ABSTRACT
Including children with special education needs in mainstream education has driven policy for educating children with disabilities in Aotearoa for two decades. This chapter argues that the practice of inclusion in schools may have the undesirable and unintended outcome of separating children, especially Autistic learners, from their peers. Furthermore, it is argued that separation in school may impact on the way society views these children in the longer timescales of community engagement after school. To address this issue, schools need to understand in practice the difference between being inclusive and enabling belonging. This chapter examines the stories of two young Autistic learners through the lens of Wenger’s (1998) Communities of Practice model and makes suggestions for how to alter practice to enhance school membership and reduce the risk of exclusion.
