Abstract

Despite numerous international and local charters, declarations, policies and studies, exclusion persists as one of our most ‘wicked problems’ in education. In this presentation I suggest that our continuing focus on the individual learner (student or teacher) may be helping to perpetuate exclusion. I will describe recent and current research and development projects in New Zealand that are exploring different understandings of curriculum, pedagogy and assessment. In these projects we paid particular attention to intersecting discourses of teaching, learning and difference. These projects and emerging insights from the projects, drew on socio-cultural views of learning that have in turn presented new challenges and opportunities for ways of thinking about curriculum, pedagogy and assessment in inclusive settings.

Dr Missy Morton is Associate Professor and Head of School, School of Educational Studies and Leadership, University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand.