Education, power and segregation. Psychoeducational evaluation as an obstacle to Inclusive Education

Abstract

This paper is the result of previous research and of the work of a group of activists who are exploring new approaches to school counselling to both combat segregation and improve the situation of children in the Spanish education system. It focuses on psychoeducational evaluations as a key tool to legitimise segregation and shows how deconstructing them could provide new, effective ways to struggle for inclusive education as part of a humanistic and revolutionary project. The data came from 100 people from all over Spain who were involved in a workshop within a research project entitled ‘Emerging Narratives about Inclusive Schools Based on the Social Model of Disability: Resistance, Resilience and Social Change’. The project’s purpose is to gather accounts of experiences from activist families and professionals who strive to make schools inclusive. The study was carried out in meetings and workshops held with small groups. Participants developed their own categorisations, found rationales for the situation in schools, and made proposals for interpretation and actions of resistance. The data obtained indicated that the labels created by the use of the medical approach adopted by psychoeducational evaluations limits the knowledge about the persons and imposes a strong social control by preventing the collective construction of educational spaces. These tools are largely used in school counselling. They emphasise negative aspects and are singled out as the only means to obtain resources, thereby granting institutional legitimacy to segregated schooling, despite the fact that they undermine the fundamental human right to an inclusive education.