ABSTRACT
One of the ways in which the dominant paradigm of special education is resisting inclusion involves an attempt to assimilate the language of mainstreaming and inclusion into special education discourse. Inclusive schools deliver a curriculum to students through organisational arrangements that are different from those used in schools that exclude some students from their regular classrooms. Action research involves collaboration in order to solve organisational or community problems and is designed to provide 'conditions for the empowerment of participants' through a process of action-reflection-action within democratic dialogue. In order to participate, people need to be able to understand one another. To understand positivist research someone must usually understand the 'codes' that it is written in. Stories have a role because they are mostly accessible to a community audience, not just to those who have learned the academic codes. Thinking of research as stories also emphasises that research is but one among many methods of knowing and communicating.
