Seeing differently in inclusive education: ethnographic pathways and reflexive practices

Inclusive education has been criticised for its ambiguity both as policy and as a field of research. Researchers have noted its limited translation to practice, with some suggesting that it has failed its transformative promise, instead becoming ‘special education in disguise’. Ethnographic approaches can expand and complicate such narratives by providing situated insights into the enactment of inclusion. Drawing on collaborative reflexivity across two ethnographic projects, and using our own methodological shortcomings as examples, we argue for increased attention to how deficit-based and individualised conceptions of inclusion can inadvertently structure ethnographic research practices. By reflecting critically on our own research, we contribute to methodological discussions on how inclusive education is conceptualised and represented through ethnographic research practices. In doing so, we emphasise the need for inclusion to be understood – and researched – as a structural and relational process rather than as a matter of placement or individual deficit.