out and to sack failing teachers through a new inspection system. The government dealt with perceived incompetence and lack of teacher pedagogical knowledge by introducing a national curriculum. In order to be able to identify failing schools and to give parents a sense of choice they introduced quasi-market forces and measures of performance tested at ages 7, 11, 14 and 16, referred to as standard attainment tests with school performance published in what the media dubbed ‘league tables’. Schools that had more pupils pass the tests appeared higher in the league table than schools with lower-performing pupils and the government presented this as evidence that higher-performing schools had better teachers. Performance tables placed pressure on schools to focus on a narrow range of attainments, which are set around political aspirational targets. The tension between inclusion of children who for whatever reason learn less quickly and focusing on those who will easily reach the attainment targets is obvious and leads to some schools finding ways to change

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their intake so that they have a higher proportion of those likely to succeed. One way to become a ‘good school’ under this system is to have a more homogenous, high-performing intake of pupils. But is it really a good school? Wouldn’t a school that is able to respond to greater diversity and help all children improve even those starting at very low levels or those with impairments that prevent rapid learning be a good school? The government’s political initiative was based on a flawed assumption that outcomes were better in some schools because teachers were better. That is, you can drive educational standards up by getting rid of weaker teachers, closing failing schools and allowing parents to move their children to schools that appeared more successful. What is not obvious is that wider societal factors lead to some children being less likely to do well at school. SES is an important factor. Children from poorer areas or areas of high unemployment do less well at school and start school with an educational disadvantage. If money is hard to come by, then nutrition will be poorer, which impacts on neurological development; play-based experiences and toys will be hard to come by and this impacts on cognitive development; parents may be trying to hold down two (or more) part-time low-paid jobs and this impacts on their energy to interact with children and impacts on language development; low income means that there is less opportunity to access pre-school books and this limits early reading experiences. In all, social deprivation leads to a poor start in life and more likelihood of school failure. Successive governments in the UK have recognised this problem, and attempts have been made to deal with inequality; more money has been given to schools in poorer areas and this has now switched to providing additional funding to pupils who are entitled to free school meals through the Pupil Premium. Sure Start centres were set up in poorer areas to provide support to parents of pre-school children and to provide access to services for families, toy libraries and book libraries. These have disappeared and been replaced by free nursery provision for all children between the ages of two and four years. The other tension that occurs with the introduction of the monitoring of performance of either teachers or schools is that around tolerance to variations in behaviours associated with learning a narrowly focussed curriculum. The curriculum in 1870 was very narrow, only three subjects and a teaching pedagogy that involved repetition, drill and rote learning. During the 1960s and 1970s under the influence of work on child development by Piaget and Bruner, schools became more child focussed and flexible with a range of teaching modalities introduced. Creativity and skill development were seen as more important than the mastery of facts to be learnt. Teachers were able to follow their own interests, and this allowed them to bring passion to their teaching and inspire children to learn through a range of learning modalities. On the other hand, children in different schools received different curricula and some subjects might be missed out completely. The introduction of a national curriculum in 1988 set out to address the imbalance in learning opportunities by standardising the content to be learnt and refocusing on factual knowledge. However, it also returned to things that are easy to measure in a test, such as a set of facts to be learnt and memorised. Invertedly this

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changed teaching approaches to those who required more knowledge transmission rather than exploratory and experiential learning. Children were expected to sit for longer, to listen for longer and to write for longer. Distractibility, impulsivity, restlessness, hyperactivity, poor reading skills, poor writing skills, a desire to socially interact, critical thinking and challenging the ‘facts’ that teachers presented in a transmission culture could all be seen as behaviour problems. Children with behaviour problems interfere with the transmission of knowledge model of teaching. The way that the curriculum is taught affects the degree to which some children are included or excluded. This echoes some of the concerns of the 1950s that led to the Underwood Report (HMSO, 1955) which looked at behaviours in schools, and again in 1989 with the Elton Report (HMSO, 1989). Both of these reports suggest that most children behave well in schools and can access the curriculum on offer; however, there are some children who need greater support, and this can be partly achieved through the way in which schools as systems operate. For instance, having better behaviour policies with clear expectations and a focus on rewards and positive teacher–pupil relationships tends to reduce behavioural difficulties and reduces the chances of school failure. The Elton report focused on the fact that schools do make a difference to learner engagement and participation and that the systemic areas that matter are classroom management, school leadership, pastoral support, thinking about the buildings and general environment, having a positive school ethos, having good links with parents, responding to special educational needs, identifying pupils at risk, having well-trained lunchtime supervisors, taking steps to ensure good attendance, having good links with community services such as the police and local education authority. In short, to be more inclusive a school needs to consider how it operates as a system. Teachers in the classroom were seen as having the greatest levels of influence on pupil behaviours, followed by the school as a whole and then the local community. The Elton report raised concerns that the introduction of a national curriculum had squeezed out Personal Social and Health Education from the curriculum and that explicit teaching of values had been diminished. There had been a substantial shift in thinking from the 1900s through to the early 1990s with behaviour in the classroom that was originally seen as a ‘within-learner’ problem to a problem that was being seen as ‘learner-environment’ problem. It acknowledges that children are different for a whole range of reasons but also introduces the idea that the school environment can be changed to create a better learner-environment fit. There is a move from a predominately medical model of disability towards a social model of disability. Over the last 150 years, we can see that successive governments have had the desire to educate all children in their local neighbourhood school; however, there are factors that lead to the implementation being thwarted, often unintentionally and in unplanned ways. This leads policy makers to making reactive changes to the education system to deal with one perceived problem, without taking into consideration the inter-relatedness of different aspects of the social system and political system, and how the education system is impacted by these. The attempt to increase access to quality education for all is honourable; however, reactive approaches

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used sometimes lead to more children being excluded or marginalised because the assumptions focus on individuals (learners, teachers, families or schools). As we have seen in other chapters, hastily introduced responses do not always have the desired impact (see, e.g., Bedi and LaFrance chapter on linguistic minorities). Whereas approaches that consider the whole system seem to have more impact (see, e.g., Skoglund’s chapter on the whole-system-strategy in Sweden).

Would more choice lead to more flexibility? An alternative view is not to look at the school level but to look at the educational system as a whole. If a child does not fit within one school, then surely there must be another school that they can go to where they will fit better? Within this view is the possibility of having different types of schools for different types of learners. Some would argue that this allows more choice (e.g., Dwyer makes a convincing case for this in his chapter). In England we currently have a confusing number of possibilities (DfE, 2020c). Compulsory education runs from age 5 through to 16, though at age 16 there is then either continuation in education to age 18 or training or an apprenticeship scheme (DfE, 2020a, 2020b). Schools tend to be arranged by age, with primary schools (age 5–11), followed by secondary schools (12–16 or 12–18) in some parts of the country, while other parts opt for a first, middle and secondary school system. The way that schools are funded can be as local authority community schools, as local authority foundation schools that have a bit more freedom and can be linked to faiths, academies which are run as businesses independently of local authorities and do not have to follow the national curriculum, Free schools (i.e., free of local authority control), grammar schools which are selective, special schools for children with severe and complex special educational needs, private schools (confusingly referred to as public schools) which are paid for through fees from parents. There are also various forms of alternative provision such as Pupil Referral Units (for behavioural difficulties), hospital schools (for children with long-term illnesses requiring them to be inpatients), prison schools (for those incarcerated in youth offending institutions) and education otherwise (authorised home tuition). Children with complex and severe special educational needs can continue to be supported in education up to the age of 25 years. On the one hand, there is so much choice that everybody’s needs should be catered for, yet on the other hand it makes it easy for mainstream primary and mainstream secondary schools to say that a child does not fit within their population – there is no incentive to adapt the system to improve the learner-environment fit if there is another environment that might fit better. The array of educational provision adds to the confusion and enables some schools to become less inclusive and to focus on a tighter and more homogenic population. In this sense, there is no real choice for parents; mainstream school placement depends on availability of places in the locality; private school places depend on ability to pay; sustaining a mainstream school place is dependent on the school staff and the way that the school is organised and judged on allowing the child

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to remain. The appearance of choice for most parents and learners is a political sleight of hand. This can lead to a shift away from inclusion with more children being excluded or placed in special schools and effectively reduces individual choice as mainstream schools become more focused on a homogenic population of learners who will perform well on measures of school performance that focus on narrow curricular objectives and aspirational government achievement targets. This is evident in national statistics that show the number of children in special schools is increasing and government responses are to build more special schools to accommodate even more children who are not being included in mainstream schools. The number of children in local authority-funded and independent special schools rose from 125,409 to 131,933 learners between 2019 and 2020 (Gov.uk, 2021). Many children are also being forced out of education by schools. Pre-pandemic data for exclusions show that in 2016–2017 permanent exclusions increased by 0.1%, compared to 2015–2016 and fixed period exclusions increased from 4.29% to 4.76% in the same period. There has been an increase in permanent exclusions from secondary schools from 2012 onwards (DfE, 2017). This impact is not evenly distributed across different social groups. Pupils who are entitled to free school meals are four times as likely to be excluded as pupils who do not have free school meals. Pupils with special educational needs are between six and seven times as likely to be excluded as those without special educational needs. Black Caribbean pupils are three times as likely to be excluded as other pupils. Boys are three times as likely as girls to be excluded. The age when most permanent exclusions occur is age 14, just before starting examination courses (DfE, 2017). Between 2017 and 2018, there was a 27% increase in learners being educated at home, this equates to just over 40,000 children not in school (ADCS, 2018). There is plenty of choice within the education system, yet the system is still failing a large number of pupils and leading to practices that marginalise some groups more than other groups. It is not that more pupils are failing; after all the genetic makeup of children has not changed; it is the education system that is failing more pupils, and some schools fail more than others and some pupils are more at risk of failing than others.

School failure We might ask, what happens when we have school failure? There are two dominant ways of thinking about school failure (Squires & Kefallinou, 2019). One way considers it is individuals who fail to complete school, the other way is to think about how schools fail to educate all learners. This distinction is important and one that I will return to later; the first focuses on interventions at the individual level, while the second is about school improvement and systemic changes to improve school capacity. Irrespective of which of these two perspectives we take, there is an inevitable loss of educational school opportunities through early school leaving that then lead onto lifelong consequences (Dyson & Squires, 2016; Squires, 2017, 2019; Squires & Dyson, 2017). Poor academic performance at school has been

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found to be a strong predictor of illicit drug use (Gauffin et al., 2013). It is linked to poor mental health outcomes (Christle et al., 2007; Gallagher, 2011) and increased risk of poor psycho-social outcomes (Humphrey et al., 2013). Those who manage to complete secondary education are much more likely to find employment than those who do not (OECD, 2015, 2016) and the likelihood of being unemployed decreases with educational level attained (Bäckman et al., 2015; Przybylski, 2014; Schwabe & Charbonnier, 2015; Snieskaa et al., 2015). When individuals fail to complete their education, then this also impacts on wider society; it exacerbates the already-existing social divisions and inequality and further reduces social cohesion, and it leads to increased health and social care costs (Borgna & Struffolino, 2017; OECD, 2010). School failure and early school leaving result in the marginalisation of some people and go on to prevent their full participation in society. School failure is not evenly distributed but is underpinned by inequity in society. Commenting on the PISA data, the European Commission noted that school failure is three times more likely to be found in learners from poorer households than from wealthier households, and migrants are twice as likely as non-migrants to be affected (European Commission, 2018, p. 2). Seen in this way, educational inclusion is a moral imperative that impacts on the whole of society and can lead to a more equitable social order. To not do so, dictates that many groups will have a life of poverty and worse life outcomes and less investment and participation in society. Good quality education for all learners is a human right (UN, 1989) that has been echoed through successive conventions, declarations and agreements across the world, leading to the Incheon Declaration, which sets out sustainable development goals (SDGs) of which SDG 4 is around inclusive education (UNESCO, 2015; World Bank, 2015). SDG 4 is ambitious and builds on previous agreements and calls for a ‘decade of action’ that aims to have inclusive equitable quality education for all learners by 2030. This declaration is important in that it shifts the focus away from thinking about differences such as disabilities in a way that is conceptualised as a problem with the person (i.e., a medical model of disability). The medical model is found in many legal texts and specifies categories of disability or within-person characteristics to which organisations must make reasonable adjustments. It emphasises differences and places obligations for remedies upon organisations. However, inclusion requires a shift towards a social model of disability in which the educational system is seen as needing to respond and adapt, inclusion is a feature of the system and its response to human diversity. As I pointed out earlier, our starting point in England is far from ideal. We have too many different types of educational provision, and these create confusion for parents and teachers when it comes to thinking about how best to meet the needs of children who are markedly different from the class that the teachers would hope for in order to meet political aspirational academic targets. Children with special educational needs will by definition not be achieving at the same level as their peers (DfE, 2014). As an educational psychologist, I often heard a pre-school educator say, “X won’t be able to cope once he leaves us and goes to primary school” and similarly for primary school teachers to say the same about

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secondary schools. The transition point between phases of education leads people to question which option (mainstream or special) would best be suited to the learner, who so far has been accommodated well and made good progress within their current setting. Equally, special school staff can be selective about who they have in their school and who they exclude. Some teachers in schools for moderate learning difficulties want children who are intellectually behind their peers but not with behavioural difficulties that require more intensive teaching approaches. Some teachers in schools for children with severe learning difficulties do not want children who may have challenging behaviour and fit well within their cohort or if they are too bright and the curriculum may not be demanding enough. Everybody seems to have a view about what a homogenic cohort should look like, and therefore the default pathway that children should follow based on their individual differences. The same challenges exist at the post-16 transition point with default pathways evident for some groups of learners that limit their educational opportunities and progression into the workforce and to adulthood (Bason, 2018; Young et al., 2015). Organisational structures and the way that services are configured around individuals with a focus on deficit models of individual differences reinforce these existing attitudinal barriers. Alternative more inclusive approaches can still hold the individual at the centre but can also start to think about how to make the fit between the individual and the environment a better fit. What can be done to make the transition into school and through each of the different phases more likely to lead to educational success? One approach is to use the capabilities approach to disability (Sen, 1985) to focus on what individuals can do and how this helps them to achieve their goals rather than measuring their performance relative to their peers in narrowly defined curriculum areas. In education we might be concerned with the career options open to a young person or their desire to take part in interest groups, and we would consider their personal characteristics and level of functioning (e.g., current literacy skills, motivation, self-help skills and communication skills) and the extent to which they can currently achieve their goals. Clearly, this depends on the context in which the individual finds themselves and how well the school setting permits or hinders successful achievement of goals. That is to what extent is the education system or school limiting the opportunities for development for one individual or group compared to others (Burchardt, 2004)? It is the role of the school or educational system that can lead to further inequalities or can work in a more equitable way to reduce inequality. For more inclusive schooling and an inclusive society, we need to acknowledge that all learners are different and that cohorts of children are diverse and not homogenic. They each come with different capabilities and strengths and the extent to which they succeed will be determined by the extent to which schools are able to flexibly respond and to actively remove barriers to learning and participation. If we want a more inclusive education system and to move gradually closer to the 2030 aspirational agenda of full inclusion in SDG4, then we have to work hard to build capacity within the mainstream system to cater for learners with diverse backgrounds and characteristics and skills.

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Building capacity and inclusive design We can learn from schools that are good at doing this already. In one study we gained the views of young people who had special educational needs in different post-primary educational settings in the Republic of Ireland (Squires et al., 2016). During one of our visits to a school, we were impressed by how inclusive the school was and so we asked the teachers what they did. They were unable to tell us. They did not have additional resources. They had not all received specialist training. Yet what we saw was a positive school ethos in which teachers had an attitude that meant that they would look for ways to enable children to participate. It often resulted in responsive, friendly and ‘light touch’ approaches, made in the moment, for example, a pupil with cerebral palsy in this mainstream secondary school was with his friends and about to go out onto the playground for break, he was struggling to get his coat on; the teacher on duty simply went across and helped him. They chatted as she helped and then off he went with his friends. We asked 223 students across 30 educational settings, “what makes a good teacher?” and repeatedly they came up with comments that fell into these main themes: • • • • • • • • •

Teachers who show that they care about the student; Teachers who can be trusted and who trust student; Teachers who are sensitive to student learning needs; Teachers who are committed to teaching and learning, who make a visible effort; Friendly, approachable, and relaxed teachers; Teachers who show that they like the students as individuals; Creative and engaging teachers; Teachers who use a variety of teaching methods; and Teachers who modify their explanations until the student can understand.

Pupils did not like teachers that were over-rigid with the rules, aggressive, insensitive or who treated students unfairly. They did not like teachers that labelled students based on past behaviour or only focused on one aspect of the student, rather than seeing the whole person. They wanted teachers to be helpful when students needed it to understand them and respond flexibly when learning had hit an impasse. They did not want teachers who appeared lazy or only used one approach to teaching (Squires et al., 2016, p. 129). The pupils in Irish schools remind us that teachers are important and that their attitudes matter. These attitudes are underpinned by a healthy sense of self, and this suggests that there is also a need to focus and invest on maintaining and improving teacher mental health and well-being. Headteachers who have been found to have high levels of job-related stress and are at risk of leaving the profession can be supported through well-being programmes and retained as leaders within the school system (Howard, 2012). Lunchtime well-being programmes that have been run by

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an educational psychologist and a behaviour support teacher had a beneficial impact on teacher classroom performance (Sharrocks, 2012). A small-scale randomised trial was done for pupils with behaviour difficulties using cognitive behavioural therapy and it was found that while our treatment group of pupils reported a beneficial effect relative to the control group, teachers said that all pupils had improved in behaviour, including those in our control group. Our hypothesis is that for the classroom teacher following our intervention half of the pupils that had previously been challenging were now not, and this meant that the teacher had sufficient mental resources to deal with the rest and so it seemed like everyone was better behaved (Squires & Caddick, 2012). Direct work with teachers to help them to reframe classroom behaviour can be undertaken with a short six-session group intervention based on cognitive behavioural therapy to explore how classroom scenarios lead to certain types of thinking, which in turn lead to certain types of emotion and helpful or unhelpful coping strategies. Such an approach has been shown to reduce anxiety and stress levels in teaching assistants (Squires, 2012a). These studies suggest that working with the adults in the school around their own ways of responding to challenges of teaching can lead to greater individual capacity to respond to diversity. Capacity building also relies on teachers learning together. One approach to this works with a group of teachers within one school using action research. This starts by deciding on a barrier to inclusion to work on, thinking of possible approaches to take, thinking about how the teachers would know if they had been successful and thinking about how to note the change such as through measurements to take. One school that I worked with was part of a larger project (Howes et al., 2009). The school involved was selected by the Local Authority as there had been numerous complaints and concerns about learners being excluded. When I met with the Headteacher to introduce the possibility of the project, she suggested that I work with the department that seemed to have most pupils temporarily excluded (often simply in the corridors outside the classroom) and who seemed to have the highest incidents that led to pupils being permanently excluded. Why would one department fail so many students? I met with the teaching staff once a month and initially they suggested that the problem lay with the learners, ‘they were from poor neighbourhoods’, ‘they were poorly motivated’, ‘their parents had not brought them up right’ etc. The teaching team were asked to consider what they could change in order to make their teaching practice ‘more inclusive’ and what steps they thought they would need to engage in. It is important to know that change is occurring, and that progress is being made, so the teachers were asked to consider what evidence they would collect to reflect this. This is known as a theory of change model. The theory is not a grand theory, but it is very personal and belongs to the teachers involved in each project. It acknowledges that there is more than one way of doing things and what works well in one setting may not work at all in another. It is the teachers themselves that must find out what works for them in their school. They are active and try to measure changes as they occur (action research). To help them to do this, an outsider becomes involved to ask naive questions, point out untested assumptions, asking reflective questions and to acting as a critical friend (i.e., there

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is collaboration between the team of teachers doing the action research and an outsider, similar to the approach discussed in Reraki’s chapter). The science teachers in this school decided that they would work with the Year 10 students who were just starting their examination courses. The theory of change that the teachers came up with was, “If we can get a good start to our lessons then pupils will be better engaged, and we will not have to throw so many out”. They reflected on their own behaviours and the trouble spots in the lesson. From this they concluded that the start of the lesson was often haphazard and that disputes arose around where coats and bags were placed in the science laboratory. The actions that they thought would help deal with these issues were straightforward: meet and greet students by name at the door at the start of the lesson, provide an activity to engage students as soon as they arrive, issue clear time scales to students as they do introductory tasks, make a clear and definitive start to the lesson, and have a common and consistent language to deal with bag/coat issues. To support each other in implementing these practices, the teacher took turns observing each other and feeding back on how well they were doing. They also started to discuss preventative approaches to behaviour management informally in the staffroom. After one year in the project, the department had become the best in the school in terms of reducing exclusion from the classroom and they were asked to disseminate their approach to the rest of the school. By changing the learning environment through small-step cost-free changes such as building up individual teacher skills, improving relationships between teachers and learners, and by sharing ideas collegiately, the department had become more inclusive; they had built up their capacity for dealing with diversity. I was involved in two projects using the same whole school improvement approach to improving learning outcomes for children with special educational needs. The first was a national pilot involving just over 10,000 pupils in 400 schools with additional provision amounting to £4.3 million (Humphrey & Squires, 2011). Schools were allowed to decide what they wanted to do so long as it focussed on 3 areas: • Improving approaches to assessing, tracking and monitoring learner progress. • Undertake training on how to engage parents more effectively using an approach called structured conversations which follows a four-stage model of exploring an issue, focusing in detail on strengths and approaches to deal with the issue, coming up with a plan which is then implemented, and reviewing the progress made after a period of implementing the plan. • Developing strategies to support two of the following areas: improving attendance, improving behaviour, dealing with bullying, developing positive relationships (pupil-teacher and pupil-pupil) and participating in extending service provision. These areas are open-ended, and schools were able to develop a plan with support from professionals working at local and regional levels. Schools joined the project through their local authority and were naturally in geographical networks that

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could be linked easily so that teachers from neighbouring schools could share ideas and learn from each other. Our evaluation could be seen as being done with schools under ideal conditions and a test of the efficacy of the approach. By the end of the two-year project, pupils in the pilot schools had made more progress than those in comparison schools in maths and English, there had been improvements in attendance, behaviour and relationships. Children with special educational needs or disabilities (SEND) made more progress than children without SEND in the national cohort. Teachers in the pilot schools became more aware of how to respond to children with SEND and along with shared understandings of what SEND means in different schools, the number of children classified as having SEND and needing additional support fell. More children were being included in lessons without the need for additional support. The pilot was seen as being a success, and the government decided to roll out the scheme across the country, but without additional funding. A change in government also led to many of the regional agencies being axed. Austerity measures had been in place in local government and continued with the international banking crisis and resulted in many of the professionals employed by local authorities being made redundant with services and expertise lost. Educational psychology services remained, but many were reduced in size with less focus on preventative work and more focus on statutory roles that local authorities had to carry out. Much of the support that was available in the pilot was no longer available as schools voluntarily bought into the scheme using their own financial resources. Eight years on we were presented with the opportunity to evaluate the more naturalistic version of AFA by conducting a Randomised Control Trial as an effectiveness study (Humphrey et al., 2019; Humphrey et al., 2021). During the intervening period the nature of AFA had changed slightly and developed new modules, but in essence it was the same but run on a commercial basis with a ‘coach’ who would work with the school to develop a plan to work on agreed school improvement targets to build capacity to deal with children who were seen as vulnerable (e.g., those with SEND, those from low-income families). Because schools were buying into the project, they were no longer in geographical networks, and this lowered the opportunities for teachers to learn from each other. There were 134 schools and just over 6,000 pupils involved in the second study, and at the end of the intervention we found that pupils in the AFA schools did less well than those in the schools in the control arm who carried on with Business as Usual. What this contrast between the outcomes of the efficacy study (the national pilot) and the effectiveness study (schools in the wild) suggests is that to build capacity in schools there needs to be an initial investment in schools which will pay off later; schools need supporting through the process of change by outside professionals to develop preventative approaches; and teachers need opportunities to learn from each other to develop creative approaches to teaching and learning. These general principles of school improvement and development build up the capacity of the school to respond to a more diverse and heterogeneous group of learners. Approaches to inclusion involve removing existing barriers to participation which can be physical barriers (e.g., stairs where a ramp or lift would be more

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useful); information or communication barriers (e.g., standard print when audio or braille or video could be used); attitudinal barriers (e.g., building acceptance and flexible responses in teachers); and reducing policies that are discriminatory for those that encourage participation. There are approaches to allow schools to reflect on themselves as organisations and try to remove barriers through whole school audits such as the Index of Inclusion (Booth & Ainscow, 2002). Very specific approaches have been developed that focus on one type of disability such as dyslexia to help build dyslexia-friendly schools, which attempt to build a good inclusive practice around school leadership, improving the quality of learning, rethinking the learning environment, and working in partnership with outside agencies and organisations. This is about redesigning the school as an organisation and has been shown to be effective in raising the achievement of all learners in the school, not just the target population (Squires, 2010). A similar approach considers inclusion in terms of developing systems with everyone in mind from the start. This approach to responding to diversity comes from ideas from rethinking how buildings are designed by architects (Mace, 1988). Mace believed that buildings should be accessible to all, and this should be thought about at the design stage, rather than retrofitting badly designed buildings later using assistive technology or building ramps. This approach of starting the design with everyone in mind has been called universal design and it anticipates needs and then designs around those needs to allow a better experience of the building for everyone. The same approach can be taken to the learning environment and this is called Universal Design for Learning (Meyer et al., 2014). The policy on inclusive education must ensure that the curriculum is in line with the principle of universal design. This approach starts by anticipating diversity and then designing the education system, schools, and approaches to teaching and learning in such a way that they can be accessed by all learners. The universal design principles applied to learning and teaching environments are designed with flexibility to meet diverse learner needs. The three principles for curriculum development based on the universal design approach are: 1 . Providing information through multiple means of representation and modality. 2. Provide multiple means of action and expression and allow learners to express what they know in different ways. 3. Provide multiple means of engagement to stimulate interest and motivation for learning. For Universal Design to happen, schools and teachers need to have autonomy on how the curriculum is implemented so that they can be flexible in selecting learning tasks that match the abilities of learners. Yet at the same time, teachers must be accountable for providing good-quality education to all learners. The design is anticipatory and relies on being able to predict future needs. If needs change then the system has to be flexible enough to allow for changes in the way that learning is organised to be implemented. It is always easier to use the principles of Universal

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Design at the stage of developing new courses, and this has been used with an undergraduate course in psychology. Traditionally, university students prove what they have learnt by sitting examinations, but this mode of expressing suits some students better than others; adaptations are needed to how materials are presented or to how long students have to complete the examination depending on their disabilities. Suppose, however, there were no examinations, then these adaptations would not be necessary. There still needs to be a way of assessing student learning and development of competencies and this could be done by having different types of assessment for each module (e.g., essay, laboratory report, poster, video presentation, information leaflet, and portfolio of practice) and to give students some element of choice about how to demonstrate intended learning outcomes (Squires, 2018).

Conclusions I started this chapter by setting out the idea that all learners are biologically different and later introduced notions of how politics and social power also introduce inequities between learners. Diversity and difference are inevitable, and it seems strange that some schools and some teachers should want to deny this in favour of a homogenic classroom. If such a classroom did exist, then it would make the task of policy makers easier because the pseudo-market forces that are introduced into education would make some sense – schools with better outcomes would be the schools where teachers really were better teachers. However, social inequality introduces factors that mean that some groups of learners are excluded from equal participation before they even start school, and these children are seen as less desirable in the classroom when school performance is measured on a narrow set of measures. Teachers seek to send these children elsewhere or to exclude them from education. To maintain groups of homogenic learners, there has been an expansion in the types of schools needed to cater to special groups of learners, but, in the process of doing so, leads to more pupils being excluded from mainstream education with poorer lifelong outcomes. It also raises a false illusion that there is a choice about which type of school a child can attend; however, the placement depends upon strict criteria being met and is resource driven rather than needs driven. While national politics can dictate the values of the educational system and which learners are seen as being successful and which learners are seen as being less worthy, it does not have to be this way. Some of the social inequality can be addressed through national policy and some schools in poorer areas do perform well. Some schools are better at including vulnerable learners. This suggests that school improvement measures can also help to address inequality and promote equity and inclusion for all learners. Schools need support to do this from outside agencies, and professionals and money spent on building capacity for inclusion is saved later by not needing to result to compensatory approaches or lifelong support. When schools think about inclusion and are supported in their approaches, then outcomes for vulnerable groups improve, but so too do outcomes for all learners.

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The best approach is one that takes into consideration diversity and seeks to include all learners from the start and designs the curriculum, pedagogy, and buildings and trains teachers with all learners in mind to produce a learning environment in which barriers to learning and participation have been anticipated and designed out of the system. Even when the principles of universal design for learning have been applied, there will always be something that has not been anticipated and the system has to be flexible enough to allow it to respond to individual differences and to meet the needs of diverse community of learners. Solutions that work well in one setting may not be readily transferrable to other settings, and each school community needs to work out what works best for themselves. However, there are some general features that seem to occur in different research projects over time: •

Teachers can learn together and from each other to develop creative solutions and approaches. There need to be opportunities for networking and for engaging in small-scale action research. • Schools can be supported by outside professionals who can contribute different types of expertise and act as a critical friend and help with reviewing the process of change. • There are different types of barriers that can be addressed. These do not all come with financial costs, for example, teacher attitudes towards learners, building good relationships and being flexible are relatively cost free. • Anticipating diversity and building the system with this in mind using the principles of universal design for learning is important in helping all learners access the curriculum and participate fully in the school community. • There is a need to think about the needs of all members of the school community. Teachers will only be effective if they have the personal resources to manage themselves as well as to respond to a group of diverse learners. SDG4 sets out a political aspiration for all learners to be in mainstream settings by 2030, and there is international support for this to happen. It is an ideological position and we are not there yet by a long shot. However, the journey continues and generally speaking we are moving towards a more inclusive education system. If it could be achieved, and it was based on the principles of Universal Design for Learning, then maybe we would reach a point where we do not need to talk about special educational needs because learning would simply be seen as being on a continuum that reflects natural diversity.

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