Inclusion – Special Educational Needs ...

Inclusion – Special Educational Needs
Discuss what is meant by the term ‘inclusion’ in an education context.
‘The term inclusive education has come to refer to a philosophy of education that promotes education for all pupils in mainstream schools’ (Florian, 2006, p.13)
First practised in a few ‘experimental’ schools in the UK in the 1970s, the concept of ‘inclusion’ first developed in North America in the late 1980s (see, for example, Westminster Studies in Education, 2004). Advocates generally agree that inclusion is the education of children with disabilities alongside non-disabled peers, in a general classroom. Proponents of this concept believe that this nurtures understanding and tolerance, and more readily enables students of all abilities to function in the post-educational world. Indeed, as Mason and Reiser explain, inclusion is a mechanism which ‘fundamentally challenges the traditional approach which regards impairment and disabled people as marginal, or an ‘afterthought’ vitally promoting awareness that ‘impairment and disablement are a common experience of humanity, and should be a central issue in the planning and delivery of a human service such as education’ (1994, p.41).
However, there is some disagreement as to what, exactly, under this blanket term, constitutes ‘inclusion’. For example, in Making Inclusion Work, Frank Bowe recognises the difference between ‘inclusion’ and ‘full inclusion’. Inclusion, he states, is the process of educating a student with a disability in an average classroom for two-thirds of their working week, whilst frequently extracting him/her for occupational/physical therapy, speech pathology, or another type of one-on-one tutoring geared towards his/her specific disability. Full inclusion, by contrast, removes the possibility of extracting the student, and instead prefers him/her to remain in the general classroom at all times, where professionals can enter and assist if required. Whereas critics such as Stainback and Stainback (1995) prefer full inclusion, arguing that it is a civil liberty for all students to be fully provided for in a general classroom (and thus, if needed, schools should be restructured in order for this to be readily available, rather than compromise the student by pulling him/her out of the classroom at regular intervals), Bowe debates the benefits of such a practice. In his 2007 article ‘Legal issues related to caregiving for an individual with disabilities’ (Caregiving and Disability, 2007) he notes the importance of a continually present caregiver for persons with certain disabilities – for example, ‘people with emotional conditions or autism, and many with Alzheimer’s, may require support services in order to remain in community settings’ – and so the practice of full inclusion may not be suitable ...