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Nice, but we can’t afford it: challenging austerity and finding abundance in inclusive education

ABSTRACT This paper argues that it is very possible, even in times of monetary austerity, to decrease the perceived costs of inclusion by resurrecting the vocabulary of belonging, friendship and love. Qualitative research was conducted with special educators’ (n = 33) regarding curricular access decisions for students with significant cognitive disabilities in the northeastern US. Results about academic access were published previously but participants’ use of capitalist economic language remained troubling, and while achievement was described as a necessity, inclusion was a seeming luxury. Intuitive inquiry and principles of economic theory including orthodoxy: the reverence given to economic explanations, and veto economics: words that can stop a discussion or plan from moving ahead offer a different interpretation of austerity and abundance. Healthy economies depend on frequent reciprocal exchanges and problems occur when there is excessive frugality or spending. A disproportionate focus on independence and discreet skill achievement is being too ‘frugal’ with students’ time. Becoming alert to economic orthodoxy and veto words, i.e. ‘individualised’ and ‘independent’ enables educators to challenge the false rationality of exclusion. Rather than being a luxury item, inclusion is a necessity. The cost–benefit trade-off for inclusion must be re-conceptualised to weigh friendship, acceptance and community more heavily.