Inclusive Pedagogy: A transformative approach to individual differences but can it help reduce educational inequalities?

Abstract

The 2014 SERA Lecture provides an overview of the concept of inclusive pedagogy, a distinctive approach to classroom teaching offering an alternative pedagogical approach that has the potential to reduce educational inequality by enhancing learning opportunities for everyone. Inclusive pedagogy focuses on improving the quality of mainstream education by reducing variability in practice. It was developed from studies that focused on understanding the expertise of teachers who are able to work with diverse student groups and achieve good academic attainment results for all students, including those who have been identified as having additional support needs. As an alternative approach, inclusive pedagogy offers a partial response to three interrelated problems of educational inequality: (1) those that are associated with organisational and pedagogical strategies based on bell curve distributions; (2) the identification of additional support needs; and (3) the disproportionate statistical representation of certain minority groups in special education.