Inclusion versus specialisation: issues in transforming the education of Australian show children

Abstract

Despite social justice rhetoric, it is more difficult and expensive for schools to cater for those who deviate from accepted social norms. At the same time, minorities often find efforts to include them in mainstream schooling uncomfortable and even frightening. Yet specialised schooling seems even more expensive, and does nothing to challenge existing marginalising stereotypes. This dilemma about the appropriate 'mix' between inclusion and specialisation has been played out in the recent educational experiences of Australian show children. Having suffered from educational neglect for generations, parents lobbied for a specialist program that still entailed interactions with local children and the dominant schooling bureaucracy. More recently, however, their efforts have seen the establishment of a separate school operating exclusively to the rhythms of their mobile lifestyle. This chapter presents these eddies and flows in the education of Australian show children as the encapsulation of broader debates about the purposes and effects of educational provision in the early 21st century. The issue of inclusion versus specialisation is linked with a discursive struggle involving material realities and ideological assumptions about schooling. In the context of that struggle, the show people have found a temporary settlement rather than a permanent resolution in their search for changing schools and educational transformation.