Inclusive Education

According the NSW department of education inclusive education means that “all students,

regardless of disability, ethnicity, socio-economic status, nationality, language, gender, sexual orientation

or faith, can access and fully participate in learning, alongside their similar aged peers, supported by

reasonable adjustments and teaching strategies tailored to meet their individual needs” (NSW

Department of Education, 2019). The first aspect of inclusive education that will be explored is the history

of inclusive education. This history will also explore the international decelerations and push towards

inclusive education, Australia’s response to the decelerations and the state governments movement

towards inclusive education. Additionally an introduction into the seven pillars of support pedagogy will be

explored as well as outlining reasons for the different aspect of the pedagogy will be reviewed. Finally a

case study of how schools can apply inclusive education to a student with Autism spectrum disorder (ASD)

to better support the student and what strategies a teacher can use to support a student with ASD.

It has been a long road for inclusive education to get to where it is today with a change in

legislation and pedagogy needed for any real change to be implemented and successful. The first push

towards inclusive education came in 1964 where different articles published during the UN Convention

against Discrimination in Education, that addressed the need for equal education (Peters, 2007). The

following two decades saw an increase in the movement to inclusive education with a push towards free

and compulsory education for all students, the introduction of the concept of “maximum potential” for

disabled students and the right for all disabled persons to an education (Peters, 2007).

During the 1980’s the Sundberg Deceleration was produced by 103 countries it stated that the right

to an education started at infancy and remains a lifelong goal for all students. Additionally during the

decade a “focus on ability, not on disability of a disabled person” was promoted by the World Programme

of Action Concerning Disabled Persons (Hunt, 2011).

 In 1990 during the world conference on education, where a growing concern that students from

many different countries around the world were being excluded from receiving an appropriate level of

education (Anderson & Boyle, 2015). Following this conference, in 1994, the Salamanca Statement was

published by the World Congress on Special Needs Education in Salamanca (Spain). The Salamanca

Statement promoted the idea that all students regardless of individual disabilities should be given the

opportunity to receive an education in their regular classroom at their local school. The Salamanca

Statement has been adopted by 92 governments and 25 organisations around the world (Hunt, 2011). The

Salamanca Statement is where inclusive education started to be adopted by many countries around the

world and has since be strengthened and improved in the EFA framework in 2000 and the 2008 UNESCO

Education Summit (Hunt, 2011).

The introduction of these policies and statement on the world stage isn’t enough to see inclusive

education brought into Australian schools as there needs to be a change in Federal, State and local school

education policies for real change to occur in local schools. Inclusive education was implemented early in

Australia with the Australian government introducing the Disability Discrimination Act 1992. This made it

against the law to treat people with a disability unfairly (Australian Government, 1992). The introduction of

the Disability Discrimination Act, lead to the creation of the Disability Standards for Education in 2005

(Anderson & Boyle, 2015). These standards seek to ensure that students, regardless of their disability, have

access to the same opportunities and choices that other student have (Australian Government, 2015).

So fare inclusive education has been about ensuring that student with a disability have access to

the same education as student without a disability (Anderson & Boyle, 2015). However once the

Melbourne Declaration on Educational Goals for Young Australians was published in 2008 inclusive

education in Australia shifted to a focus on the successful education of all students (Berlach & Chambers,

2011). The Melbourne Declaration on Educational Goals for Young Australians outlined two goals, first for
Australian schools to promote equality excellence. Secondly, all students become successful learners,

creative and confident individuals (Barr et al., 2008).

In 2011 the Australian government launched the National Disability Strategy with the vision of “an

inclusive Australian society that enables people with disability to fulfil their potential as equal citizens”

(Australia Government & Department of Families, 2011). The strategy identifies 6 outcomes that it aims to

achieve, the fifth outcome identifies that education as a key area in promoting an inclusive society. This

outcome lines up with the Disability Standards for Education and Disability Discrimination Act in promoting

inclusive education where students with disabilities are given the same opportunities to achieve their full

potential.

It is interesting to note that only the Disability Discrimination Act is considered legislation and that in

Australia there is no legislation that mandates the provision of inclusive education (Carroll, 2002).

Regardless the education community does need to follow the current legislative acts:

 Australian Human Rights Commission Act 1986

 Disability Discrimination Act 1992

 Racial Discrimination Act 1975

 Sex Discrimination Act 1984

While an argument can be made that these Acts do lend themselves to supporting inclusive education

(Anderson & Boyle, 2015), there is still a gap in the legislation which appears to have an impact on the

ability for students with disabilities to access inclusive education (Cologon, 2013; Dempsey, Foreman, &

Jenkinson, 2002).

Each state and territory has produced policies on inclusive education, making a push towards

inclusive education mandatory for its schools. Research conducted by Berlach and Chambers (2011)into
the state of the different states documentation sounding inclusive education made comparisons in five key

areas: definition of inclusivity, implementation guidelines, consideration of diversity, breadth of application

and strategy and evaluation guidelines. Berlach and Chambers (2011) found that all states have sufficiently

met the first four criteria with the fifth criteria lacking in all states documentation except Tasmania and the

Northern Territory.

In New South Wales the NSW Department of Education has produced the Disability Inclusion Action

Plan 2016-2020, with the aim to provide guidance in order to remove obstacles and enable people with

disabilities the opportunity to maximise their participation and potential with in education environment

(NSW Department of Education, 2016). This plan gives education institutions a scaffold to develop their

own incisive education plans with in their own intuitions to help support and nurture all students.

These history and current policies have led to inclusive education being a focal point in schools give

a broad overview on what inclusive education should look like but it don’t give a full description on what

inclusive education looks like in schools and the classroom. Because of the very nature of inclusive

education needing to cater to the individual student, each case will have its own individual needs. With this

in mind first an overall look at the skills, adjustments and accommodations that might need to be mad for

students with additional needs, along with some key pedagogical strategies to help teachers. Following a

case study of inclusion strategies suitable for students with ASD will be discussed.

The seven pillars of inclusive education, is a pedagogy framework that has been developed to guide

schools and teachers to create an inclusive community culture. These seven pillars have been created using

a large body of current supporting research (Loreman, 2007). The seven pillars are, respectively:

developing positive attitudes, supportive policies and leadership, school and classroom processes

grounded in research-based practice, Flexible curriculum and pedagogy, Community involvement,

Meaningful reflection and Necessary training and resources.

 Developing positive attitudes is the first pillar, positive attitudes have been shown to increase the

success of inclusion, research has linked teacher positive attitudes to increases in student’s attitudes.

Research has also shown that negative attitudes create low expectations for students (Loreman, 2007).

Pillar two, outlines the importance of the good supportive policies and leadership. The policies outlines

earlier in this document, form part of this pillar as does policies developed by the schools (Loreman, 2007).

Additionally school leadership, partially from the principle, develops positive attitudes towards inclusive

education. In addition a model of ‘shared leadership’ allows for a school wide responsibility towards

inclusive education (Schnorr, 2002). Pillar three, advocates for inclusion of research based best practices to

be included at a classroom level. This allows for classroom teachers to create truly inclusive classrooms

that will support students with additional needs based on researched pedagogies that deliver positive

experiences for all students (Loreman, 2007). Deppeler & Harvey (2004), additionally state that the entire

school needs to support inclusive education in both a policy and classroom level for a positive environment

to be created. In order to support teachers in the classroom a flexible curriculum needs to be available to

the school, as indicated by pillar four. Much of the NSW curriculum can be modified and differentiated for

student’s needs, this gives teachers the ability to cater for all students in their class which in turn helps

create a positive learning environment. Additionally NSW syllabuses have life skill aspect to the curriculum.

This life skills aspect of the syllabus map its outcome to outcome in the main syllabus (NESA, 2013),

allowing teachers to cater for students with disabilities and create an inclusive environment. The fifth

pillar focuses on the importance of community involvement, this involves a partnership between the

school, the parents, and local community. Loreman (2007) highlights the importance of community

involvement, to ensure the success of inclusive education in the school. Pillar six brings in the importance

of meaningful reflection in both policies and teaching practices. Reflection on teaching practices has

become an important part of teaching to ensure that good teaching practices are maintained. It also give

teachers the ability to analyse their practices in all aspects of inclusive education (Loreman, 2007). Finally

pillar seven, is about teachers requirement to the necessary training and resources required to deliver an
inclusive education. These seven pillars when working together provided a framework for schools to use to

create an inclusive educational environment (Loreman, 2007).

Pillar three is of most relevance to classroom teachers and is also one that is most view and noticed

by the students and community and should be explored further by taking an example of a student with

ASD and outlining strategies that can be used to create an inclusive environment for the student. In order

to support students with ASD schools need to create an environment supportive of the student’s needs. In

order to support create and support an environment suitable to ASD students schools must be active in

providing staff training, student awareness environment modifications, a positive ethos, flexible provision

and suitable policies, which fit with in the Seven Pillars pedagogy (Goodall, 2015).

However it is teachers that make the biggest difference to students with ASD. The first step in

educating students with ASD for any teacher is to understand the condition and how to deal with it. If a

teacher had little or no understanding of the ASD condition they may consider some traits as being rude or

disobedient. For example, when a student with ASD listening to the teacher they tend not to look at them

at the same time, because they find looking and listening hard to do at the same time (Larkey, 2015).

Additionally understanding ASD can have benefits to teachers ability to engage the student. For example,

changing the environment even slightly can have great effect on a student’s engagement (Larkey, 2015).

Teachers can further improve their ability to engage students with ASD by incorporating teaching

strategies into their lessons. These can include; hands on activities, visuals in lists, clear beginning and end

to tasks, clear instructions, scaffolding and deconstruction of large task, using the students name when

delivering instructions and delivering tasks that are aimed at their level (Model Farms High School, 2014).

These teaching strategies have a huge benefit to students with ASD but will also give some benefit to

students with other disabilities as well as other students in the class.

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