Inclusion as Lived and Felt in the Leaving Certificate Applied Programme: A case study exploring spatial discourses of inclusion

Abstract

Parity of esteem has long been an enduring theme of educational discourses of inclusion. This article examines parity of esteem through the lens of the Leaving Certificate Applied (LCA) programme by focusing on spatial discourses of inclusion. For this article, parity of esteem relates to issues of value and recognition of difference and the resulting experience of inclusion as something that is lived and felt in school contexts. The article draws on research conducted by the author over a 10-month period with four case-study schools in the north-west of Ireland. The LCA programme is a distinct, modular, self-contained, two-year Leaving Cert pre-vocational programme. It ‘emphasises forms of achievement and excellence which the established Leaving Certificate has not recognised in the past. It offers a specific opportunity to prepare for and progress to further education and training’. (PDST, 2019, p.7). The programme incorporates work experience and learning that takes place outside the classroom. It is ringfenced, meaning it is separate from but equal to the Leaving Certificate Established (LCE) programme and is not part of the CAO points system. However, recent changes announced as part of Senior Cycle redevelopment mean that since September 2022 LCA students ‘have the opportunity to take Leaving Certificate Mathematics and, where possible, a Leaving Certificate Modern Language’ (DoE, 2022).