Following Edward Said’s (2001) observations on traveling theories this paper considers
the origins of inclusive education as a field of education research and policy that is in
jeopardy of being undermined by its broadening popularity, institutional adoption and
subsequent adaptations. Schools were not an invention for all and subsequently the
struggle with demands for broadening participation is more profound than is widely
acknowledged. The institutional separation of ‘regular’ and ‘special’ schooling
constructs pupils as cases for regular or special treatment and in doing so makes
inclusion contingent upon satisfactory diagnosis of student defects and the deployment
of resources that are more frequently structured for containment than for the building of
school capacity to engage with difference. Tentatively this paper suggests that rather
than lapse into established conversations about inclusive schooling as an accord between
special and regular schooling, it may be more appropriate to consider ‘irregular
schooling’ as more historically appropriate.