Perspectives on inclusive education: learning from each other

Many courses of study are currently available that address inclusive education and, increasingly, distance education is seen as a flexible and appropriately inclusive way to deliver such courses. In this article a team of colleagues, Kieron Sheehy, Jonathan Rix, Melanie Nind and Katy Simmons, discusses the development of an Open University course, E243 Inclusive Education: Learning from Each Other, which was launched in February 2004. The team reflects on their own process of learning from each other and from the rich network of people involved, mirroring some of the course themes in their own journeys. Collaborative learning became a key theme within the course, both as a method for teaching within the ‘inclusive classroom’ and also as the process for producing a course in a contested and challenging area. This experience allowed the team to change and develop their own perspectives on important issues and, it is suggested, allowed the course to include ways in which students could be supported in having the same opportunity.     

Solomon Islands school leaders readiness for inclusive education

In this paper, I critically examine the discourse surrounding response to intervention (RTI), a US-based education reform that has garnered a considerable amount of attention (as well as controversy) in a very short amount of time. A multi-pronged reform effort, RTI is a tiered approach to delivering instructional intervention to students at risk, an on-going and systematic model of monitoring student performance, as well as an alternative to the ability/achievement discrepancy model for identifying learning disabilities. In this paper, I argue, however, that RTI is not so much a reform but a tactic, aimed at returning to the status quo of segregated special education and reinvigorating many of the foundational assumptions of traditional special education practice.     

A critical and contextual approach to inclusive education: perspectives from an Indian context

Post Salamanca, inclusive education was incorporated in government policies in countries of the North and South. Since then there have been numerous books, articles, and academic debates on the topic but with little representation from the South. This article examines how inclusive education is conceptualised in India, within four recent government policies and in practice. It draws on interview data from a larger study conducted in the metropolitan city of Kolkata and document data. The findings suggest the term inclusive education is well established in government policies and amongst school heads, special educators, and counsellors. While there is consensus on the ‘goodness' of inclusive education and it being synonymous with children with disabilities, there are multiple meanings assigned to inclusive education, inclusive schools, and the includable child. Variations and discrepancies were visible not only between school staff and policy documents but even within policies and schools, respectively. A visible change is schools emerging but varying ‘consciousness of responsibility' towards children with disabilities. Based on the persisting ambiguities surrounding inclusive education, the article argues for developing contextual understanding of how education of children with disabilities can take place in India and adopting a critical stance towards inclusive education.     

Moving forward in inclusive education research

This paper aims to address conceptual and methodological challenges of doing research in the field of inclusive education and revisit school effectiveness research literature to inform future research. First, we present the rationale for inclusive education and briefly review the evolution of special needs education. Then, we discuss limitations of current research on inclusive education. Next, we present school- and classroom-level findings of school effectiveness research to highlight how it can influence the inclusive education research agenda. We conclude by presenting future directions for research.     

From special to inclusive education in Macau (SAR)

The education for learners with special education needs (SEN) in Macau (SAR), China, has gradually transitioned over the past 30 years from a completely segregated approach to a more inclusive one. Following a review of the development of special education and the transition towards inclusion in Macau, consideration is given to the enactment of inclusive education in mainstream schools. Interviews with the leaders in a primary and secondary mainstream government school in Macau outline the ways in which learners with SEN are included in mainstream schools. The discussion focuses on a range of issues regarding the inclusion movement in Macau, including management, schooling and the inclusive model that is applied.     

School-level facilitators of inclusive education: the case of Serbia

Relying on Bronfenbrenner’s ecological model, this paper attempts to identify school-level factors that contribute to effective implementation of inclusive education. We also explored how government policy, with emphasis on individual education plans, school teams, Roma assistants and inter-sectorial committees, is implemented at the school level. Qualitative data were collected from various informants (students, parents, teachers, school associates, Roma assistants and local community representatives) in five schools selected on the basis of regional distribution and success in supporting diverse student needs. Two core categories of school-level facilitators were generated: inclusive practices and inclusive culture. Within the first category, which refers to concrete actions and relationships in the school and local community, five themes emerged: individualisation and use of individual education plans; cooperation between teachers and school inclusive education expert team; cooperation with internal and external specialists; cooperation with parents, and cooperation with the local community. The second category, which reflects beliefs, values and implicit school norms, was further divided into five subcategories: willingness for life-long learning; proactive stance; sense of teamwork; sophisticated personal philosophies of development and learning; and acceptance of difference. We concluded that successful schools have developed into professional learning communities. Finally, recommendations for improving relevant practices were provided.     

Factors contributing to the implementation of inclusive education in Pacific Island countries

This study reports the outcomes of focus group discussions reflected in presentations of concept maps relating to the implementation of inclusive education in the Pacific based on the views of 39 stakeholders from four countries (Fiji, Samoa, Solomon Islands, and Vanuatu). Five themes emerged, with one of the strongest being that of culture, community, and religion. This, amongst other ideas, is central to Pacific Islanders’ understandings of inclusive education implementation, and results in some tensions between western educational ideas and the local context. The implications of this paper clearly show that local culture and context must be accounted for, if inclusive education is to be successfully implemented in the region.     

Seeking transparency: the production of an inclusive classroom community

The successful participation of students with disabilities in a general education classroom is generally presumed to be contingent on the creation of classroom communities that can nurture the qualities of equity and care and where different forms of diversity are valued. However, there has been less scholarship that documents the production of such communities. This paper reports on an ethnographic study that was conducted in an urban first-grade classroom which included several students with disabilities, including one student with significant multiple disabilities. Situated within the disability studies in education tradition, the study adopts a sociocultural perspective to understand the expressed commitment of the teachers within this classroom to transparency. The paper describes the sites of tensions and possibilities that emanated from the confluence of such commitment with other teacher priorities for students. Data from this study showed that overall transparency in the classroom was weakened by proceduralised notions of caring that left teacher practice highly susceptible to the influence of norms. The paper concludes by discussing the implications of this for the project of developing inclusive classrooms.     

Educational justice for all: the capability approach and inclusive education leadership

Leaders within education must weigh a number of fundamentals as they engage the needs of the stakeholders they represent within the political, social and economic context they operate within. Leaders must consider the unique needs and capabilities of individuals who might not possess similar abilities or talents to those of the majority. In this paper, we explore the capability approach as a frame to consider such contextual fundamentals in inclusive education leadership. In order to examine how educational leaders address the diverse needs of the groups they serve, we interviewed five central office educational administrators in the USA with the responsibility for leading programming for students with special needs. Using a human capabilities frame, we developed targeted questions to determine whether school leaders uphold the tenets of this theoretical foundation within their district's practices in an era of tight fiscal management and accountability. Findings indicate that those leaders whose districts had the highest level of inclusion for most students, including students with significant disabilities, most closely align with the capability approach. Recommendations for continued research and implications for both practice and policy are included.     

Creating conversations: an inclusive approach to the international networking of knowledge about education

Networking has been central to human communication and social engagement for centuries, but has changed dramatically with the advent of new technology. However, the practice of networking has received little academic attention and tends to be undertheorised. This paper considers the impact of the global digital and communication divide, and the contested nature of inclusive education, on the task of promoting information sharing internationally. A summative case study is presented of a network, established to support the documentation of promising practice on inclusive education in countries with limited access to information and material resources. The case study uses autoethnographic methods to identify key principles for the development of an inclusive network. The significance of this paper is in its proposition of a working model of inclusive networking, which has potential to be developed into a theory.     

Modelling inclusive special needs education: insights from Dutch secondary schools

Inclusive special needs education is prominent on the international education agenda. Research on the characteristics of inclusive education for students with special needs and schools providing this is scarce, however. Our aim in the present study was therefore to further theory-building with regard to inclusive special needs education. On the basis of the relevant literature, we identified three core aspects of inclusivity: the learning environment, the guidance provided by teachers and the general care structure. With the help of exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses conducted on data obtained from school professionals in 79 secondary schools in the Netherlands, we were able to identify 12 underlying characteristics for a conceptual framework to further research on the inclusive nature of schools and education. Multilevel structural equation modelling of the judgments of school professionals at the level of the school also showed that the inclusive special needs education in at least secondary schools can be characterised by two main factors: (1) learning environment and (2) guidance and care. The analyses showed considerable agreement on the important aspects of inclusivity for schools and thus how differences between schools can be explained. The results further showed the work of the care coordinator – which includes cooperation with external partners and teachers with mentoring roles – to be the clearest indicator of the extent of the inclusive special needs education within schools. This finding is interpreted as suggesting that the recommended teaching practices and student care for adequate included special needs education have not yet been integrated into teachers’ thinking and acting. Follow-up research drawing upon the developed framework is therefore called for to not only more generally validate the framework but also determine if the situation in school has changed, now that the policy and practices for inclusive education have become more familiar.     

Assessing the needs of training on inclusive education for public school administrators

This study assessed the needs of urban school leaders for special education preparation in a large public school district in the USA in order to assist the school administrators with improving their knowledge and skills for providing appropriate services to students with disabilities and their families to support inclusive education. The needs survey was created based on the Council for Exceptional Children (CEC 2009) standards for school administrators in the USA and the literature in special education. The validity and reliability of the instrument were verified. The needs assessment measures 10 aspects regarding special education knowledge and skills as indicated by 10 factors in the exploratory factor analysis. Quantitative data analyses on a sample of 289 participants revealed that there were significant differences in the needs of training in special education knowledge based on the school administrators’ backgrounds. The current research supports the call for the professional development and inclusive education for school leaders. The findings of the current study indicated that school leaders wanted the knowledge to make them more successful in serving students with disabilities to answer the call for inclusive education.     

Insights into inclusive education through a small Finnish case study of an inclusive school context

This study seeks to present data and discussion arising from a case study of a school in Finland renowned for its practice in the inclusion of learners with additional support requirements due to cognitive and physical disabilities. It aims to establish how the school staff understand their practice with inclusion through day-to-day professional experiences. The process of reflexive dialogue has enabled authors to reconceptualise our understanding of inclusive education through gaining deep contextual insight. The case study emerges as an inspiring effort to reduce exclusion and isolation through skilful manipulation of physical, institutional and communicative contexts, from which we may draw valuable lessons. The case study demonstrated high levels of personal motivation in teachers and assistants, used as a force for participation in inclusive education – bottom-up, via dialogue, consultation, voluntary involvement and transformation by exposure. This democratic approach was evident in and supported through leadership and management, teaching and learning, and the involvement of the wider community.     

Student engagement and inclusive education: reframing student engagement

Engagement, or student engagement, is widely used in educational research and public discourse to refer to the problem of public education. The underlying ontological and epistemological assumptions buoying engagement are rarely, if ever, addressed by educational researchers. The ‘silent omission’ (Sidorkin 2014. “On the Theoretical Limits of Education.” In Making a Difference in Theory: The Theory Question in Education and the Education Question in Theory, edited by Julie Allan Gert Biesta and Richard Edwards, 121–137. New York: Routledge) of engagement’s metaphysics has implications for inclusive education. This paper finds that despite being employed with good intent, engagement operates in a paradigm of normativity. In a gesture of bifocality (Weis and Fine 2012. “Critical Bifocality and Circuits of Privilege: Expanding Critical Ethnographic Theory and Design.” Harvard Educational Review 82 (2): 173–201), I critique engagement discourse and its historical context to find that it reproduces a longstanding tradition of psychologising public problems (Fine and Cross 2015. “Critical Race, Psychology and Social Policy: Refusing Damage, Cataloguing Oppression, and Documenting Desire.” In Contextualizing the Costs of Racism, edited by A. Alvarez and H. Neville. Washington, DC: APA Publications), thereby displacing conversations about what may be the most influential issue of public education: social and economic inequality. A reframing of engagement as [student/teacher] engagement is proposed. Highlighted in the reframing is the educational relationship and the context in which it is nested. Mitigated is the pathologising and exclusionary effect of engagement discourse which operates within a dialectic of normal/engaged // ab/normal/disengaged.     

Preparing teachers for inclusive education: using inclusive pedagogy to enhance teaching and learning for all

As the concept of ‘inclusive education’ has gained currency, students who would previously have been referred to specialist forms of provision, having been judged ‘less able’, are now believed to belong in mainstream classrooms. However, it is often argued that teachers lack the necessary knowledge and skills to work with such students in inclusive classrooms. This paper reports findings of a study of a new initial teacher education course that starts from the premise that the question is not whether teachers have the necessary knowledge and skills to teach in inclusive classrooms, but how to make best use of what they already know when learners experience difficulty. The theoretical rationale for the development of the course is outlined and examples of how teachers might engage in more inclusive practice are presented.     

Creating a dialogic environment for transformative science teaching practices: towards an inclusive education for science

Abstract

This paper focuses on the design and application of a teacher training strategy to promote the inclusive education of students with disabilities in the science classroom, through the creation of adult learning environments grounded on the principles of dialogic learning. Participants of the workshop proposal consisted of a group of twelve teachers who were working at various educational levels. Teacher teams proposed and implemented in their classroom, innovative, inclusive science-learning activities about a topic of their choice. Data were collected from interviews with teachers five months after the courses, teachers’ portfolios about their practice during implementation of such sequences, and researchers’ observations. The data suggest that it is possible to stimulate a gradual transformation of teaching practices through a teacher training proposal that promotes self-awareness and critical reflection, situated in the creation of meaning and a willingness to change in the spirit of solidarity and social action. We found elements to recommend the incorporation of these innovations at the curricular and practical level for teacher training schools and for in-service teacher development programmes in Mexico and elsewhere.     

A Disability Rights in Education Model for evaluating inclusive education

Current models for evaluating inclusive education programs tend to examine surface‐level stricture of day‐to‐day practices in the organization and operation of schools and also lack significant input from disabled people. In response, the authors have developed a DRE Model to understand and evaluate effective Inclusive Education that is derived from reports of international consumer organizations such as Disabled People’s International, Inclusion International, and the World Institute on Disability. The DRE Model draws from the interdisciplinary field of disability studies and is based on the philosophy that disability must be approached in its full social dimension as one of the central elements in every culture’s response to the full range of human difference. Conceptually, the DRE Model allows people to look at developments in Inclusive Education across widely disparate local and international contexts. An inclusive education project in Lesotho is described and analysed to explain the DRE Model’s dynamic processes more concretely, and to demonstrate its potential utility for evaluation and future planning.     

Integrated or inclusive education versus interactive education: the need for a new model

ABSTRACT

In an attempt to stimulate informed and critical debate, the nature and pedagogical implications of ‘integrated education’ and the more recently proposed ‘inclusive education’ are examined, and an alternative model, described as ‘interactional education’, is proposed and evaluated. Because of the political and economic implications of these three approaches, it is suggested that the appropriate forum for discussion is one which is Pan‐European.     

Dyslexia in higher education: creating a fully inclusive institution

Disability legislation demands inclusive institutional policy and practice to meet the needs of the growing numbers of students disclosing specific learning difficulties (SpLD)/dyslexia. However, surveys of provision indicate mixed levels of student satisfaction. Institutions need to be able to monitor the extent to which their practice embodies their inclusive mission statements. Fuller, Healey, Bradley and Hall developed a stage model of progress towards the fully inclusive institution which suggests that departments or individuals can remain at different stages, delaying transformation of the whole system. This case study, conducted within a small university, used documentation, interviews, questionnaires and focus groups to explore attitudes and practices at each level of the institution to establish the extent to which Fuller's model might enable identification and elimination of ‘disablist institutional practice’ and the development of the fully inclusive ethos. Policy, management, lecturers and students were surveyed to explore attitudes and practices relevant to SpLD/dyslexia. Findings indicated that Fuller's model provided a clear and practical way of charting the institution's journey towards full inclusivity. Participants demonstrated the existence of examples of inclusive culture at all levels in University X, alongside a need for strengthened and clarified systems cementing links between management policy and the work of facilitators and lecturers. Inconsistencies in the systems connecting the levels potentially allow disablist practices to survive. Hence, identifying these gaps can facilitate their closure and promote the establishment of the fully inclusive institution.     

The impact of inclusive education reforms on students with disability: an international comparison

ABSTRACT

When the Salamanca Statement called upon States to recognise the ‘necessity and urgency’ of providing students with a disability access to the regular education system (UNESCO 1994, viii), both Australia and the United States of America had existing legislative and policy documents articulating the rights of students with a disability to access regular education. Since that time both countries have clarified and amended their respective laws and policies, and signed the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UN 2006) which urges States to reallocate resourcing to inclusive education, and to reduce segregation. In this article, I examine the policy reforms in each country and analyse aggregated and disaggregated student placement data within each context to consider the impact of these reforms for different groups of students. Results show that the different reform journeys in each context produced different outcomes for students in each country, with segregation increasing in Australia and decreasing in the USA. The results also suggest that the impact of these policies has not been proportionate across categories as students on the Autism Spectrum are more likely to experience educational segregation or exclusion in both countries.