L5: MAKING SCHOOLS INCLUSIVE DEFINITIONS OF INCLUSION IN EDUCATION FROM

THE INDEX FOR INCLUSION IN EDUCATION

OBJECTIVES INVOLVES:
1. Familiarize the Booth and Ainscow framework • Valuing all students and staff equally.
2. Identify the barriers in the implementation of inclusive • Increasing the participation of students in, and reducing their
education exclusion from, the cultures, curricula, and communities of local
3. Differentiate special education, mainstreaming, and inclusive schools.
education • Restructuring the cultures, policies, and practices in schools
4. Develop the ability to create safe, inclusive, and culturally so that they respond to the diversity of students in the locality.
responsive • Reducing barriers to learning and participation for all students,
not only those with impairments or those who are categorized as
`having special educational needs.
• Learning from attempts to overcome barriers to the access and
participation of particular students to make changes for the
benefit of students more widely.
• Viewing the difference between students as resources to
support learning, rather than as problems to be overcome.
• Acknowledging the right of students to an education in their
locality.
• Improving schools for staff as well as for students.
• Emphasizing the role of schools in building community and
developing values, as well as in increasing achievement.
• Fostering mutually sustaining relationships between schools
and communities.
THE INDEX FOR INCLUSION: DEVELOPING • Recognizing that inclusion in education is one aspect of
LEARNING AND PARTICIPATION IN SCHOOLS (T.
inclusion in society.
BOOTH & M. AINSCOW)
• It is practical guide to values-based review in a school setting
which includes the staff, classroom, and playgrounds
• It addresses the relationship among adults within the settings
and between the settings
• It encourages a participatory development process that
emphasizes self-direction, solidarity, and creation of a strong
condition for play, learning, and teaching as the foundation of
school improvement rather than targets, competition, and fear of
failure
• It is about building supportive communities and fostering high
achievement for all staff and students
DIMENSION A: CREATING INCLUSIVE CULTURES
• Section A.1 Building Community
• Section A.2 Establishing inclusive values
• * This dimension creates a secure, accepting, collaborating,
and stimulating community in which everyone is valued as the
foundation of the highest achievements of all
• * It develops shared inclusive values. The principles and
values guide decisions about policies and moment to-moment
practice in the classrooms. Development is considered a
continuous process.
• Section B.1 Developing the school for all
• Section B.2 Organizing support for diversity
• This dimension makes sure that inclusion is practiced in all
aspects and plans. policies encourage the participation of
• The Index takes the social model of disability as its starting
students and staff including the community.
point, builds on good practice, and then organizes the Index
• All forms of support are developed according to inclusive
work around a cycle of activities which guide schools through
principles and are brought together within a single framework
the stages of preparation, investigation, development, and
• Section C.1 Orchestrating learning
review.
• Section C.2 Mobilizing resources
• This dimension develops school practices which reflect the 2. Physical Barriers: In some districts, students with
inclusive cultures and policies of the school physical disabilities are expected to attend schools that
• Lessons are made responsive to student diversity, and students are inaccessible to them.
are encouraged to highly participate in sharing their knowledge 3. Curriculum: A rigid curriculum that does not allow for
and experience within and outside the school experimentation or the use of different teaching
• Staff identify material resources and resources within each methods can be an enormous barrier to inclusion. Study
other, students, parents/carers, and local communities which can plans that don’t recognize different styles of learning
be mobilized to support learning and participation hinder the school experience for all students
4. Teachers: Teachers who are not trained or who are
unwilling or unenthusiastic about working with
differently abled students are a drawback to successful
inclusion.
5. Poor language and communication- language barriers
may include inappropriate use of words to describe
children with additional needs; the way teachers
communicate to the students and to the community
6. Lack of funding- funding can allow training more
teachers, plan appropriate programs, instructional
materials, facilities
7. Policies as Barriers: Many policymakers don’t
understand or believe in inclusive education, and these
leaders can stonewall efforts to make school policies
• 2017- significant global improvement in accessing education
more inclusive.
• 2016- the Global Education Monitoring Report of UNESCO
8. Organization of educational system- centralized
revealed an estimated 263 million children and youth aged 6-17
system may form detachment in terms of implementing
all around the world who are still not in school at this time.
policies and seeing the implications of the policies to
• Women still experience gender discrimination (UNESCO,
the learners and other stakeholders
2017)
9. Too much focus on performance- based standards- the
refusal of other schools to admit children with
WHAT STAKEHOLDERS CAN DO?
additional needs in fear that this may affect their
• The rights-based approach underscores the government and
ranking.
community's accountability to children with additional needs in
fulfilling their right to education and providing access to quality
education that is welcoming, and inclusive.

a) Set the parameters for inclusion- the government has

identified people and professions in the placement
process, committees, staffing, teacher training and
compensation
b) Build key People- teacher training for special
education teachers and general education levels. The
government pushes for evidence-based teaching
frameworks, provision of student assistance, and access
to instructional materials; continuing research and
policymaking or revisions
c) Identify and eradicate barriers- identifying and DIMENSION B: PRODUCING INCLUSIVE POLICIES
removing obstacles that have to do with prevailing - UNESCO (2005) acknowledges that societal change in
attitudes and values on a systematic level attitude need not be initially present in the community
before inclusion is fully practiced
COMMON BARRIERS TO INCLUSIVE EDUCATION - Inclusion must be viewed as a perspective or ideal to
1. Attitudes: Societal norms are often the biggest barrier to work toward
inclusion. Old attitudes die hard, and many still resist - Inclusion of Special and Inclusive Education in the
the accommodation of students with disabilities and Curriculum is the product
learning issues, as well as those from minority cultures. -
The challenges of inclusive education might be blamed
on the students’ challenges instead of the shortcomings
of the educational system.
FACILITATING SOCIETAL SHIFT AND INFORM
POLICY

• Involve other sectors of society

Current training and awareness campaigns seem to limit the
movement of inclusion in home-school relationships. The
business, commercial, security, and religious sectors must be
given representation in training. The campaign must be specific
enough to reach the local churches, subdivision playgrounds,
supermarkets. The more aware the community is, the more it
will be able to help and be sensitive to PWD population.
• Collaborate
involvement of administrators in the program for Special
Education classes, sharing of ideas for teachers in general class
and special class
• Recognize the shift in roles of the teachers
With the shift of inclusive education, the role of special
education (SPED) teachers suddenly seems to be reduced to
only "as needed". The general education teachers have been
given the responsibility to know what to do with learners with
additional needs
✓Role of SPED teacher- prime mover of the inclusive
educational framework to ensure good inclusive program
✓Role of general education teacher- must be willing to go
through skills training and capacity building workshops to
ensure that they are supporting all types of learners in their
classrooms appropriately.
• Include Transitions in Planning- current practices of
the school have to be respected and honored to facilitate
gradual shift to inclusive education
• Booth and Ainscow (2002) suggested that schools must
reflect on their current policies and practices to check
their readiness to inclusive education

DIMENSION C: EVOLVING INCLUSIVE PRACTICES

INCLUSIVE PRACTICES
• Administration must first try inclusive culture among its
stakeholders, then build better, more all-encompassing policies,
and then focus on raising the participation and success rates of
learners with additional needs inside the classroom
• Evolving suggest that strategies are in place, possible tweaking
may be needed

EVIDENCE-BASED INCLUSIVE PRACTICES

1. Universal Design for Learning- refers to structures
that were made in such a way that can be used by
customers or clients with a wide range of needs. It
ensures accessibility for all. Example, an architect
designs a building with ramp, embossed signs in Braille,
handrails, etc.- in anticipation- for inclusivity.
2. Differentiated Instruction- a teacher's response to
varying needs, interests, and learning styles
(Tomlinson, 2010). A way of honoring the students'
needs and maximizing their capacity