Inclusion: Mythologies and Opportunities Meaningful Citizenship in Transformative Crisis

Dr. Alan BruceULS Dublin

D4L

Aalborg, Denmark, 19 November 2015

Thematic Overview

Crisis, change and context

Looking at Exclusion

Inclusion: concept or empowerment?

Policy to best practice – Global Citizenship

1. Crisis, change and context How wrong can you get? Fukuyama

and the End of History (1992) Sociologies of dislocation The end of certainty: change or

chaos? Narratives of insecurity and change Motivation:

departing/arriving/learning European dimensions, global issues

Globalized realities Globalization – accelerating and

pervasive Crisis, meltdown and re-structuring

post 2008 Devaluation of the public sphere Stratification and inequity Labor market transformation Rights and inclusion – token or real? Access, quality and innovation in

education

Impact Patterns of constant change Permanent migration and mobility Outsourcing Flexible structures and modalities Knowledge economy Scarcity of traditional jobs Ecological pressures End of certainty

Farewell to Normal

End of stable socio-political norms Uncertainty, fluid identity and unease A world turned upside down The poetry of quest – from Yeats to Kavafy A deep shiver of guilt – what have we

done? What have we become? The ghosts that will not rest End of assumptions about European

identity

The impact of change

The old world is dying. The new world struggles to be born.Now is the time of monsters. Antonio Gramsci

Spectres at the gates

Persistence and increase in inequality Permanent hopelessness of excluded Invisibility and ethnic difference Seeking scapegoats and creating

victims Access means many things….

What about the rest of us? Decreasing workers’ share in national

income in all countries Labor productivity (up 85% since 1980)

not reflected in wages (up 35%) Declining social mobility Rising income inequality reflected in

declining equality of opportunity

Global Wage Report 2012/13, ILOProf. Miles Corak, Journal of Economic Perspectives 2013

Challenges for learning

Mutual interaction or structured exclusion?

Community values or communal rituals?

Linkage to realities or past models? Shared memories or shared hatreds?

A transformed world End of expected certainties

No return to ‘normal’

Polymorphic media

Planet of Slums (Mike Davis): hypercities of the future

Informal economies

The normalization of brutality

Mainstream: opportunity or nightmare? Mythology of the ‘normal’ Defining the mainstream: what have we

become? Robust probing of social structure required

as preliminary to defining mainstream Masking power, relationships and inequity Need to avoid cliché and assumptions Learners are immersed in and emerging

into this changed constellation – of which the gatekeepers know little

2. Looking at Exclusion

Exclusion is much easier to define Tangible evidence of legacy of

discrimination Pattern of low expectations or

invisibility Economic, social, cultural dimensions

– as well as educational Denial of access to resources Unacceptable but often tacit

acceptance in divided or unequal societies

Dimensions of exclusion

Barriers (intentional or otherwise) Attitudes Prejudices Stereotypes Rejection Hostility Rigid systems

Segregated schooling

Centuries of exclusion in learning systems

Outright ban – girls, women and disabled

Exclusion as the norm Separate systems: gender, language,

religion, class, ethnic group Unequal resources and outcomes Fragmentation and

disenfranchisement

Special schools in Ireland Established for the blind and deaf 3 schools each Operated only at primary level Hidden and bleak

And the learner?

Into the nothingness of scorn and noise,Into the living sea of waking dreams,Where there is neither sense of life nor joys,But the vast shipwreck of my life's esteems;And e'en the dearest--that I loved the best--Are strange--nay, rather stranger than the rest.

John Clare (1793 – 1864)

The ‘science’ of discrimination

Racist politics and hate (1866)

The portraits of hate

Racism today – Greece 2013

Racism today – Hungary 2013

Racism today – France 2013

Mainstream alternatives?

Disruptive classroom behaviors Absenteeism Early school-leaving Teacher burnout Migration, integration and sustainability Literacy, numeracy, basic skills Languages Quality and governanceDG EAC (2008) European Education and Training Systems in the Second Decennium of the Lisbon Strategy, NESSE and ENEE.

Equality imperatives

Struggle for recognition Gender equality and reproductive

rights Religious minorities Sexual orientation Disability Reaction and control – ‘standards’ Legacies of exclusion are deep and

may re-surface

3. Inclusion: Concept or Empowerment

Five key issues:1. Measures to reduce early school leaving2. Priority education measures in relation to disadvantaged pupils and groups3. Inclusive education measures in relation to pupils with special needs4. Safe education measures in relation on the reduction of bullying and harassment5. Teacher support measures.

Defining inclusion

‘I refuse to join any club that would have me as a member.’

Attempting definition…kind of…

Social inclusion can be defined as a number of affirmative actions undertaken in order to reverse the social exclusion of individuals or groups in our society

INCLUSO (EU 7th Framework, 2009)

So what is exclusion?

A multidimensional process of progressive social rupture, detaching groups and individuals from social relations and institutions and preventing them from full participation in the normal, normatively prescribed activities of the society in which they live.

H. Silver, Social Exclusion: Comparative Analysis of Europe and Middle East Youth, Dec. 2007. (Wolfensohn Center for Development, Dubai)

Probing inclusion

Not necessarily benign Not necessarily desired Not necessarily valued Inclusion or conformity? Exclusion often seen minimally as

lack of access Exclusion is a systematic policy of

inequality and denial of rightsHugely different implications

Inclusion 2.0 If learning, working and production are controlled

inclusion is at best token, at worst sinister

At the core of inclusion must be ability to assess critically and express freely

Fundamental to inclusion is ability to ask questions that challenge existing relations

Inclusion re-examines existing reality while posing viable alternatives

Trajectories of inclusion Youth and mass unemployment Demographics: ageing and life

expectancy Women and labor market

participation Immigration, cultural and religious

difference Disability Conflict, stress, anomie Urbanization, dissent and democratic

deficits

Engaging inclusion Positive and proactive decision – policy and

practice It is achievable Risks: stigmatization and discrimination Requires whole-school and community

commitment and support Demands resources (personnel and training) Demands facilities to UD level throughout Designing for diversity Support, review, standards

Achieving meaning

Inclusion changes both sides – the act of mainstreaming is to change the mainstream not the ‘excluded’

From objects to subjects Narratives of adaptation and

discovery From target group to citizen Critical role of teachers Inclusion and the dialectic of rights

4. Policy to best practice – Global Citizenship

Transformational learning and the sociology of innovation

Educational systems as networks of actors who reinforce each other in stable configurations

Stable configurations prevent change

Vested interest acts against innovation and inclusion - seen as threat

Reality on our doorstep

Education: from Newman to KerrJohn Henry Newman (1873) The Idea of the University

1. Primary purpose of a University is intellectual and pedagogical2. Range of teaching within University is universal; it encompasses all branches of knowledge, and is inconsistent with restrictions of any kind.3. The University prepares students by allowing them to learn about "the ways and principles and maxims" of the world4. True education requires personal influence of teachers on students.

Clark Kerr (1963) The Uses of the University

1. Modern university is diversified – a multiversity2. Serves needs of society, economic and cultural3. Think tank – essential to progress4. Master Plan for Higher Education (1960) in California

ICT and re-imagining access Contradictory and paradoxical process Never greater potential - side by side with

increasing disparities of access What we think:

Citizens▪ Shared knowledge

▪ Participative engagement What we have:

Consumers▪ Increasing exclusion

▪ Significant problems with equitable access

Education as business Terry Eagleton: The Slow Death of the University (April

2015) Packaging knowledge Destroying arts and the humanities Teaching less vital than research – research brings in he

money Vast increase in bureaucracy, occasioned by the flourishing

of a managerial ideology and the relentless demands of the state assessment exercise

Professors are transformed into managers, as students are converted into consumers

Purposive learning in an age of uncertainty

End of linear models of learning Cognitive dissonance: what is needed is not

being provided Alienation and anomie in a changing world Labor market flux and the loss of autonomy Adaptability and innovation as norm, not

exception Globalized paradigms/fractured community Elephants in the room: power and

ownership

Empowerment

Empowerment is the process of increasing the capacity of individuals or groups to make choices and to transform those choices into desired actions and outcomes. Central to this process are actions which both build individual and collective assets, and improve the efficiency and fairness of the organizational and institutional context which govern the use of these assets.

World Bank 2011

41

Changing directions and trends Acceleration Collaboration and networks Collaboration with knowledge

production centers Increasing domination by market

realities Towards competence Integrated learning for integrated

learners

Towards Global CitizenshipEducation must fully assume its central role in helping people to forge more just, peaceful, tolerant and inclusive societies. It must give people the understanding, skills and values they need to cooperate in resolving the interconnected challenges of the 21st century.

United Nations: Global Education First Initiative (2012)

Contested citizenship

Membership of a political community Belonging and engagement Rights and entitlements Duties and responsibilities Constrained by legacy of nation-

state Cultural minorities and migrants Disputed access

Post-national citizenship

Shaped by globalizing process Greater access to knowledge,

information and values Digital media Mobility and migration Climate change International governance bodies Accelerated interdependence Respect for pluralism and diversity

Education and Global CitizenshipTo enable learners

To develop a sense of shared destiny through identification with their social, cultural, and political environments.

To become aware of the challenges posed to the development of their communities through an understanding of issues related to patterns of social, economic and environmental change.

To engage in civic and social action in view of positive societal participation and/or transformation based on a sense of individual responsibility towards their communities.

Sobhi Tawil (2013)

UN Thematic Learning Outcomes Awareness of the wider world and a sense of own role

both as a citizen with rights and responsibilities, and as a member of the global human community.

Valuation of the diversity of cultures and of their languages, arts, religions and philosophies as components the common heritage of humanity.

Commitment to sustainable development and sense of environmental responsibility.

Commitment to social justice and sense of social responsibility.

Willingness to challenge injustice, discrimination, inequality and exclusion at the local/national and global level in order to make the world a more just place.

In from the margins: the barbarians have arrived! From oppression to emancipatory learning Insights of the excluded - voices of the

invisible Learning to think – and teach – anew Creating benefit for all Critical thinking distinct epistemologies of

science and engineering Science explains what exists; engineering creates what never existed (Von Karman) Disability and learning: from Louis Braille to

Ken Robinson

Images of the ‘asylum’

In modern society a sense of normality is achieved through the suppression and exclusion of the abnormalFoucault, Madness and Civilization, 1964

Inclusion roadmap

Increased application of new knowledge

Open and distance learning technologies facilitating learners and staff competence

Transformation of traditional teaching role to mentoring, guiding and facilitation

Development of network of inclusion best practice at European level

Adopting UDL Inclusion not as destination but

starting point

Setting sail to Ithaka

Removing barriers - mind and heart Avoiding inclusion clichés Asserting imagination and creativity Limitless potential of the inclusion

focus Learning for all as foundation for

transformation From the core of crisis – new

directions or the abyss?

Thank you

Dr. Alan BruceULS Dublin

abruce@ulsystems.com

Associate Offices: BARCELONA - HELSINKI - SÃO PAULO - CHICAGO