Liberal Perspectives on Inclusion: Enlightenment Values and Debates on Equity and Democracy in the Classroom [Hardcover]

Introduction

Chapter 1 What is Wrong with Inclusion Today

Chapter 2 Value Pluralism and Liberalism

Chapter 3 Knowledge and Liberal Perspectives on Inclusion

Chapter 4 Implications for Education and Inclusion in the classroom

Chapter 5 Wider Aspects of Education and Inclusion

Chapter 6 Inclusion and Higher Education

Chapter 7 Conclusions

Providing a theoretical underpinning for the idea of inclusion within education, this book recognises the fundamental role political values play in our understanding of inclusion in the classroom, providing a philosophical lens on inherent tensions that exist within sociological perspectives on social justice, equity and diversity.

Joseph Mintz is Associate Professor in Education, Faculty of Education and Society (IOE), University College London, UK.

I wish this book had been written when I commenced my doctorate in special needs education back in the 1990s. Books on the philosophy of special education and inclusion are rare. In this volume, Mintz tackles some of the toughest questions that underpin the common vocabulary in education concerning inclusion. But he doesn't provide the reader with easy answers. On the contrary, he challenges us to enter the classroom and the lecture theatre and admit the morally complex issues that need to be grappled with. Inclusion pertaining to diversity, social justice, and equity must always be negotiated as a process, Mintz argues, in relation to political values. In line with Berlin's advice, he submits the following: These issues cannot be pushed under the carpet, no matter how much we might want to, but can only be resolved through the hard work of weighing up what we gain and what we lose.? Mintz here suggests a theoretical framework, and courage towards action, to everyone prelS'