ABSTRACT
This chapter presents salient aspects of the educational inclusion debate. It explores the shift from a medicalised model of disability to a social model, and the dilemma associated with labelling to signify and support difference. The chapter provides a brief outline of the legislative framework within which schools and educators operate in the United Kingdom. It discusses discuss the use of diagnostic labels and the positive and negative implications of identifying difference between children and young people in the way. Diagnostic labelling can reduce the individual’s sense of self, and how they are perceived by others, to a diagnostic category — ‘framed as disordered’ — rather than being valued as a person. The chapter ends by outlining the Inclusive Pedagogical Approach and Universal Design for Learning as approaches that can help engender inclusive practice.
