Transformational Inclusion: Simple but Profound Shift in Attitude

By Caitlin Barefoot, Undergraduate student, Cardiff University, and Dr Tanvir Bush, Research Fellow, Bath Spa University

In the face of rising polarisation and intolerance in our communities, could practicing ‘transformational inclusion’ be a potential antidote for the student body?

Applying transformational inclusion as a student 

Rogoff (1995) demonstrates that learning is not an individual process that can be understood in isolation, rather learning simultaneously takes place across three sociocultural planes consisting of the individual, interpersonal and institutional plane. At the same time, exclusion is apparent. The personal plane prevails how exclusion shapes feelings of belonging and confidence. Exclusion in the interpersonal plane appears in our everyday, who is listened to, who’s needs are overlooked. Lastly the institutional plane exhibits exclusions through policies, teaching methods. Curricular and norms unintentionally privilege the engagement of some over others.   

Accessibility is treated as a secondary consideration addressed once systems are already in place. With unprecedented access to knowledge, and more importantly to one another, can we not reimagine participation? Valuing shared responsibility, self-awareness and learning with others not for others. 

This blog reflects on what this might look like, drawing on Tanvir Bush’s research and my current studies at Cardiff University. 

As my studies within Human and Social Sciences have progressed, so too has the importance and relevance of identifying the discussions of inclusion and how this might be practices in a truly transformative way. However, these critical reflections and discussions are not always accompanied by teaching or implementation of meaningful solutions.

An everyday example of how inclusion is procedural rather than lived, is the very common practice of seminars and group discussion. From Year 1, seminars have become a well of anxiety and apprehension. Sessions framed around discussion as a supposed learning tool become a dessert of silence, aesthetically participatory through its informal, talkative style practices, however insubstantial when addressing genuine participation. Peers frequently express feelings of fear and awkwardness within seminars, quick and confident styles of engagement are prioritised over differently paced forms of education. No doubt for some disabled students, seminars do not become a place of empowerment but rather one of exposure. Inclusion within this context of participation is framed as being given the opportunity to speak, which is not the same as being given the structure and tools to participate.

Truly embedding inclusive practice 

Tanvir Bush, a disabled activist, academic and writer coined the term ‘transformational inclusion’ to explain the profound attitude shift needed to truly embrace and embed inclusive practice. Bush explored this further as an NCCPE Engage Fellow and through the Sensing Climate project’s “Creative Writing Laboratory”, considering how disabled writers and artists create, navigate and make meaning through artistic expression, creative survival strategies, and embodied ways of being, to challenge exclusion at the intersection of life and art (e.g. Bush 2019, Bush 2020).   

In our recent discussion, she said: ‘When I first began talking about ‘transformational’ inclusion I was basing it on two key concepts:  Human revolution and access intimacy.  

Human Revolution is the term in Nicherin Buddhism that refers to the profound inner transformation and personal development of an individual leading to strengthened character, the ability to overcome any obstacle and the creation of lasting happiness. It is a ‘revolution’ that starts in the heart of one person and radiates outward to change the world.  

Daisku Ikeda (Buddhist Leader 1928-2023) wrote that human revolution is incredibly powerful.  ‘A great inner revolution in just one individual will help achieve a change in the destiny of an entire society and further will enable a change in the destiny of all humankind.'  

When it comes to their idea of ‘access intimacy’, Mia Mingus writes in her blog as ‘Access intimacy Interdependence and Disability Justice’ ‘…Access intimacy is that elusive, hard to describe feeling when someone else “gets” your access needs.  The kind of eerie comfort that your disabled self feels with someone on a purely access level.  Sometimes it can happen with complete strangers, disabled or not, or sometimes it can be built over years.   

In both human revolution and access intimacy there must be a profound change in the individual, a deepening of self-awareness leading to greater compassion, learning and ultimately personal growth and acceptance. This in turn, leads to societal change.  

So, through that lens, transformational inclusion, in essence, forces us to sit and think about our own personal inclusion journey. Do we understand WHY inclusion is important to us, to others or like Doubting Thomas, in that hidden dark part of ourselves do we fear that this is possibly weakness, that maybe the anti DEI movement might have a point? Do we secretly fear that, by including others, we may find ourselves ultimately surpassed and forced out of the ‘in group’?  

These thoughts are natural and human. But it is important that we face them. 

If we don’t address our fears and speak about our confusion we are never going to be truly comfortable with the enormous effort that real, profound ‘transformational’ inclusion entails. We need to understand it and to believe in it, otherwise it will slip away at the first sign of friction and controversy or conflict as has happened time after time throughout human history.  

And this is not something that can be grasped, understood and acted upon in an afternoon. This is a continuous and ever-changing life-long learning and it’s not going to be easy. You can’t run a marathon if you don’t practise running. You can’t sit at a piano for the first time and play Rachmaninov. We practise every day to build muscle memory and skill and it takes time and sometimes we fail and have to rethink, have to adapt, change course, learn a different method.  

What Now?

Transformational inclusion offers a meaningful way of addressing exclusion across each of these interconnected planes.  

Collaborating with Tanvir and engaging with wider disability perspectives has relieved discomfort that can accompany conversations and replaced it with curiosity and openness. Inclusion from the personal plane, which reflects the idea of human revolution, has meant confronting assumptions about independence and capability, to the acknowledgement of one’s access needs through the act of truly listening and anticipation. On the Interpersonal Plane, “intimacy access” can be found. Through listening, reflecting and observing, it becomes much easier to recognise everyday practices that quietly underprivileges and exclude certain groups.  

The institutional plane pessimistically holds onto these ideological ideas and infiltrate inequality and exclusion through policy and practice. Transformational inclusion encourages changes that make entire learning environments more equitable, when applying this concept to the three planes, it is vital to recognise the relational nature development needs to move in. Policy alone cannot create inclusion. Without the partnership of human revolution, it is implausible to assume inclusion without the act of collaboration and communication. 

Authors

Caitlin Barefoot is a second year Undergrad at Cardiff University, UK.

Dr Tanvir Bush is a writer, disabled activist and Research Fellow at Bath Spa University, UK.

Reference

Rogoff, B. (1995). Observing sociocultural activity on three planes: Participatory appropriation, guided participation, and apprenticeship. In J. V. Wertsch, P. del Río, & A. Alvarez (Eds.), Sociocultural studies of mind (pp. 139–164). Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139174299.008