Including all learners……

Including all learners The Big Picture. Including all learners has become a main focus of governments worldwide. Education seems to be the key method to create social integration, cohesion and inclusion. Disabled people are often seen as the main oppositions to ‘special education’. This is because it restricts opportunities for disabled people as citizens because of the way it labels them as having intellectual, social and/or physical deficits. Some believe that since the 1990's there has been a clear international drive for inclusive education (Ainscow and Cesar, 2006). The world bank and the UK’s Department for International Development have been powerful advocates of ‘inclusion’ as a core principle of schooling and education systems. By its very nature surely everyone needs inclusion as Armstrong et al (2010) state “whilst policy is dominated by the rhetoric of inclusion, the reality for many remains one of exclusion and the panacea of ‘inclusion’ masks many sins.”

Including all learners and the politics of disability. Throughout the 20 th century there has been a growth in the number of children identified with S.E.N, growth in the categories, and growth in the number of schools. Most children in special education that have been labelled with having learning difficulties or behavioural problems, are labelled that have little scientific, let alone educational, credibility. In place of eugenics, the disability movement has advanced a model of ‘inclusive education’ that is linked to a broader campaign for social justice and human rights. (Armstrong et al, 2010)

? A historical perspective of ‘inclusion’ shows a complexity that ‘underpins inclusive education, as a political and a policy/practice discourse’ (Armstrong et al, 2010, p.7). Armstrong et al (2010) suggest that the meaning and significance of ‘inclusion’ in global educational practice needs to be made concrete. Can this ever be achieved with arguably, so much diversity and differences of opinion? The Politics of Inclusive Education

? The Politics of including all leaners According to Armstrong et al ‘the technological advances of the twenty-first century, the globalization of economic markets and the penetration of ‘first-world’ knowledge and policy solutions into the developing world all may be understood as spreading an evangelical belief in the inclusion of diversity’ (2010, p.8). Is it strictly ethical for developed countries to impose ‘first- world’ thinking on developing countries? Whose to judge that ‘first-world’ thinking is in fact right?

The International context The UN convention on the rights of persons with disabilities (UNCRPD; 2006), can be seen as moving away from a SEN model and more towards a rights based approach. United Nations stated: Equality- every child should have the right to be educated Should not be based on the ‘type and severity’ of the child's disability- they should not be excluded The need of improved learning supporters especially in mainstream schools The need of appropriate and necessary funding

‘It will be cheaper to educate children with special needs in ordinary rather than special schools’ (Tomlinson, 1982, p 174) Do you Agree?

References.  Armstrong et al, (2010) Inclusive Education: International policy and practice. London: Sage. Tomlinson, S. (1982) A Sociology of Special Education. London: Routledge.