Source: Sarkar, R. (2015). Quality teacher education is an instrument to ensure inclusive education:

need, challenges and possible solutions. University News (A Weekly Journal of Higher Education by

Association of Indian Universities), 53(23), 22-26.

Quality Teacher Education is an Instrument to Ensure Inclusive Education:

Need, Challenges and Possible Solutions

By

Ratan Sarkar

Research Scholar

Ramakrishna Mission Vivekananda University,

Faculty of Disability Management and Special Education, E-mail ID:ratansarkarju@gmail.com,

Mobile No. 08012895837

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ABSTRACT

Inclusive education is premised on a philosophy of educational reform which ensures equity,

social justice and quality education for all people irrespective of their caste, creed, religion,

region, gender, language, socio-economic background, ability, disability or other characteristics

without any discrimination. The fundamental principle of inclusive education claims that all

children should learn together wherever possible regardless of any difficulties or differences

they may have. Inclusive school must recognize and respond to the diverse needs of their

students, accommodating both different styles and rates of learning (Lipsky & Gartner, 1999).

An extensive research literature provides evidence that learning in and achievement of learner

highly depends upon the quality and competence of teachers (Gustafsson, 2003; OECD, 2005).

Quality and competence of teachers are the outcomes of quality teacher education. Therefore, it

is needed to ensure quality teacher education by reviewing the existing practice of teacher

education, restructuring and modifying the curriculum in the light of inclusive education in India

so that teachers can understand and respond dynamically to the diverse needs of all the learners

and accept the involved challenges thereof. This, in turn, can help realizing the aims of inclusive

education and contribute positively for the development of our nation. The present thematic

paper advocates strongly the need of quality teacher education to promote inclusive education,

its various challenges, and possible solutions in wake of incisive education.

**Keywords: Inclusive Education, Quality Teacher Education, Needs, Challenges & Possible

Solutions.

Introduction

Inclusive society is the need of the hour that can be made possible only when there is total

inclusion in education. Now inclusive education is the most feasible plan of getting across of

education to each child. The meaning of inclusion has emerged as a result of social justice

movement in the field of disability which emphasizes that the school create an environment in

which children with special needs are seen as an active member of the social community with

competence and capability for making positive contribution. Inclusive education as a concept is a

notion that requires school to respond to the varying competencies of children (Sandil & Singh,

2004). Inclusive education is a human right approach and the philosophy for attaining equity,

justice and quality education for all children, especially those who have been traditionally

excluded from mainstream education due to disability, ethnicity, gender or other characteristics.

It is a human right approach. UNESCO, in 2005, has defined that it is a process of addressing

and responding to the diverse needs of all learners by increasing participation in learning and

reducing exclusion within and from education. In this context of education, the restructuring of

school on inclusive lines is a reflection of the social model in action (Mittler, 2000). The

fundamental principle of inclusive school is that all children should learn together wherever

possible regardless of any difficulties or differences they may have. Inclusive school must

recognize and respond to the diverse needs of their students, accommodating both different styles

and rates of learning and ensuring quality education to all through appropriate curricula,

organizational arrangements, teaching strategies, resource use and partnership with their

communities (Lipsky & Gartner, 1999). The basic purpose of inclusive approach is to improve

the quality of life through facilitating interactions between the children with and without special

needs that would contribute to both bonding and building a complete society.

Teacher Education: Conceptual Framework However, a complete and successful implementation of inclusive education programs depends on

a numbers of variables. One such variable, and perhaps the most important one, is the teacher

education. Teacher education includes the policies and procedures designed to equip teachers

with the knowledge, attitudes, behaviours, and skills they require to perform their tasks

effectively in the school and classroom. We may define teacher education as such

institutionalized educational procedures that are aimed at the purposefully organized preparation

or further education of teachers who are engaged directly or indirectly in educational activities.

Teacher education aims at helping the teacher in understanding the nature, abilities, aptitudes,

developmental level, individual differences, emotion, instincts, sentiments, ambitions of the child

and assists them in making better adjustments.

The secondary Education Commission (1952-53), has rightly observed the need of

teacher for improving the quality and standard of education. After reviewing the status and

service conditions of teachers, The Education Commission (1964-66) has pointed out, “Of all the

different factors which influence the quality of education and its contribution to national

development, the quality, competence and character of teachers are undoubtedly the most

significant”. The Ministry of Education Document “Challenge of Education a Policy

Perspective” (1985) has mentioned, “Teacher performance is the most crucial input in the field

of education. Whatever policies may be laid down in the ultimate analysis these have to be

interpreted and implemented by teachers as much through their personal example as through

teaching learning process.” The National Educational policy (1986) has also stated, “The status

of the teacher reflects the socio-cultural ethos of a society; it is said that no people can rise above

the level of its teachers. The Government and the community should endeavour to create

conditions which will help motivate and inspire teachers on constructive and creative lines.

Teachers should have the freedom to innovate to devise appropriate methods of communication

and activities relevant to the needs and capabilities of the concerns of the community.”

According to Loreman and Deppeler (2001), “Inclusion means full inclusion of children

with diverse abilities (that is both giftedness and disability) in all aspects of schooling that other

children are able to access and enjoy. It involves „regular‟ schools and classrooms genuinely

adapting and changing to meet the needs of all children as well as celebrating and valuing

differences.” In an ideal system of inclusive education, the general education itself should make

the education of children with special needs as its integral part. The implied meaning of this is

that general educators should be equipped with knowledge and skills to address the learning and

other needs of children with special needs with minimum or no assistance from special

educators. This demands the requirement of incorporating all those components in the pre-

service as well as service training curriculum which are needed to prepare a teacher suitable for

inclusive education. It is commonly thought that education of a child with special needs in

general school is inclusion but it cannot be treated as total inclusion. Total or full inclusion refers

to when general school system including teachers take most of the responsibilities for education

of children with special needs.

Need of Quality Teacher Education for Inclusive Education: Supportive Reviews

Savolainen (2009) notes that teacher‟s competence plays an essential role in quality education.

Studies suggest (Sanders & Horn, 1998; Bailleul et al., 2008) that the quality of the teacher

contributes more to learner achievement than any other factor, including class size, class

composition, or background. The need for „high quality‟ teachers equipped to meet the needs of

all learners becomes evident to provide not only equal opportunities for all, but also education

for an inclusive society. Reynolds (2001) says that it is the knowledge, beliefs and values of the

teacher that are brought to bear in creating an effective learning environment for pupils, making

the teacher a critical influence in education for inclusion and the development of the inclusive

school. Romi and Leyser (2006) reported that favorably disposed teachers toward the inclusion

of students with disabilities in regular education classrooms employ more effective instructional

strategies than those who hold negative attitudes. Researchers (Cook, 2001; Ross-Hill, 2009)

have also found out that there is a positive correlation between supportive attitudes by teachers

and enhanced performance by students with disabilities who were included in regular

classrooms. Literature indicates that teachers‟ actions and performance in classrooms are greatly

influenced by their knowledge of the learning characteristics of their students and these have

profound impact on learning processes (Philpott, Furey, & Penney, 2010; Pinar & Sucuoglou,

2011). In a research conducted on regular primary and secondary school teachers in Delhi it was

found that nearly 70% of the regular school teachers had neither received training in special

education nor had any experience teaching students with disabilities (Das, A.K., Kuyini, A.B., &

Desai, I.P., 2013) whereas regular school teachers are increasingly required to be sensitive to the

curricular needs, styles and rates of learning and levels of motivation of students with special

needs. They are expected to design, implement and evaluate the educational program based on

the students‟ assessed needs and create active and appropriate learning situations through

integrative, flexible and interdisciplinary instructional strategies (Kochhar & West, 1996). They

would also be required to participate in Individual Education Program (IEP) meetings and work

in partnership with special education teachers, para-professionals, parents, and other service

providers (Ashman & Elkins, 2009). Therefore, it is evident that the learning in and achievement

of learner is highly dependent upon the quality and competence of teachers. Competent teachers

can only be possible when there is quality in pre-service and in-service teacher education.

Challenges to Ascertain Quality Teacher Education

Teacher education India has been trying hard to strengthen its quality. After independence

government of India had undertaken number of initiatives to promote quality teacher education

in order to ensure quality education to one and all irrespective of any diversity. However, it is

true that after persistent struggle there is evident improvement, but still there is no end to the

perfection. Some of the challenges relating to quality teacher education which are confronting

the successful implementation of inclusive education in its true spirit are highlighted below:

1. Arbitrary Teacher Education programme: There is implementation of arbitrary ideas in

teacher education at national level. Why should there be two year B.Ed. for pre-service

teachers whereas there is integrated B.Sc. / B.A. Ed. is of four years programme? And if it

so, then why supremacy is not given to B.Sc. /B.A. and B.Ed. instead of treating B.Sc. /B.A.

& B.Ed and integrated B.A. /B.Sc. Ed. equally?

2. Institutional Inertia and Brand Inequity: Due to the divergence of state, society, judiciary

and education there is institutional inertia. Earlier the society was governed by society, and

then state started governing the society, now the economy is overarching both the society

and state. There is also public private dichotomy of the teacher education. Education has

largely been commercialized by private and corporate sectors in India which in turn weigh

down the quality of teacher.

3. Incompetency of Students and Teachers: The existing training programme does not

provide adequate opportunities to the student teachers to develop competency because the

organizers of teacher's training programme are not aware of the existing problems of

schools.

4. Poor Integration of Humane and Professional Skills among Teachers: The teacher

education for preparing humane and professional skilled teachers needs to be holistic. Along

with content and methodology there is a need to integrate emotional competencies, passion,

positive will, self-awareness, social sensitivity, self-management, empathy, interpersonal

relationship, critical thinking, understanding of individual difference with regard to needs,

ways of learning, and rates of learning, effective communication, problems solving, decision

making, leadership, life skills, techno-pedagogic skills, human developmental skills, and

spiritual skills etc. However the present teacher education system has failed to cultivate

most of the above mentioned skills within the teachers.

5. Alienated and Incompatible Modes of Education: There is little parity amongst various

modes of education, such as distance mode, e-mode, and face to face mode. Distance mode

is diluted, e-mode is infancy, and the face to face mode is stagnant. There is no network

amongst the various modes of teacher education. They are functioning more or less in

isolation.

6. Rare Innovations: Innovations in teacher education are very rare. It may be attributed to

many factors. Novel ideas do not incubate because of the adverse external conditions. There

are wide gaps between the visionaries and actors. So very often the innovations have short

life and die down in the institutions, where these originate. Some time the most innovative

programmes fail in the formal system due to environment, poor socio-economic status,

politics, and rigid policies, legislations, and stipulated boundaries of apex body.

7. Poor Research Scenario: Research in education is replicate and repetitive devoid of

freshness, either of problem or of approach or of methodology. There are more quantitative

studies than qualitative. The studies are also scattered and unlinked. There is lack of

continuity, cumulativeness, and synthesis. Most of the studies are descriptive rather than

preventive and ameliorative. Culture of incubation of ideas is grossly lacking, what to talk

of inculcation. Statistics and psychometrics are superimposing reality.

8. Inadequate Techno-Pedagogy Skills and ICT Illiteracy: We are in the era of information

communication technology. Researchers have proved that technology plays a vital role in

enhancing the quality and competence of the teacher. It enables teachers to deal with the

diverse problems arise in the classroom. Still the advance techno-pedagogical skills have not

been included in the teacher education programme in a fabric manner in India and as a

result, most of the teachers do not have knowledge of the availability, benefits and using

strategies of technology in classroom situations.

9. Isolation of Special Education: Very less importance has been given on the subjects and

pedagogies of special education in the general teacher education programme. As a result the

teachers, who have been trained under general teacher education programme, often fail to

cater the needs of children with special needs in inclusive settings. On the other hand the

number of special education institutions is very few and not capable of producing special

educators in proportion with the numbers of children with special needs in India.

10. Comprehensive Teacher Profile for Inclusive Education in Digital Age: Teacher for

inclusive education in the digital age has to be highly versatile, resourceful, and techno-

literate, because the inclusive class may be composed of audio impaired, visually

challenged, deaf and dumb, and children with learning disabilities or intellectual disabilities,

etc.

11. Problems of Practice Teaching: Inspire of all kinds of elaborate arrangements regarding

practice in teaching, student teachers are non-serious to the task of teaching, deficient in

sense of duty irresponsible, aimless, indifferent to children, lacking innovative measure in

teaching which are great obstacles in the development of pedagogical skills.

Other Challenges:

Selection problem

Insufficient financial grants

Stake holders non- alignment

Domain-pedagogy mismatches

No teacher education policy

Lack of culture-specific pedagogy

Problem of supervision of teaching

Narrow scope of teacher education

Little contribution to higher education

Deficient in facilities for pupil-teacher

Deficient in content of the teaching subjects

Segregation of teacher education departments

Lack of facilities for professional development

Methods of teaching are lacking in innovation

Poor academic background of student-teachers

No provisions of assistive technology and devices

Open education sources are fully not functional

Rare involvement of multi-disciplinary professional

Teacher education program have narrow and rigid curriculum

Rare expression of ICT aided constructivist approaches in education

Probable Solutions:

In addition to the above challenges the following solutions are proposed for improving the

quality of teacher education in order to confirm proper implementation of inclusive education in

India which in turn will ensure holistic development of the individual as well as of the nation-

Incorporating special education in curriculum of general B.Ed.

Developing teacher education policy in India

Regulations and norms of teacher education

Manpower planning in teacher education

Appropriate methodology in teaching

Internship in place of practice teaching

Transferring special education under MHRD

Introducing universal design of learning

Research in educational technology, ICT and historical, economical and philosophical

foundations

Professional skill development in the areas of cooperative learning, peer tutoring, adaptive

curriculum, varied learning styles, etc.

Collaboration between schools and teacher training institutions

Sufficient funding so that colleges will be able to develop programs for student teachers

based on the need of the existing education system

Proper selection of teachers for training with adequacy in numbers

Innovating most efficient teacher education programmes

Formation of association for subject teachers and multidisciplinary professionals

Addressing challenges of the present times developing multi-cultural, multi-lingual, multi-

level, and multi-national teacher education

Introducing course on digital technology and assistive technology

MOU between technology agencies and apex educational institutions

Advancement of infrastructure and learning materials

Focus on comprehensive teacher education programme

Priorities and motivating teacher for in-service education

Curriculum improvement in teacher education through research

School and workshop based practice in distance teacher training

Inter link between both general and special B.Ed. and M.Ed. course

Partnering teacher education with school sector for promotion of quality assurance

Establishment of proper network and collaboration between RCI and NCTE

Organization and management of a decentralized distance teacher education programme

Conclusion:

To conclude it can be said that as the teacher is the pivot of the entire educational system and is

the main catalytic agent for introducing desirable changes in the teaching learning process, all

attempts need be made to improve the teacher education programme so that it can gift us the

quality and competent teachers capable of meeting the diverse needs of each and every students

irrespective of their abilities and disabilities in an inclusive classroom. They are to be motivated

to become dynamic, enthusiastic, positive, innovative, and creative. It is a proven fact that self

motivated and really industrious teacher can utilize his own resources to keep himself abreast of

new knowledge and skills and teachers with adequate knowledge about various disciplines show

positive attitude towards his/her students. Teacher education program should be structured and

modified based on the findings of the researches in the field of education. Content, pedagogy,

and technology are to be integrated. Furthermore, at the time of planning for teacher education

programme, policies, legislations, needs of the society and students, futuristic perspective,

employability, technological advancement, and infrastructural issues should be given due

attention.

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