Inclusive Education

Inclusive education is a certainty and practice where all the students of the similar age irrespective of

their differences come together to engage in learning. The definition of inclusive education has been

changing constantly. It has altered from being limited to students with disabilities to providing top-

quality education to all the students now. Precisely, inclusive education has been a component of the

Australian education system for nearly twenty years (Anderson and Boyle, 2015). Australian

curriculum is designed in such a way that it meets the needs of all learners (“ACARA”, 2018). This

was made possible through amending the legislation that promote inclusion of all the students with

exceptional needs in an unexceptional classroom. This essay will investigate such legislation which

were used in creating a discrimination-free education system. Moreover, it will also examine the

changing trends about inclusive education and the explicit skills of the teachers towards including the

students with disabilities, especially the ones with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) in a regular

classroom.

Australian legislations and policies supporting the inclusion of students with additional needs:

In Australia, there are several federal laws to protect the right of the diverse students. According to

K.Cologan inclusive education is not only about incorporating students with disability or disabilities

in a regular classroom. It is about including every student. First and foremost is the Commonwealth

Age Discrimination Act 2004, which aims to give equal chances to all the students irrespective of their

age. Second, to acknowledge discrimination due to disability, the Commonwealth Disability

Discrimination Act (DDA) focusing on the rights of the people with disability was passed by the

Australian government in 1992. It defends against discrimination of not only the people with

disability but also the families, friends, caregivers, colleagues or acquaintances of a person with a

disability. Moreover, it is against the discrimination in the fields of employment, education,

accommodation, using services public places (Australian Human Rights Commission). It is unlawful

to treat people with disability unequally (Australian Department of Education and Training). Later in

2005, the Australian government released the Disability Standards of Education as a way of

explaining the DDA for education. It explains the legal obligations related to inclusive education.
These are reviewed every five years to keep it updated with the changing trends (Australian

Department of Education and Training). Based on these standards all the students must be treated

regardless of being able or disabled. It also states that essential modifications must be made to

accommodate disabled students at par with their peers with no disability. The third is the Racial

Discrimination Act 1975 to eliminate the discrimination due to race, cultural origin, place of birth,

colour or immigration status. Fourth is the Sex Discrimination Act 1984. It states that students are

promised an education without any discrimination due to their gender except for single sex-schools

(who enrol only boys or girls). All the educational institutions irrespective of their system (public,

private or Catholic) should adhere to these lawful practices (Poed and Elkins, 2012)

New South Wales (NSW) Legislative Policies:

In compliance with the national inclusive policies, all the states have their own policies to aid in

inclusion. In New South Wales it is the Anti- Discrimination Act, 1977. It prohibits discrimination due

to sex, disability, race, age etc… In addition, NSW Department of Education and training has created

a website “Racism: No way” to address racism in schools (Poed and Elkins, 2012).

Changing views about the inclusion of students with disabilities:

The term “inclusive education” was once meant only for the students with disabilities. The integration

model was antecedent to the existing inclusion model. The integration model attempted to support

students with disabilities to fit in a regular classroom or school. As a consequence, the student was

likely to adjust themselves to the conditions of the school. Nevertheless, in the inclusion model, the

school would make the necessary modifications based on the needs of all the students (Loreman,

Deppeler and Harvey, 2011). This allows the students with disabilities to go to their community

schools. They get a chance to interact more with their peers and develop their cognitive skills as they

live in the same community. The regular students also understand that students with disabilities are no

different from themselves (Westwood & Graham 2003). Therefore, the Inclusion model forms the

basis for the principle of normalisation where everyone is considered “normal” (Konza, 2008).
Before the 1970s, Australian schools were teaching the students with disabilities in separate

specialized settings. It was only after the beginning of the principle of normalisation and the Karmel

report (Karmel, 1973), Australia began to integrate students having disabilities in regular classrooms.

After 1981 (the international year of disabled persons), there was greater acceptance of the disabled

people and the idea of integration of students with disability into mainstream settings started

becoming a reality. Then followed the mainstreaming era where the students with special needs

attended the community schools but for some parts of a day received support from special educators.

Obvious changes were noticed after the UNESCO Salamanca Statement 1994. It gave birth to the

inclusion movement which recognizes that schools should assist all the students irrespective of their

differences in culture, race, the language they speak or ability (Forlin, 2006).

Statistical Analysis

In 1998, there were 277,400 children aged 5-17 years with a disability. Of these children, 229,800

attended a regular school. Of those attending regular schools, 66,300 attended special classes for some

or all their learning. 24,000 attended a special school. A further 23, 600 did not attend school (4102.0

- Australian Social Trends, 2000 )

In 2009, there were an estimated 292,600 children aged between 5-20 with a disability attending

school in Australia. Out of which 190,190 students attended a regular school, 71,101 attended special

classes within a mainstream school and 28,967 attended special schools (4429.0 - Profiles of

Disability, Australia, 2009). The children with a disability not attending school are not known.

Although there are federal laws supporting the inclusion of students with diverse needs in a regular

classroom, data from 1998 to 2009 is consistent and does not favour mainstream schooling. This

shows that Australian is lagging. This may be because there are no standards established to show what

is inclusive education and there is a poor measure of the academic advancement in students with

intellectual disabilities (Boyle, Anderson and Swan, 2015).

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD):

Autism Spectrum Australia (Aspect) defines ASD as a lifelong neurological developmental disorder.

Research shows in Australia 1 in 100 children have ASD (ASD Fact sheet). Children vary in severity

of the disorder from mild to severe. It is characterized by problems in interaction, communication and

limited recurrent interests and activities. Due to their difficulties in social interaction, students have

difficulties in forming the relationships with their peers, maintaining eye contacts and gestures. They

are mostly withdrawn and do not show interest to exchange things for the mutual benefit of one

another, have difficulty in speaking and initiate conversation because of their lack of ability to

communicate. They are usually preoccupied with their stereotyped interests (ASD Fact sheet).

Children with Autism must be included in the mainstream classroom because their limited ability to

socialize and communicate has rendered them lonely, depressed and anxious (Koegel, Kim, Koegel &

Schwartzman, 2013). This may create a scope for students with ASD to observe and behave like other

regular students (Chaaya, 2012).

Skills required by teachers to include students with additional needs in a regular classroom:

Australia is a growing multicultural country with diverse group of people (Forest, Lean and Dunn,

2017). Moreover, many children are being identified with disabilities and difficulties in learning like

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). These pose multifaceted challenges for teachers. Hence, this

requires teachers to have necessary personal and professional skills to practice inclusive education in

classrooms. The personal skills are inherent in an individual. Therefore, teachers must have the

following skills: patience, creativity, adaptability, effective communicate skills and the skills of

authentic self-assessment (McQuerrey, n.d). Apart from these, certain professional skills are necessary

in the inclusive teachers. First, inclusion works best when teachers have positive attitudes (Loreman,

2007). Teacher’s attitude is influenced by the nature of the disability. Nevertheless, the teachers must

believe that the students can achieve because teacher’s expectations impact student achievement. A

teacher’s positive attitude will influence the approaches they use in teaching (Avramidis and Norwich,

2002). This will, in turn, allow the teachers to adjust and accommodate the lesson according to the

nature of the disability of the student to get enhanced learning outcomes. Second, from positive

relationships with students with special needs. Research show that huge benefits in learning outcomes
through establishing this relationship. It is challenging on the part of the teachers and requires a lot of

time and effort (Lopez and Corcoran, 2014). Third, teachers must have an understanding about the

features of the student’s disabilities especially in ASD. Students with ASD will have unique needs,

interests and personalities. Educators should understand the specific needs of their students and cater

to their individual needs. This is possible through differentiation. It means teaching the same content

to all the students using different instructional approaches to improve the learning outcomes of the

students. Four, teacher’s skill to successfully collaborate with parents or the care givers and with the

School Learning Support Officers (SLSOs). Parents play a vital role in the school community and act

as the excellent source of information about the students (Loreman, 2007). Thus, teachers can

personalise their teaching based on the information obtained and support the students with additional

needs. Further, the teacher can obtain the review about their strategies used to support the student with

additional needs from the SLSO’s. The SLSO’s are in the best position to give the review as they

work closely with the student (SLSO guidelines ,2012).

The inclusion of students with disabilities and ASD in teaching practice:

The Australian Professional Standards for Teachers (APST)outline what a teacher should know and

what they should be able to do. According to APST, it is important to know the student and the

content of the subject (Standards 1 and 2). By knowing the students and the content, teachers can

include students with disabilities and ASD in a mainstream classroom. Successful inclusion requires

accommodation and adjustments. Adjustments can be made to the strategies used to teach the

curriculum effectively. The strategies should allow the full participation of the students with the

disability just like the students without a disability. The adjustment could either be made to the

curriculum, the instructions or the learning environment (NSW DET). It is considered reasonable if

the adjustment benefits all the parties affected. For example, using large fonts in a textbook could

benefit both students with ASD and students with visual difficulties.

Another approach towards inclusive education in the Universal Design for Learning (UDL). It is a

concept emerged to modify the curriculum and help the teachers to make the curriculum more

reachable to students of different learning need. UDL operates around three principles: several means
of representing the course content, several means of student expression and several means of

engagement and motivation (Kortering, McClannon and Braziel, 2008). An example of UDL

operation is to give students multiple options to do their assessments. This might be writing an essay

or doing a worksheet. Some students could create a presentation or video or could draw diagrams of

their learning. However, the assessment activities must make sure that the learning goals are achieved.

Differentiation is an important aspect of inclusive education. After understanding the needs of the

individual student, a lesson could be taught in different ways. This could be visually, auditorily and

kinaesthetically. The choice is based on the student’s interest or based on the approaches they learn

the lesson better and the learning outcomes to be achieved. For example, majority of the children with

ASD are visual tinkers. Therefore, teachers can use demonstration with toys to help them learn better.

According to the National Centre for Autism, students with ASD learn better through the following

strategies: modelling, story-based interventions and realistic education using child associated

behaviours. First, modelling involves prompting and reinforcement. For example, a teacher could

prompt the student by showing a video of the lesson and reinforce by explaining the step by step

process. This will provide visual and verbal instruction of what is expected from them. Second, in the

story-based intervention will involve explaining the lessons in a picture based or written story. This

might encourage social interaction as they could verbally respond. Third, in realistic education using

child associated behaviours, if a student is interested in trains, then all the mathematical problem

could be form using trains as an example.

To conclude, although there are strong federal laws supporting the students with additional needs in a

mainstream school, data from 1998-2009 does not show an increase of students in inclusive

education. Further research and current data is necessary to see the impact. However, essential teacher

skills and inclusive strategies will prove helpful in successful inclusion students with difficulties and

ASD.
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