Bridging the Gap Between Theory and Practice in Inclusive Education

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Bridging the Gap Between Theory and Practice in
Inclusive Education

• Dr Christine Lloyd
• c.lloyd_at_fontys.nl

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Inclusion

• No consensus multiple definitions
• different
  interpretations in policy and
• practice
• Political vested interests
• economic interests
• Controversial

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How does policy define inclusion ?

• Salamanca (1994) 90 countries signed up
• The right for every child to education
• Individual difference, abilities, interests,
  needs
• Education systems designed to take account of
  wide diversity
• Access to regular schools
• Child centred pedagogy
• Regular schools with an inclusive orientation
  most effective, cost effective, efficient way of
  providing education for all

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Major Changes in Policy

• Europe also many other countries throughout
• the world
• Move away from medical deficit model towards
  contextual/social
• model
• More children with SEN should be educated in
• mainstream
• New organisation of schools - units attached to
  schools, resource schools, consortia
• Compensatory resourcing Rugzak, Statementing
• SENCOs, Ambulant Begeleiders, Internal
  Co-ordinators Learning Support Staff, in-class
  support
• New roles for special schools
• New roles teachers mainstream and special
• Parents as partners
• Multi professional collaboration

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Problematic Issues Arising from Policy for
Inclusion

• Terminology - Integration changed to
  inclusion no definitions about what
  inclusion really means. Complex problematic
  controversial concept.
• Inclusion seen as changing the location of
  provision
• Contradictory policies e.g. exclusion of pupils
  on grounds of behaviour
• Continuing exclusive and competitive mainstream
  schooling system traditional content heavy
  curriculum
• Standards agenda assessment as performance
  league tables norm related assessment, tests,
  exams
• Teachers held responsible for implementation of
  policies they dont understand or even in some
  cases know about
• Resistance to change teachers, other education
  professionals, parents, pupils

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Issues for Practice

• Widening gap between the rhetoric of policy and
  the reality in practice
• Deficit policies and often contradictory policies
  can lead to confusion about priorities and
  perpetuation of the status quo
• Lack of awareness and understanding about what we
  mean by inclusion and that inclusion is a
  problematic and controversial issue
• Teachers feel that they are not adequately
  equipped to deal with the changes and become
  disempowered, inadequate and overwhelmed and
  this can lead to resistant attitudes to change
• A lack of adequate professional development and
  initial teacher training in the area

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• Collaboration between teachers and often parents
  difficult and problematic. Negative attitudes to
  inclusion
• Multi professional approaches lack of genuine
  communication, vested interests etc.
• More children in segregated special schools
• Increase in exclusions on the grounds of
  behaviour
• Making excuses e.g. resourcing, lack of time,
  class size etc.

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Underpinning Principles for Inclusion

• Salamanca(1994) 90 countries signed up
• The right for every child to education
• Individual difference, abilities, interests,
  needs
• Education systems designed to take account of
  wide diversity
• Access to regular schools
• Child centred pedagogy
• Regular schools with an inclusive orientation
  most effective, cost effective, efficient way of
  providing education for all

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Childrens Manifesto Guardian Newspaper
June 5th 2001

• A beautiful school with glass dome roofs to let
  in the light, uncluttered classrooms and
  brightly coloured walls.
• A comfortable school with sofas and beanbags,
  cushions on the floors, tables that dont
  scrape our knees, blinds that keep out the sun,
  and quiet rooms where we can chill
  out.
• A safe school with swipe cards for the school
  gates, anti-bully alarms, first aid
  classes and someone to talk to about our
  problems.
• A listening school with children on the governing
  body, class representatives and the chance to
  vote for the teachers.
• A flexible school without rigid timetables or
  exams, without compulsory
  homework, without a one size fits all curriculum,
  so we
• can follow our own interests and
  spend more time on what we enjoy.

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• A relevant school where we learn through
  experience, experiments
  and exploration, with trips to historic site
  and
  teachers who have practical experience of what
  they teach.
• A respectful school where we are not treated as
  empty vessels to be
• filled with information, where teachers
  treat us as individuals, where children and
  adults can talk freely to each other, and our
  opinion matters.
• A school without walls so we can go outside to
  learn, with animals to look after and
  wild gardens to explore
• A school for everybody with boys and girls from
  all backgrounds and abilities, with no
  grading, so we dont compete against each other
  but just do our best.

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Mel Ainscow (1998)

• Inclusive education is really a process of
  people enquiring into their own context to see
  how it can be developed. It is a social process
  and it engages people in making sense of their
  experience and helping one another to question
  their experience and their context to see how
  things can be moved on

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How Can We Narrow the Gap ?

• Initial Teacher Education and Continuing
  Professional Development empowering,
  development of more understanding about what we
  mean by inclusion and the implications of moving
  towards it and developing more inclusive
  practice.
• Critically Reflective Practitioners with the
  skills and knowledge necessary who expect to
  continuously reflect on and evaluate their
  practice in order to change and develop it.
  Welcoming challenge and change.
• Professionally Oriented Research Education
  professionals engaging in informed critical
  reaction research with a view to changing and
  developing themselves and their practice.
• Collaboration recognition of the complex and
  problematic nature of this process. Working
  together to share, learn from and with, and
  address some of the complex problems which arise.
  Collaborative research and projects about
  important and controversial topics in need of
  change and transformation.

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Tasks for us..

• Discuss, debate, define some underlying
  principles for inclusion and inclusive practice
  which we can sign up to.
• Discuss and identify skills and areas of
  knowledge which will enable the development of
  empowering, informative ITE and CPD.
• Discuss what form this ITE and CPD should take in
  order to meet our needs.
• Share, critically reflect on, question and
  evaluate our experiences of inclusion in practice
  together.
• Discuss and identify important issues which we
  want to interrogate and research with a view to
  changing practice and narrowing the gap between
  policy and practice.
• Discuss how we might collaborate effectively on
  these projects