Access, Parentalism and Justice: Epistemological Reflections on Integration and Inclusion in Education

Abstract

Inclusion in education and upbringing is understood as belonging, as the opposite of exclusion. How do people with cognitive and physical impairments learn, and how do they acquire knowledge? Access to schools and other institutions of learning is not the same as access to knowledge. In addition, opportunities for learning and the imparting and grasping of knowledge differ from person to person. Nobody can be included everywhere or demand unqualified access. It would be desirable but it is not always possible to be able to determine where and how one is to be included. In cases of limited autonomy there has to be a kind of selection and control of knowledge. This means the young and the cognitively impaired do not have unconstrained access to knowledge. Educators and parents are responsible for selecting and controlling knowledge for the young and the cognitively impaired. How this can be done justly? How ought one to deal with the knowledge claims and the epistemic and cognitive abilities of those with relevant deficiencies? Under what circumstances can one speak of knowledge here? And what would be the basis for inclusion within a knowledge community?