Time for inclusion?

This article examines the constraints of modern temporality which are
antithetical to the careful consideration that working with diverse learners
requires for the development of inclusive, democratic education.
We take up the conceptual construct of time to explore how it mediates
systemic practices that impact policy positions of inclusion in initial
teacher education and schooling. Our analysis demonstrates that temporality
shapes the possibilities of inclusive practice within which a
dominant agenda of compliance frames classroom complexities – both
in schooling and higher education environments – into fragmented
and preconceived responses to challenging situations. Education systems
position educators in risk discourses concentrated on compliance
and performance, in part through an emphasis that is placed on the
diagnosis of learner differences and subsequent compartmentalised
responses. Through schisms in modern time, we demonstrate the ways
in which inclusion, like other educational demands, may be supported
through a diffraction in time rather than subjugated to it.