EDUCATION TRENDS

What is Inclusive Education?

8 June 2024/ By Zineb DJOUB

Education is the right of every human being. All learners of all ages, including those with disabilities and other marginalized groups (street children, girls, children from ethnic minorities, children from economically disadvantaged families, and children from nomadic/refugee/displaced families) must have access to and benefit from formal and non-formal education. Including diverse students in mainstream classrooms and schools can help improve academic achievement, social-emotional development, self-esteem, and sense of belonging. So, what is inclusive education?

Understanding inclusive education

Inclusive education is an approach that values diversity. It recognizes the right of all individuals to education and supports them to learn, regardless of their abilities or requirements. This is achieved by addressing and responding to their diverse needs, increasing their participation in learning, cultures, and communities, and promoting difference.

So, inclusive education aims to provide quality education to learners with and without disabilities or needs.

However, inclusive education is not about fitting in some students by segregating them and putting them into special classes or schools. Rather, it’s about transforming educational systems, settings, policies, and practices to enable everyone to flourish.

Besides, placing or integrating learners with specific academic or social needs within mainstream classes does not guarantee inclusion.

The key to an inclusive education system is to change awareness and organization of school systems and environments and focus on diverse learning needs and capabilities to provide equal learning opportunities for all learners.

Key principles of inclusive education

Equity and fairness: All students, with no exception, receive their primary modes of service delivery in the general education environment.

Diversity as a strength: An inclusive education system recognizes and values the unique contributions and perspectives of each student.

Choice and preferences: Support services and instructional methods are aligned with the student’s preferences and strengths. Flexible learning environments are provided where students make informed decisions about their learning.

High expectations for all: Every student can achieve high standards by providing the necessary support, including adapted environmental accommodations, instructional differentiation, and curriculum material.

Participation and collaboration of the whole community: Teachers, school administrators, parents, students, community organizations, and policymakers need to work together to create and maintain a supportive learning environment where every student can succeed.

Best research-based inclusive practices

UNESCO Global Education Monitoring Report (2020) shows that 80% of countries worldwide have legislation supporting inclusive education. However, despite the good intentions to ensure inclusive education, implementation varies significantly.

Here are some major research findings that reflect the best inclusive teaching practices.

# Allocation of resources, training, and support for teachers

A major obstacle to inclusive education is the lack of resources. These include physical resources, Information, and Communication Technology (ICT), teaching materials, equipment, and facilities for students with special needs, and human, including teaching assistants (special education teachers, school psychologists, occupational therapists, speech-language pathologists, and behaviour specialists).

Many studies have reported that countries that adhere to a double structure of inclusive and special schools experience a massive increase in costs (Peters, 2004).

Further, teacher attitudes, as well as their behaviours, were found to be a key factor in successful inclusive education. Teachers’ perceived lack of resources is significantly correlated with their self-efficacy and attitudes toward inclusive education (Avramidis & Norwich, 2002).

Besides increasing educational staff, providing professional development and ongoing learning is necessary for teachers to focus more on inclusive teaching strategies and practice and inclusive pedagogy (Brennan et al., 2021).

# Social participation

Creating a positive and supportive learning environment for students is a prerequisite for their learning and progress. Achieving this goal is so critical in the context of inclusive education where all students, especially SEN students (students with special educational needs) tend to be alone more often which can affect their well-being and achievement.

It was observed that fostering social participation of the SEN students in regular schools and providing adequate support in relation to their individual learning goals and needs enhanced their academic achievements and self-concept (Avramidis, 2013).

So, effective classroom instruction in inclusive education must focus on engaging SEN and non-SEN students in interactions with each other through team-building activities, morning meetings, extra-curricular activities, and SEL activities that encourage positive contact/interaction, build relationships, and support them to feel that they are accepted by their classmates.

# Differentiated and personalized instruction

To respond to the different needs of students, differentiated and personalized instruction has been considered as a necessary teaching approach for a heterogeneous student population (Tomlinson,2014).

In inclusive school systems, the positive effect of such instructional practices was shown to boost students’ academic self-concept and lessen the negative effect of their average achievement in class (Fang et al., 2018).

Universal Design for Learning (UDL) can help bring such differentiation into practice. Research shows that UDL provides a proactive mechanism to account for students’ differences and maximize their learning (Basham, et al.2020).

# Collaboration

Another imperative practice in inclusive education is collaboration. Inclusive teaching practices require the active engagement of the students and teachers, and collaboration can serve this goal (Paju et al.2022).

Collaboration also opens up room for communication and helps teachers better understand their students’ groups and adapt their teaching.

Research evidence showed that collaborative instructional strategies such as meditative instruction and scaffolding, along with grouping children and providing them assistance as per their needs, increase their learning (Lakkala & Määttä, 2011).

Studies also highlight the need for multi-professional cooperation (e.g. between regular school teachers, special education teachers, and teaching assistants) (Grüter et al. 2019).

Yet, this should go beyond mere coordination and cooperation to more effective and reflective communication between the groups (Paju et al.2022).

Collaboration should promote participatory action research that empowers teachers to understand and solve the problems in an inclusive class (Ayaya et al., 2020).

Research also shows that involving families and the community in the educational process improves student outcomes and fosters a supportive learning environment.

To conclude, inclusive education is about supporting all students. Based on the principles of tolerance, diversity, and equity, an inclusive education system strives to provide equal opportunities for all children and young people, whatever their age, gender, ethnicity, attainment, or background.

Therefore, to ensure full participation of all individuals on an equal basis, it’s necessary to rethink and restructure policies, curricula, culture, and practices in schools and learning environments.

This requires dedicated resources, teacher professional development, more individualized instruction, and a commitment to collaboration among educators, students, and the community.

References

Avramidis, E. (2013). Self-concept, social position and social participation of pupils with SEN in regular primary schools. Res. Pap. Educ. 28, 421–442. doi: 10.1080/02671522.2012.673006

Avramidis, E., & B. Norwich. (2002). Teachers’ Attitudes Towards Integration / Inclusion: A Review of the Literature. European Journal of Special Needs Education 17 (2): 129–47.

Ayaya, G., Makoelle, T. M., & van der Merwe, M. (2020). Participatory action research: A tool for enhancing inclusive teaching practices among teachers in South African full-service schools. SAGE Open, 10(4).

Basham, J. D., Blackorby, J., & Marino, M. T. (2020). Opportunity in crisis: The role of universal design for learning in educational redesign. Learning Disabilities, 18(1), 71–91.

Fang, J., Huang, X., Zhang, M., Huang, F., Li, Z., & Yuan, Q. (2018). The big-fish-little-pond effect on academic self-concept: a meta-analysis. Front. Psychol. 9:1569. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2018.01569

Grüter, S., A. Meyer, & B. Lütje-Klose. 2019. “Kooperative Prozesse in inklusiven Sekundarstufenschulen in Bremen.” In Perspektiven sonderpädagogischer Forschung. Vernetzung, Kooperation, Sozialer Raum. Inklusion als Querschnittaufgabe, edited by G. Ricken and S. Degenhardt, 140–146. Bad Heilbrunn: Klinkhardt.

Lakkala, S. P., & Määttä, K. (2011). Toward a theoretical model of inclusive teaching strategies: An action research in an inclusive elementary class. Global Journal of Human Social Science, 11(8), 31-40.

Paju, B., Kajamaa, A., Pirttimaa, R., & Kontu, E. (2022). Collaboration for inclusive practices: Teaching staff perspectives from Finland. Scandinavian Journal of Educational Research, 66(3), 427-440.

Peters, S. J. (2004). Inclusive Education. An EFA Strategy for All Children. Washington: Disability Group, World Bank.

Tomlinson, C. (2014). The Differentiated Classroom: Responding to the Needs of All Learners. Alexandria, VA: ASCD.