Inclusive education

How can integration of inclusive education to Kazakhstani education system help students with
special needs to socialize?

Introduction
Inclusive education means that students with disabilities study in regular classrooms with
common students and are supported to learn, participate in all events of the school life. For a
long time, children with disabilities were educated in separate classes or in separate schools.
Now this system of education has already developed. For example, few countries such as
Austria, Norway, Denmark, Sweden and Finland have already gained some experience with
resource centers; others such as Cyprus, Portugal are implementing the system (Meijer, 2010). In
some countries like Spain, special schools are obliged to co-operate with mainstream school.
Despite these cases, inclusive education is still one of the most dominant issues in the education
of the world. For example, in Kazakhstan there are huge problems that are connected with
implementation of inclusive education. They are incorrect attitude towards children with
disabilities, no specially trained teaching staff, very low level of material-technical and
methodical equipment educational institutions (”Inclusive education in Kazakhstan: problems
and prospects”,2016).In addition, there is a problem of inadequate psychological help provided
to children. According to Esirgepova (2014) currently 56 psychological, medical and
pedagogical consultations operate in Kazakhstan financed by local budgets. However, agreed to
regulations, the number of such organizations in the country should be 79.It means that children
up to the age of 18 who are experiencing problems in education, communication and social
adaptation are lacking free psychological-pedagogical and medico-social assistance.

The relevance of this issue is dictated by the time we live in. Psychologists believe that children
with special needs should not be eliminated from the society in order to have a chance for a
happy life (Clark, 2015). Moreover, all children should have equal opportunities for high-quality
education.
One of the motivation factors that influenced the choice of the topic is a video where a girl
named Megan Bomgaars sent her powerful message to the teachers of her school and thus she
wants to show how to teach students the right way. The most important her desire is not to limit
her and other students in everything because they all have the same rights in this society.
Moreover, it is important to state my personal interest in the research, as I wanted to know more
about taking individual action to change my own lifestyle because I believe that we have an
ethical responsibility to care for the disabled students. In the future this project can be taken into
serious consideration of the government and solve some problems of inclusive education in
Kazakhstan.
Aims:
The purpose of the research project was to understand the ways to help students with special
needs to socialize by integrating inclusive education to Kazakhstani education system.
That is why the research was guided by the following questions:
 How can inclusive education help students with special needs to develop socially?
 What advantages can this system bring to the society?
 Is our society ready to welcome and help to develop the inclusive education?

The aim was to define how important this issue was in our country and to understand how
integrating of inclusive education would change the current system. This includes attitudes of
local people and information about taking individual action to change their lifestyle because I
believe that we have an ethical responsibility to care for disabled students.

The results of the research were intended to explain the advantages and socializing ways for
students with special needs. Moreover, the outcomes can help to enhance the understanding of
local people about the advantages of inclusive education and reflect on actions that they can take.
Thus, the main outcome of the study was an encouragement of people to feel responsibility,
tolerance and justice towards people with special needs.

Methods
The research design used in this study is mixed as it contains both, qualitative and quantitative
methods of data collection. It was important to gather an in-depth understanding of humans who
really have the background knowledge about this issue and can give reasons for choosing one
side, which they consider the best solution. Therefore, a qualitative method was chosen for the
study. This type of research investigates “why” and “how” of decision making. It gives
absolutely clear, high-quality excellent result.Besides this, it is also important to examine the
phenomenon through observations in numerical representations and through statistical analysis.
Therefore, in order to define opinions of people who play a big role in this case quantitative
research was used. Along with questions that were given out to respondents for the statistical
representation of the findings in the study, interviews with a few experts in this field were also
conducted.
The background information about the issue of inclusive education and the importance of the
issue around the world was investigated through secondary research. Thus, the following
questions were answered by literature review:
 How can inclusive education help students with special needs to develop socially?
 What advantages can this system bring to the society?
 Is our society ready to welcome and help to develop the inclusive education?

The first primary research method used to find out public opinion was a face-to-face interview.
The questionnaire was targeted upon teachers who received training on inclusive education.
This method helped to gather credible evidence that is relevant to the research question as the
participants were aware of the difficulties that disabled students and students of regular classes
mostly have, the period of adaptation to such new system.

The second primary research method was a survey. It was beneficial because it is not so difficult
to collect data for analysis. There were both open and closed questions that help to answerers
choose a suitable option and give a freedom answer.

As for the target population for a survey students of Nazarbayev Intellectual school, namely 11th
grades were chosen because the students of this grade are older and therefore have a wider view
on the problem. They are ones who play a significant role in the socialization of disabled
students and therefore their opinions were relevant. There was an access to students through
emails or social networks and they are active users of the internet so getting a sufficient number
of participants was planned to be easy and quick. The target population size was 180 because the
purpose was to investigate opinion of students NIS. Recommended sample size for this survey
was 100 and this is enough to obtain necessary information.

For the survey several questions were sent. It lasted for 5-7 minutes for each individual. Finally,
using a table of answers a chart with percentages was plotted to interpret the data clearer.
Before conducting an interview the interview protocol was given to each participant with special
notes informing that the interview would be audio recorded, the time(5-7 minutes) for an
interview and the number of semi-structured questions(about 10) to be asked. Afterward, the
informed consent form was given asking for an agreement to take part in the study with a full
explanation of the procedure. After interviewing transcripts were written.
There were several limitations during the secondary research, such as the sources without
verified authorships. The presence of unanswered questions was an additional problem. The first,
forth and the fifth questions of the survey were answered by only 98, 97 respondents out of 100.

Context
“Inclusive Education is defined as a learning environment that promotes the full personal,
academic and professional development of all learners irrespective of race, class, color, gender,
disability, learning styles and language”(NCSNET, 1997, South Africa). Inclusive systems
ensure better education for all students and play an important role in change of discrimination
approaches providing development of the social relations and interactions. Their respect and
understanding raise when students of various abilities and backgrounds play, communicate and
study together (Open Society Foundations,2015).
At present, the problem of inclusive education is relevant worldwide. This phenomenon also is
not left unattended in Kazakhstan. This problem should be emphasized, as the number of
children with congenital and acquired malformations is growing every year. According to
Bekirova (2010), there is the tendency of increase in number of children with limited
opportunities in the republic. Their quantity was 120 thousand in 2002, and then in 2009 it
became more than 147 thousand. There are about 24 thousand children of school age studying at
101 correctional schools and 820 specialized classes at comprehensive schools. Among 37
thousand preschool children with special needs in Kazakhstan, only 4 thousand are integrated on
the educational environment (Bekirova,2010). These numbers prove the relevance of the issue.
As the practice of inclusive education is more broadly used, we recognized its advantages. Based
on the recent research four of the most important benefits of inclusive education for disabled
students can be described as the following:
 provides access to the general education program
 increases social initiations, relationships and networks
 formulates all pupils for adult life in an inclusive society
 gives the opportunity to master the skills of interaction in the natural environment
(Thomas, 2013).
The issue can be viewed from a number of different perspectives. The first one is educational
perspective. Inclusive education must be introduced to Kazakhstani system in order to develop
the whole education.
There are several justifications for this
  Regardless of talent, disability, social status, cultural origin students study together in
supportive atmosphere.
 Teachers improve their professional skills (Sankar, 2014).

There is also a social perspective. In a modern century such school values as cooperation and
collaboration, that play an important role in every person’s life, are necessary for our society.
Researchers claim that separated education teaches children to be afraid, ignorant and generate
prejudices. Only inclusive education can reduce these sides, build friendship, respect and
understanding by educating all children together and create the foundation for fair and non-
discriminatory society (CSIE Report, 2002). It can be proven by the example of Oliver (1996), a
person with disabilities, who claimed that regular education system could provide him with
knowledge and skills to perform his rights and obligations as a citizen. In contrast, he believes
that special education system operates to eliminate them from the process of education and wider
social life. Thus, he saw inclusion as a political as well as an educational process (Mitchell,
2010).

Thirdly, there is an economic perspective. Inclusive education is less costly to build and support
schools that educate all children together than to create a difficult system of various types of
schools designed for different groups of children (UNESCO 2009, p. 9).
The specialist of inclusive education Hassan (2006) estimates programs of inclusive education in
South Africa, Bangladesh, Vietnam and Nepal. He found that special schools education was
much more expensive in comparison with inclusive education. It is oriented on professional, but
not academic subjects and tended to isolate handicapped children from society and society from
handicapped children (Governance and Social Development Resource Centre, 2012). Moreover,
educating students within an inclusive classroom is more profitable than a segregated education
model. A study completed by Professors of Education and Principal Investigators Affleck,
Madge, Adams and Lowenbraun in 1988 found that students with disabilities educated in
inclusive settings had an employment rate of 73% while those in segregated programs had an
employment rate of 53%(Walkerstorfer,2011,para 10).
Some countries have already switched to this system fully when others are trying to develop it
performing various tests and experiments. For example, inclusive education is at a high level in
the USA, as it has been developing for decades. There are about 5 million children with
disabilities in the USA and the majority of them (96%) study in regular schools. 290 733
children in Russia study inclusively.142 659 children study in a regular classroom with normal
children and 148 074 study in special classes of a regular school (“How does Inclusive education
help children with disabilities in modern society?”,2015).
Above-mentioned once again proves that inclusive education has good influence for not only
disabled students but also both society and our government. That is why this research will
explore this topic in different ways and look at the possible methods of developing inclusive
education in our country.

Results
Research that was included both quantitative and qualitative methods was valuable. The
interviews and surveys were quite significant, as there were people whose opinions were
completely coincide with the information which were found on the Internet and described in the
Context.
To sum up, the main findings were that the majority of respondents informed about the general
concept of inclusive education and its positive influence on students with special needs.
The analysis of data for each question is set out in Appendix. The main findings from the
questionnaire can be summarized as:
 The data from Question 1 shows that 80 percent of respondents know what inclusive
education is and have background knowledge about it as they got acquainted with this
topic in this academic year, while 20 percent of respondents answered that they have no
idea about it.
 In response to Question 2, 55 people answered that they have positive attitude to studying
with disabled students, when 15 percent of participants have negative reaction and 33%
of answerers aren’t ready yet.
 90% of students have confidence in that they will affect them (see the Table 1). 10% of
respondents disagree with this opinion.
 In addition, all students know the most important goal of integrating inclusive education
(see chart 1).

 Despite all this there are some barriers that can interfere on the way of training
together with students with special needs (see chart 2).
  As the data from Question 7 shows, because of these problems students are not ready yet
to work and study with students with special needs. They were asked to rate on a five-
point scale how much they are prepared in case if inclusive education will be introduced
in their school, the weighted average was only 2.78.
By summarizing the answers of interviewees, it was found that their opinions are similar:
 For the first question 2 of interviewees gave such a notion that a system of inclusive
education is a new basic education for students with disabilities. It can give a high-quality
education as all work with children will be differentially and necessarily give their
results.
 For the next question both of the interviewees answered that the first positive side of this
system is that a child can find his/her place in life and understand that he/she needs this
world, because he/she is on an equal footing with all healthy children. In general,
inclusive education makes a great contribution to social development for disabled
students, that is, they can obtain the necessary knowledge and become who they wish to
be. Consequently, they make the conditions for a future life themselves.
 The answers to the question are different, but the main idea is the same: the most
important problem is the lack of understanding of the necessity of inclusive education
and unsystematism in the beginning of working with this system.
 The interviewees suggest that first, a system of inclusive education should be worked out
specifically and only then it allows us to solve this issue.
The data gathered relates to the purpose of the research written in aims section as is as clearly
identifies the ways to help disabled students to socialize and all questions were answered
consequently.

Overall, the analysis of the data shows that people of Aktobe, more precisely, teachers and 11th
grade students of Nazarbayev Intellectual School are generally aware of the issue of inclusive
education. However, the problem is that the majority of people support this system of education,
but it is still not developed sufficiently in our country and special conditions for its development
have not been created.
Conclusion
In the course of research work it was succeeded to answer the questions posed more
exhaustively.
 How can inclusive education help students with special needs to develop socially?
Inclusive education allows pupils with disabilities to achieve certain successes, allowing them to
realize their own importance. The social competence and communication skills of children with
disabilities are improving in an inclusive environment. This is largely due to the fact that
disabled students have more opportunities for social interaction with their healthy peers who act
as carriers of the model of social and communicative competence inherent in this age. They will
bear the shock more less when it comes to adapting to the world later on.
 What advantages can this system bring to the society?
Inclusive schools are useful because
 they are cultivating people who respect diversity, appreciate differences and accept the
abilities and capabilities of everyone.
 their graduates are best prepared to meet future global challenges.
 enable all members of the school staff to invest their unique talents in the overall activity.
 develop the professional knowledge of teachers.
 Provide many ways to support families and members of society. They provide various
types of necessary assistance, from education sessions to links to medical, psychological
and social services.

 Is our society ready to welcome and help to develop the inclusive education?
Students were asked to rate on a five-point scale how much they are prepared in case if inclusive
education will be introduced in their school, the weighted average was only 2.78. Due to results
that have been done, it can be concluded that our society is ready to accept inclusive education in
the middle level.
To achieve the highest level, it is necessary to solve a number of problems in the development of
inclusive education:
 weak teaching and methodological base
 lack of necessary equipment
 lack of a full legislative basis
As a result of these studies, it can be concluded that inclusive education has an effective
influence not only on children with disabilities, but also for regular students, parents, teachers,
in short-on the society. Undoubtedly, there is an increasing awareness of this system among
young people in our school. This should be continued and improved through courses such as
Global Perspectives at other schools. However, despite the above advantages, our society is not
yet ready to accept inclusive education at a sufficient level. Therefore, several more studies are
needed.

Evaluation
In general, the results of the research were successfully completed and the main research
questions were fully described and answered.
The secondary research strengths are that there were used credible sources of information with
confident and trustworthy data and statistics. For instance, the Centre for Studies on Inclusive
Education can be accepted as reliable organizations as they have an ability to see the situation
and provide people with accurate statistics. However, there were different views on the impact of
inclusive education on disabled students in other sources such as individual writers who work for
newspapers may have been biased due to their personal attitudes to this issue. Therefore, it was
decided to include more relevant information given by neutral sources.
According to the conducted primary research, it is possible to formulate a fairly clear conclusion.
They were based on interviews with two teachers and perspectives of 100 students of
Nazarbayev Intellectual school. However, it is wrong to declare the accuracy of the results of
the study, relying only on the results of a survey of students only from one school. But also with
detailed explanations of answers to questions and almost similar answers from all respondents, it
is possible to draw approximate conclusions for the rest.
What about my personal point of view, it has not changed much as the answers given in both
interviews and questionnaire were similar to my perspectives. Moreover, the results of both
primary and secondary types of research prove the rightness of my point of view.
Despite the good results, it would be possible improve their reliability and reduce the inaccuracy
with a larger number of respondents for a deeper introduction to the problem and to conduct
interview among psychologists and specialists on inclusive education, parents for a confident
generalization of the findings. Nevertheless, these results increased the confidence of reliability
of the data described in the context part. Also, the authority of research is high because
interviews were conducted among teacher. Teachers are experts in educational aspect, and they
have experience and ability to see. Therefore their opinions have huge value.

Further research

There are given further strategies what could be done better to improve the results of the research
work:

 First of all, more research should be conducted on the perspectives of different group
ages, because project mainly was completed with information regarding students of 11th
grade. Primary methods could be used for clarification parents’ opinions of both regular
and disabled students because their perspectives could be different about this issue and it
could be useful for improving research. Understanding their answers on questions about
the influence of inclusive education on students with special needs is an important part of
the research because all of these age groups are parts of one society.
 Secondly, it is better to involve more qualified people to this research work. Surely,
interviews taken from two teachers gave an opportunity to be clearly informed about the
current issue. However, a few more respondents who work in the sphere of inclusive
education, physiologists should be interviewed in order to determine the significance of
the problem in Kazakhstan.
 It is important to conduct separate conversations with disabled adults, as they have many
experiences and they can tell us what children can feel in an environment with regular
students and give some advice for further successful work with them.
 It would be good to conduct a small experiment for a certain period of time, that is, to
teach a few disabled children among regular students. Only then it would be possible to
obtain a consistent outcome by implementing the results in practice.

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