Social inclusion is on the agenda of governments, policymakers, and nonstate actors around the world. Underpinning this concern is the realization that despite progress on poverty reduction, some people continue to feel left out. This report aims to unpack the concept of social inclusion and understand better how policies can be designed to further inclusion. First, the report offers a definition of social inclusion as the "process of improving the terms for individuals and groups to take part in society." It unpacks different domains of society that excluded groups and individuals are at particular risk of being left out of -- markets, services, and spaces. Second, the report discusses the most important global mega-trends such as migration, climate chnage, and aging of societies, which will impact challenges and opportunities for inclusion. Finally, it argues that despite these challenges, change towards inclusion is possible and offers examples of inclusionary policies.
Project Midnight by Dr. Shelton Goode critically explores the coordinated efforts to undermine diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives in the corporate, educational, and governmental sectors. The book, written by an experienced DEI expert, delves deeply into the historical context of these programs and the contemporary backlash they face, driven by political and social forces that seek to reverse decades of progress toward racial and gender equality. Dr. Goode begins by tracing DEI's origins from the Civil Rights Movement and the abolition of slavery. He highlights how DEI has evolved into a strategic initiative for organizations seeking to improve workplace diversity and inclusiveness. He emphasizes that DEI was not just about affirmative action but aimed at creating fair opportunities for historically marginalized groups. Despite the challenges, the resilience of DEI initiatives is a source of inspiration and hope. The core of Project Midnight centers on the systematic, well-funded attacks by conservative and far-right groups to discredit DEI programs. These groups claim that DEI promotes reverse discrimination against white males and distracts companies from their core missions. Dr. Goode explains how these organizations, bolstered by recent legal decisions such as the Supreme Court’s ruling on affirmative action, have shifted their focus to dismantling corporate DEI initiatives. They target areas such as talent management programs, employee resource groups, supplier diversity, and DEI training efforts, using legal challenges and public misinformation campaigns to achieve their goals. One of the book’s strengths is its use of real-life case studies. Dr. Goode provides detailed accounts of how organizations like Google, Facebook, and Tractor Supply have faced backlash after implementing DEI initiatives. He also examines the broader sociopolitical implications of this anti-DEI movement, tracing its roots to broader movements against social justice and racial equality. Dr. Goode argues that these attacks are not just isolated events but part of a larger strategy to reverse the progress made in DEI efforts, especially after the 2020 racial justice protests following George Floyd’s death. He draws attention to the legal, social, and political strategies used to dismantle programs designed to address inequality and highlights the significant impact on marginalized communities, corporate performance, and the country’s overall social fabric. The book is a call to action for business leaders, DEI professionals, and advocates for social justice. Dr. Goode provides practical strategies for sustaining DEI efforts despite opposition, including fostering inclusive leadership, strengthening internal DEI policies, and engaging in more effective communication about the benefits of diversity. He urges organizations to resist the pressure to retreat on DEI and underscores the importance of the audience's role in sustaining these efforts. This empowers them and makes them feel responsible for the progress of DEI as a business imperative, pointing to research that demonstrates the positive financial impact of diverse and inclusive workplaces. Ultimately, Project Midnight is a sobering but optimistic account of the state of DEI in America. While acknowledging the challenges, Dr. Goode remains hopeful that organizations can continue moving forward by adopting innovative approaches and remaining committed to diversity, equity, and inclusion.
Previous editions of the bestselling Deconstructing Special Education set a landmark for the understanding of inclusion. This completely re-written third edition continues in the tradition of critical analysis set by the first two editions and assesses how ideas and practice surrounding inclusion adapt to modern pressures and expectations. The new edition addresses: •The influence of intersectionality on the ways we think about special education and inclusion •Contemporary understandings of ‘mental health’ and how these affect the way that we think about behaviour at school •Changing understandings of ‘disability’ •The impact of research on the development of inclusion •Marketisation and its corrosive influence on inclusion •The impact of social media on children and young people •How spending on special needs impacts the development of inclusion The authors address these complex issues in an open and accessible way, making the book essential reading for a broad audience including students, teachers, educational psychologists, policymakers and researchers. “Essential reading for anyone studying or working in either special or inclusive education… Few could build the case as well as Thomas and Loxley.” Melanie Nind, Professor of Education, University of Southampton, UK “Few books in the field of education merit the soubriquet 'must read'. This is one such." Philip Garner, Professor, Brunel University, UK “An absolute must-read for all of us committed to realising genuine inclusion within schools and society!” Jan Valle, The City College of New York, USA "Finishing your first reading of their book makes you realise that you must return to it, such is the richness of the analysis and reach of its detail. This is a tour de force, a line in the sand for all successive work in the field of inclusive education." Roger Slee, Diamond Jubilee Professor of Disability Studies, University of Leeds, UK Professor Gary Thomas is Emeritus Professor of Inclusion and Diversity at the School of Education, University of Birmingham, UK. Dr Andrew Loxley is an Associate Professor at the School of Education, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland.
Inclusive education is complex, multi-faceted and ever-changing and to date there has been no fixed definition of what is meant by the term ‘inclusion’, leading to confusion about what inclusive education actually means in practice. This key text introduces readers to the underlying knowledge and wider complexities of inclusion and explores how this can relate to practice. Considering inclusion as referring to all learners, it surveys the concept of inclusive practice in its broadest sense and examines its implementation in a variety of educational institutions. Throughout the book, international contributors consider this broader concept to critically evaluate the realities of practically implementing inclusive objectives. Each chapter assesses key theories and concepts alongside a range of examples to encourage students to think critically and reappraise their own experience as learners. Key topics covered include: • studying the definition of inclusion • the relevance of pedagogy in inclusive practice • how to lead and manage for inclusion • the issue of inclusion in early years, primary, secondary and post-16 settings • inclusive practice for families • international perspectives on inclusive practice. Fully illustrated with tasks, case studies, discussion questions and recommended reading, Inclusive Education is essential reading for second and third year students looking to extend their research and writing, and to develop their critical and reflective thinking.
At a moment in history when institutions are collapsing, violence and injustice are skyrocketing, and the outcomes of systemic oppression go viral on a daily basis, Dr. Nika White's, Inclusion Uncomplicated has arrived at the perfect time. This book is the guide you have been waiting for: one that unravels the complexity of diversity, equity, and inclusion, teases out root causes of systemic oppression, and delivers simple, actionable tools for real change. Right now. When it's needed the most. The wisdom contained within these pages comes from Dr. Nika's twenty-plus years of helping companies across the globe create more inclusive, equitable, and sustainable cultures. Dr. Nika's philosophy is simple-DEI is a responsibility we all share. It's going to take each one of us moving from passivity to impact within our unique spheres of influence. That's why this book is written in a straight-forward, conversational style that speaks to the leader in all of us. From real-life, workplace scenarios, to the latest research on what works and what doesn't, to strategies for untangling the gnarled threads of bias-readers will find everything they need to become DEI allies, changemakers, and inclusive leaders, no matter where they are on the DEI journey.
How teachers might best be prepared to work in schools with an increasingly diverse pupil population is of concern to educational academics, professionals and governments around the world. Changes that have taken place in legislation and practice often fail to taken into account how practitioners can ensure that all children and young people are able to achieve. The focus of this international text is on innovative practices for preparing teachers to work in inclusive classrooms and schools. Drawing on both pre and in-service training methods, the expert contributors to this book follow three major themes: social and political challenges regarding teacher education – providing an historical perspective on the training of teachers, tensions in preparing teachers for inclusion, cultural issues, the relationship between educational funding and practices and collaborative measures to support a whole school approach innovative approaches in pre-service teacher preparation – discussing a range of innovative models and approaches used in pre-service teacher education courses engaging professional development for inservice teachers – reviewing a range of approaches employed to engage working teachers and help them establish curricula and pedagogy that meets the needs of all students in their classes. Each chapter will include a list of proposed learning outcomes, a theoretical or conceptual framework to help readers develop the proposed innovation, an overview of recent research, discussion of the research data available and a discussion of the international implications and challenges, summarising in suggestions for a positive way forward. Teacher Education for Inclusion: Changing Paradigms and Innovative Approaches is essential reading for practising teacher educators, school leaders, university lecturers in education and post graduate students.
Imagining Transgender is an ethnography of the emergence and institutionalization of transgender as a category of collective identity and political activism. Embraced by activists in the early 1990s to advocate for gender-variant people, the category quickly gained momentum in public health, social service, scholarly, and legislative contexts. Working as a safer-sex activist in Manhattan during the late 1990s, David Valentine conducted ethnographic research among mostly male-to-female transgender-identified people at drag balls, support groups, cross-dresser organizations, clinics, bars, and clubs. However, he found that many of those labeled “transgender” by activists did not know the term or resisted its use. Instead, they self-identified as “gay,” a category of sexual rather than gendered identity and one rejected in turn by the activists who claimed these subjects as transgender. Valentine analyzes the reasons for and potential consequences of this difference, and how social theory is implicated in it. Valentine argues that “transgender” has been adopted so rapidly in the contemporary United States because it clarifies a model of gender and sexuality that has been gaining traction within feminism, psychiatry, and mainstream gay and lesbian politics since the 1970s: a paradigm in which gender and sexuality are distinct arenas of human experience. This distinction and the identity categories based on it erase the experiences of some gender-variant people—particularly poor persons of color—who conceive of gender and sexuality in other terms. While recognizing the important advances transgender has facilitated, Valentine argues that a broad vision of social justice must include, simultaneously, an attentiveness to the politics of language and a recognition of how social theoretical models and broader political economies are embedded in the day-to-day politics of identity.
