Barriers to inclusive education in Ireland: the case for pupils with a diagnosis of intellectual and/or pervasive developmental disabilities

Abstract

Accessible summary • Today all children in Ireland, including children with disabilities, have the right to go to their local school, if they want to and to get extra help if they need it. • Parents and teachers get very little training to help them understand the best way to teach pupils with intellectual disabilities. • Most mainstream teachers do not have access to psychologists or therapists and cannot get advice to help them provide the best learning programmes. • Some teachers do not believe that they will be able to teach pupils with intellectual disabilities properly. Therefore they may not allow these children to come to their school. • All teachers should have the information and training to teach all pupils, including pupils with disabilities. Then more students with special education needs would be able to get their education in mainstream schools. Summary Equality of access to mainstream education environments for all, and more specifically for children with disabilities, is the documented policy of the United Nations, European Union and the Irish Nation State. Transition from historical segregation practices requires States’ commitment to the provision of relevant resources. This paper argues that although access to mainstream environments has improved, lack of capacity at multiple levels within the system to provide resources to enhance the habitus of teaching personnel and parents and to meet the special education needs of pupils with intellectual and/or pervasive developmental disabilities impedes access to enrolments in mainstream primary education environments. Pierre Bourdieu’s Theory of Practice and Symbolic Power, which highlights how the accruals of various resources, termed capital, affect one’s habitus and power relationships in the social arena, is utilised to examine the enrolment practices that are resource sensitive. The paper offers recommendations to enhance a positive habitus and universal enrolment practices.