ABSTRACT
A School for All irrespective of children’s backgrounds and abilities is a traditional ideal in the Nordic education model. However, what strikes a discordant note is the enduring practice of differentiating the so-called “ineducable,” a construct persistently attached to pupils with severe intellectual disabilities. This chapter aims to provide insight into conceptualizations of the in-/educable, focusing on important legislative and educational milestones in the Nordic history of schooling for pupils with disabilities. An analysis of policy documents forms the background for discussing discursive changes toward education for pupils with intellectual disabilities, eventually granting this group educational entitlement in the wave of integration in the 1970s. Norway forms the main case, but a comparison to Sweden is made regarding the different curriculum response in the two countries. The analysis shows how de/constructing the ineducable is an interplay of prevailing concepts of disability and education shaped by competing epistemic, ideological, and educational policy discourses. Further, the analysis suggests that the idea of the ineducable is not necessarily a bygone story. The chapter concludes by pinpointing a contemporary challenge if school policy purports to be inclusive—equal access to a common curriculum that reflects pupil diversity in pupils needs and interests.
