Against performativity: towards a comprehensive model for inclusive education

Inclusive education has become a generally accepted approach to promoting education for children with disabilities worldwide. Both global governance organisations and national governments have called for greater inclusivity in education systems. As such, implementing organisations have sought to demonstrate their programmes align with policy trends and often apply the term ‘inclusive’ to their educational programmes. In this article, we argue that some of these activities are performative and use inclusive terminology to describe activities that may only partially address inclusive outcomes. As an example, we draw upon data from United States Agency for International Development (USAID) programmes that conceptualised inclusion in three different ways. We reflect on lessons learned from these programmes and introduce the concept of ‘comprehensive’ inclusive education as a counterweight to performative inclusive education. We conclude by offering an array of practices and policies that may inform comprehensiveness for education programmes.