Chapter 2

Concept of Inclusion
 2.1. Definition of Inclusion
• Inclusion in education/service refers to an ongoing
process aimed at offering quality education/services
for all while respecting diversity and the different
needs and abilities, characteristics and learning
expectations of the students and communities and
eliminating all forms of discrimination.
• Inclusive services at any level are quality
provisions without discrimination or partiality
and meeting the diverse needs of people.
• Inclusion is seen as a process of addressing and
responding to the diversity of needs of all persons
through increasing participation in learning,
employment, services, cultures and communities,
and reducing exclusion at all social contexts.
• It involves changes and modifications in content,
approaches, structures and strategies, with a
common vision which covers all people, a conviction
that it is the responsibility of the social system to
educate all children (UNESCO 2005), employ and
provide social services.
• Inclusion is defined as having a wide range of
strategies, activities and processes that seek to make
a reality of the universal right to quality, relevant and
appropriate education and services.
• This definition has the following components:
• 1) Concepts about learners
• Education is a fundamental human right for all
people
• Learning begins at birth and continues throughout
life
• All children have a right to education within their
own community
• Everyone can learn, and any child can experience
difficulties in learning
• All learners need their learning supported child-
focused teaching benefits all children.
• 2) Concepts about the education system and
schools
• It is broader than formal schooling
• it is flexible, responsive educational systems
• It creates enabling and welcoming educational
environments
• It promotes school improvement – makes effective
schools
• It involves whole school approach and collaboration
between partners.
• 3) Concepts about diversity and discrimination
• It promotes combating discrimination and
exclusionary pressures at any social sectors

• It enables responding to/embracing diversity as a

resource not as a problem
• It prepares learners for an inclusive society that
respects and values difference.
• 4) Concepts about processes to promote inclusion
• It helps to identifying and overcoming barriers to
participation and exclusionary pressures
• It increases real participation of all collaboration,
partnership between all stakeholders
• It promotes participatory methodology, action
research, collaborative enquiry and other related
activities
• 5) Concepts about resources
• Promotes unlocking and fully using local resources
redistributing existing resources
• It helps to perceive people (children, parents,
teachers, members of marginalized groups, etc) as
key resources
• It helps to use appropriate resources and support
within schools and at local levels for the needs of
different children, e.g. mother tongue tuition, Braille,
assistive devices.
• McLeskey and Waldron (2000) have identified
inclusion and non-inclusive practices.
• According to them inclusion includes the following
components:
• Students with disabilities and vulnerability attend
their neighborhood schools
• Each student is in an age-appropriate general
education classroom
• Every student is accepted and regarded as a full and
valued member of the class and the school
community.
• ·
• All students receive an education that addresses
their individual needs
• No student is excluded based on type or degree of
disability.
• All members of the school (e.g., administration, staff,
students, and parents) promote
cooperative/collaborative teaching arrangements
• There is school-based planning, problem-solving,
and ownership of all students and programs
• Employed according to their capacities without
discriminations
• On the other hand, they argue that inclusion does
not mean:
• Placing students with disabilities into general
education classrooms without careful planning and
adequate support.
• Reducing services or funding for special education
services.
• Placing all students who have disabilities or who are
at risk in one or a few designated classrooms.
• Teachers spending a disproportionate amount of
time teaching or adapting the curriculum for
students with disabilities.
• Isolating students with disabilities socially, physically,
or academically within the general education school
or classroom.
• Endangering the achievement of general education
students through slower instruction or a less
challenging curriculum.
• Relegating special education teachers to the role of
assistants in the general education classroom.
• Requiring general and special education teachers
to team together without careful planning and
well-defined responsibilities.
2. Principles of Inclusion
• The fundamental principle of inclusion is that all
persons should learn, work and live together
wherever possible, regardless of any difficulties or
differences they may have.
• Inclusive education extends beyond special needs
arising from disabilities, and includes consideration
of other sources of disadvantage and
marginalization, such as gender, poverty, language,
ethnicity, and geographic isolation.
• Inclusion begins with the premise that all persons
have unique characteristics, interests, abilities and
particular learning needs and, further, that all
persons have equal access education, employment
and services.
• Inclusion implies transition from separate,
segregated learning and working environments for
persons with disabilities to community based
systems.
• Effective transitions from segregated services to
inclusive system requires careful planning and
structural changes to ensure that persons with
disabilities are provided with appropriate
accommodation and supports that ensure an
inclusive learning and working environment.
• UNESCO (2005) has provided four major inclusion
principles that support inclusive practice. These include:
1. Inclusion is a process. It has to be seen as a never-ending
search to find better ways of responding to diversity.
2. Inclusion is concerned with the identification and
removal of barriers that hinders the development of
persons with disabilities.
3. Inclusion is about the presence, participation and
achievement of all persons.
4. Inclusion invokes a particular emphasis on those who
may be at risk of marginalization, exclusion or
underachievement.
• 2. Rationale for Inclusion
• Rationales for Inclusion and Their Respective
Descriptions
 Educational Foundations
 Social Foundation
 Legal Foundations
 Economic Foundation
 Foundations for Building Inclusive Society
• 2. Rationale for Inclusion
• Rationales for Inclusion and Their Respective
Descriptions
• Educational Foundations
 Children do better academically, psychologically and
socially in inclusive settings.
 A more efficient use of education resources.
 Decreases dropouts and repetitions
 Teachers competency (knowledge, skills,
collaboration, satisfaction)
• Social Foundation
 Segregation teaches individuals to be fearful,
ignorant and breeds prejudice.
 All individuals need an education that will help
them develop relationships and prepare them for
life in the wider community.
 Only inclusion has the potential to reduce fear and to
build friendship, respect and understanding.
• Legal Foundations
All individuals have the right to learn and live
together.
Human being shouldn‘t be devalued or
discriminated against by being excluded or sent
away because of their disability.
There are no legitimate reasons to separate
children for their education
• Economic Foundation
 Inclusive education has economic benefit, both for
individual and for society.
 Inclusive education is more cost-effective than the
creation of special schools across the country.
 Children with disabilities go to local schools
 Reduce wastage of repetition and dropout
 Children with disabilities live with their family use
community infrastructure
 Better employment and job creation opportunities
for people with disabilities
• Foundations for Building Inclusive Society
 Formation of mutual understanding and
appreciation of diversity
 Building up empathy, tolerance and cooperation
Promotion of sustainable development
2.3. Factors that Influenced Development of Inclusion
• Inclusiveness originated from three major ideas.
 Inclusive education is a basic human right;
 Quality education results from inclusion of students
with diverse needs and ability differences, and
 There is no clear demarcation between the
characteristics of students with and without
disabilities and vulnerabilities.
• Inclusive education is facilitated by many influencing
actors. Some of the major drivers include:
1. Communities:
2. Activists and advocates:
3. The quality education and school improvement
movement:
4. Special educational needs movement:
5. Involvement of International agencies:
6. Involvement of NGOs movements, networks and
campaigns:
7. Other factors:
• Inclusive education is facilitated by many
influencing actors. Some of the major drivers
include:
• 1. Communities: pre-colonial and indigenous
approaches to education and community-
based programs movement that favor inclusion
of their community members.
• 2. Activists and advocates: the combined
voices of primary stakeholders – representatives
of groups of learners often excluded and
marginalized from education
• 3. The quality education and school
improvement movement: in both North and
South, the issues of quality, access and inclusion
are strongly linked, and contribute to the
understanding and practice of inclusive education
as being the responsibility of education systems
and schools.
• 4. Special educational needs movement: the “new
thinking‘ of the special needs education movement
has been a positive influence on inclusive education,
• 5. Involvement of International agencies: the
UN is a major influence on the development of
inclusive education policy and practice.
• 6. Involvement of NGOs movements, networks
and campaigns: a wide range of civil society initiatives,
such as the Global Campaign for Education, seek to
bring policy and practice together and involve all
stakeholders based on different situations.
• 7. Other factors: The current world situation presents
challenges such as the spread of HIV/AIDS, political
instability, trends in resource distribution, diversity of
population, and social inclusion.
• Benefits of Inclusion
• 1. Benefits for Students with Special Needs
Education
• In inclusive settings people will develop:
• Appropriate models of behavior.
• Improved friendships with the social environment
• Increased social initiations, interactions,
relationships and networks
• Gain peer role models for academic, social and
behavior skills
• etc….
• 2. Benefits for persons without Special Needs
Education
• Students without special educational needs (SEN)
will:
• Have a variety of opportunities for interacting with
their age peers who experience SEN in inclusive
school settings.
• serve as peer tutors during instructional activities
• Play the role of a special “buddy‘ during lunch, in the
bus or playground. Etc…
• 3. Benefits for Teachers and Parents/Family
• Benefit to teachers
 developing their knowledge and skills that meet
diverse students‘ needs and ability differences to
enhancing their skills to work with their
stakeholders; and gaining satisfaction in their
profession and other aspects.
• Benefit to parents/family
• Parents developing their
 positive attitude towards their children‘s education,
 positive feeling toward their participation, and
 appreciation to differences among humankinds and
so on.
• Table 2.3. Benefits of inclusion for Teachers and
Parents/Family
•
• 2.5. Benefits for Society
• Inclusion goes beyond education and should
involve consideration of employment,
recreation, health and living conditions.
• It should therefore involve transformations
across all government and other agencies at all
levels of society.
• Some of the major benefits of Inclusion for
society may include:
• It helps break down barriers and prejudice that
prevail in the society towards persons with
disability.
• Communities become more accepting of
difference, and everyone benefits from a
friendlier, open environment that values and
appreciates differences in human beings.
• Ultimate Goal of Inclusion
• The goal of inclusive education is to create schools
where everyone belongs.
• By creating inclusive schools, we ensure that there‘s
a welcoming place in the community for everyone
after their school year‘s end.
• An inclusive school culture creates better long-term
outcomes for all students.
• Typical students who are educated alongside
peers with developmental disabilities understand
more about the ways that they‘re all alike.
• 5. Features of Inclusive Environment
• An inclusive environment is one in which members
feel respected by and connected to one another.
• An inclusive environment is an environment that
welcomes all people, regardless of their disability
and other vulnerabilities.
• It recognizes and uses their skills and strengthens
their abilities.
• An inclusive service environment is respectful,
supportive, and equalizing.
• Major characteristics of Inclusive Environment are:
• it ensures the respect and dignity of individuals with
disabilities
• it meets current accessibility standards to the
greatest extent possible to all people with special
needs
• provides accommodations willingly and proactively
• Persons with disabilities are welcomed and are
valued for their contributions as individuals.
• 2.6. Inclusive Environments
• An inclusive environment is a place that is adjusted
to individuals‘ needs and not vice versa – that
individuals are adjusted to the environmental needs.
• successful Inclusive environment has the following
characteristics:
 It involves restructuring environment, culture,
policy, and practice.
 It promoting pro-social activities
 It makes provides services and facilities equally
accessible to all people etc…
• Barriers to Inclusion
• The major barriers include:
• Problems related with societal values and beliefs
• Economic factors-
• Lack of taking measures to ensure conformity of
implementation of inclusion practice with policies
• Conservative traditions among the community
members about inclusion etc…