ABSTRACT
Human rights, as Armstrong and Barton note, involve "a set of principles based on social justice, a statement by which the conditions and opportunities of human life can be evaluated". This chapter highlights some contentious issues concerning the question of inclusive education and the position and practice of the Teaching Assistant in schools. Inclusive education is about the maximization and continual participation of all members of the school community, staff and pupils. The question of self-critical thinking, talking and engaging with all aspects of our lives becomes centrally important. This is a relentless, disturbing process, in which part of the struggle is to seek to make connections between ideas and new alternatives, relations, conceptions and practices. Educational issues are complex and not amenable to quick, slick answers or responses. When discussing the role education plays in the struggle for change, Hargreaves maintained that teachers, and the author argues, Teaching Assistants, need to be concerned with the political functions of education.
