Broadening the notion of participation in inclusive education: A social justice approach

Abstract

Inclusive education is a global movement with different perspectives and local an-gles. In recent years inclusive education has been framed using principles of social justice such as fair redistribution of education, recognition of all cultures, languages and abilities, and political representation in individual and collective educational de-cision-making. Our aim in this theoretical paper is to synthesise the most important points of both perspectives (inclusive education and social justice) and, through an intersectional analysis, look in-depth at how they apply to a foundational concept of inclusive education: participation. Participation is strategic to building fairer edu-cational and social practices and can act as a central core between redistribution, recognition, and representation.