Inclusive Education in the UK - Essay Example

Inclusive Education in the UK: from de jure towards de factor The United Kingdom has concentrated on establishing an inclusive education system. An inclusive education system is the best approach to addressing social exclusion in society. Inclusion has a broad definition with the varying definition applying to the players in the education system. The sole objective of inclusion is to grant each learner an equal opportunity to a transformative education. This will grant all children eligibility in the job market. Such a system will require that all children learn in the same mainstream institution. In mainstreaming, the system should address the needs of each learner effectively. Mainstreaming is an economical program, since establishing different schools to address different needs is costly. Such a system will enable society appreciate diversity and variety. Inclusion shifts the focus of education from the teacher to the learner (Peters, 2004:8). A learner-centered system presents the learner with an opportunity to build on individual strengths. In addition, the learner will gain the capacity to attain new skills to combat natural weaknesses. However, there are political and social factors that shape the inclusion system. The policy frameworks in place greatly affect the effectiveness of the inclusive education system. Inclusion is a comprehensive system and governments should realize the importance of establishing practicable policies. The policies should define the role of each player in the system. For inclusion to deliver, all players in the education system should play their role without fail. The policies must elaborate on the role of the learner, the teacher, the school leadership system, and inspectors of quality in education. Policy makers should recognize the causes of inequality in the education system and seek to address them efficiently. Without elaborate policies, inclusion will remain a dream. In inclusive education, the teacher plays a greater role. Policy makers should realize the importance of establishing an elaborate curriculum for teacher training (Lloyd, 2000: 134). All the players in the education system deserve a comprehensive interpretation of the policies governing inclusion. Establishing the policies is not enough. Interpretation of the policies to those it affects is very important (O’Hanlon, 2003:15-20). Teachers should have an understanding of the policies and objectives of the inclusion system. Teachers have beliefs and practices that fail to conform to the objectives of inclusion. Therefore, this calls for a training that will open them up to new methodologies and attitudes essential in shaping inclusion positively. Teachers need to learn new strategies of learner-centered teaching. They need to realize how to deliver more personalized lectures and ensure that all children benefit. Teachers should realize the importance of dropping the labeling system that addresses some as having disabilities and learning difficulties. An inclusive education system seeks to ensure that children of differing abilities learn in the same institution. For this to become a reality, the teacher should be more competent in recognizing strengths of each learner and building on such. The beliefs and attitudes of teachers are a major set back in ensuring an inclusive education system. In cases where the teacher labels some learners as disadvantaged in learning in comparison to other students, then inclusion remains but a dream. On the contrary, a teacher should be empathetic and concentrate on helping a disadvantaged child rise above the challenge. Therefore, the teacher should address each student individually. In addition, the teacher should be able to handle a class of students with different learning ability and from different cultures. He or she should be able to address cases of prejudice and promote academic excellence in each student according to their abilities (Armstrong, Armstrong, and Spandagou, 2010:35). The teacher should learn a more sensitive way of communication that is not culturally biased. He or she should employ interactive learning and impart knowledge to the learners. The education system should not present any form of social exclusion and this is the essence of an all inclusion system. In order to reduce cases of excluding some learners from gaining access to equal education opportunities, the society should change its view on the disability. Although disability brings about challenges and limitations in the life of an individual, that should not condemn the child to learn in segregated schools. Society should adopt a solution based thinking to help the child develop means of triumphing over the situation. Society is responsible for the environmental factors that determine how a child copes with disability. A change in attitude in society will ensure focus on the strengths of the child. Parents and teachers can cooperate in helping the child innovate ways of surviving with the disability. If a society concentrates on the limitations of disability, it pushes the disabled children into realms of the impossibilities in their worlds. This state affects the learning of such children negatively. Change in societal attitude will ensure acceptance of disabled children in mainstream institution. Positive support from peers and teachers will help them excel. It is evident that the attitude of society regarding children with special needs affects their inclusion in the education system (Cushner, 2006:15). For inclusive education to become a reality, each school must adopt an inclusive culture. The reformed culture should direct all activities in the school to promote an inclusive education to all learners (Lindsay, 2003:5). The school leadership should take a lead in ensuring that each learner gets the best out of the system. An inclusive culture involves enrolling multi-cultural students. Children with difficulties in learning deserve places in schools too. Streaming of students should promote the wellbeing of all students. Therefore, classes should consist of students with varying strengths and weaknesses. This variety and diversity will encourage students to learn collaboratively from each other. The leadership system of the school should hire a special needs team to address the needs of the students facing challenges in learning. The special needs team should collaborate with other staff in knowledge management on the treatment of learners with the special needs. The management of schools should ensure that the school appreciates diversity in culture and talent. Learning should be learner-oriented and the school management should cooperate with parents to ensure that the children with disabilities receive guidance on critically overcoming their limitations. Local authorities should respond to the call to ensure provision of an inclusive education to all learners. Policy makers can only lay down good policies but reinforcement of such policies is the duty of the local authorities (O’Hanlon, 2003:18-20). They should ensure that each child receives the right attention in school regardless of culture or natural abilities. Local authorities should ensure that schools receive the required resources. Without resources, a school cannot address the needs of disadvantaged children effectively. For the local authorities to accomplish their task, they need a clear understanding of the concepts of inclusive education. Therefore, governments should ensure that there is clear understanding of inclusion policies down the hierarchy of leadership. It is the responsibility of local authorities to ensure that there is no exclusion of whatsoever nature in the education system in their respective areas. Each government in the United Kingdom targets to combat social injustice by applying the inclusive education system (Lindsay, 2003:10). This objective conforms to the UNESCO policies of ensuring equal opportunities for all. Provision of education to all children encourages society to appreciate diversity. Appreciation of diversity breaks society free from discriminatory attitudes. Education is the pathway to a successful career. Therefore ensuring that all children have access to education will combat exclusion in some communities. Educating children will ensure they get jobs and this will eliminate poverty. Eliminating poverty is one way of combating social injustice. Society should realize that the use of special needs implies that a mainstream system does not have provisions to cater for these needs. School systems can address such needs efficiently if they acquire the required resources and human power (Slee, 2009:110). Schools should regard such needs as just barriers to learning and target on overcoming them. Such a realization on the possibility of overcoming these barriers pushed the United Kingdom government to promote inclusion and provide resources of overcoming these barriers. These governments realized that disability and learning difficulties are part of the routine challenges in human life. The planning of any human services should put into consideration these challenges. People with disability deserve an equal chance and it is their basic human right. Segregation of children with learning barriers into special schools denies them the opportunity to build relationships with the advantaged counterparts. Essentially, all individuals deserve a chance to interact with people of varying abilities and strengths as away of learning new skills and ideas. Anti-inclusion denies children satisfaction of a basic need. They lack the opportunity to associate with children with normal learning abilities. Promoting inclusion ensures that children with learning barriers learn with others. Learning together fosters individual growth among all children (Slee, 2009:105). Adults with disabilities who learned in segregated schools present a clear picture of the negative effects of segregation. These adults have been in the forefront fighting for inclusion in schools. Their experiences of social discrimination and the inferiority that developed in them should awaken society to realize the importance of inclusion. Society should realize that disabled children deserve an equal opportunity to nurture their talents and learn from others. Inclusion will make the disabled children appreciate being part of society. It will boost their self-esteem and promote their success. In the United Kingdom, inclusion is a priority in regional education policies. Its implementation started with concept change on the understanding of disability. The governments emphasize equality in all its sectors to ensure social justice. Reforming the teacher-training program received the first priority in transforming the education system (Florian, 2009:533-534). Teachers undergo an extensive training that enables them to handle learners of varying learning abilities. Teaching practice is compulsory for all teachers and exposes them to an inclusion program. Such exposure has a lot of validity in the practice. It is cheaper for governments to maintain inclusive schools than provide funding for regular and segregated schools. In addition, legislation requires that all children should receive equal education opportunities. The policies conform to the international policy on equal education for all and disability act (O’Hanlon, 2003:20). Local authorities are playing a key role in reinforcing the policies. Disabled teachers receive an equal opportunity in employment. This factor encourages the disabled children and ascertains to them that they can overcome the challenges and achieve their dreams. This also serves to make normal students realize that the disabled have talent and deserve an equal opportunity in society. Local authorities make sure that institutions of higher learning take care of special needs and help them grow to attaining their careers. As Rawls argues, projects that have benefits for the majority of people are ethically worthy (Rawls, 1999:300). Inclusion is one of those projects whose results are positive to both the majority and minority groups. Therefore, it is a worthy cause promoting justice and equality. However, there are challenges in implementation of inclusion. The United Kingdom is still relentlessly striving to attain full inclusion in its education system. Strategies are still in place to ensure the full transformation of the education system. In conclusion, it is evident that an inclusive education system is very essential. It ensures equal education opportunities to children of different backgrounds and abilities. Inclusion fosters social justice (Alexiadou, 2002:80). The process of inclusion should begin with attitude and concept change in society. Society should realize that disability only presents a challenge. With a solution-based strategy, it is possible to help disabled children to rise above disability and excel. Inclusion is a learner-centered system and the learner should express their learning needs. For inclusion to be successful, schools should change their definition of failure and concentrate on promoting individual growth among students. Teachers should receive adequate training on addressing the needs of learners with different abilities. Legislation should establish an extensive legal framework addressing different aspects of inclusion. Society should realize that the environment it creates greatly affects how children with disabilities respond to the disability. All children regardless of their natural abilities or disability deserve an equal opportunity to learn together and grow socially. It is unjustifiable to condemn them to segregation and endless discrimination. Bibliography Alexiadou, N. (2002). Social Inclusion and Social Exclusion in England: tensions in educational policy. Journal of Education Policy, 17, 1, 71-86 Armstrong, A., C., Armstrong, D. and Spandagou, I. (2010). Inclusive Education International Policy and Practice: Sage, pp 26-39. Cushner, K. (2006). Human diversity in action: Developing multicultural competencies for the classroom. Boston: McGraw-Hill. Florian, L. (2009). Preparing teachers to work in `schools for all’. Teaching and Teacher Education, 25 (4), 533-534. Lindsay, G. (2003). Inclusive education: A critical perspective. British Journal of Special Education 30, no. 1: 3-12. Lloyd, C. (2000). ) "Excellence for all children false promises! The failure of current policy for inclusive education and implications for schooling in the 21st century. International Journal of Inclusive Education, Volume 4, Issue 2, pages 133-151. O’Hanlon, C. (2003). Policy, social justice, and inclusion. Educational Inclusion as Action research Open University Press, Chapter 1: 8-22. Peters, S. (2004). Inclusion Education: An EFA strategy for all children. Washington, DC: World Bank. Rawls, J. (1999). A Theory of Justice. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Slee, R. (2009). Beyond special and regular schooling? An inclusive education. International Studies in Sociology of Education 18: 99-166. Read More