Written Material

Widening the stream: Ways to think about including “exceptions” in schools

This is quite a long article concerning the theory of inclusive education for those students who are almost always excluded – students with severe multiple and medical disabilities. The authors take as central the premise that schools should be places where all students become learning members – not just fitting in but having a role as a learner. As such, the authors believe that the way professionals and teachers think about the education of the students should change from either focussing on social rather than learning outcomes, or attempting to illicit isolated skills to achieve some functional outcome. It is argued that teachers should be encouraged to think less about these, and more about increasing students’ opportunities to practice their existing repertoire of current behaviours in real school and community activities. The authors then go on to discuss how this can be done. Keywords: Theory, Education, School age