ABSTRACT
The physical presence of students in classrooms is no guarantee of their involvement in class and school activities: ‘integration’ may happen but this is not necessarily ‘inclusion’. If this is true, then it is especially so because of the curriculum. It is through the curriculum that messages are sent by the school staff – and received by the students – about the values held by the school. If some students are seen to study a different curriculum from others then complex messages are being transmitted about their status in the school, and indeed about their status as learners and people.
