MACROINCLUSION AND MICROEXCLUSION
IN MATHEMATICS EDUCATION
Ana Carolina Faustino, Amanda Queiroz Moura,
Guilherme Henrique Gomes da Silva, João Luiz Muzinatti and Ole
Skovsmose
São Paulo State University (UNESP)
Abstract: Microexclusions take place through subtle and often covert
practices, which can be devastating to the victims. Microexclusions tend
to isolate an individual in a given environment, also in cases where this
environment is considered inclusive. In this paper we want to elaborate
the concept of microexclusions, presenting examples of how such
practices may operate in the mathematics classroom. We develop the
concepts of macroinclusion and microexclusion and discuss how they can
be connected to an inclusive educational policy. We present examples that
elucidate how macroexclusion can take place in mathematics education.
Finally we relate the notion of microexclusion to the notion of
microaggression.
INTRODUCTION
“I became angry”, told a mother when her child, who suffered
from dwarfish, was denied enrolment in a private school in the State of
São Paulo, Brazil. In 2012, this was the title of a widely circulated news
report. Furthermore, the mother said: “I knew the school [...]. I talked
with a member of the staff and explained my child’s needs. I was told that
I would not have problems due to my child’s dwarfism, as they already
had two students in wheelchairs at the school.”
It is well known that dwarfism does not affect intellectual capacity,
but it requires adaptations in the school environment as for instance with
respect to tables, chairs, drinking fountains and toilets. However, while
on the first day the child and the mother were on their way to school, they
received a call saying that the registration of the boy could not be
completed. The school claimed a lack of vacancies. This caused great
upheaval in the child’s family, as they felt discriminated against. In 2016,
the school was judged by the Brazilian court to pay compensation of
20,000 Reais (approximately 5500 Euro) to the student’s family (Belinni,
2016).
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Processes of exclusion have been carried out by public and private
schools, but since 2015 there has existed a Brazilian law referred to as the
“Laws Concerning People with Disabilities”, which defines as a crime if
a school imposes extra fees for students with disabilities. Thus in Brazil
“education for all” in an inclusive school is firmly secured legally.
However, as illustrated by “I became angry”, processes of exclusion
continue to exist. In the following we will illustrate how such processes
could take place also in cases where the students have been included in
the educational system. We will address this possibility in terms of
microexclusions, which we are going to relate to mathematics education.
MICROEXCLUSIONS
Microexclusion can be explicit and blunt as in the case of “I
became angry”. However, microexclusions can also take place through
subtle and often covert practices, which also can be devastating to the
victims. Microexclusions might tend to “isolate” an individual in a given
environment, including in cases where this environment is considered to
be inclusive.
When we talk about microexclusion, the prefix micro does not
mean minor. Thus microexclusion could be brutal and severe. Instead
micro refers to the context of the exclusion. While macroexclusion refers
to exclusions that operate at a general socio-political level,
microexclusion takes place at the level of individuals and groups. Western
history has been accompanied by the most brutal forms of
macroexclusions: think of the history of slavery and of racism. Black
people have been excluded from the protection of human rights, but when
slavery was abolished, macroexclusions took new forms. Black people
were excluded from having votes and from access to further education.
All such forms of macroexclusions may lead to a range of
microexclusions. Thus, one finds intimate connections between
macroexclusions and microexclusions.
As macroexclusions can lead to microexclusions, macroinclusions
can lead to microinclusions. Thus the overall inclusion of black people in
the education programme, including access to universities, could lead to a
range of microinclusions, for instance with respect to job opportunities.
There is, however, an important phenomenon that we are going to
explore in this paper, namely that macroinclusions might lead to
microexclusions. In Figure 1, we show that macroinclusions can lead to
microinclusions and that macroexclusions can lead to microexclusions,
but also that macroinclusion might lead to microexclusions.
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Macroinclusion
Macroexclusion
Microinclusion
Microexclusion
Figure 1: Macroinclusions might lead to microexclusions.
Inclusive education represents an overall effort to engage
everybody in the same educational programmes: no difference should be
made due to gender or race; no difference should be made due to
political, social, religious or cultural preferences; and no difference
should be made with reference to abilities. Thus the issue we are going to
address is to what extent any such programme of macroinclusion could
lead to microexclusions.
MACROINCLUSIONS AND
BRAZILIAN CONTEXT
MICROEXCLUSIONS
IN
A
In Brazil, macroinclusions were established through a policy
supported by various political parties and social, cultural and educational
movements advocating the rights of education for everybody in an
inclusive school environment. Macroinclusions can be considered an
expression of an educational approach that seeks to unite equality and
difference as inseparable values. Such an approach aims at overcoming
difficulties and limitations of the existing educational system by
recognising the need for both structural and practical changes. Thus, it
became crucial to consider the requirements of students with special
needs in order to ensure their participation in various educational
processes.
In Brazilian basic education, macroinclusions have been
strengthened by the “National Education Plan”, approved in 2014, which
provides twenty goals to be achieved in a period of ten years. Among
these, goal number four states that everybody between four to seventeen
years old with special educational needs should have access to basic
education as well as to specialised education. As a consequence, in the
general educational system one now meets students with a variety of
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disabilities. It could be students with hearing or seeing impairments, if
not deaf or blind students (see, for instance Moura,in progress).
Although inclusive education is legally ensured in Brazil, as by the
“Law Concerning People with Disabilities”, one finds many obstructions
to such a general educational programme. Thus in most of the educational
institutions one finds a lack of preparation to receive students with
disabilities. Antunes (2014) emphasises that processes of exclusion that
occur in the day-to-day school life, can originate from practices that have
been claimed to be inclusive. The way the school is structured, physical
in terms of architecture and pedagogically in terms of educational
practices, may reinforce exclusion rather than inclusion of students.
Thus, even when a macroinclusion policy provides access for
students, there are several factors within the school context that work in
the opposite direction. We have presented this phenomenon with
reference to the Brazilian context. However, we have to do with a general
phenomenon: in very many different contexts macroinclusions can lead to
microexclusions.
MICROEXCLUSIONS IN MATHEMATICS EDUCATION
Freire (2002) points out that being marginalised means
experiencing a situation of oppression. He finds that exclusion does not
mean that human beings are “out” and therefore should be placed “in”.
Being excluded means that human beings become “deleted” through
processes that dehumanise and marginalise the individual. According to
Freire, marginalisation is not an option for those who suffer, but the result
of a process of violence. We agree with Freire and conceive
microexclusions as discriminatory acts that can occur within different
environments, including the school. In this case, the students suffering
microexclusions are those who, being in the school, are experiencing
situations of oppression. Despite being included, they are continuously
reminded that they are different and inferior. In the following we present
different examples of such phenomena, and mainly refer to situations in
the mathematics classroom.
Microexclusion through patterns of communication
Microexclusions could take implicit forms, both veiled and subtle.
Such processes can be conducted consciously or unconsciously, also in an
apparently inclusive environment in the mathematics classroom.
Microexclusions could occur in an environment where some students are
not “seen” or “heard” by the others.
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The mathematics teachers, for instance, might have presented the
groups in the classroom with a particular task, and each group might
seem to work concentrating together. Within a group different students
might propose ways of addressing the problem. However, it need not be
everyone who is making suggestions, and some might be ignored. We are
not dealing with any explicit exclusion, yet the pattern of communication
might tend to isolate some students. Thus in mathematics education one
can witness microexclusions taking place in the middle of a group work
session.
In the mathematics classroom certain patterns of communication
may open space for some students while for others it might be closed off.
This could be to do with the format of the questions and with the
expected pattern of answers. The teacher’s attention might be turned
towards the students who provide the expected answer. (See, for instance
Faustino, in progress).
Microexclusion by ignoring special needs
Teachers could practice microexclusions when they fail to
recognise the particular characteristics of students with special
educational needs when they organise activities in the classroom, for
example, when the mathematics teacher bases his or her presentation on
verbal communication. It could well be excellent presentation, but
students with hearing loss (who in Brazil would be present in the
common mathematics classroom due to the overall policy of inclusion) do
not have the possibility to grasp what the teacher is saying. Verbal
communication alone is not enough to ensure that students will come to
learn mathematics.
Thus, if the teachers do not pay attention to other possibilities for
interacting with the students, certain patterns of communication could
generate microexclusions. The presence of the interpreter and the use of
sign language can enhance communication between hearing-impaired and
hearing, however in many situations the teachers leave to the interpreter
to complete all the interaction necessary for teaching and learning, and
only interact with the interpreter in order to respond to questions from the
students. Some students may feel unappreciated because the teacher does
not give them the opportunity for interaction. (See, for instance, Moura,
in progress).
Microexclusions can also occur when the teacher expresses a
surprise or admiration with respect to some skills demonstrated by the
students with special needs. Thus a comment like “he is deaf, but still
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managed to understand much in mathematics” may appear to present an
appreciation of the deaf students’ performances, but simultaneously such
a remark might include the message that the deaf student is inferior
compared to hearing students (Moura, in progress).
Microexclusions may reflect features of the economic policy
through which macroinclusions become implemented. Such exclusions
could be the consequence when such implementations are not
accompanied by the necessary financial and material support. Thus to
include deaf students in the regular mathematics classroom would
presupposes the presence of an interpreter. In the case of blind students it
would presuppose the construction of particular materials; for instance,
Marcelly (2015) has illustrated how it is possible to develop material for
mathematics education that could be used by both seeing and bind
students when working together. In all cases it would presuppose a
development of new teaching practices and a new professionalism among
teachers. Otherwise we might witness a severe process of exclusion
taking place within an overall inclusive educational programme.
Microexclusion through performances
Microexclusions may take place when the mathematics teacher
concentrates on students who perform well in mathematics and not
paying the same attention to other students. This applies to all levels in
the educational system. It is broadly documented, however, that at the
university level students without the profile of being good at mathematics
become the object of derisive comments. Such comments could refer to
their questions during class, which could be labelled as being banal or as
demonstrating a profound lack of mathematical understanding. Thus
Silva (2016) shows that some students from engineering majors
experience being excluded from the field. Repeatedly their questions are
labelled as infantile. Thus formulations like “I have learned this when I
was in secondary school” or “it is very easy, do you not see it?” were
used by teachers and their classmates during calculus lessons. As a
consequence these students “silenced” themselves in the classes.
Microexclusion through affirmative actions
In higher education, affirmative action provides an important kind
of macroinclusive policy. Through such actions underrepresented groups
get access to further education, which may change not only their
individual lives, but also the prospect of the whole social group to which
they
belong.
However,
accompanying
affirmative
actions,
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microexclusions have taken place. Silva (2016) has pointed out a
profound lack of concern within university departments with respect to
the particularities of groups of students who now are getting access to
universities. This lack of concerns may turn into microexclusions. Thus,
in engineering and sciences subjects, Brazilian indigenous students who
have got access to universities through affirmative actions have been
labelled by teachers and other colleagues as “coitados”. The Portuguese
word “coitados” means “wretched”.
A common idea is that nothing can be done in order to help the
“coitados” to remain at the university: as soon as the first semester comes
to an end, they would drop out due to failing their exams. From this
perspective, pedagogical initiatives are not required in order to support
the “coitados” in mathematical disciplines, for instance. However,
according Silva (2016), in order to prevent the exclusion of these
students, it becomes important that affirmative actions also address the
educational requirements that an affirmative policy does presuppose.
Microexclusion through normalisation
Microexclusions become experienced by the students. However, it
might not always be clear to the students what is the nature of these
experiences. Students might feel put aside in the mathematics classroom
and, as a consequence, they might lose interest in the topic.
Subtle forms of microexclusions might be acted out through
processes of normalisation. In all contexts a conception of what is normal
might be presents; however the very notion of normality can provide a
departure for severe forms for microexclusions. In mathematics lessons it
is common that teachers give more attention to students that ask the
“normal” questions and solve the exercises in the “normal” way. (See, for
instance, Muzinatti, in progress).
The conception of normality can operate in brutal ways when we
consider students with special needs. Thus a conception of a blind student
based on a general conception of a seeing student, can tend to bring about
microexclusions (Marcone, 2015). Such a conception might emphasise
the limitations instead of possibilities of a blind student, and can create a
false impression that the blind student has a reduced capacity for
mathematics abstraction. As a consequence, teaching strategies may
become limited to the use of concrete materials. Although we know the
potential of the use of such material in the teaching of mathematics, not
creating opportunities for blind students to move beyond the concrete
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material may generate an exclusion from the broader landscape of
mathematics.
FINAL REMARKS
Our discussion of microexclusion has found inspiration in research
that emphasise the notion of microaggression. This notion has been
developed with reference to verbal abuse and nonverbal practiced, more
or less subtly applied, against individuals based on race, gender, ethnicity,
social class, dialect or religion. Macroaggression might be done
automatically or unconsciously by the offenders; still they might have a
profound negative impact on the lives of abused (McCabe, 2009;
Minikel-Lacocque, 2013; Silva & Powell, 2016; Solórzano, 1998; Sue et
al., 2007).
Despite microexclusions show characteristics similar to
macroaggressions – like subtlety and opaqueness – microexclusions have
their own characteristics: they are often practiced in contexts considered
inclusive, and they can lead to isolation, marginalisation and tend to
dehumanise the “included” students. We have tried to develop the
discussion of macroinclusion, macroexclusion, microinclusion and
microexclusion with particular reference to a Brazilian context. However,
we find that these notions might find applications with reference to many
other contexts as well.
Microexclusions mean violence. Thus we do not see violence as
just being of a physical nature; it can take many different forms. Certain
discourses can be violent, for instance when they provide a stigmatisation
of certain groups of students. Political structures can be violent by
preventing certain groups of children and young people from access to
adequate educations. Economic structures can be violent by keeping
groups of people in poverty. Violent microexclusions can be acted out in
the mathematics classroom. Also in such cases there could be many
reasons for a person stating: “I became angry.”
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