ABSTRACT
Inclusion has dominated the educational agenda of the United Nations since 1989 (UNESCO 1989; 1990; 1994; 1996; 2001). It has been the focus of increasing attention in educational literature and has influenced heavily policy and legislative developments in many countries. However, there has been a major difficulty from the point of view of able learners. The inclusive movement emerged primarily from a concern that the rights of disabled and maginalised individuals were being denied and as such have been part of an evolving terminology associated with special education and social exclusion. It has been used to support moral, economic and political arguments for educational and social reform directly aimed at the integration and reintegration of these disabled and marginalised individuals. Hegarty (1993), for example, sees inclusion as a means to reforming the special school system while Percy-Smith (2000) sees it as a way of achieving social equity. In this sense the inclusive movement has been interpreted as a reaction against existing exclusionary circumstances and related only to specific marginalised groups such as those who attend special schools. With the focus on special education and disability it has been assumed, logically in my opinion, that able pupils have no place in the inclusion agenda. But is this the only interpretation of inclusion?
