Abstract
Empirical and critical studies of inclusion and inclusive practices in school represent different understandings of inclusion and different approaches to studying the phenomenon. They give a contrasting and diffuse picture of what inclusion is and about how inclusion is practiced. This article discusses two different ways of researching inclusive education and defining inclusion to be found in the Norwegian research literature. It is argued that by adopting either just a macro-orientation, studying the school structures, or only a micro-orientation, studying what selected teachers do in class, obscures other important issues that determine the quality of what goes on in school and that have to be addressed for inclusion to be operative.
Highlights
Very often, when inclusion in education is referred to and discussed, it is as ideology and policy, and not as experience
The macro-study discussed here is Lise Vislie’s analysis of changes when it comes to inclusion in school in 14 western European countries during the time period 1990Á96 (Vislie 2003)
Most important for her analysis of inclusion is the percentage of children receiving special education, how many of them are placed in segregated provisions and how many are found in mainstream classes
Summary
Volda University College, 6100 Volda, Norway (Received 23 April 2009; accepted 1 September 2009). Empirical and critical studies of inclusion and inclusive practices in school represent different understandings of inclusion and different approaches to studying the phenomenon. They give a contrasting and diffuse picture of what inclusion is and about how inclusion is practiced. This article discusses two different ways of researching inclusive education and defining inclusion to be found in the Norwegian research literature. It is argued that by adopting either just a macro-orientation, studying the school structures, or only a microorientation, studying what selected teachers do in class, obscures other important issues that determine the quality of what goes on in school and that have to be addressed for inclusion to be operative.
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