Social justice and inclusion have been a critical part of reform within Scottish Education for decades. Ensuring inclusion and social justice within education provides children with chances and opportunities to enable them to make the most of their lives (Curran, 2002).
During this essay, I am going to discuss social justice and inclusion within the current Scottish education system and how and why the system is striving to ensure both concepts are achieved.
Social justice and inclusion are key concepts within Scottish Education as they are important to ensure effective learning and equal chances for children throughout their education. Ensuring social justice and inclusion through effective learning and teaching equips learners for life, promotes individual and social processes and outcomes and recognises the importance of informal and formal learning (Colwell et. al., 2015). Providing children with an education that promotes social justice provides opportunities that allow them to make the most of their lives. Inclusive education allows children fair and equal opportunities in their education, regardless of their background and demographic. It is something that has been a part of educational policy for at least a decade, however inclusion is a means, not an end in itself. Over the years, multiple legislations and policies have been put in place enabling practitioners to ensure all children are given equal access to learning opportunities.
Social justice and inclusion are linked concepts, appearing throughout Scottish legislation and policy. In 2000, the Scottish Executive released a social justice in Scotland report, highlighting their strategies for tackling poverty and injustice. In this report, they discuss that in a Scotland in which every child matters, regardless of family background, all children have the best possible start in life (ibid.). The report summary explains that through implementation of new initiatives, movement is being made towards positive change for families, individuals and communities facing issues surrounding social justice and inclusion. The National Curriculum identifies inclusion as one of its four national standards (Hyder & Jennings, 2010). Promoting inclusion has been a major focus for the Scottish and other European governments for many years (Riddell, 2009). Inclusive education is promoted in various countries with the support of international agencies such as UNESCO, the UK’s Department for International Development and the World Bank (Mouroutsou, 2015). As awareness of social justice and inclusion has grown, significant progress has been made in their promotion and implementation within education.
In 2007, the Scottish Government released the Skills Strategy report, identifying the importance of social justice and inclusion through “equal access to and participation in skills and learning for everyone” (Riddell, 2009.). Prior to and since then, many legislations and policies have been introduced to help address issues surrounding these concepts. Relevant documents include: The Standards in Scotland’s Schools etc. Act 2000, The Education (Additional Support for Learning) (Scotland) Act 2004 and The Early Years Framework (2008) From the Children and Young People (Scotland) Act 2014, the importance of children’s wellbeing was highlighted and wellbeing is a highly regarded approach throughout GIRFEC. GIRFEC emphasises the need to adapt the support provided to young people and their families to suit specific needs (Scottish Government, 2017a). GIRFEC also recognises that children’s wellbeing is influenced by many factors including their home life and experiences, emphasising the importance having social justice and inclusion throughout the education system to ensure children are all given equal opportunities. GIRFEC’s wellbeing wheel and My World Triangle identifies these linked concepts as important factors which help children achieve in their learning.
These policies and legislations have been instrumental in providing education through mainstream schools, ensuring local authorities and other agencies are taking responsibility in providing additional support where needed and ensuring all children are provided fair and equal opportunities through education. These factors are important when looking to ensure social justice and inclusion within the education sector.
Since the introduction of the Curriculum for Excellence in 2010, greater emphasis has been placed on ensuring these two concepts are included within Scottish education. The Curriculum for Excellence intends to deliver social justice and inclusion through providing equal access to a common curriculum with equal opportunities for all children (Riddell, 2009). However, the new curriculum was criticised even before its implementation. Paterson (2008, cited by ibid.) stated that the new curriculum does not deliver equal access for all to every curricular area. Equality underpins the concept of inclusion that sees education as a human right. The UNCRC (Unicef, 1989) states, through a number of articles, that all children have a universal and fundamental right to an education which develops their personality and talents and provides all children fair and equal opportunities in education. Through these articles, children are given the right to social justice and inclusion. However, it is still actively debated whether every child actually has the same access to education through this curriculum.
It has been found that teachers who implement inclusive practices through their teaching, have more positive attitudes towards learning (Avramidis, et. al. 2000). Having a more positive attitude towards inclusive learning and teaching creates more confidence in meeting all children’s needs, regardless of their ability. When the idea of inclusion first came about, some schools resisted inclusive education as they feared that it may have a negative effect on students’ academic achievements (Black, Hawkins, et. al., 2007). Saying this, the OECD (2007, cited by the Scottish Government, 2008) praised the commitment of inclusion implemented by the Curriculum for Excellence programme.
The Scottish government (2010) stated that through the Curriculum for Excellence, learners will be challenged and supported through their learning, working at a pace that suits them. This is a big factor in implementing social justice and inclusion in Scottish education. Ensuring all children, no matter their gender, race, language, disability or any other factor, get equal opportunities through their education is something that current Scottish education strives to achieve. One issue that the Curriculum for Excellence has previously covered is temporary and permanent exclusion within schools. There has been a realisation that excluding children from their education has extreme impacts on the achievement of ‘education for all’ meaning an impact on the achievement on social justice and inclusion (Black-Hawkins, et. al., 2007).
One matter/issue surrounding inclusion and social justice lies with the effectiveness, or ineffectiveness, of specialist schools. Specialist schools have come under a lot of scrutiny over the years because of the apparent exclusion some say they cause and the issues they pose pertaining to the principles of the UNCRC (Rustemier, 2002, cited by Thomas & Vaughan, 2004). The Social and Educational Justice: The Human Rights Framework for Inclusion (ibid.) was a ground-breaking publication in the debate against specialist schools. The report asked for all children to be educated through mainstream schools, allowing for a more inclusive practice to support and develop the needs of all children in one setting. With this, the Scottish government has moved towards all children being a part of mainstream education. The Education (Standards in Scotland’s Schools etc.) (Scotland) Act 2000, explained that all children should receive mainstream education unless this may have a negative effect on their own or others’ education (Riddell, 2009). It argues that almost all children, regardless of their ability, can be successfully educated through mainstream schooling as long as the correct training and support is provided (ibid.). With almost all children in mainstream education, the Scottish government can ensure that all children are included and given equal opportunities. In 1994, UNESCO published the Salamanca Statement, in which government representatives agreed on a statement calling for inclusion to be the norm. This statement supported the ‘education for all’ movement and recognised the need for educating all children through mainstream education (ibid.). Inclusive education was a fundamental concept brought up by this statement, which it stated that special needs education should be supported and developed as a fundamental part of the schooling programme (ibid.). This statement was a major influence in social justice and inclusion becoming key concepts in Scottish education as it recognised the need for children to have non-discriminatory and impartial learning opportunities throughout their schooling. Possible barriers to inclusion, such as additional support needs, can result in exclusion from education. The Equality Act (2010), the Disability Discrimination Act (1995) and the Education (Additional Support for Learning) (Scotland) Act (2004) have all been introduced to ensure children with additional support needs are shown equality and inclusion throughout their education as well as placing obligations on local authorities to ensure these inclusive and equal environments are being created (Riddell, 2009). Thomas (1999, cited by ibid., p.3) explains that “disability is only one facet of an individual’s identity”, disability doesn’t make a person therefore they are entitled to the same chances as everyone else. Providing children with equal opportunities intends to tackle inequality and close the attainment gap.
The Scottish Attainment Challenge (Scottish Government, 2017b) explains;
“Tackling inequality is at the heart of the Scottish Government’s agenda, in order that every child can succeed in school and gain the skills for life.”
The SAC highlighted the fact that although the current Scottish education system works for most young people, the gap between the progress of those living in the most and least deprived areas still needs to be addressed. This attainment gap has been a concern within Scottish Education for decades. The redistributive discourse (RED) found that poverty is the main cause of social exclusion (Riddell, 2009) and the OECD (2007) has found a link between children’s educational experiences and outcomes and their social background (ibid.). In this case, closing the attainment gap is an important factor in ensuring social justice and inclusion which can facilitates providing children with the best chances in life. In a speech made in 2015, Nicola Sturgeon stated that universal access to school has been an act of Scottish government policy for centuries. She discusses the attainment gap in Scotland, exclaiming that standards must be raised and the poverty and attainment gap must be closed (ibid.). With equal educational opportunities, there is more likelihood off educational attainment and as lower attainment in literacy and numeracy is linked to deprivation, it is clear to see that poverty is a main cause in the attainment gap (Sosu and Ellis, 2014). Using the inclusion and social justice concepts is a step towards closing this gap and creating more equality throughout the education sector. Through the National Improvement Framework (Scottish Government, 2017c) standardised testing has been introduced. These have been said to provide more consistent assessment procedures to help assess and analyse attainment within schools.
Providing children with equal opportunities within education is vital to allow them to reach their potential. Ability labelling is a concept which has previously been used as an “explanation for the vast differences in young people’s learning, achievements and responses to classroom activities” (Hart et. al., 2004., p.17). Labelling children according to their ability has been found to have negative impacts on a child’s education. Hart et al. (2004) explains that children perceive themselves the way they believe their teacher perceives them. Ability labelling can ultimately allow children to think that their ability is fixed or that there is a limit to their learning. The DES (1959, cited by Marks 2016) state that with ability grouping, children in the ‘lower’ ability groups often accept that this is the boundaries of their learning and so perhaps make less effort. However, using other methods such as differentiation can help children to recognise that ability is flexible.
Through differentiation within a set task or activity, children are all completing the same task with adjustments made to match their ability. The needs of all learners are met whilst recognising individual learning needs and barriers to learning. This allows for inclusive education as children are not set an ability level or group throughout their learning, rather they are given the opportunity to feel confident within their ability and challenge themselves accordingly. Children can then move between differentiated levels with greater ease for specific tasks which they are perhaps better at or need more support with. Giving children a choice between differentiated tasks allows them to take more responsibility for their learning and provides them with the tools to assess and reflect whilst identifying their own strengths and areas for development.
Social justice and inclusion are key concepts within Scottish education as they provide the foundations for young people to receive equality through access to education and opportunities through their learning. For decades, these concepts have been a significant focus in Scottish government policy and legislation, which strive to achieve the concept of ‘education for all’. With the implementation of the Curriculum for Excellence, the notions of social justice and inclusion have been magnified and acted upon to make crucial progress towards equality within educational opportunities. The introduction of new legislations and policies have created a framework for these concepts within the education sector and have identified possible barriers; the biggest of this being the attainment gap. With continued intervention and training on pedagogical approaches, Scottish education will persist in ensuring that social justice and inclusion are concepts that are firmly integrated within learning and teaching. Ensuring this will provide children with equal learning opportunities which challenge and develop their learning and skills which can be used throughout life.