“Management for Diversity”: An Infrastructural Approach to Inclusive Education in Hong Kong – CAISE seminar video summary

Date: 2nd December, 2020 (12:45 – 2PM)

Venue: Zoom

Speakers: Dr Lo Yuen Yi, Associate Professor; Dr Emily He, Post-doctoral fellow; Dr Jessica To, Post-doctoral fellow (Faculty of Education, The University of Hong Kong)

Abstract

Catering for learner diversity at schools is a globalised educational issue. The traditional approach to managing learner diversity tends to segregate students with special educational needs (SEN) from mainstream schools and to provide them with additional learning support and resources in special schools until they can catch up with heir counterparts in the mainstream schools. this segregation approach has been criticised for degrading the students identified with SEN and depriving them of equal educational opportunities and participation in the community. In view of the shortcomings, educators embrace inclusive education as the means to promote equity of access to educational resources and full participation in t he society. Despite the promotion of inclusive education in Hong Kong and other contexts for decades, the current implementation may fail to empower schools, teachers and students in the process of managing learner diversity. To address the issue, this seminar discusses the development of an infrastructural approach to diversity management in a longitudinal school-university partnership project. It first critically examines the current inclusive education practices worldwide and then explains the key components of the infrastructural approach and its theoretical underpinnings. Finally, it presents preliminary project findings and outlines future research directions.