Inclusive Education and its Implications to Teaching Practices - Literature review Example

Inclusive Education and its Implications to Teaching Practices 1. Introduction Inclusive education is government’s initiative to eradicate exclusion in our society and since it involves changes in traditional school setting, teachers need to transform their typical role and learn to handle different types of students in a single class. They may also need to alter their usual teaching practices and include special teaching methods to ensure equal outcomes. The following section discusses inclusive education and its implications to teaching practices. These include discussion on different approaches to understanding of inclusion and exclusion, causes of unequal outcomes, equity groups, the impact of government policies, implications of inclusive education to teaching practices, the benefit of understanding the concept, and critical reflection. 2. Inclusive Education and Implications to Teaching Practices 2.1 Inclusive education and the different approaches to understanding inclusion and exclusion. Inclusive education came from a positive view that differences should be recognized and treated in a positive way (Sullivan 2001, p.131). The term is commonly use in the European context (Gabel p.105) to describe a way to provide all students including those with significant disabilities with quality educational services so they can live a productive life (Daniels & Garner 2000, p.13). Moreover, it is an equalization of opportunities for persons with disabilities to choose their manner of education (Beiter 2006, p.137) since this is vital to their empowerment (Millar 2003, Abstract). In other words, this type of educational approach does not distinguish between a group of students who can learn with regular teaching methods and those who requires special teaching technique. According to Duran (2006), inclusive education is deinstitutionalizing children with disabilities by placing them in general education classroom along with other ordinary children (p.18). It is an actual physical inclusion of children with special education need into mainstream education settings. It provides equality of access and opportunities, inclusion of cultural diversity in curriculum content, inclusion through teaching style and students’ organization (Tyler 2005, p.2). However, some critics of inclusive education view it as a disservice not only with children with disabilities but to other students and teachers as well (Armstrong et al. 2009, p.37). An educational system that places the institution in a confusing situation as it tried to put together bipolar opposites (Topping & Maloney 2005, p.255). Moreover, inclusive education considers students learning diversities as normal and differentness as part of ordinary human experience (Creese 2005, p.30). Advocates of inclusive education failed to see that equitable education is not just a matter of treating every student fairly but recognizing the mismatch between particular students to existing educational standards (Kearns 2008, p.214). Understanding inclusion requires confronting issues surrounding inequality and injustice that afflict the lives of many particularly those with disabilities. It also requires an examination of the social justice system, legislation, and other research particularly those deals with inclusive policy and practices (Foreman 2008, Abstract). Moreover, understanding inclusion requires a holistic and cooperative approach to circumvent various barriers such as cultural, political, and socio-economic. According to Rose (2010), recognition of the causes of exclusion encouraged a significant number of educators and researchers to find ways to improve the lives of excluded children who are being denied of equal education. For this reason, one way to understand inclusion is to avoid stereotyping and instead determine the needs of individual student and the characteristics associated with different forms of disability. Another is to understand established cultures and traditions rather than imposing a particular educational model that seems to serve a particular set of values and ideals (p.3). There is also a need to distinguish the difference between the difficult, disturbed, and disruptive students since the treatment of these types of students in mainstream educational system often depends on the personal beliefs of teaching professionals, existing provisions, and rational reaction to environmental circumstances (Wearmouth et al. 2005, p.1). According to Gordon (2008), many disabled people view negative attitudes of people without disabilities is the greatest barrier they faced. Similarly, the attitude and behaviour of teachers and other people interacting with them in school influenced their attitude or general understanding of their need for education (p.25). For instance, most teachers have positive attitude towards inclusion of children with special needs in mainstream educational system (Szypula 2009, Abstract) but several studies suggest that they have a more positive attitude towards children with less severe disabilities than those with severe cognitive, emotional, or behavioural disabilities (Gordon 2008, p.32). One of the reasons behind this varying attitude is teachers’ knowledge and skills for inclusive teaching. For instance, The result of the study conducted by Forlin (2010) suggest that there is less resistance to inclusion when teachers are properly trained or possessing special education qualifications. Similarly, many teachers express their support to the concept of inclusion because they had appropriate training, skills, and resources to implement it. Apparently, teacher with training are more interested with inclusive education because it generally encourage them to have more positive attitude towards inclusion and children with disabilities (p.6). Changing existing attitudes and values is very important to meet the needs of special children thus school implementing inclusion must consider the teachers attitude and its impact on the general education system (Spriggs 2008, p.37). The problem however is the reality that teachers’ behaviour toward inclusive education cannot be legislated since it is a learned belief that develops overtime (Parker 2009, p.24). 2.2 Unequal outcomes in education and training and Low SES group Unequal education outcomes has been a long time feature of educational system (Forlin 2010, p.16) since despite attempts to align it with democratic educational values, evidence suggest that is still unfair and unequal outcomes (Quickie 2008, p.169). One of the common causes of unequal outcomes in inclusive education is ableism or discrimination against people with disabilities aggravated by ingrained prejudice of doing activities that might be favourable for disabled people (Bowman 2008, p.29). Some of the most common practices contributing to unequal outcomes include placing special children into regular classes without proper planning and provisions for necessary support and services. Another is the reduction or elimination of special education service particularly required by students with disabilities. School practices of ignoring the different needs of each student by educating all types of students at the same time resulting to students learning the same thing in the same way. More importantly, school administration often assigning teachers that do not have proper training or orientation towards people with disabilities. In contrast, schools ignoring the needs of average students for the sake of inclusion or integration of children with disabilities into the system. Moreover, school placing more emphasis on including students with disabilities on general classroom rather than focusing on the educational needs of each student (Power-deFur & Orelove 1997, p.3). Inclusive teaching generally means accommodating and recognizing the all students learning needs thus, it is not exclusive to regular students but rather open to all including people with disabilities (Kennedy et al., 2008, p.17). According to Sandlin (2010), democratic schooling or the merging of different intellectual abilities processed inside the boundaries of inclusive education will likely to produce unequal outcomes because gender, race divisions, culture, bias in texts and tests, policies, and so on are not included in the ethos of democratic education (p.131). Moreover, since inclusive education policies were mostly developed independently of broader social context in which it is actually belong, they are unlikely to be effective (Armstrong 2009, p.11). Unequal outcomes do not always come from inclusive education but in other educational system, thus there is VET or Vocational Education and Training to provide exclusive education for people with different circumstances. In Australia for instance, several equity groups include gender, indigenous Australians, people with disabilities, non-English speaking people, residents of remote or regional areas, youth, older workers, poor people, prisoners, and those with low literacy skills (VOCED 2011, p.1). These groups are considered equity sensitive that requires exclusive education like VET. For instance, the Australian government is concern about Low SES or people in the low socio-economic status group because they are also entitled to climb the ladder of opportunity or given fair access to university education. In a 2007 survey, only 17% of students in public universities were from this group, this does not include those in the middle, and high SES sub-groups (OECD 2010, p.104). This indicates an underrepresentation of Low SES as shown in the table below. Figure 1- Result of Low SES equity survey (Wheelahan 2010) VET pathways to higher education provide the educational ladder of opportunity and contribute to increased participation of this social group in higher education. However, similar to higher education, VET also needs to ensure equitable access and outcomes for low SES students who are aspiring for higher education (Wheelahan 2010, p.1). This is because statistical data shows that although VET courses can provide the ladder of opportunity, those students who managed to progress to university were from middle to high SES and not low SES students (OECD 2010, p.104). Focusing on this issue is very important since there is a clear element of inequity in this type of group. According to Paulsen & Smart () group of students coming for low SES are the most marginalized and excluded compared to other groups. For instance, they have the lowest participation rates and opportunities for college education (2001, p.124). 2.3 Impact of government policy, legislative and regulatory frameworks on teaching practice and its influence on school or adult and vocational education Government policies as well as legislations and regulatory frameworks often influenced teachers’ perspective and teaching practices (Webb 2006, p.5). This is because how school operates in relation to legislative or government regulations affects what teachers are expected to do. The morality of government policies according to Robinson (2005) overrides teachers’ moral values and the ethics of their profession (p.101). Similarly, as they engage in teaching practices, learning will be delivered according to sociological and psychological thinking of teachers. Therefore, any changes occurring in teachers’ teaching practices are more likely influenced by various factors such as their responses to their needs and wants, education and experiences, and government policies (Kincheole & Horn 2008, p.740). The impact of government intervention in the broader sense particularly in vocation and adult education is evident in the changing requirements of VET teachers. For instance, there were several key reforms within the VET sector between 1995 and 2005 resulting to changes in VET teaching qualifications. These include Australian Qualifications Framework or AQTF to ensure quality of training by all TAFE institutes and private RTOs serving within the VET sector and the MECA or Multi Employer Certified Agreement that put teacher’s pay levels equal to Diploma level teaching qualification (Leavold & Taylor 2010, p.1-10). Moreover, government policies also brought some confusion such as the levels of support being given by government and educational agencies, confusion regarding competency assessment and employer requirements, inconsistency of training quality in different territories, and issues in teachers’ professional development (Velde 2009, p.28). The imposition of CBT or competency-based education and training also affected how curriculum and teaching is being implemented in the sector. Teaching practices have been severely affected by these economic rationalist policies ensuring accountability among teachers (Coben 2000, et al. p.210). Since the government policies often, demand more market-focused and commercially oriented vocational institutions, teaching practices have been improved (Farrell & Fenwick 2007, p.170). In general, government policies affected teachers and teaching practices in an often demanding way. For instance, since tertiary education sector needs to grow by 3% per year to cope with the demand of the industry, teachers are being required to accommodate a wide range of students thus, new roles must be fulfilled. These include ensuring that students are knowledgeable and skilled for the work, possesses unquestionable language, literacy, numeracy, and technological skills. More importantly, teachers should prioritise students learning particularly those with disadvantaged background. The need to increase workforce to offset the aging population have several implications to teaching practices as it needs to include the needs of disadvantaged students and those without foundation skills. Similarly, it must ensure that those that are already skilled obtain higher level or different skills to support the growing economy. According to Wheelahan (2010), the sector is becoming increasingly complex, as students groups will be more diverse, adult students, refugees, prisoners, low SES, and others while more resources are required to support training staff (p.15). There are therefore some more changes to expect that would change teacher requirements and teaching practices in the near future. 2.4 Understanding the concept of inclusive education and its implications to teaching practices As mentioned earlier, the concept inclusive education is all about teaching all types of students regardless of physical or cognition disabilities. It is thus important for teachers working in this are to understand every aspect of inclusive education otherwise teaching will not be effective. For instance, some of the barriers in inclusive education include ableism (Bowman 2008, p.29), unequal outcomes (Quickie 2008, p.169), elimination of special services, teachers with inadequate training (Power-deFur & Orelove 1997, p.3), and more. Moreover, the challenges of teaching children with disabilities in mainstream include curriculum change, public scrutiny, and inability to meet cultural, social, and linguistic needs (Shaddock et al., 2007, p.1). Understanding of the concept can help teachers avoid ableism since it will be clear to them that such attitude is contradictory to the objective of this educational system. Teacher will be aware that they need to maintain special services for students with disabilities. More importantly, they will be aware that they need to have adequate training in order to handle their class effectively. Inclusive education influences the way teachers teach as the diverse structure of the class demand special teaching methods. For instance, according to Topping & Maloney (2005), critics of inclusive education often point to absence of teaching methods or practices to support it (p.36). Teachers therefore often focus on inclusive teaching strategies they can use for students with special needs. Teaching in a manner that all students can process and understand the material using a set of flexible teaching strategies that are designed to support each student’s learning needs (Fallon & Brown 2010, p.8). 3. Critical and Perceptive Reflection Inclusive education is generally intended to eradicate exclusiveness in our society where children or adult with special needs are being placed separately from the mainstream education system. Inclusive education is complex and discussing its implications on teaching practices requires significant research and analysis. However, despite the challenges, this assignment attempted to present a more detailed view of issues surrounding inclusive teaching and evaluate their significance to present and future role of a teacher. The assignment brought out the reality of including students with disabilities into the mainstream education system, the impact of legislations on teaching practices, the causes of unequal outcomes in inclusive setting, and the implications of inclusive education to teaching practices. Teaching practices evolved along with the learning needs of people in our society. Similarly, teachers’ role will be transformed along with the changing government policies and educational framework. However, although considerable research have been taken, the assignment may have overlooked some aspect of inclusive education due to limitations of resource and limited understanding of its associated social, political, and cultural characteristics. Similarly, there may be some implications in teaching practices that are not discussed or covered but not explained sufficiently. The assignment also lack some actual details since its statistical data were only based on available literature rather field surveys conducted for this assignment’s purpose. 4. Conclusion The implication of inclusive education to teaching practices is mainly on the large preparation that should made in order to handle a diverse class. Since the system is all about teaching al students regardless of the circumstances, teachers need to strive more and ensure equal outcomes. However, teaching in this setting may not be easy since teachers should consider critical issues such discrimination, cultural, social, and language barriers. They should have a full understanding of the concept and well prepared to reach its goals. Moreover, they need to accept the reality that inclusive education demands special teaching methods and therefore the need to upgrade their knowledge and skills is necessary. 5. 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