Rethinking Normality in Inclusive Education Francesco Tafuri
Abstract
This literature review explores the concept of "normality" as a foundational yet often unexamined paradigm in educational systems, with particular attention to its implications for inclusive pedagogy. Drawing on interdisciplinary scholarship from special education, philosophy of education, and critical disability studies, the article interrogates how normative frameworks shape schooling practices, curricular design, and the very definition of who is considered a "successful" learner. The review is structured around three main axes: the historical construction and critique of normality in education; the emergence of a "pedagogy of imperfection" that reclaims vulnerability, diversity, and human fallibility as central to the learning process; and the analysis of transformative pedagogical approaches, including ecological education, ethnopedagogy, Universal Design for Learning, and slow pedagogy, that offer alternatives to normative and exclusionary educational models. By rethinking inclusion not as an add-on to a pre-existing norm but as a radical reconfiguration of what education is and for whom it exists, this article contributes to a deeper and more critical understanding of inclusive education. It calls for a shift from integration into normed systems toward the co- construction of plural, imperfect, and authentically human educational environments.
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