Introduction

The struggle of activist parents of disabled children for inclusion of their children in kindergarten and school has a long history in Europe that begins in the 1970s. In Bavaria, some parents have been fighting hard since the 1990s for the right of their children to an element of normality in their lives. In their view, these children are not ill, but as normal and healthy as other children, from whom they should not be separated in everyday life. Heralded by the parents as a great achievement, the Bavarian Education Act was reformed in 2003, permitting inclusion of disabled children in regular schools. Then, in 2009, Germany signed the United Nations (UN) Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, rekindling discussion about the right to inclusion in Bavarian schools. To the great satisfaction of concerned parents, the new legislation of 2011 made inclusion not only possible, but compulsory, should parents wish it.

The history of inclusion in Bavaria can be read as a history of conflicts between different types of knowledge. The knowledge of the parents of disabled children is a striking example of embodied knowledge: inextricably bound to its holders, who are living human beings, and to their lived experience of the minds and bodies of their children. This kind of knowledge cannot be considered separately from the point of view of the person who holds it, and points to the narrow line between knowledge, feelings and beliefs. In the case we study here, this person-held, embodied knowledge conflicted with the inscription of the law, which is an impersonal form of knowledge. As we shall see, this conflict was partly dissolved and partly reproduced in the application or enactment of the law in the everyday life of the school.

Amendments to the Bavarian Education Act

Our case study analyses the history of integration of disabled children into regular schools in Bavaria. Due to the fact that Germany’s constitution delegates legal authority over education to its 16 federal states, we cannot speak of a German national education system, only of the system of a particular state. Our arguments are therefore valid only for Bavaria, where this study was conducted. Since 1962, the majority party in Bavaria has been the Christlich-Soziale Union (CSU), a Catholic conservative party, which has given the Bavarian education system a rather conservative flavour.