Florian Kiuppis: Heterogene Inklusivität, inklusive Heterogenität
Reviewed by
Prof. Dr. Ute Straub, 2015-02-27
Translated from German version by Claudia Mehlmann
Florian Kiuppis:Heterogene Inklusivität, inklusive Heterogenität. Fallstudie über den Bedeutungswandel imaginierter pädagogischer Konzepte im Kontext Internationaler Organisationen. Waxmann Verlag (Münster, New York) 2014. 244 pages. ISBN 978-3-8309-3092-1. D: 29,90 EUR, A: 30,80 EUR, CH: 40,90 sFr.
There is a detailed German review for this work. Read here
Subject
From „special needs“ to „inclusion“ – in whih way has the concept changed regarding the using of terms, important assignments and readings? This is analyzed on the background of the discourse in and with the UNESCO – as the most important and expanding standards Government Organization in the context of education and culture. The examined period encloses 1994 till 2000, from the so-called Salamanca explanation, the final document of "World Conference on Special Needs Education" up to a (non-public) "Day of Reflection" after the World Education forum in Dakar, where the history and dissemination of the idea of inclusive education was reviewed. Between these data the demand for „New Thinking in Special Needs Education“, as formulated in the Salamanca Statement, was worked out to put the concept of Inclusive Education on the global education agenda instead of the concept of adaptation which is criticized as normalistic and outdated.
Author and Background
Florian Kiuppis published his dissertation in Education Sciences at the philosophical Faculty of the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Department of Comparative Education, with this volume in the series International University Publications (for habilitations as well as very good and excellent dissertations). The Author is an associate professor at the Lillehammer University College, Faculty of education and social studies, main focus disability studies.
Structure
The characterization of inclusive education as an „imagined“, thus initially not clearly defined concept providing a projection surface for different variants of importance is fundamental to the analysis. The research questions are: why, how and when it came to change the meanings and interpretations of this concept and the role that UNESCO played in it.
Based on the categorization of the question in the thematic context, an overview of literature to determine the recipients circle of inclusive education and on the location of research in comparative education the topic is analyzed in three chapters.
1. Theoretial context and conceptual frame of reference
As a reference, the world culture approach of the sociological new institutionalism is on one side. In this macrosociological approach usually especially approximation trends in education policy, institutions, and contents are brought in focus in quantitatively oriented longitudinal studies. The microanalytical and quality-oriented case studies, rather looking at the „local voices“ and thus processes of regional fragmentation and context-specific developments are on the other side. Thus they emphasize less the universal standardization than the divergences in structures and modes of action. Both approaches can be found in the debate about the global/local nexus, indicating „Itineraries“ of knowledge from the global to the local, (sub)national discourse and vice versa.
This theory debate in the globalization research within the comparative education science leads to the consideration of international organizations as global players and their function of agenda settings, with which they provide the framework for reform projects at national level. Kiuppis proposes an alternative viewing direction: to analyze institutions microanalytically in their embedding in institutional environments (embedded agency), in order to view the „competing institutional logics“ which are basic for his process-oriented study. It is likewise understandable to use a macro/micro-nexus as a guiding difference for this particular analysis perspective instead of the local/global nexus. This allows to place a distinction referring to the respective analysis position of the researcher, instead of a geographical one. Thus a double embedding of the institution of UNESCO is justified, both in an organizational field and in an institutional environment. Central conceptual assumptions „decision making under ambiguity“ and „logic of appropriateness“ are drawn from the approach of the Scandinavian institutionalism.
This very complex theoretical design is the basis for source analysis.
2. Sources, actors, methods, and periodization
Documents from the relevant library and archive collections of the UNESCO in Paris serve as source base. The central basis is the complete archived collection of the special needs education unit of UNESCO until 2001 (17 folders with 3.540 image files!), the list of cited archive materials can be found in the appendix. These extensive „written tracks“ were divided into seven categories: meetings and informal gatherings; congresses and other events open to the public; programstructure; contracts, job descriptions and task assignments; reports and guidelines; press and media; professional articles. By these multifarious written sources both internal and external communication and interaction processes are made visible. They can be used for analyzing the conflicting requirements as well as the interwoven processes of voting, consideration, decision-making and interaction. The actors – according to the neo-institutionalist organization research – are also classified (dominants, followers, or supporters and challengers). As a theory means for the analysis of meanings, ie in this case to clarify the question whether there is a continuity, a suitable connecting line between „old“ and „new“ ideas, as demonstrated in the data, several approaches are used by which the divers meanings for the term „inclusion“ and its predecessors can be categorized. The data analysis itself is understood as „processual analysis„: How and why appear changes in the understanding of the actors when the facts remain the same? The question of the periodization of the longitudinal study and the identification of significant discontinuities, as well as the approach of the linked solution make more points of the conceptual framework. In this process solutions to specific problem areas are determined from the available data which may lie, e.g. in newly launched programs with corresponding external ideological pressure or in the change of financing plans by new priorities.
This chapter concludes with a look back at the beginnings of the Special Education Programme of the UNESCO in the 1960s, and the boom of its disability-related educational work.
3. From rethinking to resolution: The special needs education agenda of the UNESCO after 1994
The empirical main chapter of the book examines how to translate the ideas regarding Inclusive Education at the level of international organisations in an imagined concept before they „go on the journey“, and so reach the national context. The second perspective is aimed at what happens to these ideas, enriched by national characteristics, after they returned to the communications between the international organizations. It is therefore assumed that it is not the UNESCO, which dictates certain points of view, but that it is confronted with expectations of (sub) national context, which they must comply. A quintessential point of the analysis are the questions „(1) why, how and when the shift in the (further) development of the idea of Inclusive Education to an imaginary concept standing for an analyzing organizational field regarding the change of meanings and interpretations and regarding the change of the understanding of issues and hence the thematic priorities of Special Needs came about; and (2) which role the UNESCO „played in the associated change of meaning of the imaginary concept of inclusive education“ (p.130/131). Data analysis is based mainly on the correspondences of the UNESCO and shows how in the „old thinking“ disability is classified in the context of normality and deviation, while in the „new thinking“ the moment of diversity and heterogeneity appears in the foreground.
All in all, according to the analysis of the (countless) primary sources, the process can be qualified as development from rethinking to resolution of the special needs education agenda of the UNESCO. The observation period of 1994-2000 can be divided into three phases: A secondary institutional logic moves into the first phase (June-October 1994) in the debates in the organizational field. While the primary institutional logic, according to the Salamanca-paper, focuses mainly on people with disabilities and their integration, the two-group thinking is questioned from outside and the perspective on the heterogeneity (of learning groups) is steered. In the second phase (October 1994 to February 1997) the „special needs education program“ is replaced by the „education for all paradigm“ by the confrontation between various actors such as the WHO, but mostly due to the influence of the World Bank. In the third phase (February 1997 to October 2000) inclusion is associated with different marginalized groups, not only with disabilities. At the same time, the document analysis shows as well how by shifting constellations between UNESCO, UNICEF and World Bank inconsistent organizational logics develop, which eventually ends in a compromise solution whereby the constraints can be overcome from both programs.
Discussion
This book is a kind of detective story, a search for the actors and the reciprocal influences and dependencies that are involved in the development and modification of a particular concept, which receives worldwide meaning and spreading. Therefore one must, however, engage in the format of a dissertation with all of its detail and some redundancy. If one is ready for it, one gets interesting insights into the workings of international politics and international organizations.
Conclusion
The book is not an easy reading in any case and the cumbersome title, which remains enigmatic, does not reveal what it is about. However, the study is a treasure trove for relevant interested parties and could also be read selectively, depending on whether the focus of interest is on the question of integration/inclusion or the functioning of international governmental organizations. The methodological aspect, what a document analysis (busywork!) can look like and what content analysis can be found out, may also be a reading.
Review by
Prof. Dr. Ute Straub
Frankfurt University of Applied Sciences
Fachbereich 4: Soziale Arbeit und Gesundheit
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