Trish McMenamin

Neither Confirmed nor Denied: Special School Provision in New Zealand's Special Education 2000 Policy.

Special Education 2000 (SE2000), New Zealands first official special education policy, declared the aim of achieving a ‘world class inclusive education system’. It would seem that, by implication at least, the intention of the policy was to achieve full inclusion of all disabled children in mainstream educational settings and thus, consequentially, the demise of separate special school provision. Given this, it would be fair to expect that intentions with respect to special school provision would feature prominently in the policy. However, surprisingly, this was not the case; only brief references to special school provision can be found in the policy material and certainly nothing that would constitute a clearly articulated policy objective for this type of provision. In this article, Trish McMenamin of the University of Canterbury, New Zealand, argues that a plausible explanation for this somewhat curious absence is that the differing ideological premises of inclusion and neoliberalism that underpinned SE2000 served as boundaries to what could be said and thought in that context and at that time. This, it is suggested, led to a policy position in which a role for special schools could neither be confirmed nor denied.

A just state of affairs: philosophical reflections on justice, inclusion and the education of disabled children

ABSTRACT In the current education policy environment, inclusion – that is the situation in which all disabled children and young people attend their local school and there is no alternative form of provision – is widely accepted as best representing a just state of affairs as regards where these children go to school; any alternative circumstances are equated with injustice and unfairness. This article presents a philosophical reflection on this matter. Drawing on the work of Nussbaum, Cigman and others, the author argues that a single conception of just educational arrangements as articulated in inclusive education policies is insufficient to what is a complex issue. It is proposed that any assessment or evaluation of the justice or otherwise of educational arrangements for disabled children and young people requires a nuanced approach that takes into consideration the lived experiences of those children and the different values and desires they and their families might hold.

Justice for All? Special Education 2000 and the Politics of Difference

In this article I will argue that New Zealands Special Education 2000 (SE2000) policy demonstrates the way in which seemingly just and fair policies can lead to occurrences of injustice and unfairness towards some of those whom they impact. What this debate turns on is the justice of a policy which takes as its starting point the unquestioned premise that the educational needs of all disabled children and young people will be best served in local state-funded schools rather than in day-special schools and the legitimacy of the decisions and actions of policy makers and bureaucrats based on this premise. Drawing on Iris Marion Youngs conceptions of justice and her notion of ‘oppression’ and ‘domination’ as two social conditions that define injustice, the author argues that SE2000 in its conception and enactment serves to perpetrate, rather than mitigate, injustice on some disabled children and young people and their families with respect to schooling options and choices.