Interrogating inclusionary and exclusionary practices : learners of war and flight.
Date
2005
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Perspectives in Education
Abstract
There has been a significant increase in the number of undocumented people entering South
Africa. A number of them include refugees. Many refugees are destitute and often denied basic
needs such as health and education. Besides intentional exclusion by citizens and authorities,
some immigrant children are precluded from education because they cannot gain access to
schooling. This article captures the possibilities and constraints that are experienced by a
selected group of refugee learners, in a school in which these children find themselves.The
methodology derives from powerful narratives which are used as tools to analyse exclusionary
and inclusionary practices, the relationship between which is presented as bi-directional. It is
argued that the notion of exclusion and inclusion is multilayered. Different constructs of inclusion
are developed around the thought, practices and experiences of refugee learners within the
hosting school community. It is argued that what is offered by the school is a strikingly
conservative discourse of perceived inclusion in the ways in which refugee learner practices get
constructed. A theory of enforced humanitarianism emerges on the part of the school. It is only
when we change this perspective on vulnerability that we are able to accept a more creative and
effective way of including refugee learners who constantly believe that they are present in one
place, but belong somewhere else.
Description
Keywords
Inclusive education--South Africa., Teachers--South Africa--Attitudes., Refugees--Education--South Africa.
Citation
Sookrajh, R, Gopal, N, & Maharaj, B 2005, 'Interrogating Inclusionary and Exclusionary Practices: Learners of War and Flight', Perspectives In Education, 23, 1, pp. 1-13, ERIC, EBSCOhost, viewed 21 February 2013.