Table Of ContentPartnerships for Inclusive
Education
Participation is essential for inclusive education. But why is this and
what does this mean? How can it be brought about?
Participation in the sense of real collaborative working has largely
been elusive in any widespread sense. Increased partnership between
professionals, particularly through the integration of services, heralds
a major opportunity for child and parent participation, but one that
seems in danger of being side-stepped. Drawing on substantial
research evidence, this book looks at reasons for this situation, what is
happening now, what developments and initiatives have been tried and
what we can do to develop a culture of participation.
Some of the main threats to participation are discussed throughout this
text:
•
Has ‘partnership’ ever existed?
•
Who is excluded from partnership?
•
Which discourses have made participation elusive, and what are
the implications – theoretical and practical – for how we move
forward?
Liz Todd presents original ideas to both practitioners and academics
to open up the complex processes that can frustrate participative
practice. The PPC (Practice–People–Context) Model of collaborative
inclusive practice helpfully guides people working with children and
families in schools and services towards the development of a culture
of participation. In combining socio-cultural ideas with post-
structural thinking, the strong yet accessible theoretical basis to this
book makes the ideas relevant to both an academic and an educational
professional audience.
Liz Todd is senior lecturer and Director of Educational Psychology
at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne, UK.
Partnerships for
Inclusive Education
A critical approach to
collaborative working
Liz Todd
First published 2007 by RoutledgeFalmer
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by RoutledgeFalmer
270 Madison Ave, New York, NY 10016
RoutledgeFalmer is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group,
an informa business
This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2006.
“To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s
collection of thousands of eBooks please go to www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk.”
© 2007 Liz Todd
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or
reproduced or utilized 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.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for thi s book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
A catalog record for this book has been requested
ISBN0-203-96749-6 Mastere-bookISBN
ISBN10: 0–415–29844–X (hbk)
ISBN10: 0–415–29845–8 (pbk)
ISBN10: 0–203–96749–6 (ebk)
ISBN13: 978–0–415–29844–5 (hbk)
ISBN13: 978–0–415–29845–2 (pbk)
ISBN13: 978–0–203–96749–2 (ebk)
Contents
List of illustrations vii
Acknowledgements viii
1 What partnerships for what kind of inclusive
education? 1
2 Being seen and heard and making a difference:
how children participate 21
3 The absent special guest: children as service users 43
4 Parent partnership: the need for a richer story 63
5 Integrated services: an invitation to inclusion,
or exclusion? 83
6 Participation for inclusion: the
Practice–People–Context Model 106
7 Towards authentic participation: examples
of practice 136
Appendix: what kind of services do children
and young people want? 160
Bibliography 165
Index 184
Illustrations
Tables
2.1 Advantages to pupils – in terms of social capital –
from enhanced participation 31
3.1 Contrasting understandings (discourses) of childhood
and professional role from different positions on
participation 60
4.1 Models of partnership 70
4.2 Contrasting assumptions of professional role and
parent for different conceptualisations of parent
relations 81
5.1 The territory of extended schools 86
6.1 The implications for partnership of alternative
assumptions about Practice 113
6.2 The implications for partnership of alternative
assumptions about People 122
6.3 The implications for partnership of alternative
assumptions about Context 126
Figures
1.1 Inclusions and exclusions: building a solid foundation 2
2.1 Three cultures of participation 36
5.1 An activity system 91
5.2 An activity system of a Joint Action Team meeting 93
6.1 The PPC Model: towards the development of
collaborative working practices 110
6.2 PPC Model of participation in professional practice 111
Acknowledgements
Writing this book has been a journey – and one impossible without so
many friends and colleagues discussing ideas and making comments
on drafts. It would have been abandoned without the great support of
Andy, Robin and Jake and the time they gave me to write. Final thanks
to the people – children and adults – I have worked with in grappling
myself with how to have real participation in schools and services, and
from whom I have learnt so much.
1 What partnerships for what
kind of inclusive education?
Introduction
Inclusive education is built – in schools and in local authorities – in
many ways. New bricks are added to replace the old. Some forgotten
friends are remembered and added with new cement. What makes the
‘inclusion’ wall secure, stops cracks developing, or stops it from lean-
ing in directions where it could topple is partnership. Real partnership.
Participation based on mutuality and respect. This book takes as its
starting point the assumption that this crucial element of what makes
inclusion robust is often absent, given lip-service, badly done or
wrongly assumed. Partnership and participation are explored through
what we know about what is currently happening, what we know
about what makes them difficult to secure and ideas for practice. This
chapter explains the key understandings that inform the book – some
of them theoretical – and explains the structure of the book. It makes a
case for the particular partnerships that are to be considered and
explores what is meant by inclusive education.
There are probably countless ways to write a book on partner-
ships for inclusive e ducation. I have chosen three areas that seem to
speak very loudly for attention: these are areas where there have
been substantial improvements but at the same time where there are
real needs for change and improvement. They are all arenas for
collaborative working that seem to be central to inclusion. These
areas are: the participation of children and young people in schools
and services; the partnership of parents with schools and with
practitioners who work in services external to schools; and collabora-
tive working between professionals and agencies. These three areas
of collaboration are epitomised in the following quotes from
research and policy, which illustrate their importance for different
kinds of inclusive education, and introduce some of the issues and
tensions.
