Enacting the Social-Relations Approach: A Relational Framework for Inclusive Early Childhood Education

Abstract

ABSTRACT Efforts to address the identified needs of labeled groups of children (e.g. identified with disabilities, considered at-risk) may magnify difference and further stigmatize children labeled as different. In this article, we introduce a relational framework to the field of inclusive early childhood education that reframes perceptions of difference by disrupting and redistributing power through relationships. The social-relations approach informs this framework to foster relational aspects of young children’s experiences of inclusive education in preschool. This framework, with adequate systems-level supports, may serve as a model leading to best practice by enabling the access and participation of all children in learning opportunities within genuinely inclusive, equitable contexts. This reframing of difference through relationships, rather than locating difference within the child, holds implications for research, practitioners, and the profession.