The ecology of inclusive education reimagined: A framework for research, policy, and practice

Abstract

Evidence suggests the educational gap between those who experience success at school and those who do not is growing. Decades of rhetoric, policy and reform have failed to deliver an inclusive form of schooling that meets the learning needs of all students and much of the blame for this is placed at the feet of schools. The Ecology of inclusive education (Anderson, J., Boyle, C., & Deppeler, J., Equality in education , 2014; pp. 23–34) was conceptualised to guide a study interrogating leadership for inclusive education within the messiness of schools. Semi‐structured qualitative interviews were conducted with seven primary school principals in Queensland, Australia. Inductive thematic analysis of the data yielded some unexpected findings. It exposed the significant influence that both education systems and school communities have on the work of school leaders. Six themes emerged related to systemic influence and included perceiving inclusive education as a continuum and the use of a rhetoric of difference. Four themes related to the influence of communities and included family and community expectations and the important role of relationships. These findings have led to a reimagining of the original Ecology of inclusive education , a framework that now acknowledges systems and communities as influential players in the way principals know and understand the construct of inclusive education and act as leaders, or not, of it. The Ecology of inclusive education reimagined offers a structure for researchers, policymakers, and practitioners to examine the complex construct of inclusive education within the contexts in which it occurs.