Excluded from within: nuancing integration and inclusion through the lived experiences of Filipino children and youth with disability in two inclusive education schools

This innovative, virtual reflective participatory research nuances the multifaceted exclusions Filipino children and youth with disability (CYWD) experience from within the school and classroom, as the country frames and implements its inclusive education (IE) policy merely as the physical integration of students with disability into an inherently exclusionary school-ing system. By drawing from Children and Youth Studies and Critical Disability Studies, this study specifically argues that the policy of integration reinforces ableist and disablist attitudes and practices— forcing CYWD to live up to standards of normality (perform or be like a “normal” student), on one hand, and contend with lowered expectations (be underestimated or segregated because of their impairment), on the other. Such tension restricts CYWD’s participation, stunts their academic growth and devalues their difference and dignity as learn-ers, overall straining their school life. To move towards true inclusion, scholars and political actors should be more critical not just of social policies, but also of the environment and system these policies tend to “include” the CYWD into. One way to do so is to account for CYWD’s lived experiences and grounded perspectives in the progressive uncovering (and potential overcoming) of taken-for-granted exclusionary practices within, and even beyond the confines of the school and classroom.