ERIC Number: EJ1429856
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2024-Feb
Pages: 9
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0256-0100
EISSN: EISSN-2076-3433
Neoliberalism and the Barriers in Inclusive Education
South African Journal of Education, v44 n1 Article 2319 2024
Tensions exist between providing inclusive education in mainstream classrooms and market-driven neoliberal values such as academic success and school ranking. These values impinge on teachers' responsibilities to teach students with disabilities. Schools are ranked based on students' performance in national examinations and schools sometimes use unscrupulous methods to achieve good results. In a culture that ranks schools based on test results, the schools themselves find it hard to embrace the idea of inclusion and some will use a variety of means to exclude students with disabilities to maintain their high rating. In this article we explore how some key tenets of neoliberalism in inclusive education, such as testing mechanisms to leverage accountability and improvement, inter-school competition, marketisation of education and parental choice, among others, affect the provision of education to students with disabilities in Kenya. We highlight how neoliberalism has affected inclusive education in Kenya and explain how hegemonic neoliberal culture has changed the way schools operate and how teachers teach. We also show how neoliberal culture in schools helps exclude students who are different from the norm.
Descriptors: Foreign Countries, Urban Schools, Rural Schools, Inclusion, Mainstreaming, Students with Disabilities, Principals, Indigenous Populations, Indigenous Personnel, Neoliberalism, Teacher Attitudes, Administrator Attitudes, Accountability, Standardized Tests, Attitudes toward Disabilities, Disability Discrimination, Faculty Development, Equal Education
Education Association of South Africa. University of Pretoria, Centre for the Study of Resilience, Level 3, Groenkloof Student Centre, Department of Educational Psychology, Faculty of Education, George Storrar Road and Lleyds Street, Pretoria 0001, South Africa. Web site: http://www.sajournalofeducation.co.za/index.php/saje/index
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Kenya
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A