ABSTRACT
For some time educators have been aware of the diversity of pupils in their classes. The account quoted below, from Hellison and Templin (1991: 27), reflects multiplicity and I am sure if you consider your own teaching or coaching experiences other kinds of differences will also come to mind.
Billy wants to be there, Mary doesn’t. Suzi is an exceptionally skilled athlete, Joey has difficulty with any physical activity. Danny is back in school after two suspensions, Karen has a perfect attendance record. Pam is epileptic, Larry is learning disabled, and Dave has a congenital heart defect. Tom constantly complains, and Don brings the teacher an apple every day. Andrew is a 4-foot, 5-inch ninth grader, and Jack is a 6-foot, 5-inch ninth grader. Kay’s father is the CEO of one of the country’s largest companies, and they live in the suburbs; Sue lives with her divorced mother in the inner city, and they are on welfare.
Internationally, with an increasing acknowledgement of diversity in schools and other community contexts has come greater recognition for the need to work towards inclusive practice (Peters 2007; Gabel and Danforth 2008). Inclusion has become ‘the mantra of education systems worldwide’ (Rioux and Pinto 2010: 622). Indeed, it has steadily permeated physical education and youth sport, and we continue to be bombarded with an assortment of messages reminding us to be inclusive. This includes the inclusion talk in the school staff room, the featured articles in professional journals, or (yet) another new education or sports policy making inclusion central. Some of you may have even studied a programme or participated in professional development that focuses on inclusive practice. Inclusion is a term that seems increasingly to slip off the tongue of practitioners, academics and politicians. Within physical education and youth sport it is the mantra of the moment and implicitly recognized within the Panathlon Declaration on Ethics in Youth Sport (Panathlon International 2004). Inclusion seems to be the ‘right thing’ to incorporate in our professional vocabulary – the extent to which it is embedded into professional practice is of course a very different matter.