Reframing Inclusive Education: Educational Equality as Capability Equality

Overview & Synopsis

In this paper, I argue that rethinking questions of inclusive education in the light of the value of educational equality--specifically conceived as capability equality, or genuine opportunities to achieve educational functionings--adds some important insights to the current debate on inclusive education. First, it provides a cohesive value framework which clarifies the relationship of education with the aims of a just society. Second, it suggests a focus on the demands of equality, as well as the quality of educational provision as perhaps more fundamental than questions on the location of education, which have long dominated the inclusive debate. At the same time, it places the well-being and the agency of all children, and children with disability and difficulties in particular, at the centre of the educational process. These dimensions entail reconsidering schooling systems not only in terms of policy, but also of curricular elements and teaching and learning strategies.