Alterity in Inclusive and Integrative Learning Programmes

Abstract

This qualitative and quantitative investigation was an exploratory case study that examined the alterity relation to the pupils with disability within four chosen school types in the region of Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It explored general patterns in the alterity relation between the members of the inclusive or integrative schools and the pupils with disability. The investigation analyzed whether the members of the school thematized difference and how the absence or presence of that thematization influenced the inclusive process. It also contrasted those four different types of inclusive and integrative learning programmes with the theoretical approaches of inclusion and integration. The investigation showed among others that the disability condition was an open differentiation factor recognized by a great part of the school community. However, recognizing the pupil with disability as different was not necessarily a reason for discrimination. The investigation also evidenced that teachers identified the consequences of the dilemma of difference regarding individual attention and differentiated instruction, but that most teachers in fact did not take measures to improve individual attention and differentiated instruction. Regarding the school institutions and their programmes, none of the cases made a clear distinction between integration and inclusion. While some schools had elements of the integration approach, others were more inclusive. Nonetheless, the pedagogical adaptations only related to the classes and teachers that were involved in the integrative and inclusive learning programmes, not affecting the rest of the colleagues and levels. The thematization of the other, as an expression of the epistemological dimension of the alterity relation, was not present in any of the schools surveyed. However, pupils with disability were recognized as different. Axiologically, there were many expressions of this dimension regarding the other, from exotism to assimilationism. Finally, from a praxeological view, there was an evident contact between school members and children with disability, because the schools had integrative and inclusive programmes; however, only in the case of Inverted Inclusion pupils with and without disability voluntarily approached each other.