SPECILA EDUCATION

Inclusive Education

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Inclusive Education
   

Inclusive Education

Lecture 1: Notes

Lecture 1: Introduction to Inclusive Education

This lecture introduces you to the concept Inclusive Education.

Lecture Objectives

At the end of this lecture you should be able to

Introduction

In this topic you will learn the terms used in inclusive education. The topic forms the basis of the course. The unit will cover aspects that include educational placements for persons with disabilities, from special education to inclusive education, inclusive education, special needs, and diversity. You will also be introduced to relations existing between special needs and disability and the terms used to describe individuals with different types of special needs.

Inclusion is a way of thinking and acting that allows every individual to feel accepted, valued, and safe. An inclusive community consciously evolves to meet the changing needs of its members. Through recognition and support, an inclusive community provides meaningful involvement and equal access to the benefits of citizenship.

In Inclusion, we embrace inclusion as a means of enhancing the well-being of every member of the community. By working together, we strengthen our capacity to provide the foundation for a richer future for all of us. The philosophy of inclusion goes beyond the idea of physical location and incorporates basic values and a belief system that promotes the participation, belonging and interaction

The Concept Inclusive Education

Inclusive education is a relatively controversial topic. To understand inclusive education, one has to first understand what inclusion is. The concept of inclusion was conceived in 1948 with the declaration adopted by the UN General Assembly on the “International Bill of Rights” which recognizes that all human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.

This declaration fundamentally seeks to deal with the issue of discrimination at all levels in every facet of society. Inclusion is therefore the acceptance of all people regardless of their differences.

Inclusion is about appreciating people for who they are and their competences, rather than how they walk, talk or even behave. Inclusion also allows people to value the differences in each other by appreciating that each person is unique in his/her own creativity. Theoretically, inclusion is the creation of an enabling environment that provides for the acceptance of children with and without disabilities to play and interact every day without any prejudices whatsoever, even if these children are receiving therapeutic services.

And for inclusion to succeed, it must be a passion that is shared by all the protagonists involved, including agencies, teachers, families, non-governmental organisations (NGOs), school administrators, local government officials and the whole community.

Inclusive Education

Inclusive education” or “inclusive learning” refers to the inclusion and teaching of ALL children in formal or non-formal learning environments without regard to gender, physical, intellectual, social, emotional, linguistic, cultural, religious, or other characteristics.

The term “learning environment” means any formal or non-formal setting where children gain knowledge and the skills to use that knowledge in their daily lives. Learning environments may take the form of schools and colleges or even cultural centres, hobby centres, or social clubs.

Education is the most effective way to break the cycle of discrimination and poverty that children with disabilities and their families often go through. Generally, it is about every child’s right to participate in education, and the school’s duty to accept him/her.

Inclusive education, therefore, is when children with disabilities are placed in the same classroom environment as other children of their age who do not have disabilities. Inclusive education focuses on enabling children with disabilities to attend school in their neighbourhood with the same children whom they play with.

This, it is believed, will enable these disabled children to make friends with their non-disabled counterparts and love school.

But the reality is that “inclusive education” involves modifications in philosophy, curriculum, teaching strategy, and structural organisation. Such modifications go beyond just affecting those students labelled as “disabled” and even far beyond of what is traditionally known as special education.

And each of these modifications has the potential to effect the necessary transformation and support needed by children with disabilities.

Hence, it is essential that societies adapt their structures to ensure that all children, irrespective of age, gender and/or disability, can enjoy their basic human rights without discrimination of any sort.

Research has proven beyond any reasonable doubt that it is possible to fully include children with disabilities in standard classrooms when the correct services and support-systems are provided.

Important support needed include creating Behaviour-Intervention Plans to address a child’s behaviour at any time if necessary. Also it is important to have a trained inclusion teacher who will make the necessary stimuli, to modify the curriculum in order to support children with cognitive and behavioural challenges in the general education classroom.

The idea behind inclusive education is that children with special needs will be placed in the same classroom environment as other children their age who do not have special needs. Inclusive education means that all students attend and are welcomed by their neighborhood schools in age-appropriate, regular classes and are supported to learn, contribute and participate in all aspects of the life of the school. Within inclusive education, there are two main branches of thinking: mainstreaming and full inclusion.

  1. Mainstreaming is a process that allows children with special needs to enter certain standard classrooms after they show the ability to keep up with the rest of their peers.
  2. Full inclusion puts children with special needs in standard classroom environments without testing or demonstration of skills. Individuals that support full inclusion believe that all children belong in the same classroom environment no matter what.

Inclusive education is about how we develop and design our schools, classrooms, programs and activities so that all students learn and participate together. Inclusive education is about making all students to be educated where they would be educated if they did not

have a disability (i.e., in age-appropriate general education classes in their neighborhood school) with necessary supports provided to students, educators, and families so that all can be successful.

Benefits of Inclusive Education

All children benefit from inclusive education. It allows them to:

Develop individual strengths and talents, with high and appropriate expectations for each child.

  • Work on individual goals while participating in the life of the classroom with other students their own age.
  • Involve their parents in their education and in the activities of their local schools.
  • Foster a school culture of respect and belonging. Inclusive education provides opportunities to learn about and accept individual differences, lessening the impact of harassment and bullying.
  • Develop friendships with a wide variety of other children, each with their own individual needs and abilities. On the interpersonal level, inclusive education allows children to develop friendships with their peers and feel less bothered about their disabilities; making them show higher confidence levels than those who are isolated to different classrooms because of their disabilities.
  • Inclusion furthermore brings about a blend of various skills and characteristics which are exploited by these children as they grow up together. For instance, the braille and sign language eventually become other mediums of communication for all the children, and the non-disabled children voluntarily assist their wheelchair colleagues with mobility.
  • Positively affect both their school and community to appreciate diversity and inclusion on a broader level.
  • There is effectively break of the barriers of communication and accessibility, and also enhance group studies which insure to their collective benefits.
  • They would also have a heightened sensitivity towards the challenges that others face, show increased empathy and improved leadership skills; necessary for national cohesion and “mutually-inclusive” development. Inclusion respects diversity and honours differences.

Educational placements for children with disabilities

Educational placement is all about special education. Special education refers to services that are used to meet the learning needs of students with disabilities. Placement refers to the amount of time in each school day that a student spends in the resource or in a general education classroom.

The school district is required to have a range of placements where your child can be taught, including in the general education classroom.

A student could be placed in a single setting all day or spend parts of the day in different settings. For example, a student in a mainstream education classroom all day might receive special education services in

the same general education classroom as part of regularly scheduled instruction time. Or, a student might go to different educational settings for part – or all – of the day to receive special education services.

Here are some educational settings your child could have:

Mainstream (many people refer to this as General Education): Many students receive special education and related services in a general education classroom where peers without disabilities also spend their days. This is called inclusion. Some services that a student might receive in a mainstream setting include: direct instruction, a helping teacher, team teaching, co-teaching, an interpreter, education aides, modifications or accommodations in lessons or instruction, or more teachers per student.

  • Resource: This is a class for students who receive special education services and need intensive help to keep up with grade-level work. The class may have 1 or 2 students, or may have many students. However, students receive instruction or support based on their unique needs. The number of minutes your child spends in a resource class must be written into the IEP.
  • Self-Contained Programs or separate Class: This is a general term for placements for which the student needs to receive services outside of the general education classroom for half of the school day or more. Placement in a self-contained classroom has to be based on a student’s unique needs, not on the disability alone.
  • Regular class includes students who receive the majority of their education program in a regular classroom and receive special education and related services outside the regular classroom for less than 21 percent of the school day.
  • Special School or Separate school includes students who receive special education and related services in a public or private separate day school for students with disabilities for more than 50 percent of the school day.
  • Residential facility includes students who receive special education in a public or private residential facility.
  • Homebound/hospital environment includes students placed in and receiving special education in a hospital or homebound program.

Within inclusive education there are programs that often have specialized settings including:

 

  • Preschool Program for Children with Disabilities (PPCD): This is a set of special education services for children age 3 to 5. PPCD services can take place in different settings, including a child development center, a special class in a school,  a private preschool, or right on an elementary school campus. Any PPCD placement can include related services like Speech therapy, Occupational therapy, In-home training for parents, Counseling for children and parents, health services, Social work services and transport services (training children to manage movement from home to school and manage themselves when walking)
  • Life Skills: This helps students with many different types of disabilities but generally those who need support with academic, social, or behavioral issues as well as daily living skills. Students who receive services in this program may stay until they are old enough to take their roles.
  • Social Behavior Skills (SBS): It is also called Applied Behavior Skills or just Behavior Skills. In this program, trained teachers help students learn decision-making and social skills (to promote self-responsibility) with other peers around. SBS is a separate classroom that children can stay in full-time or part-time, depending on their IEP.
  • Transition or 18+: A small number of students may stay enrolled in special education services until they turn old 21 or 22 years old. Some may stay enrolled for so long as they are developing skills necessary to manage their life. Most of these programs are designed to help the student build more independence and get ready to go out into the workforce. Students might stay in the classroom for some of the day and go to job training for the rest of the day.

Concepts related to inclusive education

Special Educational Need

Special educational needs are defined as a restriction in the capacity of the person to participate in and benefit from education on account of an enduring physical, sensory, mental health or learning disability, or any other condition which results in a person learning differently from a person without that condition. This definition recognises that special educational needs may arise from four different areas of disability:

physical, sensory, mental health, learning disability, or from any other condition that results in the child learning differently from a child without that condition. It is also important to understand that a child can have a disability but not have any special educational needs arising from that disability which require additional supports in school.

Children with special needs

Special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) can affect a child or young person’s ability to learn. They can affect their:

  • behaviour or ability to socialise, for example they struggle to make friends
  • reading and writing, for example because they have dyslexia
  • ability to understand things
  • concentration levels, for example because they have ADHD
  • physical ability

Mainstreaming

A mainstream class in a mainstream primary or post-primary school is where the class or subject teacher has primary responsibility for the progress of all pupils in the class, including pupils with special educational needs. Additional teaching support from a learning support or resource teacher may be provided, where appropriate.

Integration

This is generally linked to preparing pupils for placement in ordinary schools. It carries with it an idea that learners need to be educationally and/or socially ‘ready’ for transfer from special to ordinary school. The expectation is that learners will adapt to the school rather than the school changing to accommodate the learner and meet a wider range of diverse needs.

Marginalisation

Barely provided for or able to access services or participate in society. Generally understood as a social process by which vulnerable groups are moved out of the mainstream to a powerless position in society.

Social inclusion

Social inclusion is a process which ensures that those at risk of poverty and social exclusion gain the opportunities and resources necessary to participate fully in economic, social and cultural life and to enjoy a standard of living and well-being that is considered normal in the society in which they live.

It ensures that they have greater participation in decision-making which affects their lives and access to their fundamental rights (as defined in the Charter of the Fundamental Rights of the European Union.)

Inclusion

Inclusion can be seen as a process of addressing and responding to the diversity of needs of all children, youth and adults through increasing participation in learning, cultures and communities, and reducing and eliminating exclusion within and from education. It involves changes and modifications in content, approaches, structures and strategies, with a common vision that covers all children of the appropriate age range and a conviction that it is the responsibility of the regular system to educate all children (UNESCO, 2009).

It implies a radical reform of the school in terms of educational policy and curricular frameworks, which includes educational content, assessment, pedagogy, the systemic grouping of pupils within institutional and curricular structures.

It is based on a values system that welcomes and celebrates diversity arising from gender, nationality, race, language, social background, level of educational achievement, disability, etc. Inclusion also implies that all teachers are responsible for the education of all learners.

Inclusive education

UNESCO (2009) give the following definition: ‘Inclusive education is a process of strengthening the capacity of the education system to reach out to all learners … As an overall principle, it should guide all education policies and practices, starting from the fact that education is a basic human right and the foundation for a more just and equal society’.

Diversity

A multi-faceted concept that can contain many elements and levels of distinction, e.g. age, ethnicity, class, gender, physical abilities, race, sexual orientation, religious status, educational background, geographical location,

income, marital status, parental status and work experiences. OECD (2010) define diversity as: ‘ characteristics that can affect the specific ways in which developmental potential and learning are realised, including cultural, linguistic, ethnic, religious and socio-economic differences. ’

Equity

Equity in education has two dimensions that are inter-linked:

  • Fairness – making sure that personal and social circumstances, for example gender, socio-economic status or ethnic origin, do not present an obstacle to achieving educational potential. This aims to minimise divergence across social groups by bringing the achievements of the less advantaged to the same level as those of the more advantaged groups and ensure a basic common standard of education for all learners.
  • Inclusion – meeting the needs of all individuals through differential treatment in order to take student diversity into account (Ainscow et al., 2006).

Impairment: 

Impairment is any loss or abnormality of psychological, physiological or anatomical structure or function. Impairment refers to a problem with a structure or organ of the body.

The inability to move the legs easily at the joints and inability to bear weight on the feet is impairment.  Without orthotics and surgery to release abnormally contracted muscles, ones level of impairment may increase as imbalanced muscle contraction over a period of time can cause hip dislocation and deformed bone growth.  No treatment may be currently available to lessen ones impairment.

Disability:  

Disability is any restriction or lack (resulting from an impairment) of ability to perform an activity in the manner or within the range considered normal for a human being. disability is a functional limitation with regard to a particular activity.

The inability to walk is a disability.  The level of disability can be improved with physical therapy and special equipment.  For example, if  learns to use a walker, with braces,  level of disability will improve considerably.

Handicap:  

Handicap is a disadvantage for a given individual that limits or prevents the fulfillment of a role that is normal.  Handicap refers to a disadvantage in filling a role in life relative to a peer group. If one has cerebral palsy, then cerebral palsy is handicapping to the extent that it prevents him from fulfilling a normal role at home, in preschool, and in the community.

The  level of handicap can be only very mild in the early years as if  one has been well-supported to be able to play with other children, interact normally with family members and participate fully in family and community activities.

As one gets older, his handicap will increase where certain sports and physical activities are considered “normal” activities for children of the same age.  Appropriate services and equipment can reduce the extent to which cerebral palsy prevents one from fulfilling a normal role in the home, school and community as grows.

Impairment, Disability, Or Handicap?
The terms disability, impairment, and handicap have been used synonymously within the education, counseling, and health literature. Although, each of these three terminology can be used when discussing disabling conditions, they convey three different meanings.
To promote the appropriate use of these terms the World Health Organization (WHO) provided the following definitions in their International Classification of Impairment, Disability, and Handicap (1980):
    Impairment – any loss or abnormality of psychological, physiological or anatomical structure or function.
    Disability – any restriction or lack of ability to perform an activity in the manner or within the range considered normal for a human being.
    Handicap – the result when an individual with an impairment cannot fulfill a normal life role.
Based on these definitions, it should be understood a handicap is not a characteristic of a person, rather a description of the relationship between the person and the environment. Consider the following.
A person who is born blind (the impairment) is unable to read printed material, which is how most information is widely disseminated (the disability). If this person is prevented from attending school or applying for a job because of this impairment and disability, this is a handicap.
This person may be able to perform the daily activity (reading) using some type of assistive technology to overcome this handicap. By attributing the handicap to the environment as opposed to an individual, the emphasis is placed on using AT to produce functional outcomes as opposed to focusing on functional limitations.

Cultural competence

Educators with the skills, knowledge, and attitudes to value the diversity among students will contribute to an educational system designed to serve all students well. Cultural competence is a key factor in enabling educators to be effective with students from cultures other than their own.

Cultural competence is having an awareness of one’s own cultural identity and views about difference, and the ability to learn and build on the varying cultural and community norms of students and their families.

It is the ability to understand the within-group differences that make each student unique, while celebrating the between-group variations that make our country a tapestry.

This understanding informs and expands teaching practices in the culturally competent educator’s classroom.

Cultural competence is defined as a set of congruent behaviors, attitudes, and policies that come together in a system, agency, or among professionals and enables that system, agency, or those professionals to work effectively in

cross–cultural situations. Operationally defined, cultural competence is the integration and transformation of knowledge about individuals and groups of people into specific standards, policies, practices, and attitudes used in appropriate cultural settings to increase the quality of services; thereby producing better outcomes.

There are five essential elements that contribute to a system’s ability to become more culturally competent.  The system should (1) value diversity,

(2) have the capacity for cultural self–assessment,

(3) be conscious of the “dynamics” inherent when cultures interact,

(4)  institutionalize cultural knowledge, and

(5) develop adaptations to service delivery reflecting an understanding of diversity between and within cultures.

Further, these five elements must be manifested in every level of the service delivery system.  They should be reflected in attitudes, structures, policies, and services.

Paraprofessionals

Paraprofessional educators generally assist teachers in the classroom, supervise students outside of the classroom, or provide administrative support for teaching. Their duties range from filling teaching positions to supplementing regular classroom curriculum with additional enrichment activities for students. Other positions include classroom aides, special education aides, school library technical assistants, and tutors.

Some paraprofessionals work directly with students, in which case they may listen to students practice reading aloud, help students understand and complete their assignments, or assist students with special needs.

Many paraprofessionals are assigned to supervise groups of students who are eating, playing outside, or on field trips.

They may be assigned to perform clerical work for a teacher, in which case they may grade assignments, type up records for attendance or grades, set up equipment, and help prepare materials for instruction, e.g., by making photocopies of worksheets. Many teacher assistants work primarily or exclusively with students who have special educational needs.

Their duties vary according to the needs of the student, and may include physical care for students who are unable to care for themselves (such as feeding, lifting, moving, or cleaning), behavioral management, or academic assistance.

Paraprofessionals can work in other programs that the school provide, such as school aged childcare and recess/ lunch duties. This links the paraprofessional to the students, but not the teacher or schools itself.  In some cases paraprofessionals are teaching lessons, working with small groups for remediation, leading extracurricular clubs/sports and are no longer simply the “teacher’s aide” of the past.

Last modified: Wednesday, 4 October 2017, 11:14 AM
◄ Module 1
Lecture 1: PPT ►

Lecture 2: Notes

Lecture 2: Philosophical Foundations of Inclusive Education

The lecture you will learn issues of the role of teachers, curriculum developers, educational administrators and leadership in addressing issues of marginalisation, exclusion and Inclusion; Participation, Accountability, Parents Involvement, Gender, Disability, Poverty and Special Needs.

Within the philosophical foundations you will learn historical foundations and the experience of children with disabilities in Tanzania, the movement from segregated to integrated schools, and the history of special education, including society’s response to disability at different periods.

Student-teachers are expected to learn the professional role of teachers, including the necessity of adhering to a professional code of conduct, lifelong learning, and active membership in professional organizations.

It is important to understand that, participation of children with exceptional needs in inclusive settings is based on the philosophy of equality, sharing, participation and the worth and dignity of individuals. This philosophy is based on the belief that all children can learn and reach their full potential given opportunity, effective teaching and appropriate resources.

The lecture Objectives

Student teachers be able to

Historical development of inclusive education

Inclusion is a way of thinking and acting that allows every individual to feel accepted, valued, and safe. An inclusive community consciously evolves to meet the changing needs of its members.

Through recognition and support, an inclusive community provides meaningful involvement and equal access to the benefits of citizenship. Inclusive education has evolved over the years starting with the period of neglect, private tuition,     institutionalization, separation, normalization, deinstitutionalization and inclusion.

The  neglect  period  started  before  the  17th century  people  with  disabilities  were  considered  socially  and  physical  less capable. Hence, they were not easily accepted and regarded as part and parcel of the family and community.

They suffered neglect and rejection since families and communities had negative attitude towards disability.  Disability according to (Fredrickson and Cline, 2002) was regarded to be caused by witchcraft, curses or punishment from God for wrong done.  It was  also  considered  contagious. Consequently,  persons  with  disabilities  were  isolated  and  their  needs  were  not adequately provided for by families and communities.

In ancient  Europe,  children  with  disabilities  were  thrown  in the  bush because women were expected to give birth to healthy babies. Any weakling was not  to  be  given  any  chance  to  live  for  they  were  considered  a  burden  to  the community.    Families    with    children    who    were    handicapped    were    also discriminated upon.

People  could  not  marry  from  a  family  with  a  history  of disability  in  their  genealogy  (UNESCO,  2012).  The  negative  attitudes  of  the society  towards  persons  with  disabilities  have  persisted  towards  challenged learners.

The 18th century,  marked  the  private  tuition  period  for  persons  with disabilities.  Individual  and  families  who  saw  the  potential  in  children  with disabilities started teaching with special needs at family level. St. John of Bervely, a  Bishop  taught  a  person  with  hearing  impairment  how  to  articulate  andtalk.  In 865  AD  Didymus  devised  touch  reading  materials  for  the  visually  impaired  in Alexandria.

While  by  1577 –1620  Juan  Milton  Pablo  Bonnet  of  Germany developed one hand manual alphabet. Other people such as Jacob Bernonili (1654 -1705)   from   Switzerland,   Henry   Baker   (1698 –1774)   from   United Kingdom,  John  Conrad  Amman  (1699 – 1730)  from  New  Holland,  Napoleon Bonaparte  (1768 –178)  and  many  others  from  France  proved  through  teaching activities  that  it  was  possible  to  educate  children  with  disabilities.  This suggests that success requires commitment and strict policy.

The  19 th century  (institutionalization  was  a  service  provision  method whereby  a  residential  facility  was  put  in  place  to  house  children  with  varied special   needs.   The   aim   was   to   provide   higher   level   care   and   corrective rehabilitation   with   the   objective   of   returning   them   to   the   society   after improvement.

The education was purely rehabilitative kind upheld medical care. However  the  conditions  in  the  institutions  deteriorated  later  to  such  levels that they  became  more  of  an  asylum,  where  disabled  children  were  abandoned  and neglected.

They were seen as  lesser  beings.  In  Kenya  custodial  approach  was introduced  by  churches  and  service  providers  who  gave  special  services  and education.  This  started  after  the  Second  World  War  (1945)  among  them  were soldiers who were casualties.

The concept of inclusion is not new as its origins in the field of special education and disability. During the 19th century, pioneers of special education argued for and helped develop provision for children and young people who were excluded from education.

Much later, governments assumed responsibility for such provision. The twentieth century saw the emergence and development of the field of special education and special schools become very much the norm for pupils with disabilities.

The segregated education of children according to their difficulties was seen as essential because they were deemed to be incapable of benefiting from ordinary methods of instruction.

Historically, segregated special education was supported by the medical model of disability which views the barriers to learning as being within the child. It was also bolstered by advances in psychometrics. Both of these models facilitated categorisation and separate educational provision according to the pupil’s disability. This segregated approach largely went unchallenged for many years.

As the field of special education expanded, it became the received and unquestioned wisdom that separate provision was the appropriate and most effective option for meeting the needs of a minority of children while safeguarding the efficient education of the majority.

It was only with the rise of the world-wide civil rights movement in the 1960s that the system of parallel provision began to be questioned.

As people with disabilities challenged the stigmatising and limiting nature of segregated education, and gave voice to their anger and dissatisfaction, issues of equality of access and educational opportunity gained impetus and integration became centre stage.

Political pressure from disability and parental advocacy groups began to change society’s values and would ultimately bring legislative changes to reform education. Educators were increasingly exploring ways of supporting previously segregated groups so that they could find a place in mainstream schools.

At the same time, the efficacy and outcomes of segregated education came under scrutiny. Specifically, evidence about the lack of success of segregated provision began to accumulate with such consistency that it could no longer be ignored (Thomas et al., 1998).

Researchers also began to highlight the fact that the special school system selected children disproportionately from racial minorities and socially disadvantaged groups. By the end of the twentieth century there was a growing consensus, resulting from moral imperatives and empirical evidence, that inclusion was ‘an appropriate philosophy and a relevant framework for restructuring education’ (Thomas et al., 1998, p.4).

The current emphasis on inclusive education can be seen as another step along this historical road. It is, however, a radical step, in that it aims to transform the mainstream in ways that will increase its capacity for responding to all learners (Ainscow, 1999).

The shift towards inclusion is not simply a technical or organisational change but also a movement with a clear philosophy which is rooted in the ideology of human rights:

This view implies that progress is more likely if we recognise that difficulties experienced by pupils result from the ways in which schools are currently organised and from rigid teaching methods.

It has been argued that schools need to be reformed and pedagogy needs to be improved in ways that will lead them to respond positively to pupil diversity—seeing individual differences not as a problem to be fixed, but as opportunities for enriching learning’ (UNESCO, 2005, p. 9

Children with Disabilities before Salamanca: The Development of Special Education

Children with disabilities have always been among the last to be offered access to education regardless of what country one observes.  In the sixties and seventies, initial provision consisted of special education within segregated education provisions.

 Historically, children with disabilities have been treated as “in-valid” or inferior and in need of very special protection and thus as not being able to benefit from education.

This conceptualization led to exclusion and the construction of institutions to accommodate these children.  In this view, the child was to blame for not being able to benefit from education.

A shift towards greater understanding led to an eventual belief that all children belonged in the same school system and could not be separated.  This led to a much-needed cooperation between the two systems.

Integration, which began in the West, in the late seventies and early eighties was spurred by a progressive educational ideology. The parallel system to traditional schooling that developed, came to be known as Special Education. Such a pattern has been commonly observed in most countries.

The second stage in this development has taken the form of Special Needs Education. Special Needs Education, is a system of education for children with disabilities within ordinary schools.

This form of education represents an effort to provide education in more ‘normal’ settings. However, a common characteristic of this provision of education is that it has been offered in special classes and not in cooperation with other ‘mainstream’ children.

From Integration to Inclusive Education

Gradually voices clamored asking for integration in education and in the late sixties and seventies, the focus shifted to integration. Integration was understood as a gradual reform of the special education system without challenging the ideological underpinning of the system.

This integration took many shapes, in some cases it was merely limited to sharing the same dining hall and in others it consisted of teaching groups of children with disabilities together with other children for several hours per week. In other cases it was about individual integration, meaning that one child with a disability received all or most of his education in ordinary classes.

Dissatisfaction with progress toward integration caused demands for more radical changes in many countries. One of the main concerns with opponents to integration related to the way in which pupils come to be designated as having special needs.

More specifically they resisted what has been referred to as a ‘medical model’ of assessment – within which educational difficulties are explained solely in terms of a child’s deficits.  The greatest weakness of this model is that is prevented analyzing why schools failed to teach so many children successfully.

During this time, despite national policies emphasizing integration, many countries reported a significant increase in the proportions of pupils being categorized in order for their schools to earn additional resources.

For example, an analysis of policies in Australia, England, Scandinavia and the United States, carried out by researchers in the late eighties, suggested that the increased bureaucracy that was often associated with special education legislation as well as the struggles for additional resources led to an escalation in the proportion of children who came to be labeled as disabled.

These and many other deficiencies led to proposals for a re-conceptualisation of ‘special needs’. Revised thinking suggested that progress would be much more likely if we recognized that difficulties experienced by pupils resulted from the ways in which schools are currently organised and from the forms of teaching that are provided.

Consequently, it was argued that schools needed to be reformed and pedagogy needed to be improved in ways that would lead them to respond positively to pupil diversity – seeing individual differences not as problems to be fixed but as opportunities for enriching learning.

Furthermore, the appropriateness of separate systems of education began to be challenged from a human rights perspective as well as from the point of view of effectiveness.

The Birth of Inclusive Education

Inclusive education, which has its origins in special education, originally set out to meet the needs of learners who were being traditionally excluded from the school or were otherwise marginalized within the classroom. A series of shifts from focusing on the disabled child as a problem to focusing on changes in the management of the classroom, revealed surprising changes in learning.

The results demonstrated benefits to those who were traditionally excluded from learning as well as all the others in the classroom.  Today inclusive education or ‘inclusion in education’ is a conceptual approach aimed at achieving quality education by making changes to accommodate all learners regardless of their physical, social or psychological differences.

Inclusive education differs from previously held notion of ‘integration’ and ‘mainstreaming,’ which tended to be concerned principally with ‘special educational needs’ and implied learners changing or becoming ‘ready for’ accommodation by the mainstream.  By contrast, inclusion is about the child’s right to participate and the school’s duty to accept and ensure this right.

It is thus about rejecting exclusion of learners for any reasons, maximizing participation of all learners, making learning more meaningful for all children and rethinking and restructuring school policies, curricula and practices so that all learning needs can be met.

Only by removing physical and social barriers to learning, can we create truly inclusive classrooms and societies and speak of Education for All in a holistic sense.

Exclusion from meaningful participation in the economic, social, political and cultural life of communities is one of the greatest problems facing individuals in our society today. Such societies are neither efficient nor desirable.

Despite encouraging developments, there are still an estimated 130 million children not attending school. Ninety percent of them live in low and lower middle income countries, and over 80 million of these children live in Africa.

As alarming are the countless others within the school system being excluded from quality education.  Among those who do enroll in primary school, large numbers drop out before completing their primary education.

The Inclusive Education Debate

 Implementation of inclusive education has been progressive in many countries.  Some mainstream educationalists have been resistant to the idea, as well as some disability-focused organisations, which continue to argue for separate, ‘specialist’ services. Organisations of deaf people tend to argue, for example, that deaf children have to be educated separately in order to guarantee their right to education in the medium of sign language and access to deaf culture.

Also, there are those who believe that small specialist units located in the standard school environment can provide the specialist knowledge, equipment and support for which the mainstream classroom and teacher can never provide a full substitute.

Inclusion is about ensuring the participation of all children to the maximum extent possible in the education system.  Nonetheless it recognises that in some cases certain children with disabilities may require additional support outside the classroom.

 While Salamanca made mention of different excluded and marginalized groups, the primary targets of ‘inclusion’ were children with special needs.  The goal of inclusion is to address the range of barriers to effective participation of all children.

Defining Inclusion

UNESCO views inclusion as ‘a dynamic approach of responding positively to pupil diversity and of seeing individual differences not as problems, but as opportunities for enriching learning.’  

Inclusion is seen as a process of addressing and responding to the diversity of needs of all learners through increasing participation in learning, cultures and communities, and reducing exclusion within and from education.

It involves changes and modifications in content, approaches, structures and strategies, with a common vision which covers all children of the appropriate age range and a conviction that it is the responsibility of the regular system to educate all children.

Inclusion is concerned with providing appropriate responses to the broad spectrum of learning needs in formal and non-formal educational settings. Rather than being a marginal issue on how some learners can be integrated in mainstream education, inclusive education is an approach that looks into how to transform education systems and other learning environments in order to respond to the diversity of learners.

It aims towards enabling teachers and learners both to feel comfortable with diversity and to see it as a challenge and enrichment of the learning environment, rather than a problem.

Inclusion emphasizes providing opportunities for equal participation of persons with disabilities (physical, social and/or emotional) whenever possible into general education, but leaves open the possibility of personal choice and options for special assistance and facilities for those who need it. In particular, four key elements have tended to feature strongly in the conceptualisation of inclusion.

The four elements are as follows: Inclusion is a process.  That is to say, inclusion has to be seen as a never-ending search to find better ways of responding to diversity.  It is about learning how to live with difference and learning how to learn from difference.  In this way differences come to be seen more positively as a stimulus for fostering learning, amongst children and adults.

Inclusion is concerned with the identification and removal of barriers.  Consequently, it involves collecting, collating and evaluating information from a wide variety of sources in order to plan for improvements in policy and practice.  It is about using evidence of various kinds to stimulate creativity and problem-solving.

Inclusion is about the presence, participation and achievement of all students.  Here ‘presence’ is concerned with where children are educated, and how reliably and punctually they attend; ‘participation’ relates to the quality of their experiences whilst they are there and, therefore, must incorporate the views of the learners themselves; and ‘achievement’ is about the outcomes of learning across the curriculum, not merely test or examination results.

Inclusion involves a particular emphasis on those groups of learners who may be at risk of marginalisation, exclusion or underachievement.  This indicates the moral responsibility to ensure that those groups that are statistically most ‘at risk’ are carefully monitored, and that, where necessary, steps are taken to ensure their presence, participation and achievement in the education system.

It is important to highlight that a holistic view of the education system, encompassing both the private and public system, must be taken when considering adopting an inclusive approach.  Increasingly the world over, privatisation of education is on the rise.  It is becoming evident that the private system of education in many countries is “competing” with the Government system.  In some cases, government schools are closing because children are increasingly attending private schools.  This trend could inadvertently lead to planners only planning for schools catering to poorer communities; this would inevitably be counterproductive to promoting principles of inclusion.  Furthermore, in many countries the public system is generally considered lower in terms of quality of education being provided as compared to private schools.  Thus, poorer children tend to be limited to the public system.  It is imperative, therefore, that education planners consider both the public and the private system in planning in order to effectively address the needs of all learners and combat exclusion.

Philosophical foundations of inclusive education

Inclusive schools provide a learning environment that is accessible to all students as a place to learn, grow, be accepted and enjoy all the benefits of citizenship. Inclusive schools should be aware of the concept of universal design, originally an architectural term referring to the process of creating systems, environments, materials and devices that are directly and repeatedly useable by people with the widest range of abilities operating within the largest variety of situations. When applied to the field of education, the concept of universal design means that school communities, including teachers, develop plans for the full diversity of their student population.

In education, universally designed schools, classrooms, curricula and materials provide all students with access to the resources they require, regardless of their diverse learning needs. In an inclusive school, all students are provided with the supports and opportunities they need to become participating students and members of their school communities.  Collaboration among home, school and community is imperative.  Core values and beliefs Include:

  • All students can learn, in different ways and at different rates.
  • All students have individual abilities and needs.
  • All Students want to feel they belong and are valued.
  • All students have the right to benefit from their education.
  • All students come from diverse backgrounds and want their differences to be respected.
  • Students learn in different places and locations
  • All students have the right to appropriate educational programming.
  • The provincial curriculum should be the starting point for educational programming.
  • Parents and students must be involved in the individual education planning process.
  • The IEP is the basis for decision-making for students with exceptional learning needs.
  • The number of individuals involved in a student’s planning will increase as the complexity of the needs increases.

Stakeholders role in inclusive education

Government: At national and local level

Government Departments and Ministries

Disability issues should concern  all  government  departments  and ministries. Till now in many countries the leading ministry is often the Ministry of Health and/or the Ministry of Social Affairs. Technically, the Ministry  of  Health  focuses  more  generally  on  staff involved  in healthcare  and  rehabilitation  services  (physiotherapists,  doctors, surgeons),  while  rehabilitation  and  social  services

(like  rehabilitation centres  and  community  based  rehabilitation  services)  are  under  the responsibility  of  the  Ministry  of  Social  Affairs.  However,  when  we consider promoting the inclusion of persons with disabilities in society it is clear that other Ministries are also concerned, such as education, employment, woman’s affairs, transport, finance, planning, etc.

Local governments and municipalities

They may have specific responsibilities for local development initiatives and services.

Key roles and functions of governments

  • Set   standards   for   rights   and   entitlements   and   monitor implementation  (the  judiciary  is  responsible  for  defining  rights and entitlements through legislative and policy framework)
  • Provide resources as much as economic development permits
  • Ensure  that  all  public  services  are  accessible  to  persons  with disabilities

National Disability Councils (NDCs)

Some countries have councils  or  committees  focusing   on  disability issues.  These mixed  commissions  are  usually  composed  of  NGOs, Disabled People Organisations and governmental bodies.

Key roles and functions of NDCs:

  • Coordinating  and  promoting  effective  cross  sectoral/  cross ministerial action on disability in the country
  • Developing capacities amongst all disability stakeholders

Disabled Peoples Organisations (DPOs)

The main characteristic of DPOs is that the leaders hip are persons with disabilities who set up an organisation representing the interests and demands  of  its  members.  DPOs  have  a  mandate  to  represent  the perspectives of persons with disabilities.

Key roles and functions of DPOs Represent the interests of persons with disabilities

  • Advocate and lobby for the rights of persons with disabilities
  • Ensure   that   the   government   and   service   providers   are responsive to rights of persons with disabilities
  • Some DPOs also provide information and other services to their members

However, the disability community is also  quite  diverse;  there  are different types of disability representatives in most countries:

  • DPO representatives:  should  be  involved  in  their  official capacity as representatives of persons with disability.
  • Disability activists: generally persons with disabilities who are not  representing  a  group  as  such,  but  are  involved for  their individual  perspectives,  commitment  and  involvement  in wider disability debates and policy processes
  • Persons  with  disabilities  from  the  target  population  of  any area  can  give  a  grassroots  perspective  and  act  as  any  other population sample.

There  are  many  different  types  of  DPO,  ranging  from  ‘impairment specific’  (with  members  who  are  concerned  by  or  who   have  one particular  impairment/  disability)  to  cross-disability  (with  members with  all  types  of  impairment/  disability),  from  grass  roots  to  global. There are also DPOs focused on gender, or groups who speak up for others-  such  as,  for  example,  parents  groups.

A special note on women with disabilities: Women with disabilities are doubly discriminated against and often their voices are not heard in either the disability sector or the gender movement. Pay particular attention that women with disabilities and their representative organisations are included in the stakeholder analysis of the disability sector.

Disability service providers

They are agencies such development NGOs, faith base d organisations, DPOs  or  private  companies  which  provide  services  for  persons  with disability.  They  can  provide  specialised  services  (e.g.:  rehabilitation services and fitting of prosthetics) or inclusive services (e.g., livelihood or health services which are accessible to people with disabilities).

Key roles and functions of Disability service providers

  • Reduce the impact of impairments (through support to provision of   healthcare,   rehabilitation,   habilitation,   educational   or livelihood   services,   improving   environmental   accessibility, research and development, advocacy)
  • Enable persons with disabilities to access their rights

At International level

International organisations, multilateral and bilateral donors, these bodies often play multiple roles.  They  often provide  data  and general guidance (ex: WHO, UNFPA, World Bank, DfID), they may also grant  funds  and  promote  disability  –inclusive-  development  (World Bank, DfiD, Finnish Cooperation, etc.) Certain  UN  agencies  also  have  very  specific  mandates  in  the  field  of disability.  UN DESA and the  OHCHR  together  comprise  the UN Convention Secretariat, and are an excellent source of information on the UNCRPD.

UNICEF has recently developed its own policy paper on promoting the rights  of  children  with  disabilities.  The WHO  Disability and  Rehabilitation  Unit  is  mandated  to  implement  the  World  Health Assembly  Resolution  on  Disability  including  prevention,  management and rehabilitation.

The role of curriculum in inclusive education

Inclusive education is closely associated with the international vision and efforts towards renovating the engagement around Education for All. It is based on the right of all learners to a high quality equitable education that meets their basic learning needs, and understands the diversity of backgrounds, contetxts and abilities as learning opportunities.

Inclusive Education contributes to fostering an inclusive society –feedback relationship. A debate based on the education-integration axis, to a broader concept of an on-going dynamic process for addressing the diverse expectations and needs of all learners.

Inclusion is “a process of addressing and responding to the diversity of needs of all learners through increasing participation in learning, cultures and communities, and reducing exclusion within and from education. It involves changes and modifications in content, approaches, structures and strategies, with a common vision which covers all children of the appropriate age range and a conviction that it is the responsibility of the regular system to educate all children”

The education system must be transformed to fully include all students and provide them with quality education relevant to their individual needs. Significant institutional and curricular changes in terms of school culture and teaching practices are needed. An inclusive education system must organically integrate and link all forms, types and styles of learning as well as different learning objectives, from early childhood education onwards. The curriculum represents a crucial tool for fostering a broadened concept of inclusive education and to implement educational policy from a long-term perspective

The International Bureau of Education (IBE-UNESCO) defines the curriculum as both a political and a technical issue, which is well embedded within the complex interfaces of society, politics and education. Engagement of multiple stakeholders coming from outside and inside the education system is a societal issue. Teachers must be recognized as co-developers of the curricula.

Curriculum reflects the kind of society to which we aspire

  • It should be solidly grounded on a wide and plural interpretation of the demands and expectations of society, as well as the key definitions of the role of education in society (core economic and social policy).
  • Inclusive curriculum development should therefore be seen as a continuous process and closely intertwined with social inclusion
  • It ensures both equity and quality

–        This allows education systems to effectively respond to learners’ diversities and consequently better sustain education for all in the long-term

–        The lifelong learning approach to the organization of curriculum may serve as the integrative spect that links the different forms and types of learning

  • It is ‘glo-local’, flexible, balanced and relevant to each context and individual

–        It addresses and incorporates national, local and learners’ diversities

–        Strong focus on fostering a comprehensive citizenship education

–        It needs to achieve a balance between the global, national and local expectations, realities and needs.

  • There is no “one size fits all” model

–        However, the same curriculum can be taught to mixed-ability learners

  • The diversification of modes of instruction and learning materials should be promoted within a common and shared national education policy and curricular vision
  • A competency-based approach may be understood as a powerful tool to achieve an inclusive curriculum. It provides an innovative way of conceiving and organizing the curricular structure and objectives as well as the syllabus, in order to develop autonomous, critical and assertive citizens.
  • An evidence-based approach can greatly impact misguided perceptions of what works at the classroom level

Last modified: Wednesday, 4 October 2017, 12:24 PM

◄ Lecture 1: References

Lecture 3:Notse

The legal foundations of inclusive education basis on the fact that:

All children, youth and adults in any country including Tanzania have equitable access to quality education in inclusive settings.

Last modified: Wednesday, 4 October 2017, 12:05 PM
◄ Inclusive Education for All: A Dream or Reality?
Lecture 3: PPT ►

Lecture 4: Notse

1. Learning and teaching in inclusive classroom

2. Teacher development and Support in inclusive Education

Last modified: Thursday, 5 October 2017, 11:28 AM
◄ Lecture 3: References
Lecture 4: PPT ►

Lecture 5: Notes

1. Learning and teaching in inclusive classroom

Inclusive Teaching and Learning
Inclusive teaching and learning practices are instrumental in creating and maintaining a learning environment in which all participants are fully engaged and respected, and in which all participants are open to ideas, perspectives, and ways of thinking that are distinct from their own. To learn more about inclusive-teaching approaches, please see the resources in the right-hand menu.

Inclusive teaching posits cultural diversity, or differences related to identity and experience, as crucial to learning. The practice of inclusive teaching involves consciously working to foster learning across differences, for example by acknowledging and challenging biases and stereotypes that can impede understanding and undermine a student’s sense of belonging to the discipline or institution.

The practice of inclusive teaching also involves keeping accessibility and transparency in mind when designing courses and assignments, as well as being aware of power differences within the classroom and of psycho-social factors that can affect learning.

Strategies for Inclusive Teaching: Promoting inclusion, reducing stereotype threat, and fostering a growth mindset

Inclusive teaching and learning refers to modes of teaching and learning that are designed to actively engage, include, and challenge all students. The practice of inclusive teaching can also help instructors broaden and expand their understanding of their own disciplines and of what they hope to accomplish in teaching and in research.

Include Diverse Content, Materials, and Ideas

  • When you are preparing lectures, questions for discussions, scenarios, case studies, assignments, and exams include language, examples, socio-cultural contexts, and images that reflect human diversity. Whenever possible, select topics and materials that reflect contributions and perspectives from groups that have been historically underrepresented in the field.
  • Model openness to the new ideas and questions your students bring into the course, which can broaden and deepen your own knowledge of your discipline and its relevance. Help students understand that knowledge is often produced through conversation and collaboration among disparate points of view.
  • Be aware of how your professional training and background may have shaped the selection of content and materials in your course. If relevant to your course, encourage students to think critically about how historical, literary, and art-historical canons–as well as the criteria for defining these canons–are defined and have evolved over time.

Create an Inclusive Environment

  • When talking with students during class, communicate clearly—starting on the first day of the semester—about what you expect to happen in the classroom, including your expectations for respectful and inclusive interactions.
  • Set and enforce ground rules for respectful interaction in the classroom, such as guidelines for contributing ideas and questions and for responding respectfully to the ideas and questions of others. If a student’s conduct could be silencing or denigrating others (intentionally or not), remind the entire class of the ground rules, then talk with the student individually outside of class about the potential effects of their conduct. Remember that your silence is often read as endorsement. Therefore, it is important to take action to try to improve the learning environment for all.
  • To the extent that is possible (depending on the size of your class), get to know your students and the individual perspectives, skills, experiences, and ideas that they bring into your course. Consult the electronic roster for your course or ask students directly to learn about any preferred names that students would like to be called (please see the University’s Preferred Name Policy).
  • Communicate high standards for student learning and achievement in your course and express confidence that every student can achieve these standards. In addition, include structured support within your course that is designed to help students achieve those standards. For example, connect students to course-specific resources such as supplemental help sessions, peer mentors, and study guides, and to centers such as Cornerstone and The Writing Center.
  • Show respect for all questions and comments. Use verbal and non-verbal cues to encourage participation and to challenge students to think deeply and critically.
  • Encourage students to “think out loud,” to ask questions, and to actively consider perspectives that are different from their own.
  • If you are teaching about topics that are likely to generate disagreement or controversy, identify clear objectives and design a class structure informed by those objectives. In addition, communicate the objectives and the structure to the students, so that they know what to expect. If a tense interaction occurs, it is important to address the issue in the moment. In some cases, pausing for a short time to ask students to discuss in small groups or to reflect in writing individually can allow them to discover what they might learn from the interaction. In other cases, conversations with individual students outside of class (but before the next class session) will be more appropriate.
  • If you realize after the class session is over that a tense exchange has occurred that you did not acknowledge, or if one or more of your students tells you of an exchange that you did not notice in the moment, you can devote time at the start of the next class session to discussing the exchange and what you may all learn from it. By addressing your mistakes during the next class you are modeling behavior that you would like your students to exhibit during these exchanges. For additional ideas, please see “Facilitating Challenging Conversations in the Classroom.”

Encourage a Growth Mindset

  • Foster a “growth mindset” by conveying the idea that intelligence is not a reflection of fixed, natural abilities, but can change and grow over time (Dweck, 2006). When talking with students about their performance in class or on exams or assignments, avoid describing such performance as a sign of natural ability (or lack of ability). Doing so may activate stereotype threat, a phenomenon in which students’ awareness of negative stereotypes that link identity and ability can lead to depressed academic performance.
  • Help students develop a growth mindset by speaking with them about the extent to which experiences of academic faltering can provide opportunities to grow and improve. For example, if a student comes to your office hours to discuss a disappointing grade on an exam or an assignment, work with the student to identify specific areas where the student is struggling, and to identify 2-3 new strategies the student can use to improve in those areas.
  • Create an environment in the classroom or laboratory in which it is okay to make mistakes and where faltering can lead to deeper learning. If a student contributes an answer that is incorrect, for example, ask questions to help the student identify how he or she arrived at that answer and to help the entire class to understand at least one method to derive the correct answer. At the same time, be open to the possibility that what seems to be an incorrect answer initially may lead to shared understanding of an alternative way to answer the question.

Strive for Equality of Access to Instruction and Assistance

  • Help your students learn about academic and non-academic assistance and resources that are available at the University. Keep in mind that all students will not be equally aware of—or equally comfortable in seeking out—academic help and resources provided by academic advisors, Cornerstone, the Dean’s offices, Student Health Services, etc. Therefore, provide access to this information in your course page, set aside time in class to talk about these resources during the first week of class, and—when needed—in individual conversations with students (see Resources on Diversity and Inclusion).
  • Promote fairness and transparency by sharing the criteria you will use to evaluate their work with students. When appropriate, grade with rubrics or answer keys.
  • Ensure that assistance provided outside of class is equally available and accessible to everyone (e.g., if you share information with one or a few students regarding how best to approach an assignment, repeat this information to the entire class).
  • When students approach you to let you know that they are in need of a disability-related accommodation, help the student get in touch with the Disabilities Resources Office at Cornerstone. The Disabilities Resources staff will then communicate with you regarding any required accommodations.

Gather and Use Feedback to Refine and Improve your Strategies

  • Ask a colleague or Teaching Center staff member to observe your teaching. Consider suggestions about how to encourage increased participation and inclusion of diverse contributions, and what factors might be perceived as barriers to participation and inclusion. Identify adjustments you can make to minimize the latter.
  • Provide opportunities for students to reflect on the course and to give you feedback on the methods and strategies you are using. For example, ask students to complete brief, anonymous course evaluations at midterm. Afterward, take time in class to explain how you are integrating feedback as you make adjustments during the remainder of the semester.
  • As you build your teaching expertise, practice a “growth mindset”–be open to the possibility of learning from mistakes and welcome the opportunity to learn as much as you can from your diverse students.

2. Teacher development and Support in inclusive Education

Last modified: Tuesday, 15 January 2019, 8:45 PM
◄ Lecture 4: Assignment
Lecture 5: PPT ►

Lecture 6: Notse

1. Learning and teaching in inclusive classroom

2. Teacher development and Support in inclusive Education

Last modified: Thursday, 5 October 2017, 11:34 AM
◄ Lecture 5: References
Lecture 6: PPT ►

Lecture 7: Notes

Individuation in inclusive Education

Last modified: Monday, 3 February 2020, 10:19 AM
◄ Lecture 6: Review Questions

) Model considers people with disabilities as persons with physical problems which need to be cured. This pushes people with disabilities into the passive role of patients. The aim of a medical approach is to make people with disabilities “normal” – which of course implies that people with disabilities are in some way abnormal.

The issue of disability is limited to the individual in question: in case of disability, the disabled person has to be changed, not society or the surrounding environment. The medical model of disability, or the individual model, takes a ‘within child’ deficit approach and attempts to cure or remedy the condition. ).

This approach asks the individual to adjust to society, with the locus of control in decision making being retained by the professional rather than the individual, potentially exercising ‘power over’ the decisions that impact on placement and provision.

According to the Medical Model, persons with disabilities need special services, such as special transport systems and welfare social services. For this purpose, special institutions exist, for example hospitals, special schools or sheltered employment places where professionals such as social workers, medical professionals, therapists, special education teachers decide about and provide special treatment, education and occupations.

The Social Model

The social model of disability acknowledges the impact of access issues within physical environments and the effect of ‘discriminatory attitudes and practice’. In this sense, the notion of disability is a social construct. Diversity is valued and the barriers to participation are acknowledged. The social model of disability has been championed by individuals with the lived experience of disabling environments. The Social Model regards disability to be a result of the way society is organised. Shortcomings in the way society is organised mean that people with disabilities face the following types of discrimination and barriers to participation:

  • Attitudinal: This is expressed in fear, ignorance and low expectations (influenced by culture and religion);
  • Environmental: This results in physical inaccessibility affecting all aspects of life (market and shops, public buildings, places of worship, transport, etc.); and
  • Institutional: This means legal discrimination. Persons with disabilities are excluded from certain rights (e.g. by not being allowed to marry or to have children), or from school, etc.

These three types of barriers make people with disabilities unable to take control of their own lives. According to the Social Model, a disability not only depends on the individual but also on the environment, which can be disabling or enabling in various ways. Is a person in a wheelchair still disabled if s/he can drive a car or motorbike and if her/his home, workplace and other buildings are accessible?

Social model of disability: some examples

A wheelchair user wants to get into a building with a step at the entrance. Under a social model solution, a ramp would be added to the entrance so that the wheelchair user is free to go into the building immediately. Using the medical model, there are very few solutions to help wheelchair users to climb stairs, which excludes them from many essential and leisure activities.

A teenager with a learning difficulty wants to live independently in their own home but is unsure how to pay the rent. Under the social model, the person would be supported so that they can pay rent and live in their own home. Under a medical model, the young person might be expected to live in a communal home.

A child with a visual impairment wants to read the latest best-selling book, so that they can chat about it with their sighted friends. Under the medical model, there are very few solutions. A social model solution makes full-text audio recordings available when the book is first published. This means children with visual impairments can join in cultural activities with everyone else.

Disabled people internationally are effectively coming together and challenging society, those in authority and professions in the related health care fields:

  • To recognize that disability is not the major barrier for people with disabilities to living fulfilling lives.
  • That the external or environmental barriers, including negative attitudes towards disability, are where disabled people’s oppression lies.
  • That people with disabilities too are “experts” in the field of disability, and that what is needed, is a democratisation of knowledge.
  • That people with disabilities can identify needs, make decisions and evaluate services.
  • That people with disabilities no longer accept the inferior, passive role of the recipient.
  • That if they are to work in the field of disability the only relationship acceptable to disabled people is that of equal partners.

The Right Based Model

This model is closely related to the Social Model. It focuses on the fulfilment of human rights, for example the right to equal opportunities and participation in society. Consequently, society has to change to ensure that all people – including people with disabilities – have equal possibilities for participation.

It is a fact that persons with disabilities often face a denial of their basic human rights, for example the right to health (physical and psychological) or the right to education and employment. Laws and policies therefore need to ensure that these barriers created by society are removed.

The Rights-based Model states that support in these areas is not a question of humanity or charity, but instead a basic human right that any person can claim. The two main elements of the rights-based approach are empowerment and accountability.

Empowerment refers to the participation of people with disabilities as active stakeholders, while accountability relates to the duty of public institutions and structures to implement these rights and to justify the quality and quantity of their implementation.

A Socio-Political Model of Disability

A socio-political model of disability is an expression of the behaviors, attitudes and barriers that cause disabling conditions in society. This model explains that attitudes, economic, legal and policy barriers are the real reasons that people with disabilities have difficulties participating as full members of society.

While not denying the reality of physical and mental limitations that arise from impairments, this model stresses that these are often used merely as excuses by societies and governments that refuse to remove these barriers that keep people with disabilities from succeeding.

Policies that arise from the socio-political model of disability would not focus upon programs to alter the situation of individuals with disabilities and their families, as much as they would concentrate on altering environmental barriers, changing attitudes and programs that are currently not succeeding, and advancing the human rights and potential of people with disabilities.

With examples write short notes on four models of disability.

With examples describe the following types of barriers to participation of persons with disabilities: Attitudinal, environmental and institutional.

Critically reflect on any tensions between the notion of special educational needs and that of inclusion. Which model of disability does the vision of inclusion reflect?

9.3 Labelling

The significance of seeing children and young people for who they are (interests, likes and dislikes) is paramount and leads us into the critical discussion about the advantages and disadvantages of labelling. Labels have been associated with the allocation of additional resources such as funding for additional adults in the classroom or placement in special schools.

It is suggested that a label may provide an insight into how to plan a learning opportunity, provide a signpost to acknowledged good practice guidelines that facilitate access to curriculum areas and address social and emotional needs. A label may be the evidence that triggers the additional support and reasonable adjustments.

Within the context of your own practice consider the labels that are identified. How do these labels influence your practice and perception of learning differences?

9.4 Language

The label ‘special educational needs’ has been critiqued for diverting the attention from a rights-based approach to a needs-led approach in the provision of education. Education is an enabling right and the concern is that the categorization of need can influence teachers’ perceptions of learners and decision making, reinforcing disabling attitudes.

Historically, the language used to describe conditions reflects the values and social attitudes of the era. terms such as the ‘educationally sub-normal’, the ‘delicate’ and the ‘maladjusted’. IQ and a medical diagnosis were seen to be unchanging characteristics and were factors which contributed to the assessment and decisions relating to placement. The legislation reflected the medical model of disability and the perception of difficulties as being ‘within child deficits’ required a segregated and special education for individuals. This psycho-medical lens saw provision overseen within hospitals and training centres with a vocational or life skills approach that impacted on life chances.

Children could also be placed in special ‘Educationally Sub Normal’ (ESN) schools and the remedial classes of the secondary modern schools. Such decisions illustrate the power and potential for practitioners to impose identities and labels, effectively segregating learners as ‘other’ and defining ‘normal’ in the context of learning and teaching. These dynamics contribute to disabling environments where learning and teaching becomes a specialist teaching process. Aa focus on an individual child and how they learn in your classroom is much more helpful. The current and ongoing challenge is to develop a shared language of inclusion which supports the move towards integrated planning and provision.

Perceptions of difference have changed over the past decades and language is a key indicator of how we view others. Over the period of a term, keep a reflective diary that addresses the following:

  • The language used by practitioners from different disciplines, i.e. health and social care.
  • Reflects on the accessibility of language for learners and families.
  • Considers the values that underpin language used in school policies and guidance documents, school culture and ethos.
  • Examples of good practice to support inclusion.
  • Stereotypical images in displays.
  • Stereotyping in learning and teaching material.
  • Perceptions of labels such as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).
  • Emotions when resolving challenges.
  • Timelines for assessments.

 

What does success look like?

As Clough and Garner (2003) suggest, if a child succeeds in one setting and fails in another, what has changed? Fundamental principles underpinning inclusive education include:

  • valuing all students and staff equally
  • increasing the participation of students in the cultures, curricula and communities of local schools
  • restructuring the cultures, policies and practices in schools to respond to the diversity of students in the locality
  • reducing barriers to learning and participation for all students
  • view difference between students as resources to support learning
  • acknowledging the right of students to an education in their locality
  • emphasising the role of schools in building community and developing values
  • recognising that inclusion in education is one aspect of inclusion in society.

(Booth and Ainscow, 2002 cited in Armstrong 2012)

Transforming school cultures promotes an active engagement in learning and a sense of well-being for learners which are at the heart of current policy initiatives. Two key principles to remember in your practice are early identification and early intervention. Being able to identify barriers to learning and participation at the earliest opportunity will allow support strategies to be implemented in collaboration with colleagues across disciplines, such as health and social care.

  1. Describe any four fundamental principles of inclusive education
  2. Describe the role of language in inclusive education

9.5 Audit of the learning environment

The built environment and access to resources can have a profound impact on the well-being of all learners and significantly those children and young people with limited mobility and/or sensory sensitivity.  The ability to feel at ease in the environment nurtures child development and the process of active learning. Indeed, ‘classroom and school design can transform the inclusive learning and teaching provision, especially for children with ‘hidden’ disabilities such as specific learning difficulties or autism’. Guidance highlights environmental considerations as well as health and well-being:

  • Good access to buildings and facilities.
  • Making effective use of available space/design for flexibility and adaptability.
  • Considering the accommodation needs of support staff and visiting professionals.
  • Enhancing learning through effective classroom design.
  • Good use of information communication technology (ICT) and assistive technologies.
  • Sensory awareness/acoustics/lighting.
  • Health and well-being for staff and students.
  • Safety and security issues.
  • Sustainability/cost effectiveness.
  • Effective staff training.
  • Working closely with all stakeholders, and listening to the ‘student voice’.
Audit a learning environment in which a student with a disability is included. What is missing? What can be done to improve the situation.

 

 

Last modified: Thursday, 29 March 2018, 10:04 AM
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