Psychology and Inclusion: Caught between Theory and Practice

Citation

Grenfell M (2013) Psychology and Inclusion: Caught between Theory and Practice. In: Smyth F & Shevlin M (eds.) Trinity Education Papers- Special Issue: Examining theory and practice in inclusive education. Trinity Education Papers, Volume 2, Number 2. Dublin: School of Education, Trinity College Dublin, pp. 12-23. http://www.tcd.ie/Education/research/trinity-papers/TEP%20-%20Special%20Edition%20-%20Vol2%20No2%20-%20Special%20Education.pdf

Abstract
This article addresses issues of theory and practice. It locates itself within the context of the academic disciplines of inclusion and psychology. It argues that both areas raise issues of theory and practice, but the latter are often seen as antagonistic to each other: that there is a natural ‘rightness' about issues with respect to inclusion which results in research into it often being undertheorised;; similarly, and somewhat from a countervailing position, as psy-­ chology of education defines itself as one of the ‘foundation' disciplines and bases itself on a developed canon of theoretical literature, the practical impli-­ cations of research into its processes often gets overlooked. The article proposes a model where practice is placed at the centre of con-­ cerns. Educational Theory, it is argued, originating in the Normative Sciences, provides Justifying Educational Principles of practice. However, it also argues that teachers, in the very practice of teaching, develop their own ‘Tacit Knowledge', which also needs to be understood as inherently ‘theoretical'. This is termed ‘Pre-Theoretical Knowledge'. Articulations of such knowledge provide us with ‘Fundamental Educational Theory' (FET), as a phenomenological realisation of the generating structures of practice. Finally, as rich as this FET is, it is necessary that appropriate connections with the aforementioned ‘Justifying Educational Principles' and normative sciences be made, so that the relevancy of the latter can be tested against practice but, also, so that empirical practice can be constituted in the light of knowledge objectivity about education formed within its own critical com-­ munity. The article amounts to a call for a more diversified view of theory and its location within identifiable structural relations to practice.