Inclusive Education for Special Needs Students Shane Johnston 3855190

Understanding the importance and necessity of inclusive education for students with special
educational needs


Shane Johnston
Victoria University
3855190








Inclusive Education for Special Needs Students Shane Johnston 3855190
According to Lim & Ireland (2001), inclusive education practices have been a significant
increasing presence in educational reforms throughout many countries in the past decade.
Through the idea of equality, which includes incorporating special needs students across all
standard school settings, inclusive education has been labelled as a rising influence to build a
more equitable school environment which can result in a more inclusive society. Agencies
such as the Centre for Studies on Inclusive Education (2014) are attempting to spread the
ideas of inclusive education which ultimately includes viewing every life and death as equal
worth, reducing barriers to learning and participation, and restructuring policies and practices
to respond to diversity in ways that value everyone equally. Through a better understanding
of the effects of inclusive education in a school environment, with a specific focus on
students with mental and physical disabilities in this essay, the positive consequences can be
reflected upon and optimistically spread throughout society.

According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics (2009), children with a disability have the
right to the same educational opportunities as all Australian children. The ABS reported that
nearly all (98%) school aged (5-14 years) children with a disability in 2009 attended school.
Two in five (40%) had a severe schooling restriction and another two in five (36%) had a
moderate schooling restriction. Over one in five (22%) school aged children with a disability
had no schooling restrictions. The same report in 2009 stated, in terms of the type of
difficulty experienced at school, that three in five (60%) reported having learning difficulties,
while over a third were reported as having difficulties fitting in socially (37%) or
communication difficulties (36%). One in five (20%) school aged children with a disability
who had a schooling restriction had no difficulties. When evaluating the above statistics, the
percentages display that nearly all parents or guardians are very confident that their disabled
children will receive an education. Not only are they confident about sending their special
Inclusive Education for Special Needs Students Shane Johnston 3855190
needs children to school, those students are reporting that they are not having difficulties
fitting in socially or having trouble with communication. One of the major restructuring
policies and practices that are held by many inclusive education agencies is the retraction of
specific special needs schools where only disabled students attend. Instead the ideas of
inclusive education incorporate the special needs students into the standard educational
school setting so that feelings of inequality do not arise (Tooley, 2004). The statistics
mentioned above are a step in the right direction for inclusive education advocates as most
special needs students do not feel socially unaccepted in a normal mainstream setting.

An American study completed by Unianu (2012) addressed the ideals of present society that
includes continuous training, social equality, cooperation, evolution of technology, concern
for people and for their needs regarding development, integration and innovation. Unianu
(2012) also highlighted how education is one of the key elements as it is in a constant,
interactive relationship with the society and also with the community. Therefore it is
obligatory to have the educational system providing equality for all students, irrespective of
what differences they may have. In order to achieve this sense of equality throughout
education, the barriers of inclusive education must be acknowledged and refurbished
accordingly, which is attempted in this study. One of the overall main barriers in the practice
of inclusive education is the teachers attitudes towards including special needs students into
the curriculum. These attitudes include: the degree of difficulty associated with their special
needs, the teachers experience with children with special educational needs, the trust in their
own capabilities to implement inclusive activities and the expectations towards the children
no matter what are the differences between them. The study utilized questionnaires and
distributed them to a large sample of teachers to gain an understanding into specifics about
the barriers towards the inclusion of special needs children in a standard school setting. By
Inclusive Education for Special Needs Students Shane Johnston 3855190
asking whether they agreed to statements relating to teachers prejudices towards special
needs children such as Children with disabilities should not learn in special needs schools
the results favoured an inclusive environment. The teachers that had experience and relevant
education towards the incorporation of special needs students in their classroom agreed that
special needs students would have a more beneficial education in a normal classroom.
Teachers that had higher education with bachelor degrees and varying experiences with
cultural backgrounds also agreed with the principles behind inclusive education. The study
reiterated the initial perception that an inclusive environment for special needs students can
be a confident education setting for teachers if they have the appropriate tutoring behind them
(Chhabra, Srivastava and Srivastava, 2010).

According to Avramidis, Bayliss & Burden (2000), inclusion involves a significant
restructuring of the standard mainstream schooling where every student, irrespective of
disability, is accommodated and the learner is ensured a belonging in the community. While
some of the barriers towards achieving an inclusive school environment have been divulged
in the previous study mentioned, another main issue with inclusion is whether or not there is
a positive or negative effect on academic standards as well as social activities. A study
completed by Ruijs, Van der Veen & Peetsma (2009) assessed and reviewed the academic
achievements and social functioning of inclusive classroom students with special educational
needs and students without special educational needs. Through analysis of their large sample,
the results showed no significant differences in academic achievement between typical
students in non-inclusive classes and typical students in classes with students with special
educational needs. The findings indicated no relation between inclusive education and typical
students achievements. This was the same for socio-emotional functioning as the self reports
regarding self-confidence and social positivity showed no differences between students in
Inclusive Education for Special Needs Students Shane Johnston 3855190
inclusive classrooms compared to non-inclusive classrooms. If anything, the results displayed
higher feelings of self-confidence for the typical students in inclusive classrooms not at the
expense of the special educational need students social happiness. The study initially
described alternating arguments for and against inclusive classrooms with most of them
concerning how inclusive classrooms would affect typical students e.g. typical students
might have their academic achievements negatively affected or typical students might behave
undesirably in an inclusive classroom. The findings of the study contested these arguments
against inclusive classrooms, highlighting the evidence in support of a more equal classroom
environment.

The perception of schools as educating environments where students acquire the principles,
ethics and skills to support the idea of inclusions for all individuals in society is a very
commanding rationale. It has the potential to transform society to suit what it is rapidly
becoming, an entity characterised by great human diversity and positive human rights (Lim &
Ireland, 2001). Statistics above clearly highlight that parents of special needs children and
special needs children themselves are more than confident to be a part of a school
environment and many studies unmistakeably demonstrate that there is little to no effect on
both typical and non-typical students that are a part of an inclusive environment. Therefore
why is there still the impression that special needs students should be excluded from a typical
school setting? In a society where there is a wider variety of cultures and individual
complexities, having a civilisation that contains settings that incorporate inequalities and
discriminations is a dangerous phenomenon if spread. If the typical and special needs
students, when at a young and impressionable age, are exposed to inhabitants that are
dissimilar to them they can be taught to accept and learn alongside these identities (Billings
& Kowalski, 2008). My own personal experience on the matter of an inclusive classroom is
Inclusive Education for Special Needs Students Shane Johnston 3855190
positively recollected, with my educational setting containing students that required special
education. In this experience, the teachers were confident to be a part of the inclusivity due to
prior education on the principles, which allowed my schooling to be undistracted. The special
needs students were administered special carers to assist with anything they required and I
felt better for the exposure to those different from myself. My own personal feelings and the
positive opinions of others furthermore extended to the community, consequently resulting in
a widened acceptance for those that are different to us. Eradicating the stigma associated with
a non-inclusive classroom has long term benefits not only for the students of every
background but for the citizens of the neighbouring environment.
















Inclusive Education for Special Needs Students Shane Johnston 3855190
References
Australian Bureau of Statistics 2012, Australian Social Trends, cat. no. 4102.0, ABS,
Canberra.
Avramidis, E, Bayliss, P & Burden, R 2000, A survey of mainstream teachers attitudes
towards the inclusion of children with special educational needs in the ordinary school in one
local education authority, Educational Psychology, vol. 20, pp. 191-211.
Billings, D & Kowalski, K 2008, Inclusive teaching, The Journal of Continuing Education
in Nursing, vol. 39, no. 7, pp. 296-297.
Chhabra, S, Srivastava, R & Srivastava, I 2010, Inclusive education in Botswana: the
perceptions of school teachers, Journal of Disability Policy Studies, vol. 20, pp. 219-228.
Lim, L & Ireland, R 2001, Inclusive Education, International Journal of Disability,
Development and Education, vol. 48, no. 3, pp. 313-316.
Ruijs, N, Van der Veen, I & Peetsma, T 2010, Inclusive education and students without
special educational needs, Educational Research, vol. 52, no. 4, pp. 351-390.
Tooley, J. 2004, The Right to Education, Economic Affairs, vol. 24, no. 3, page. 75.
Unianu, E. 2012, Teachers attitudes towards inclusive education, Procedia- Social and
Behavioural Sciences, vol. 33, pp. 900-904.
What is Inclusion? 2014, Centre for Studies on Inclusive Education, The Park Centre, UK,
viewed 28 March 2014, <http://www.csie.org.uk/inclusion/what.shtml>.