inclusion: mythologies and opportunities
TRANSCRIPT
Inclusion: Mythologies and Opportunities Meaningful Citizenship in Transformative Crisis
Dr. Alan BruceULS Dublin
D4L
Aalborg, Denmark, 19 November 2015
Thematic Overview
Crisis, change and context
Looking at Exclusion
Inclusion: concept or empowerment?
Policy to best practice – Global Citizenship
1. Crisis, change and context How wrong can you get? Fukuyama
and the End of History (1992) Sociologies of dislocation The end of certainty: change or
chaos? Narratives of insecurity and change Motivation:
departing/arriving/learning European dimensions, global issues
Globalized realities Globalization – accelerating and
pervasive Crisis, meltdown and re-structuring
post 2008 Devaluation of the public sphere Stratification and inequity Labor market transformation Rights and inclusion – token or real? Access, quality and innovation in
education
Impact Patterns of constant change Permanent migration and mobility Outsourcing Flexible structures and modalities Knowledge economy Scarcity of traditional jobs Ecological pressures End of certainty
Farewell to Normal
End of stable socio-political norms Uncertainty, fluid identity and unease A world turned upside down The poetry of quest – from Yeats to Kavafy A deep shiver of guilt – what have we
done? What have we become? The ghosts that will not rest End of assumptions about European
identity
The impact of change
The old world is dying. The new world struggles to be born.Now is the time of monsters. Antonio Gramsci
Spectres at the gates
Persistence and increase in inequality Permanent hopelessness of excluded Invisibility and ethnic difference Seeking scapegoats and creating
victims Access means many things….
What about the rest of us? Decreasing workers’ share in national
income in all countries Labor productivity (up 85% since 1980)
not reflected in wages (up 35%) Declining social mobility Rising income inequality reflected in
declining equality of opportunity
Global Wage Report 2012/13, ILOProf. Miles Corak, Journal of Economic Perspectives 2013
Challenges for learning
Mutual interaction or structured exclusion?
Community values or communal rituals?
Linkage to realities or past models? Shared memories or shared hatreds?
A transformed world End of expected certainties
No return to ‘normal’
Polymorphic media
Planet of Slums (Mike Davis): hypercities of the future
Informal economies
The normalization of brutality
Mainstream: opportunity or nightmare? Mythology of the ‘normal’ Defining the mainstream: what have we
become? Robust probing of social structure required
as preliminary to defining mainstream Masking power, relationships and inequity Need to avoid cliché and assumptions Learners are immersed in and emerging
into this changed constellation – of which the gatekeepers know little
2. Looking at Exclusion
Exclusion is much easier to define Tangible evidence of legacy of
discrimination Pattern of low expectations or
invisibility Economic, social, cultural dimensions
– as well as educational Denial of access to resources Unacceptable but often tacit
acceptance in divided or unequal societies
Dimensions of exclusion
Barriers (intentional or otherwise) Attitudes Prejudices Stereotypes Rejection Hostility Rigid systems
Segregated schooling
Centuries of exclusion in learning systems
Outright ban – girls, women and disabled
Exclusion as the norm Separate systems: gender, language,
religion, class, ethnic group Unequal resources and outcomes Fragmentation and
disenfranchisement
Special schools in Ireland Established for the blind and deaf 3 schools each Operated only at primary level Hidden and bleak
And the learner?
Into the nothingness of scorn and noise,Into the living sea of waking dreams,Where there is neither sense of life nor joys,But the vast shipwreck of my life's esteems;And e'en the dearest--that I loved the best--Are strange--nay, rather stranger than the rest.
John Clare (1793 – 1864)
The ‘science’ of discrimination
Racist politics and hate (1866)
The portraits of hate
Racism today – Greece 2013
Racism today – Hungary 2013
Racism today – France 2013
Mainstream alternatives?
Disruptive classroom behaviors Absenteeism Early school-leaving Teacher burnout Migration, integration and sustainability Literacy, numeracy, basic skills Languages Quality and governanceDG EAC (2008) European Education and Training Systems in the Second Decennium of the Lisbon Strategy, NESSE and ENEE.
Equality imperatives
Struggle for recognition Gender equality and reproductive
rights Religious minorities Sexual orientation Disability Reaction and control – ‘standards’ Legacies of exclusion are deep and
may re-surface
3. Inclusion: Concept or Empowerment
Five key issues:1. Measures to reduce early school leaving2. Priority education measures in relation to disadvantaged pupils and groups3. Inclusive education measures in relation to pupils with special needs4. Safe education measures in relation on the reduction of bullying and harassment5. Teacher support measures.
Defining inclusion
‘I refuse to join any club that would have me as a member.’
Attempting definition…kind of…
Social inclusion can be defined as a number of affirmative actions undertaken in order to reverse the social exclusion of individuals or groups in our society
INCLUSO (EU 7th Framework, 2009)
So what is exclusion?
A multidimensional process of progressive social rupture, detaching groups and individuals from social relations and institutions and preventing them from full participation in the normal, normatively prescribed activities of the society in which they live.
H. Silver, Social Exclusion: Comparative Analysis of Europe and Middle East Youth, Dec. 2007. (Wolfensohn Center for Development, Dubai)
Probing inclusion
Not necessarily benign Not necessarily desired Not necessarily valued Inclusion or conformity? Exclusion often seen minimally as
lack of access Exclusion is a systematic policy of
inequality and denial of rightsHugely different implications
Inclusion 2.0 If learning, working and production are controlled
inclusion is at best token, at worst sinister
At the core of inclusion must be ability to assess critically and express freely
Fundamental to inclusion is ability to ask questions that challenge existing relations
Inclusion re-examines existing reality while posing viable alternatives
Trajectories of inclusion Youth and mass unemployment Demographics: ageing and life
expectancy Women and labor market
participation Immigration, cultural and religious
difference Disability Conflict, stress, anomie Urbanization, dissent and democratic
deficits
Engaging inclusion Positive and proactive decision – policy and
practice It is achievable Risks: stigmatization and discrimination Requires whole-school and community
commitment and support Demands resources (personnel and training) Demands facilities to UD level throughout Designing for diversity Support, review, standards
Achieving meaning
Inclusion changes both sides – the act of mainstreaming is to change the mainstream not the ‘excluded’
From objects to subjects Narratives of adaptation and
discovery From target group to citizen Critical role of teachers Inclusion and the dialectic of rights
4. Policy to best practice – Global Citizenship
Transformational learning and the sociology of innovation
Educational systems as networks of actors who reinforce each other in stable configurations
Stable configurations prevent change
Vested interest acts against innovation and inclusion - seen as threat
Reality on our doorstep
Education: from Newman to KerrJohn Henry Newman (1873) The Idea of the University
1. Primary purpose of a University is intellectual and pedagogical2. Range of teaching within University is universal; it encompasses all branches of knowledge, and is inconsistent with restrictions of any kind.3. The University prepares students by allowing them to learn about "the ways and principles and maxims" of the world4. True education requires personal influence of teachers on students.
Clark Kerr (1963) The Uses of the University
1. Modern university is diversified – a multiversity2. Serves needs of society, economic and cultural3. Think tank – essential to progress4. Master Plan for Higher Education (1960) in California
ICT and re-imagining access Contradictory and paradoxical process Never greater potential - side by side with
increasing disparities of access What we think:
Citizens▪ Shared knowledge
▪ Participative engagement What we have:
Consumers▪ Increasing exclusion
▪ Significant problems with equitable access
Education as business Terry Eagleton: The Slow Death of the University (April
2015) Packaging knowledge Destroying arts and the humanities Teaching less vital than research – research brings in he
money Vast increase in bureaucracy, occasioned by the flourishing
of a managerial ideology and the relentless demands of the state assessment exercise
Professors are transformed into managers, as students are converted into consumers
Purposive learning in an age of uncertainty
End of linear models of learning Cognitive dissonance: what is needed is not
being provided Alienation and anomie in a changing world Labor market flux and the loss of autonomy Adaptability and innovation as norm, not
exception Globalized paradigms/fractured community Elephants in the room: power and
ownership
Empowerment
Empowerment is the process of increasing the capacity of individuals or groups to make choices and to transform those choices into desired actions and outcomes. Central to this process are actions which both build individual and collective assets, and improve the efficiency and fairness of the organizational and institutional context which govern the use of these assets.
World Bank 2011
41
Changing directions and trends Acceleration Collaboration and networks Collaboration with knowledge
production centers Increasing domination by market
realities Towards competence Integrated learning for integrated
learners
Towards Global CitizenshipEducation must fully assume its central role in helping people to forge more just, peaceful, tolerant and inclusive societies. It must give people the understanding, skills and values they need to cooperate in resolving the interconnected challenges of the 21st century.
United Nations: Global Education First Initiative (2012)
Contested citizenship
Membership of a political community Belonging and engagement Rights and entitlements Duties and responsibilities Constrained by legacy of nation-
state Cultural minorities and migrants Disputed access
Post-national citizenship
Shaped by globalizing process Greater access to knowledge,
information and values Digital media Mobility and migration Climate change International governance bodies Accelerated interdependence Respect for pluralism and diversity
Education and Global CitizenshipTo enable learners
To develop a sense of shared destiny through identification with their social, cultural, and political environments.
To become aware of the challenges posed to the development of their communities through an understanding of issues related to patterns of social, economic and environmental change.
To engage in civic and social action in view of positive societal participation and/or transformation based on a sense of individual responsibility towards their communities.
Sobhi Tawil (2013)
UN Thematic Learning Outcomes Awareness of the wider world and a sense of own role
both as a citizen with rights and responsibilities, and as a member of the global human community.
Valuation of the diversity of cultures and of their languages, arts, religions and philosophies as components the common heritage of humanity.
Commitment to sustainable development and sense of environmental responsibility.
Commitment to social justice and sense of social responsibility.
Willingness to challenge injustice, discrimination, inequality and exclusion at the local/national and global level in order to make the world a more just place.
In from the margins: the barbarians have arrived! From oppression to emancipatory learning Insights of the excluded - voices of the
invisible Learning to think – and teach – anew Creating benefit for all Critical thinking distinct epistemologies of
science and engineering Science explains what exists; engineering creates what never existed (Von Karman) Disability and learning: from Louis Braille to
Ken Robinson
Images of the ‘asylum’
In modern society a sense of normality is achieved through the suppression and exclusion of the abnormalFoucault, Madness and Civilization, 1964
Inclusion roadmap
Increased application of new knowledge
Open and distance learning technologies facilitating learners and staff competence
Transformation of traditional teaching role to mentoring, guiding and facilitation
Development of network of inclusion best practice at European level
Adopting UDL Inclusion not as destination but
starting point
Setting sail to Ithaka
Removing barriers - mind and heart Avoiding inclusion clichés Asserting imagination and creativity Limitless potential of the inclusion
focus Learning for all as foundation for
transformation From the core of crisis – new
directions or the abyss?
Thank you
Dr. Alan BruceULS Dublin
Associate Offices: BARCELONA - HELSINKI - SÃO PAULO - CHICAGO