Segregation, Integration and Inclusion
Inclusive Education (IE) is often defined as a journey or movement away from the kind of
segregation where children with particular difficulties have been put together with other
children whose needs are similar. Frederickson and Cline (2002 p63) contend that the
creation of special facilities segregating children with Special Educational Needs (SEN)1
from other children of their own age can be stigmatizing; it also restricts access to important
educational opportunities. In this respect questions have been raised about the desirability of
systems of special education which are segregated from mainstream schooling and which
may be instrumental in contributing to prejudice and bias in school and in later life.
Moves to reverse segregation have been gathering momentum since the mid 1960s with
arguments that the integration of children with SEN into mainstream schools would
facilitate their access to and participation in society.2 More recent decades have witnessed a
further shift away from the integration perspective and its assumption that additional
arrangements are needed to accommodate the “special” learners within mainstream
schooling systems that remain essentially unchanged, towards an inclusive education
approach which aims to restructure school systems to respond to the diversity of needs of
all learners. The shift towards inclusion evolved with the recognition that many children,
including those with disabilities, at some time need special support services. Poverty,
ethnicity, religion, disability, gender or membership of a minority group may limit access to
or marginalize within education.3
Another key factor implicit in the IE paradigm shift is the growing belief that
methodological and organizational changes made at school level in response to the needs of
a particular group of learners experiencing difficulties can, under certain conditions benefit
all learners. Peters (2003 p23) asserts that “financing and support of educational services
for students with special needs is a primary concern for all countries, regardless of available
resources”. She verifies that a growing body of research indicates that IE is not only costefficient, but also cost-effective, citing Skritic’s (1991) assertion that “equity is the way to
excellence”. The Salamanca Statement on Principles, Policy and Practice in Special Needs
Education4 encapsulates this trend in thinking when it suggests that Inclusive Education can
“provide an effective education for the majority of children and improve the efficiency and
1
“Special educational needs” is defined as “a restriction in the capacity of the person to participate in and
benefit from education on account of an enduring physical, sensory, mental health or learning disability or any
other condition, which results in a person learning differently from a person without that condition.”
(Government of Ireland, 2004, section 1)
2
Frederickson and Cline, 2002
3
Ainscow, 1998
4
More than 300 participants representing 92 governments and 25 international organizations met in
Salamanca, Spain, from 7 to 10 June 1994 to further the objective of Education for All by considering the
fundamental policy shifts required to promote the approach of inclusive education, namely enabling schools to
serve all children, particularly those with special educational needs. (UNESCO, 2007, Education)
ultimately the cost-effectiveness of the entire education system”.5 Ainscow (1998)
suggests that that perhaps inclusion is a means of transforming school systems.
The difference between integration and inclusion
According to Fredrickson and Cline (2002 p65) “integration involves the school in a
process of assimilation where the onus is on the assimilating individual (whether a pupil
with SEN or a pupil with a different cultural and linguistic background) to make changes so
that they can ‘fit in’. By contrast inclusion involves the school in a process of
accommodation where the onus is on the school to change, adapting curricula, methods and
procedures so that it becomes more responsive.”
Abbott (n.d. p10) considers that inclusion essentially represents a shift from the ‘medical
model’ view of the learner with SEN who needed fixing (“this child has learning
difficulties”) to the ‘social model’ view with its focus on everything that happens in the
classroom and school environment which can create barriers to learning (“this
classroom/school is set up in such a way that it is difficult to learn”). Stubbs (2002 p21)
considers it important to define Inclusive Education (IE) in order to illustrate the
commonalities between “IE concepts and the key concepts and assumptions that underpin
the movements of ‘Education for All’ and ‘School Improvement’.”
Defining Inclusive Education
Three types of school
1. Don't come to me,
I am not for you.
2. Come, but you change,
I won't.
3. Welcome! I change to
respond to you all
Which one is an inclusive school?
Think...and, we meet again may be in your inclusive school !
Fig.1 What do we mean by inclusive education? (Chadha 2003)
Nederlof and Van der Kroft (2006 p 2) consider inclusion in education to be:
a process of enabling all children to learn and participate effectively within
5
UNESCO, 1994
mainstream school systems. It does not segregate children who have different abilities
or needs. Inclusive education is a rights-based approach to educating children and
includes those who are subject to exclusionary pressures. Inclusive education creates a
learning environment that is child centred, flexible and which enables children to
develop their unique capacities in a way, which is conducive to their individual styles
of learning. The process of inclusion contributes to the academic development and
social and economic welfare of the child and its family, enabling them to reach their
potential and to flourish. Inclusive education requires a change to address accessibility
and challenges attitudes of managers, staff, pupils, parents and the local community.
Ainscow (1998 p379) reaffirms the concept of inclusion as a process, which addresses and
responds to “the diversity of needs of all learners through increasing their participation in
and reducing their exclusion from the cultures, curricula and communities of their local
schools”.
The Enabling Education Network (EENET) presents an interpretation of Inclusive
Education developed by participants from many different countries and backgrounds during
a workshop in Agra, India in 19986 which clarifies that:
• all children can learn
• inclusive education is a dynamic process which is constantly evolving
• differences in children – such as age, gender, ethnicity, language, disability, HIV and
TB status – should be acknowledged and respected
• education structures, systems and methodologies should be developed to meet the
needs of all children
• such developments should be seen as part of a wider strategy to promote an inclusive
society
• progress need not be restricted by large class sizes or a shortage of material resources
Participants in a workshop in Zanzibar in 2006 commenting on the Agra interpretation
considered that the following elements were missing:
• the acknowledgement of the interaction between children, the role of learners and
learning from each other
• the importance of community involvement7
6
The EENET/IDCC Seminar on Inclusive Education convened in Agra, India 1998 was the first ever
international seminar focusing on IE in the context of the economically poorer countries in the South. It aimed
to learn from the experience of practitioners in porrer countries and share locally relevant challenges and
solutions to IE.
Agra Seminar report and video available from:
<http://www.google.ie/search?hl=en&q=EENET&btnG=Google+Search&meta=>
7
Lewis, 2006:2
The Irish National Council for Special Education (NCSE) (2006 p34) considers that “the
term ‘inclusive education’ invokes strong views as to its precise meaning and intent. The
Council’s view of inclusive education has been influenced by the work undertaken by
Booth and Ainscow (2002) and on the three dimensions set out in their Index for Inclusion
which support producing inclusive policies; evolving inclusive practices; and creating
inclusive cultures at the level school. The Council considers that the core issue is what
happens in the school and in the classroom and the outcomes that the system delivers for
children with special educational needs”.
The interpretations and understandings inherent in these definitions for inclusive education
reflect much more than the location in which the education takes place. The emphasis is on
a process view of inclusion, which “facilitates flexibility of response with the priority focus
on what is in the best interest of the child/ young person involved”.8
The inclusion process can have a favourable impact “on students without, as well as
students with, special educational needs” according to the Department of Education and
Science (DES) (2007 p36). The Department advocates that inclusion represents “an
effective way to help students overcome the misconceptions they may have about people
with special educational needs... In the inclusive school, all the students can learn to accept
and value individual differences. Experience of inclusive education can help everyone in the
school community to prepare for a future inclusive society”.9
UNESCO (2007) believes that “inclusive education provides the best solution for a schools
system which can meet the needs of all learners. Inclusive education cannot be developed in
isolation from overall school development. Inclusive education cannot be seen as a specific
issue, but must be regarded as an approach to the development of the entire school system”.
8
9
NCSE, 2006:23
DES, 2007:36
References
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Technologies [Online]. Available from: Futurelab
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