Inclusive education - Essay Example

INCLUSIVE EDUCATION Rationale for inclusive education Inclusive schooling is a practice and whereby all children are supposed to learn in their ownlocal schools in classes with students of their own age. It involves children learning together whether they are handicapped or not. It refers to an attitude, believe and value system. So in this case, once this system has been adopted by a school, then it should drive all the decisions and actions by those people who have adopted it. It is a belief that schools embrace and educate all students and not just selecting those students who can be fit in that school. It is believed that all children are unique in their different ways and they have different talents. It is through inclusive learning that children are in a position to get good education and also attain the best practices in school. This can be well illustrated by cooperative learning. In this case, you find that students are in a position to learn with each other, and offer the necessary assistance to each other where possible. It is through this cooperation that students can be in a position to do well in most of their activities. Inclusive learning also reflects multi intelligence, multi level instructions, good learning and also teaching styles where children are exposed to competent teachers who express their teaching skills fully and they are also exposed to differentiated curriculum. (Armstrong, Barton and Armstrong, 2000) Inclusive schooling intends to ensure that there is equal access to the various educational programs by all the students and also regular classroom setting. It is through inclusive schooling that students are in a position to get educational programs which are offered in their regular classroom setting hence increasing their potentials to succeed in education. With inclusive schooling, it emphasizes on various issues. First it ensures that students get equal educational opportunities. It is through this that students will be in a position to have access to the various educational programs hence leading to their success in school. Second, inclusive schooling provides teachers and support assistants with the necessary resources, professional development and the required support in order to meet all the students needs. It is through inclusive schooling that the necessary resources will be provided and these resources are usually provided to ensure that students are in a position to learn well. Third there is respecting differences whereby students in this case will be in a position to respect differences which might arise. (Bender, 2002) Inclusive schooling is said to teach mutual respect where students are in a position to respect each other, responsibility in the sense that these children will be in a position to demonstrate responsibility by obeying commands and taking charge of their responsibilities, they will also learn to be generous to others and last they will learn to be independent. (Dei, Zine, and James-Wilson, 2002) Therefore the rationale behind inclusive schooling can be summarized as intending to ensure that all children regardless of the differences the may exist between them are put under the same class environment in order to take advantage of their diversity and help them to learn well. In this regard it is also expected to lower the cost of education to the parent and to the government since students will be able to use the same resources and amenities rather than providing each student with their own resources. It is an approach that is expected to make the education process smooth for the teachers, parents and the students. It aims at eliminating any discrimination and achieving equality for all in education. Values, policies and strategies of inclusive education One of the most important emphasis of the inclusive education is the way in which it advocates for changes and modification in the content, the approach structures, policies and strategic of the education system. The model is enabled by a value system which ensures that there is child friendly education with a vision of transforming the whole education system so that it can achieve equality for all the participants in the education process. Inclusive education reflects the values, the ethos and the culture that is need to be instilled in the education system. In this regard it has the value of being committed to achieving excellence by ensuring that there is equal opportunity of access to education fore all students. Inclusive education is led by various policies that have been put in place in a bid to achieved equality in the social welfare system of the country. It is based on various police which were expressed in legislations like, Age Discrimination Act 2004, Anti-Discrimination Act 1991, Child Protection Act 1999, Education Act 2006, Disability Standards for Education 2005, and many others all which have an overall aim of achieving equality in the education system in the UK. The Inclusive Education Policy which was adopted by the Local Authority in 1998 has clear principles on the need to ensure that all children are included in the education system regardless of their disability and their difference. It has been revised and updated in 2004 in order to take in a more holistic approach to address issue of inequality. Therefore the overall policy that guides the system is the need to include all children in the same system of education in schools and in the curriculum that they learn to ensure that there is a fair playing ground in the education system. In interpreting the values, policies and strategies of inclusive education we must not view it as an added on to a convection school. It has to be views as an intrinsic to the mission and valise of achieving education for the children. In this regard there has to be a strategy that will ensure that there is full inclusion in the education and which is firmly included in the very foundation of the school, its mission, its belief system and all the activities that the school undertakes. It should not be viewed as an appendage to a conventional school. In this regard the strategy for inclusive education should be taken as a whole school approach. In this regard inclusive education is not about providing additional support or aid but it is about achieving integration in all areas of education. This will involve having an integrated curriculum and learning environment for all students in order for the term to be viable. The strategy should be aimed at coming up with a model in which will ensure that all students can learn in the same environment and can be taught in the neighborhood schools. It will also ensure that there is equal opportunity for all students to maximize learning potential in their education process. That strategic process will also ensure that there is strengthening of assistance to the disadvantaged groups in the education process. The strategy also sees the development of funding models that will provide funds for schools in order to implement the inclusive education for all students and especially target those who are in high risk areas. Inclusive education is a strategy process in its own way which is aimed at achieving equality not only in school but also in the education system. (Downing, 2002) Factors that contribute to an inclusive learning environment with particular reference to theories of learning, curriculum and pedagogy Inclusive education still draws a lot of controversy when it comes to the legality of the process the theories that the proponents use to support it. In this regard, the system is supported by growth theories which show that we are likely to learn from others when we see what they are doing. Therefore instead of isolating the disabled children and limiting their exposure to the life of normal students, it is argued that it is better when they are put in the same class with normal children so that they can learn from them. This way they are likely to learn more from them. Any professional learning is supposed to offer stages of development that are used to recognize individual needs. One of the components here includes information that is important tin the growth of the child. This information is also likely to increase the awareness of teachers of the various options that are available to them to help meet the needs of these students. The students are supposed to have access to the relevant information and this is achieved by providing the necessary services. These schools which have adapted to this system of learning are supposed to be supported in structuring their whole school systems in order to facilitate proper learning environment and this is to meet the educational needs of these students and also to enhance good communication between the teachers and the students. (Armstrong, Barton, and Armstrong, 2000) Commitment to the planning process means that schools are supposed to properly organize the school curriculum. Resources should also be properly allocated to ensure that all the services which are needed by this school are available for example speech therapy, adapted P.E among other services for the disabled children. Ensuring that adequate and responsible supports are in place (e.g., environment, materials; necessary equipment is provided. The teaching environment should be conducive to ensure that students are in a position to get the correct teaching. Inclusion in education can be better achieved if there is a more focused curriculum that addresses the need of all participants in the education system. In this regard it is having a curriculum that equalizes all children in the education system. It will involve allocation of resource and designing a curriculum that meets the needs of all the participants. (Armstrong, Barton, and Armstrong, 2000) Inclusive learning is supposed to promote social behavior in these students. You find that with inclusion learning, children with special needs are in a position to interact with the rest of the students who are not disabled. As a result, you find that they forget there differences and work towards achieving a common goal. They are also brought up in a setting whereby they are in a position to improve their talents through the support they get from the other students. Academically, you find that these students will be in a position to do well since they can interact with the other peers and are not isolated. (Downing, 2002) In looking at the pedagogy of the term inclusiveness, there are various things that we are likely to look at. The political of the pedagogy will in this regard referred to the need to ground an understanding of the social model of disability that supports the need to have a central focus on planning and implementing an effective education for the disabled children. Therefore the issue of inclusiveness will not only be supported by the need to have equality in the education system but also by the need to have social inclusion and equality for all people. In this regard education is seen as one of the most important process that can be used to achieve this equality through inclusions. Issues facing schools in moving towards further inclusion of all learners There are various issue that are facing schools which have been moving towards ensuring that they achieve the policy of inclusion for all the learners. These challenges have been faced in different front not only in the planning but also in the implementation phase of the process. One of the challenges that have been faced by these schools has been valuing and responding toe diversity. There has been a challenge of recognizing of diversity which is an important factor in the productive pedagogies on inclusive education. In this regard teachers have been faced by a problem of ensuring that there is no response to the value and the need to have a respect for diversity in the classrooms themselves and in the schools in general. There has also been a problem of building asocial cohesion. In this regard the wave of globalization has come with increasing diverse and fragmented communities and there is a growing gap between the rich and the poor. Increased levels of poverty in majority of the areas have made it difficult to have a cohesive community that can agree on one issue in the education process without having to bring in their economic differences and other issue. There is a drift of strategies that have been put in place in order to achieve this cohesiveness that is supposed to be the base for achieving inclusive education. The other problem has been that of perception of diversity in the education system. In this regard there is a view that students, families and the community are seen as the problem by the educator rather than the educators realizing that they have the overall mandate of ensuring that inclusive in education is given the due respect. The educators have not been able to respond to the need to include this diversity in the education system There has also been a challenge of meeting the material requirements for the education process. There has been limited of access sot resources to implement inclusive education. In this regard the access to human resources, material resources and access to information and knowledge has been a big challenge and a block for the effectiveness of the education process. This is because there has been an anticipated need of resources as the education process takes root and sometime the schools have been forced to do with the available materials which are sometimes not enough to implement the education process. These problems have already been experienced in most of the rural set up where the re are not incentives for the resources especially when it comes to human resources. In many part sot eh world, majority of the people lives in the rural areas. Due to lagging development in the rural areas, there has been issue of accessing resources and other basic human needs and therefore most of the human resources are unwilling to work in these areas. As such most of the schools in the rural areas are faced with a challenge of meting all the necessary human resources that are necessary to implement the program. (Brownlie, 2006) As the children are mixed in the same class, the number of students increases and therefore there is also an issue of the number of student who are being handled in one class. This has been a big issue especially in school which had not anticipated the entry of new students beyond their usual intake and there are strained in meeting the classroom demands for all students. Teachers are also faced with the same challenge of meeting the need for all students at the same time and the number of students in one class swells. In this regard teachers have to device their own ways of dealing with the increased number of students and at the same time pay attention to the individual needs of every student. References Armstrong, D., Barton, L. and Armstrong, F. (2000): Inclusive education: London, D. Fulton. Brownlie, F. (2006): Student diversity: Classroom strategies. In Process Dei, G., Zine, J., and James-Wilson, S. (2002): Inclusive schooling: A Teacher's companion to removing the margins. Toronto, On: Canadian Scholars Press. Downing, J. (2002): Practical strategies for teachers. Baltimore, MD: Toronto, Paul H. Brookes Publishers. Read More