Special teaching for special children? Pedagogies for inclusion

This paper considers one of the most basic and perplexing questions in the education of learners with disabilities and difficulties: how specialised is the teaching of this group? This is a highly significant international question for the current context of education policy and practice. Centrally prescribed curricula in many countries are supposed to be inclusive of those with disabilities and difficulties. There has been a growing awareness of the need for universalising curricula; however, there have been few attempts to clarify the nature, rationale and evidence base for particular modifications. In this paper, we summarise the findings that have emerged from two successive strands of critique focused on our opening question: first, a review and conceptual analysis of relevant literature and second, a series of critical reviews across different special educational needs areas that built on the prior work by widening the scope of coverage. We argue that research-led understanding and explication of ‘special’ pedagogies need to integrate teacher knowledge (about learning processes and about the nature of disability), curriculum and pedagogic strategy.