ABSTRACT
This chapter analyses understandings of 'inclusion' in Indian education policy and reasons for the disparity between policy aspirations and classroom practice. It explores how TESS-India open educational resources (OER) attempt to address this policy-practice gap and guide teachers towards more inclusive pedagogic practices. The OER mediate policy and challenge teachers to consider the experiences of individual pupils and how they are situated in relation to structures of inequality around caste, gender, poverty and disability, to shift pedagogy towards quality education. Historic practices of exclusion based on caste, gender and disability are deeply embedded in schools and communities and reflected in the observed behaviour and attitude of many teachers. Policy recognises the challenges but locates the problems within the classroom, tasking teachers with playing a central role as agents of change. This requires both sophisticated pedagogic skills, and motivation and momentum for change on the part of teachers.
