Inclusive Learning: the Report of the Committee of Enquiry into the postschool education of those with learning difficulties and/or disabilities,in England, 1996

ABSTRACT

The Report, Inclusive Learning (1996), is the result of a three‐year enquiry into the educational needs of and provision for adults with disabilities and/or learning difficulties in England. It arose from the requirement of an Act of Parliament, in 1992, that the new national funding council for further education should ‘have regard’ for such students in all its work of funding, development and evaluation. The Committee commissioned some fundamental research into the nature and extent of provision, the actual and potential demand for further education and the current requirements of law, and also reviewed existing academic research (chiefly in English‐speaking countries). It took extensive evidence in many modes and, in particular, created a series of workshops in which the students and their advocates could speak for themselves. The outcome was the main Report and summary, together with six supplementary publications. The core of the Report is the notion of ‘inclusive learning’, which places the responsibility for providing appropriate education with the teachers, the managers and the system (ultimately, with society), rather than problematizing the student as one with a deficit. A good education system is not merely about offering access to what is available, but also the making of what needs to be available accessible: the moulding of opportunity. Thus the Report concentrates on a theory of learning and its educational consequences. It represents another step towards embracing students with learning difficulties and/or disabilities unequivocally within the general approach to learning appropriate for all students. This article summarizes the main lines of analysis and argument in the Report and its framework of recommendations to the Further Education Funding Council, teachers, managers, voluntary organizations and to the government.     

The importance of academic deans' interpersonal/negotiating skills as leaders

This paper outlines core features of what it terms consumer-based learning and relates this to the context of increasing utilitarian goals and values of higher education. It argues that this presents challenges broader than the immediate teaching and learning environment and student experience, which also potentially impacts the future lives of graduates leaving university.     

Special education and minority ethnic young people in England: continuing issues

ABSTRACT

In countries that have developed special education (SE) provision, whether in segregated settings or ‘included’ in mainstream, racial, ethnic and immigrant minorities continue to be disproportionately represented. Explanations for placement in SE programmes continue to centre round assumptions of deficiencies in student abilities to learn and ‘behave’, their family backgrounds and communities. Many policy-makers, politicians, schools and teachers ignore or are ignorant of the historical background and social contexts in which these students are expected to learn. The article overviews some of this history and policy responses concerned with SE, low attainment and troublesome school behaviour in England, including recent evidence and current explanations for the placement of the students. A premise here is that research, policy and literature are still separating what is happening in ‘special’ education from other areas of education. This cannot continue, as world-wide moves towards inclusive education have meant that mainstream schools and colleges now incorporate (or still exclude) a range of students regarded as having learning difficulties or disabilities, and all young people are now expected to acquire some kind of qualification or be prepared for independent living.     

Globalization, Race and Education: Continuity and Change

This article explores some of the major continuities and changes in policy and practice concerning the inclusion of racial and ethnic minorities ineducation and economic placement in a global economy. It refers to papers given at five sessions of the International Sociological Association's (ISA)four-yearly world congresses, held between1986-2002. In particular it notes educational changes and disadvantages affecting minorities in Britain over twenty-five years. A major conclusion is that education within acompetitive global economy can encourage newforms of racial and social exclusion.     

Reflections on the process of visual design

In this article, we are primarily concerned with the kinds of problems which lend themselves to solutions in visual, graphic terms. Essentially, they may be described as problems in communication which the designer attempts to solve by means of printed words or symbols, by the use of appropriate pictorial images or by exploiting audio-visual techniques.The author are practising designers who also share an interest in the teaching of graphic design; and these interests have determined the form of the discussion which follows. Some observations about the nature of design itself, about the various procedures available to the designer in tackling the problems which are brought to him, are illustrated with brief case histories selected from among those which have directly concerned the authors in the recent past. From these, they have ventured to draw some general conclusions about the possible range and scope of the contribution which the graphic designer may be expected to make-now, and in the future-to the solution of problems in visual communication.