Removing the Margins

Book excerpt: Removing the Margins works to identify and challenge many of the cultural and systematic paradigms that perpetuate racism and other forms of oppression in mainstream schooling. The authors pursue the ideal that education should not simply affirm the status quo but should produce knowledge for social action. This philosophical and theoretical resource also moves beyond the study of educational failure to explore the new and creative ways schooling barriers have been confronted. The focus is placed on the factors of representation, family and community, staff equity, language integration and spirituality as fundamental to school reform. Removing the Margins is the product of five years of research and writing in the search for best practices in inclusive education. The authors address the philosophical and theoretical bases for inclusivity in this book, while laying out the practical approach in the accompanying volume Inclusive Schooling: A Teacher's Guide to Removing the Margins.