TY - JOUR
T1 - Leadership for inclusion
T2 - Conceptualising and enacting inclusion in integrated schools in a troubled society
AU - McGlynn, Claire
AU - London, Tim
PY - 2013/4
Y1 - 2013/4
N2 - Inclusion is increasingly understood as an educational reform that responds to the diversity of all learners, challenging the marginalisation, exclusion and underachievement which may result from all forms of 'difference'. Leadership for inclusion is conceptualised here as driving a constant struggle to create shared meanings of inclusion and to build collaborative practice, an effort that needs to be rooted in critical practice lest it risks replicating existing patterns of disadvantage. In response to calls for further research that challenge how school leaders conceptualise inclusion and for research that investigates how leaders enact their understandings of inclusion, this paper aims to increase our understanding of the extent to which leadership vision can map onto a school's culture and of the organisational conditions in schools that drive responses to diversity. We investigate the enactment of leadership for inclusion in the troubled context of Northern Ireland by looking at two schools that primarily aim to integrate Catholic and Protestant children but which are also sites for a range of other dimensions of student 'difference' to come together. Whilst the two schools express differing visions of the integration of Catholics and Protestants, leadership vision of inclusion is enacted by members of the school community with a consensus around this vision brought about by formal and informal aspects of school culture. Multiple and intersecting spheres of difference stimulate a concerted educational response in both schools, but integration remains the primary focus. In this divided society, religious diversity poses a significant challenge to inclusion and further support is required from leaders to enable teachers to break through cultural restraints.
AB - Inclusion is increasingly understood as an educational reform that responds to the diversity of all learners, challenging the marginalisation, exclusion and underachievement which may result from all forms of 'difference'. Leadership for inclusion is conceptualised here as driving a constant struggle to create shared meanings of inclusion and to build collaborative practice, an effort that needs to be rooted in critical practice lest it risks replicating existing patterns of disadvantage. In response to calls for further research that challenge how school leaders conceptualise inclusion and for research that investigates how leaders enact their understandings of inclusion, this paper aims to increase our understanding of the extent to which leadership vision can map onto a school's culture and of the organisational conditions in schools that drive responses to diversity. We investigate the enactment of leadership for inclusion in the troubled context of Northern Ireland by looking at two schools that primarily aim to integrate Catholic and Protestant children but which are also sites for a range of other dimensions of student 'difference' to come together. Whilst the two schools express differing visions of the integration of Catholics and Protestants, leadership vision of inclusion is enacted by members of the school community with a consensus around this vision brought about by formal and informal aspects of school culture. Multiple and intersecting spheres of difference stimulate a concerted educational response in both schools, but integration remains the primary focus. In this divided society, religious diversity poses a significant challenge to inclusion and further support is required from leaders to enable teachers to break through cultural restraints.
KW - difference
KW - diversity
KW - divided societies
KW - inclusion
KW - leadership
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84877276883&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1080/02671522.2011.600458
DO - 10.1080/02671522.2011.600458
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84877276883
SN - 0267-1522
VL - 28
SP - 155
EP - 175
JO - Research Papers in Education
JF - Research Papers in Education
IS - 2
ER -