EDUCATIONAL INCLUSION AND CRITICAL PEDAGOGY

This article outlines the basic principles of educational inclusion, focusing specifically on the inclusion of disabled students in mainstream classrooms, and argues that inclusive education should be understood as a process of transforming traditional schools into spaces of learning for all students. The article uses the lens of critical pedagogy to argue that exclusionary educational practices have been developed through the medicalization of learning disabilities which focused on the disability rather than the abilities of disabled students. Following the same line of thinking, the article provides scientific evidence to debunk myths related to the education of disabled students; especially myths that contributed to their exclusion from mainstream classrooms. Finally, based on the Learning Communities model, we provide some concrete strategies for transforming mainstream classrooms into fully inclusive environments.