Defectology as a theory of inclusion?

This chapter reconsiders the foundational Vygotskyan concept of defectology in order to explore key inhibitors to inclusionary practices in education: definitions of inclusion; policy and political contexts; attitudes towards inclusion; lack of engagement with theory. This analysis is primarily applied to Armenia, a post-Soviet country which utilizes terms such as ‘inclusion’ and ‘integration’ in educational policies whilst maintaining structures that categorise disabled children in terms of defects. The use of the expression ‘defect’ relates only in part to impairment in such a system and stems largely from a legacy that evaluates people in relation to their usefulness to society. What is described as defectology was a political and ideological response in the former USSR to the valorisation of labour, whereby the unproductive disabled were marginalised and othered, rather than a representation of the ideas of Vygotsky. Re-examining these ideas, in the context of Armenia, provides the basis for a re-alignment of inclusive practice away from the dichotomy of espousing inclusion whilst delivering practice based on an exclusionist version of a misunderstood theoretical position.