Abstract
Inclusive education has been criticised by many commentators for being little more than a 'new language for functionalism' (Slee, 1998, p.30; Skrtic, 1995). Within its special needs discourse, inclusive education is portrayed as something which is done to particular individuals, rather than an approach which requires both increasing participation and the removal of barriers to radical school reform (Booth , 1996; Barton, 1997).
Disability studies, in contrast, is characterised by a rights discourse, expressed through explicitly political writing (e.g. Oliver, 1996) and which has highlighted disabling barriers. There is also a burgeoning disability arts movement which celebrates difference but also seeks to subvert the 'normality genre' (Darke, 1998, p.l84). The social model of disability, the theoretical basis of disability studies, has, however, been met with 'complacency' by the 'intellectual establishment' (Shakespeare and Watson, 1997, p.299). Disability arts, despite its success in asserting a politics of desire, has been largely ignored by those involved in inclusive education.
This paper will examine the contrasting discourses within disability studies and inclusive education and consider the possibilities of opening up dialogue between them.
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