Education as the Process of the Participation of Children and Young People in the Cultures - Essay Example

Assignment 5 Inclusion in education is defined as the process of enhancing the participation of children and young people in the cultures, curriculums, and communities of the local schools and at the same time reducing their exclusion from the same. It can only be achieved through practices in education that can overcome barriers to access and participation in delivered education (Howley, Preece and Arnold, 2001, 41-52). The major policy development in the field of special needs education in England and Wales in the 1990s was the introduction, as a consequence of the 1993 Education Act, of the Code of Practice on the Identification and Assessment of Special Educational Needs. This was replaced by a revised version which was issued in 2001, coming into effect in January 2002 (DFES 2001). The nature of provision for special educational needs has changed drastically over the last few years following the Warnock Report and the 1981 Education Act, with an increased awareness of educational needs and a consonant focus on improving the quality of provision for much larger numbers of children (Griffiths, 1998, 95 in Quicke, 2007, 2-15). This implies improvement of education of all and specially of those with special needs that would impart knowledge and power to all (QCA/DfEE, 2001). Department of Health has recently published a White Paper for people with learning disabilities in 2001 (Department of Health, 2001, 1-10). The United Kingdom has separate educational systems for England and Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland. As far as education is concerned, the countries are split up into so-called local education authorities that carry a large part of the responsibility for organising education at local level. Historically, for a long time, England and Wales had separate systems for regular and special education. Since the Warnock Report in 1978, it has been assumed in the UK that about 20 per cent of school-aged children will have special educational needs requiring additional help at some point in their school careers. Furthermore, approximately 2 per cent of children will have severe physical, sensory, intellectual or emotional difficulties, some of which will remain with them throughout their lives. Historically this 2 per cent of children have been excluded from mainstream schools, receiving their education in special schools instead. In recent years, a growing sense of injustice regarding the idea of segregated special schooling for these pupils has led to calls for more inclusive educational opportunities as a matter of human right and equal opportunity (Amatea, 1988, 174-183). By the Education Acts 1981 and 1993, which latter consolidated into the Education Act 1996, the policy of parental choice in the field of special educational needs has in most respects been merely built on key recommendations in the Warnock Report in 1978, namely that the education system should pay heed to parental knowledge about their child's needs and respect parental wishes regarding the child's education (Farrell, 2001, 3-9). Warnock's other recommendation was to integrate the education, meaning pupils with special educational needs should, as far as possible, be educated alongside other children in mainstream schools (Lewis, 2004, 3-9). In relation to this, this process must acknowledge the diversity of needs of all students creating opportunity to support learning of all students inclusive of those who have impairments or needs for special educations. While the White Paper was explicitly a response of the authorities from the concerns to promote better life chances for people with special needs for education, it identifies the many barriers that such children and their families face in fully participating in their communities. This paper promotes the benefits to be obtained by these children through educational opportunities, good health, and social care while living with their families. It was evident later that constructive and sustainable relationships between pupils with special educational needs and their peers involve mutual perceptions of shared experiences of a kind that may require the provision of well-planned collaborative learning activities. This increased recognition of interconnectedness between categories of social and functional integration has led, perhaps, to the Green Paper which states that: 'By inclusion, we mean not only that pupils with SEN should, where possible, receive their education in a mainstream school, but also that they should join in fully with their peers in the curriculum' (DfEE, 1997, 44). The Education Reform Act 1988 introduced major changes to state education in England and Wales. Though the Act has little to say about pupils with special educational needs, it is likely to have a major impact on special educational provision. Special Educational Needs Code of Practice (DfES, 2001, 57-79) indicates that, 'Most children with special educational needs have strengths and difficulties in one, some or all of the areas of speech, language and communication.' Under the 1981 Act, a child has special educational needs if he or she has learning difficulties which are significantly greater than those experienced by the majority of children of the same age or if they have a disability that prevents or hinders them from making use of the educational facilities generally available to age peers (Aylott, 2001, 512). This act is unique and different in the sense that this makes a critical distinction within the group characterised in this way. While inclusion is an important aspect for high standards for all learners, the level of government activism in developing national SEN policy has been really extraordinary (Lewis and Norwich, 2001). Following the Green Paper, the Government issued a 'Programme for Action' in 1998. In 1999, the Disability Rights Task Force issued a report calling for the right to a place in a mainstream school for all children, including those with statements of special educational needs (Department for Education and Skills, 2001a). From January 2002, new anti-discrimination legislation, the Special Educational Needs and Disability Act 2001 (SENDA), marks another step on delivering this promise (Disability Rights Commission, 2002). A culmination of all these have led to the new statutory guidance in DfES 2001, and that lays down some principles on the premise that inclusion is a process where institutions and authorities would develop their cultures, policies, and practices to include people. The Green Paper is a proof for this. The authorities while safeguarding the interests of the children, will actively seek to remove barriers to learning and participation (Department for Education and Skills, 2004a). The idea of inclusive education has become part of the discussion on developments in education at an international level. Inclusive practices are a reality in at least some schools in many education systems. It is considered legitimate that looking at concepts and practices across countries and cultures might help identify common themes, suggest emerging concerns, and explore ways in which schools might teach all students in their communities, eliminating barriers to participation and learning (Aefsky, 1995). Inclusive settings are always challenged by diversities and differences. It is also evident that within countries there are different views on what inclusion is, suggesting that complex influences are at work in the development of this field. The theme of inclusion is a particularly important one: the 1994 Salamanca Statement from UNESCO called on national governments to adopt the principle of inclusive education for all children. The term inclusion is, however, open to different interpretations in different countries at the global level (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation, 1994). Special education is conceived differently in different parts of the world, and practice varies accordingly. The familiar variation in the use made of special schools is just one example of the diversity that characterizes special educational provision globally. However, there are some convergences and one of the most significant of these relates to inclusive education. In many countries the effort to achieve a more inclusive system has resulted in the education of special needs pupils in regular schools and in a declining number of pupils placed in separate, special schools (Norwich, 1990). The attempts to realize more inclusive education have resulted in very different educational arrangements in different countries. Countries and their education systems differ from each other in so many aspects that it is always possible to find differences that seem to be linked to the dependent variables under consideration. Comparative research should contribute to the knowledge of the effects of different arrangements in inclusive education. The question here is which factors in inclusion are relevant in realizing inclusive education. Despite all the educational innovations of the past decades, it is clear that education mainly focuses on the average pupil. If there are too many pupils with specific needs in the classroom, teaching becomes a complex problem (Norwich, 1993b). Efforts to realise more integrated settings have resulted in very different educational arrangements in different countries. These arrangements have been the focus of much attention in debates on integration and in turn necessitate changes in organisational structures, the curriculum, teacher training, and the legislative framework. There has been considerable exchange of information about developments in these topics. However, very little is known about the success of integration in regular education settings. This gap of knowledge is remarkable because the integration of students with special needs within regular education is strongly promoted and generally accepted as a desirable goal. Countries differ in their educational systems, in the educational goals set for students, in the history of education, in student populations, in teacher training, and so on. More than this, countries also differ in very many aspects outside education, for instance in population composition and density, gross national product per capita, legislation and moral values. These differences affect education in one way or another and thus affect integration. The question is not what the pure facts are and what kind of instructional arrangements are made for the handicapped, but what effects the different arrangements have. Only then can a knowledge base be developed and decisions taken about the usefulness of these arrangements in changing one's own system. Therefore, description of factors important in integration must lead on to an account of the relationships between these factors and their implications for integration (Norwich, 1994). Brahm Norwich in his book, "Dilemmas of Difference, Inclusion and Disability: International perspectives and future directions" examines theoretical and empirical aspects of these differences and the dilemma that they create in implementation of actions in special education needs in different countries. What can be found in other countries is information about the factors relevant in realizing inclusion in education, and comparative research does not end with the description of practices in other countries. It is important to note that there would be contextual differences between countries that could lead to difference in approaches for implementation. All these emanate from the basic dilemma, "whether to recognise and respond or not to recognise and respond to these differences." By this, he means when the concept of equality comes in to play, it would involve wide relevancies to other areas of diversity that include gender, ethnicity, disability, employment, housing, and education. These are closely related to national policies, and the dilemmas would be of ideological nature, rather than contextual. Thus, he examines theoretical ideas relevant to dilemmas of these differences between countries from "philosophical, political, sociological, historical, psychological and educational perspectives" (Norwich, 2008). Conclusions One of the most significant points to note about integration in England and Wales is the growing acceptance of integration as a matter of school reform, as opposed to the accumulation of individual programmes for particular pupils. As in most countries, the traditional view of special education based on a deficit model of handicap went unquestioned until the end of the seventies. When pupils' education was defined in terms of their handicaps, integration tended to be viewed as a matter of facilitating the placement of individual handicapped pupils in regular schools. As teachers and others came to realise that many pupils failed to learn because they were taught inappropriately, the deficit model of handicap gave way to an interactive model of special educational needs. This reflects the international moves in the 1994 UNESCO Salamanca World Statement on Special Needs Education which calls for the inclusion of pupils with special educational needs in mainstream schools with demands for stronger links between special and mainstream schools. The appearance of this type of rhetoric in government policy documents has put pressure on special education professionals to undertake a critical examination of the methods and means by which they work. The 1994 UNESCO Report on the education of children with disabilities (Salamanca Statement) affirms the rights of all children to equal education without discrimination within the mainstream education system (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation, 1994). Although this means different things in different places, there is universality to the underlying human rights philosophy of inclusion which suggests that the concept is destined to persist rather than represent the latest educational problems. Reference List Aefsky, F. (1995). Inclusion Confusion, Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press. Amatea, E. (1988) Brief systemic interventions with school behavior problems: a case of temper tantrums, Psychology in the Schools, 25, pp. 174-183. Aylott, J., (2001). The New Learning Disabilities White Paper. Did it forget something British Journal of Nursing. 10(8). 512 Department of Education and Science, (1978). Special Educational Needs (The Warnock Report), London: HMSO. Department of Education and Science, (1981). The Education Act of 1981, London: HMSO. Department for Education and Skills, (2001) Special Educational Needs Code of Practice, London, DfES, 1-217 . Department for Education and Skills, (2001) Inclusive Schooling. London: DfES, 1-33. Department for Education and Skills, (2001) The Special Educational Needs and Disability Act. London: The Stationery Office 1-13. Department for Education and Skills (2001a) Special Educational Needs and Disability Act. Nottingham: DfES Publications. Department for Education and Skills (2004a) Removing Barriers to Achievement: The Government's Strategy for SEN. Nottingham: DfES Publications. Department for Education and Skills (2005b) Education Improvement Partnerships: Local Collaboration for School Improvement and Better Service Delivery. Nottingham: DfES Publications. Department of Health, (2001). Valuing People: A New strategy for Learning disability For the 21st Century, London. Disability Rights Commission (2002) Code of Practice for Schools: Disability Discrimination Act 1995, Part 4. London: Disability Rights Commission. Farrell, P. (2001) 'Special education in the last twenty years: have things really got better', British Journal of Special Education 28 (1) 3-9. Howley, M., Preece, D. and Arnold, T. (2001) 'Multidisciplinary use of "Structured Teaching" to promote consistency of approach for children with Autistic Spectrum Disorder', Educational and Child Psychology, 18 (2) 41-52. Lewis, A. (2004) 'And when did you last see your father Exploring the views of children with learning difficulties/disabilities', British Journal of Special Education 31 (1): 3-9. Norwich, B. (1990). Reappraising special needs education. London: Cassell. Norwich, B. (1993a). Reappraising special needs education. London: Cassell. Has 'special educational needs' outlived its usefulness in Visser, J. and Upton, G. (eds) Special education in Britain after Warnock. London: David Fulton Publishers Norwich, B. (1993b). Ideological dilemmas in special needs education: practitioners' views. Oxford Review of Education, 19(4), 527-45. Norwich, B. (1994). Differentiation: from the perspective of resolving tensions between basic social values and assumptions about individual differences. Curriculum Studies, 2(3), 289-308. Norwich, B. (2008). Dilemmas of Difference, Inclusion and Disability. International perspectives and future directions. New York. Routledge. QCA/DfEE (2001) General Guidelines: Planning, Teaching and Assessing the Curriculum for Pupils with Learning Difficulties. London: Qualifications and Curriculum Authority. Quicke, J., (2007). Inclusion and Psychological Intervention in Schools: A Critical Autoethnography. Springer, 2007, 2-15 Special Children (2002) Practice Makes Perfect: The Revised SEN Code of Practice Special Children, January 2002, pp. 20-5. United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (1994). The Salamanca Statement and Framework for Action on Special Needs Education, Paris: UNESCO. Read More