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This paper arises from research into inclusive literacy for pupils with severe learning difficulties who do not learn to read and write conventionally. The ultimate aim of the study was to seek out examples of good practice in teaching and learning literacy that includes students with severe learning difficulties and disseminate them as widely as possible. Thirty‐five schools were visited and observations made in 122 lessons. Sixty‐one teachers were interviewed and their paperwork examined. Ten focus groups and five ‘expert witnesses’ were consulted, alongside desk‐based research designed to locate ‘good practice’. Teachers used a mixture of conventional (e.g., texts) and non‐conventional (e.g., pictures, film and oral) media, although more observations were made of conventional literacy teaching (e.g., phonic work) than of non‐conventional (e.g., filmmaking). Results from the research suggest that few students with severe learning difficulties are likely to learn to read and write conventionally (i.e., read for pleasure, work and study) and teachers may be relying too much on teaching traditional literacy to them. It may be useful to explore teaching and learning around alternative media such as still and moving images, live theatre and storytelling, digital technology and the arts. Although some teachers are making good use of these media, the potential of these media for providing inclusive literacy experiences could be further developed.

Policy and practice responses to diversity and difference in pupils' populations continue to challenge education systems around the world. This paper considers how teachers' understandings of diversity and difference and their pedagogical responses at the local level are influenced by, and can be reconciled with, policy at the general level with its impulse for categorisation, normalcy and 'ableness'. Two frameworks around orientations to diversity (Paine, 1990) and types of pedagogic need (Norwich, 1996) are combined in order to examine this tension and develop possible responses. The paper argues, that for critical, ethical and socially just pedagogies, policy needs to support teachers in acknowledging, questioning and troubling difference at the classroom level.

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