Abstract
Mathematics education has been notoriously slow at interpreting inclusion in ways that are not divisive. Dominant views of educational inclusion in school mathematics classrooms have been shaped by social constructions of ability. These particularly indelible constructions derive from the perceived hierarchical nature of mathematics and the naturalised assumption that mathematisation is purely an intellectual exercise. Constructions of ability, therefore, emanate from the epistemic structures of mathematics education as predominantly practiced worldwide, and the prevalence of proceduralism and exclusion in those practices. Assumptions about ‘ability’ have become a truth to mathematical aptitude held by mathematics teachers in schools. This includes schools across Scotland. In Scotland, the government owes the ‘included pupil’ a legal obligation to provide additional support for learning under section 1(1) of the Education (Additional Support for Learning) (Scotland) Act 2004. However, classroom practices deployed around socially-constructed notions of ability have seen schools moving away from an emphasis on ‘additional’ to an expansive interpretation of ‘different from’ in the language of section 1(3)(a) of the Act 2004. This shift, therefore, reinstalls exclusionary effects to school mathematics practices by creating the conditions for some pupils, constructed in terms of disabilities or low ability, to be afforded a more inferior education than others. While philosophical conversations around whether these practices are ethical, egalitarian or democratic might ensue, there is also the human rights angle, which asks whether such practices are even lawful.
Highlights
In 1994, 92 countries and 25 international organisations signed up to the Salamanca Statement and Framework for Action on Special Needs Education (UNESCO, 1994)
While it discusses the conversations on equity, ability, democracy and inclusion within the international mathematics education field, it focusses on what these implications might be in relation to particular practices within the Scottish policy context
School mathematics is invested in power relations, therebyproducing a social class structure that affords access and opportunity to some and not others, based on constructions of ability and disadvantage
Summary
In 1994, 92 countries and 25 international organisations signed up to the Salamanca Statement and Framework for Action on Special Needs Education (UNESCO, 1994). This article addresses the issue of inclusion through a rights-based lens in respect of school mathematics education While it discusses the conversations on equity, ability, democracy and inclusion within the international mathematics education field, it focusses on what these implications might be in relation to particular practices within the Scottish policy context. The article proceeds by first addressing mathematics and mathematics education in terms of its hidden values and the politics of meaning around de/mathematisation (Chronaki & Swanson, 2017; Gellert & Jablonka, 2007) in the context of constructions of ability, failure, and disadvantage It calls for equality, ethics, and a more critical relationship with democracy in respect of mathematics education practices (Skovsmose & Valero, 2001; Swanson, 2017). This approach is embraced in order to frame an international research agenda around the question of whether certain disability practices of inclusion in mathematics classrooms are more than a question of ethics and inequity, or if they are even lawful
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