Chapter 22: Enhancing Learner Access through Invitational Inclusive Education: A Merger to Transform Perspectives and Practice

Almost 25 years ago, the World Conference on Special Needs: Access and Quality adopted the Salamanca Statement and Framework for Action on Special Needs Education that included the following proclamation: “Schools with an inclusive orientation are the most effective means of combating discriminatory attitudes, creating welcoming communities, building an inclusive society, and achieving an education for all …” (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, 1994, p. ix). Access and quality are still far from being implemented fully in an increasingly diverse world with more and more students who have been marginalized or disadvantaged. How do we combat discriminatory attitudes, create welcoming communities, build an inclusive society, and achieve a quality education for all? This chapter describes the conceptualization and development of a graduate course in which graduate students (licensed teachers) learned to successfully blend tenets of inclusive practice with tenets of Invitational Education (IE) resulting in a new concept, Invitational Inclusive Education (IIE). The blending of the two educational perspectives shows promise for deepening, extending, and enhancing the principles and practices of inclusive education, as evidenced in part by the development of a new tool, an invitational lens through which to view inclusive practice and increase the likelihood of its implementation, by students who participated in a section of the graduate course.