01 / Reading Guide
Reading Guide
Citation
Norwich, B. (2024). Addressing Tensions and Dilemmas in Inclusive Education: Resolving Democratically (2nd ed.). Routledge.
Chapter Summary
The second edition runs to about 258 pages in ten chapters, with no division into parts. Its central claim, stated in the publisher's description, is that putting inclusion into practice involves tensions and dilemmas that have to be addressed and resolved, and that the resolution should come through democratic deliberation rather than slogans. The chapter titles move from definitions and classification, through curriculum, pedagogy and institutions, to the people involved, the philosophical issues and the role of research.
Chapter 1: Setting the agenda
The opening chapter frames the book. It introduces the field of inclusive education and the argument that its disagreements are better understood as dilemmas to be worked through than as questions with a single correct answer.
Chapter 2: Special educational needs, barriers and disability
This chapter deals with the vocabulary of the field: how special educational needs, barriers to learning and disability are understood, and how current national and international conceptions of them differ.
Chapter 3: Classification and identification of special educational needs or disability in education
The third chapter takes up identification and classification, one of the core themes the publisher lists. The question here is whether to identify and categorise children's difficulties at all, a choice that the book's description presents as one of its central dilemmas.
Chapter 4: Inclusive curriculum issues
Curriculum is the first of the two chapters on what happens in teaching. It covers the curriculum questions raised by teaching children with a wide range of learning difficulties and disabilities in common settings.
Chapter 5: Inclusive pedagogy
The pedagogy chapter turns from what is taught to how it is taught, and completes the pedagogic and curriculum strand named in the publisher's list of core topics.
Chapter 6: Inclusive educational institutions: schools and universities
This chapter addresses the organisation of schooling. Its title shows that the discussion extends beyond schools to universities, and the publisher's description ties it to the relation between specialised and general provision.
Chapter 7: Parents and children: participation, partnerships and preferences
The seventh chapter looks at parental and student perspectives: how families and young people take part, how partnerships with professionals work, and how preferences are weighed in decisions.
Chapter 8: Philosophical issues
Here the book steps back to the philosophical questions underneath the earlier chapters.
Chapter 9: Researching inclusive education
The research chapter covers how research on inclusive education can be done and what it contributes to policy and practice, the last of the strands in the publisher's description.
Chapter 10: Conclusions
The final chapter draws the argument together and returns to the question of how the tensions can be resolved democratically.
Key Concepts
Chapters 1–3: Agenda, needs and classification
- Tensions and dilemmas: the book's organising idea, that realising inclusion in practice involves competing considerations that cannot be settled once and for all.
- Special educational needs, barriers and disability: the terms through which the field describes children's difficulties, examined in Chapter 2.
- Classification and identification: the practice of categorising and identifying children's needs, which Chapter 3 treats as a source of dilemma.
Chapters 4–7: Curriculum, pedagogy, institutions and families
- Inclusive curriculum and pedagogy: the questions of what and how to teach when learners vary widely, covered in Chapters 4 and 5.
- Specialised and general provision: the relation between provision designed for particular groups and provision for all, discussed under inclusive institutions in Chapter 6.
- Participation, partnership and preference: the roles of parents and children in decisions, from Chapter 7.
Chapters 8–10: Philosophy, research and resolution
- Democratic deliberation: the means the book proposes for resolving dilemmas, which appears in its subtitle.
- Research and policy: the contribution of research to policy and practice, the subject of Chapter 9.
Critical Analysis
Strengths
- A single, clear argument. The title, the subtitle and the publisher's description all point to one thesis: inclusion involves dilemmas, and they should be resolved democratically. A reader can test every chapter against that thesis.
- Wide coverage in a compact book. In about 258 pages the ten chapters cover classification, curriculum, pedagogy, institutions, families, philosophy and research, so the book works as an overview of the field's main arguments as well as a position within them.
- Attention to several levels at once. The description lists national and international conceptions, classroom issues, the organisation of schooling and the perspectives of parents and students, which lets the argument connect policy debates with daily practice.
- Updated for a second edition. The publisher says the new edition draws on contemporary research, theory and policy, and spells out the implications of its argument more clearly than the first.
Limitations
- A position, not a textbook. The book argues for a particular way of handling disagreement. Readers who want a neutral survey of special education categories, law or teaching methods will need a general textbook alongside it.
- Scope set by the argument. The chapter titles show no sections on individual categories of disability, on special education law or on specific teaching techniques; the book is organised around the dilemmas rather than around such topics.
- Mainly one national context. The author is a professor emeritus at the University of Exeter, and the publisher's description frames the discussion through special educational needs and national and international conceptions, so readers working in other systems will need to translate the terms to their own settings.
Where It Fits in the Course
Within the special and inclusive education course, the book stands apart from the introductory textbooks. Hallahan, Kauffman and Pullen's Exceptional Learners and Turnbull and colleagues' Exceptional Lives are introductory textbooks organised around categories of disability and evidence-based practice, and Friend and Bursuck's Including Students with Special Needs prepares general education teachers for inclusive classrooms. Norwich's book is better read after one of these, because it takes the basic vocabulary and practices as known and asks why they are contested.
Mitchell and Sutherland's What Really Works in Inclusive Education is a synthesis of teaching strategies and their evidence. The two complement each other: the Mitchell and Sutherland book answers which strategies are likely to work, while Norwich asks how a school system should decide between competing aims such as labelling and not labelling, or specialised and common provision.
How to Use This Book
The publisher presents the book as accessible and of interest to students and researchers of inclusive education. It suits graduate students, researchers and experienced teachers or leaders who want to examine the disagreements underlying inclusive education; a first course in special education is useful preparation.
A practical plan: read Chapter 1 and Chapter 10 first to see the argument and where it ends. Then read the chapters closest to your own interests, such as Chapters 3 and 4 for identification and curriculum, Chapter 6 for institutions, or Chapter 7 for family participation. Chapter 8 is best read after at least some of those, since it steps back to the philosophical issues. Chapter 9 is useful for anyone planning a dissertation or evaluation in the field. In a seminar, each of the dilemmas can be turned into a debate: ask the group to state the case on each side before reading how the book proposes to resolve it.