Module 4

From the many different frameworks and literature available, four broad approaches to inclusive pedagogy can be discerned (see figure 8-11):

• Generic approaches: Guided by the principles of fairness and equality (rather than equity), generic approaches apply the same pedagogical approach to all students. It assumes a single standard fits everyone, which often marginalizes students who deviate from the dominant norm. As a result, it tends to individualize underachievement, overlooking systemic barriers and excluding those whose learning needs and identities differ.

• Support approaches: Support approaches provide targeted assistance to students who are seen as not fitting the norm. These are often implemented as extracurricular or supplemental programs (e.g. mentoring, tutoring, or bridging initiatives) that aim to help students cope and succeed within the existing structure rather than transforming that structure.

Examples of such approaches/frameworks:

• Critical Pedagogy (bell hooks, Paulo Freire, etc.): Encourages students to question power structures, engage in dialogue, and see education as a tool for liberation.
• Social Justice Education (Lee Anne Bell, Maurianne Adams, etc.): Focuses on developing critical awareness and action to address inequality, both in and outside the classroom.
• Anti-Racist Pedagogy (Ibram X. Kendi, Bettina Love, etc.): Confronts racism directly by embedding anti-racist principles in curriculum, teaching, and institutional policy.
• Decoloniality in Education (Sabelo Ndlovu-Gatsheni, Walter Mignolo, Catherine Walsh, etc.): Aims to deconstruct Eurocentric knowledge systems and legitimize Indigenous and marginalized epistemologies.

These approaches are not mutually exclusive, nor is one ‘better’ than the other: in practice, they often overlap each other based on what is both possible, fitting and desirable in a given context.