What Inclusive Education Is and

Is not
• Various countries have been finding means and
ways to enhance the education of people with
disabilities. In this search, inclusion is seen as an
answer to the question on how to educate these
children more successfully.
• However, as a new field in education, inclusive
education is not exempted from numerous
misconceptions. Because of misconceptions, it is
just fitting and proper to distinguish what
inclusive education is and what it is not.
 Inclusive Education
• It is fundamentally a mind-set or an attitude
rather than just a law. The attitude here is
seen in a welcoming culture that gives every
child the assistance he needs to reach his full
potentials and be educated to the maximum
extent that is proper if he did have a
disability.
• This requires that classroom activities,
teaching, expectations, and testing should be
adapted o the needs of students to improve
academically and socially. A variety of
support services must also be provided to
learners and their teachers to ensure that the
various needs are met in general education
classrooms.
• Inclusive education is a social accountability and not
just about physical access to schools. It is a collective
responsibility of all school stakeholders manifested
through shared action and participation in caring for
the disabled members of the society.
• One good example of this accountability is when
family members of the disabled children, special
education teachers, and general education teachers
collaborate in addressing this needs. Their cooperation
is important especially in planning and providing fair
opportunity for these children to be included in the
typical learning environment or program of their
choice.
 What inclusion means and what
inclusion does not mean
Inclusion means…
Educating all children with disabilities in
regular classroom , regardless of the
nature of their disabling condition(s);
Providing all students enhanced
opportunities to learn from each other’s
contributions;
Providing necessary services within the
regular schools;
Supporting regular teachers and
administrators (e.g. by providing time,
training, teamwork, resources, and
strategies)
Having students with disabilities follow
the same schedules as non-disabled
students;
Inclusion does not mean…
“Dumping” students with disabilities into
regular programs without preparation or
support;
Providing special education services in
separate or isolated places;
Ignoring children’s individual needs;
Jeopardizing students’ safety or well
being;
Placing unreasonable demands on
teachers and administrators;
Inclusion means… Inclusion does not mean…
Involving students with disabilities in Ignoring parents’ concerns;
age-appropriate academic classes and
extracurricular activities, including art,
music, gymnasium, field trips, assemblies
and graduation exercises;
Students with disabilities using school Isolating students with disabilities in
cafeteria, library, playground, and other regular schools;
facilities along with non-disabled
students;
Encouraging friendships between non- Placing students with disabilities in
disabled and disabled students; schools or classes that are not age-
appropriate;
Students with disabilities receiving their Requiring students to be “ready” and “to
education and job training in regular earn” their way into regular classrooms
community environments when based on cognitive or social skills;
appropriate;
Inclusion means…
Teaching all children to understand and
accept human differences;
Placing children with disabilities in the
same schools they would attend if they
did not have disabilities;
Taking parents’ concerns seriously; and
Providing an appropriate individualized
educational program.
Inclusion does not mean…
Responding only to diversity, but also
improving the quality of education for all
learners; and
Meeting the needs of children with
disabilities only.
 Philosophy of Inclusive Education
• It is generally agreed that inclusive education
is founded on strong philosophy which
supports the right of all children to
participate in an inclusive way. Significantly,
its tenets are grounded on a positive inclusive
philosophy:
1. Inclusive Education is a basic human
right.
• Inclusive education is not just a simple need of
children. It is rather a cardinal right of all
learners to a quality education which responds
to their basic and unique learning needs that will
eventually improve their lives.
• Similar to all human rights, inclusive education is
something universal and inalienable. Each one,
despite differences in sex, disabilities, ethnic
origin, or economic status, is equally entitled to
it.
2. Inclusive education presupposes that all
human beings have equal value and
rights.
• Inclusion is considered as a precondition for
optimal growth and development of all
human beings. This view is advanced as
inclusive education recognizes that each
person is equal intrinsic value, of dignity, and
thus ought to be treated with equal respect
and be given equal rights.
• Inclusive education assumes a basic
commitment to treat all persons alike, unless
there are good reasons for treating them
differently.
• Inclusive education acknowledges that all
children must be educated all together, at all
circumstances, in spite of any disability or
differences they may have.
3. Inclusive education is a cornerstone
to build a just society.
• Access to education increases one’s chances to
gain economic and social benefits in the
society. When the state and the society at
large guarantee that children have access to
quality education, it causes a domino effect
of opportunity that has direct effect on future
generations.
• These economic and social benefits are best
attained through inclusive educational systems
which provide enhanced access to a wider range
of quality teaching to students with and without
disabilities.
• Through IE, all children are capable to
maximum involvement in the progress of their
community and in the making of a just society.
• This is made possible by making all infrastructure
and services to be available to all members of
the community without discrimination.
 4. Inclusive education takes forward the
agenda of Education For All (EFA).
• EFA means guaranteeing that all children have
equal access to quality basic education by
developing a learning environment where able
and disabled children can learn.
• IE is a vehicle to realize the basic right to EFA
because all children must have the chance to
study and grow together. By giving preferential
concern to vulnerable and marginalized groups,
IE attempts to bring out the full potential of
each person to become efficient contributors in
the making of a society.
• It supports the commitment of EFA,
acknowledging the need and exigency of
offering education for all children, young
people, and adults.
• IE has the power to accomplish the EFA
agenda because its implementation can be
greatly efficient in introducing the EFA
philosophy and goals.
5. Inclusive education focuses on providing
learners with non-threatening learning
environment.
• IE addresses the educational needs of all
learners in a non-threathening and
supportive learning environment. It includes
earners who are formally disadvantaged and
excluded from education because of barriers
to learning.
• Sefa Dei (2005), pursuing innovations in
classroom instruction with the aim of pedagogic,
communicative, and curricular change,
grounded in a critical understanding on
“inclusivity” is the most promising alternative
approach to educational change.
• Because of “inclusivity” every student will
participate in a regular homeroom with support
to individual need, through modification or
accommodation.
 Types and Methods of Inclusive
Education
• Partial inclusion
• Full inclusion
 Partial Inclusion
• Children with special needs are educated in the
regular classroom for most time of the day. For
the rest of the day, they leave their regular
classrooms to be with their special education
teacher or teacher aide in a resource room to
work on individual academic skills or
behavioural goals. In other words, they may be
pulled out for specialize services that entail
special equipment or in case when they might be
unsettled in the regular class.
 Full Inclusion
• The disabled students get all the special
services they need in the regular classroom
and stay there all they. Any extra needed
support is brought to the student. This
approach is considered to be the most
practical when a child’s disability is relatively
mild.
 Basic Methods in IE
• Accommodation
• Modification
 Accommodation
• It is employed when the student is anticipated
to learn similar curricular content. It is carried
out when there are little changes in the
services or arrangement that do not alter the
learning outcomes of the students.
 Modification
• Applies to students with severe disabilities. It is
implemented when there are changes in the
curriculum to fit the student’s ability. It is
usually used when a student is expected to
learn a different curricular content.
 Least Restrictive Environment (LRE)
• It is any environment that is least restrictive
for a child to succeed as normal as possible in
an educational setting. It is determined by
the Individualized Education Plan (IEP) team
or group of educators, parents, and other
personnel who are involved with the students
with special needs.
 Individualized Education Plan (IEP)
• States the goals and objectives for the student
and the services that will meet his goals,
whether it is in the general or special
education setting.