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The state of play of inclusive education

EASPD Salzburg conference 22-23th of October 2015

Peder Haug

Volda University College, Norway

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What seem to be the main challenges in developing inclusive

education in a research perspective?

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“There appears, however, to be deep uncertainty about how to create inclusive environments within schools and about

how to teach inclusively.” (Allan, 2008, p 10).

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Coherence

between:

The general understanding and operationalization of inclusive education

State:Values, ideology,

policy

       

MunicipalityOrganisation and

conditions

       

SchoolTeaching

       

StudentsExperiences and

learning

       

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Inclusion then involves two processes, increasing fellowship and participation, and decreasing exclusion from school culture and curricula (Booth, 1996).

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“The current debate is no longer about what inclusion is and why it is needed;

the key question is how it is to be achieved”.

(European Agency for Special Needs and Inclusive Education, 2014a, s. 5).

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“Inclusive education is a complex and problematic concept.”

(David Mitchell, 2005, p 3.)

He finds considerable ambiguities, confusions, and controversies connected to inclusion.

Many of them relate to how to define, understand and operationalize inclusive education.

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z

A. Placement of pupils with disabilities in general education class

B. Meeting the social and/or academic needs of pupils with disabilities

C. Meeting the social and/or academic needs of all pupils

D. Creation of communities with

spesific characteristics

Göransson & Nilholm, 2014

Different approaches to inclusive education

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The narrow definition deals with education for students with disabilities. This is in line

with the origin of the concept, which is special education.

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Inclusive education was a reaction against segregation, marginalization, discrimination and

devaluation because of the special school system, and later because of the practicing of integration in

mainstream settings. In inclusive education the view is that students’ school failures are created by the school system

itself.

Because of its origin, inclusion often concerns placement, about where the teaching is going on,

and together with whom.

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Inclusive education could mean to provide educational opportunities for children with disabilities.

In other countries inclusive education means to teach all students together in a normal school-class setting, where they all receive a teaching that corresponds to

their abilities and interests

In all countries there is a gap between formulations and realizations of inclusive education.

In spite of decisions about inclusiveness, the extent of special education has even increased in many countries

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It could be that special education has received too much attention within inclusive education, at the

expense of exploring inclusion as an idea and practice of its own (Vislie, 2003).

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Inclusion as the best place for learning, under the conditions that the students there have a feeling of

belonging and well-being (Warnok, 2005)

Benefit becomes superior to placement.

On the other hand, the tension between inclusion as learning opportunities and inclusion as placement in

schools for all is a central matter of contention in many European countries (Norwich, 2014).

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The broad view of inclusion concerns all students, referring to the education of all children, and cover

all marginalized groups, not just those with disabilities (Thomas, 2013)

Inclusion is moved from disability to diversity, a terrain that “… now incorporates a more extensive spectrum of concerns and discourses … ” (Thomas,

2013, p. 474).

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Inclusion goes beyond the integrative idea of assimilating children with disabilities into the

existing ordinary school system […] it requires instead, changes to the school system itself which,

inter alia, involve alterations on educationalists’ perceptions of children’s being, some re-thinking of the purposes of education and a reforming of the

system generally, all of which needs consideration in the development of “schools for tomorrow”.

(OECD, 1999, s. 22).

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Under the vision of education for all, some countries actually have overlooked the issue of disability, and

have not been able to provide education for the most disadvantaged students (Miles og Singal, 2010).

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Teacher competence

• One approach is that students in need of special education require distinctive teaching strategies, adapted to each person, and dependent upon what constitutes the learning difficulties in the first place. • The other dominating perspective is that there is no need for

distinctive impairment-oriented strategies for most students. • Meta-studies show that general teaching strategies give the

best results for most students. • “The pedagogic approaches which have been shown to be effective

are accessible for all practitioners. They build on traditional teaching skills and do not require extensive training or deep knowledge of individual impairment characteristics.” (Rix og Sheehy, 2014, s. 471).

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What is in inclusion for the students?

• In many societies, inclusive education is a moral imperative, not in need for empirical support at all (Cara, 2013). • There is no doubt that in developing inclusive education,

empirical evidence has not been especially important. • “Taken as a whole … there is lack of a firm research base

for inclusive education to support either whether this is a preferable approach in terms of outcomes, or how inclusion should be implemented (Lindsay, 2007, s. 16).• With reference to Lise Vislie (2003) the question is to

what extent the introduction of inclusive education is only a linguistic shift or a new educational agenda.

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Coherence between levels in school organization

• Lack of consistency weakens the policy. • It is possible for a country to have an inclusive policy, but not

inclusive practices, and vice versa, have inclusive practices but not inclusive policy. • Dependent upon national circumstances, most nations can

realize some of the values and aspects of inclusion, but not others. • “… a correlation exists between the ideology predominant in a

society […] and its approach to disability and inclusive education […]. (Arduin, 2015, s. 118).

• To be successful, both importers and exporters of inclusive philosophies have to respect local values (Mitchell, 2005a).

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Conclusion

• The practical implementation of inclusive education is the dominating challenge. • To be able to realize inclusive education we have further

to develop teachers’ competence for this particular education.

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Thank you for your attention!