Inclusive Schooling for Students with Disabilities: Redefining Dialogues of Diversity and Disability in the Canadian (Alberta) Agenda

Abstract

Inclusive education for students with disabilities is beset by foundational problems often related to conflicting definitions. UNESCO, a lead agency, speaks to accommodating diversity; a parallel conversation is preoccupied with disability. This paper is situated at the intersection of diversity, disability, and inclusive schooling. It focuses on the present tendency to conflate disability with diversity to conform with UNESCO’s version of inclusive schooling. As a case study, we use the Canadian province of Alberta where a recent set of proposals aimed at reforming special education rebranded disability as diversity and promised inclusive schooling as a solution to mounting diversity in the schools.  We explicitly argue that Alberta’s sustained muddle of intent related to inclusive schooling arises, at least in part, from efforts to follow UNESCO’s broad prescriptions and assimilate disability into diversity. Misassumptions about the uniqueness of disability relative to other forms of diversity and difference have spilled over to blanket disability and diminish the importance of schooling for those disabled in the political space. Implicitly, the data are generalizable to other countries pursuing an inclusive agenda, particularly those in Europe.