BERA Bites 15

EDUCATING FOR ALL

Editorial

ANDREA PRIESTLEY 1 , HEATHER EARNSHAW 2 & DI CANTALI 3 1 UNIVERSITY OF STIRLING, 2 EDINBURGH NAPIER UNIVERSITY, 3 UNIVERSITY OF DUNDEE

a successful community school in the 1980s, which valued ‘place, time, teams, resources and relationships’. No uniform or bells, first names for all, mixed-ability teaching and period times of 75 minutes to half days. Central to this was the idea of community. James raises an important question for us to consider: ‘Could you envisage a system where education utilises more community resources (material and human) with less emphasis on schooling as currently manifest?’ Diversity in our communities, as an essential resource, is central to several of the blog posts in this collection. We can plan to integrate and value this diversity through our pedagogical decision-making. David Roxburgh challenges us to rethink what the purpose and focus of language learning might be. He notes that current practice within Scotland’s 1+2 languages policy is hampered by adhering to Eurocentric assumptions and suggests embracing and utilising the increasingly diverse range of languages within local communities. Several authors describe the need to work in partnership with marginalised groups in our communities. For example, Andrew Ryder ’s focus is on Gypsies, Roma and Travellers, while Andrew Brown ’s is on children who have been adopted. Both describe a need to engage in dialogue – seeking children and young people’s views (however expressed) and being comfortable (or willing to feel discomfort) in receiving what needs to be shared. This is about establishing and maintaining inclusive learning communities, where all identities are encouraged and recognised.

In this collection, we bring together BERA Blog posts that, in aggregate, challenge us to be innovative in imagining how schools could be genuinely inclusive and education systems more equitable. Contributions include a provocation around what the purpose of education is, a variety of voices depicting a range of lived experiences and marginalisation in education, and some reflections on the implications and challenges for both practice and policy at local and system level. This BERA Bites collection will be a valuable resource for educators to think ‘beyond issues of access and participation (weak inclusion), to include questions of knowledge, representation, power, and cultural change (strong inclusion)’ (Dawson, 2017, p. 540). Orienting efforts towards strong inclusion means thinking and enacting inclusion differently, creating environments that are responsive, welcoming and educative for all our children and young people. In 2026, what does inclusive education look like? Are we close to being fully inclusive? Where are the gaps and the challenges? Whose voices and experiences are still unheard and unseen? What might we do both locally, in practice, and at policy level to move us closer to genuine inclusion? Valuing school communities To set the scene we start with a blog post by Mary James . She asks us to consider whether the current schooling system is educational by looking back to

BERA BITES 15 | EDUCATING FOR ALL