From an exclusionary to an inclusive understanding of educational difficulties and educational space: Implications for the Learning Support Assistant

This paper argues that before Learning Support Assistants (LSAs) can begin to contribute to the realisation of inclusive possibilities in and for education, critical attention must be given to the ways educational difficulties and space are considered and produced within educational institutions. A detailed study of a sixth form college in the south of England is drawn upon to elucidate the ways in which fixed and exclusionary perspectives on educational difficulties can entwine with prescriptive views of and approaches to educational space to marginalise LSAs and the students who received their support. Inclusive conceptualisations of both educational difficulties and space are developed to illuminate the potential of the LSAs to make unique and useful contributors to educational institutions.