Inclusive ideals,managerial realities – How discourses on inclusion responsibilise school leaders’ professional practices

Abstract

This article examines how dominant global discourses on inclusive education responsibilise the professional practices of two school leaders in Germany and Romania. Drawing on data from a larger European Union-funded comparative research project on disability inclusion in education, our discourse analysis is theoretically informed by Foucault's concepts of discourse and power. The findings suggest that inclusion operates in two distinct ways: first, as a normative, moral and idealistic goal; and second, as a policy technology that governs leadership practices through logics of cost-effectiveness, accountability and administrative control. Viewed from this perspective, it can be argued that the discourse of inclusion responsibilises school leaders to enact inclusive ideals, while structural and economic constraints render the realisation of these ideals practically unattainable. Our study thus highlights the need for systemic public investment if the global inclusion agenda is to be meaningfully translated by school leaders into whole-school practices that support inclusive education.