EXAMINE THE EFFECTIVENESS OF INCLUSIVE EDUCATION FOR THE 5- 19 YEAR OLD CHILDREN WITH LEARNING DISABILITIES IN ENGLAND.

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EXAMINE THE EFFECTIVENESS OF INCLUSIVE EDUCATION FOR THE five – 19        YEAR OLD CHILDREN WITH LEARNING DISABILITIES IN ENGLAND.

CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

ABSTRACT

INTRODUCTION

CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW

  • Debates and Definition in Inclusive education
  • Inclusive Education as a Human Rights:

CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY

CHAPTER 3: HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVES

CHAPTER 4: POLICY CONTEXT

  •  Government Policy Initiatives

CHAPTER 5: The Theory and Practice

  • Children, Parents, Research Perspectives

CHAPTER 6: DATA ANALYSIS

  • Negative Outcomes of the study

6. Positive Outcomes

7. Study Recommendations

CONCLUSION

BIBLIOGRAPHY

ABSTRACT

England has obligations under international human rights law to provide inclusive education for all children regardless of their abilities, gender and sexualities (CSIE, 2000). Inclusive education in England was also influenced by the Disabled People’s Movements (Hodkinson and Vickerman, 2009). Inclusive education happens when children with disabilities are moved from segregation education (special schools) and become included within mainstream education. This dissertation is going to focus on school aged children with learning disabilities. Children with learning disabilities have a right to access universal education like other children without learning disabilities. Children with learning disabilities are included in mainstream education with those without disabilities so that they can have an opportunity to receive the same standard of education and also share experiences about each other in order to create a positive attitude. In addition, children with learning disabilities will gain more skills and knowledge that will prepare them for employment and mainstream life chances as equal citizens.

People with learning difficulties in England continue to experience socio-economic and cultural exclusion from mainstream society and as a result this target group is often not included in the mainstream education. Inclusive education entails social inclusion, social justice and the empowerment of children with learning difficulties and requires their inclusion into the mainstream curriculum, teaching methods and classrooms together with their peers. As well as equipping children with learning difficulties with the knowledge and skills necessary for their participation in society it also challenges and changes societal attitudes regarding children with disabilities.

This research will concern itself and examine the effectiveness of inclusive education in England through the collection, presentation and analysis of secondary data about the English programme of inclusive education. The study will conclude by summing up the main study outcomes which show the effectiveness or ineffectiveness of inclusive education in England.

INTRODUCTION

Recent years have seen education for young people with learning disabilities shift from segregation to Inclusive Education.  In the past children with learning disabilities were not educated like children without disabilities, they were seen as uneducable and were sent into long stay hospitals where they had little stimulation and occupation (Grant et. al, 2009). They were seen as vulnerable and had something wrong with them. They were stigmatised, not seen as members of society and not given the same opportunities as their peers. The medical model of disability was used to diagnose, and categorise and treat them and according to this model children with learning disabilities had something wrong with them hence they needed to be cured (Grant et. al, 2009). Children were the responsibility of the health department. However, when the Labour Government came into power in 1997 they introduced Inclusive Education that aimed at giving everyone the same opportunities, choice and self-determination (Hodkinson and Vickerman, 2010).

This research will examine the effectiveness of Inclusive Education for children with learning disabilities, ages ranging from five to 19 years in England. Inclusive education is seen as central to achieving social inclusion and social justice for people with learning disabilities. However, despite this endeavour, people with learning disabilities continue to experience socio- economic and cultural exclusion from the mainstream of society because of the social and environmental barriers they face. It is the contention of this dissertation that inclusive education in England is essential to promote the social inclusion and social justice and is an important starting point to promote the education and life chances of people with learning disabilities. Failure to do so will lead to continuing the inequalities people with learning disabilities experience. Inclusive education therefore, becomes an indispensable feature of social inclusion and social justice.

At this stage it would be ideal to explore the concept of social exclusion as a policy that has influenced the emergence of inclusive education. For inclusive education seeks to include children with learning disabilities in education in order to create an inclusive society that embraces people with learning disabilities as equal citizens. Morris (2001) reinforces this view stating ‘Inclusive education is part of a human rights approach to social relations and conditions’ which promotes ‘a vision of the whole society of which education is a part’ and which embodies ‘Issues of social justice, equity and choice’ which are central to the demands for inclusive education (cited in Ward, 2008).

The opposite of this is social exclusion, which is defined by Pierson (2010, p. 12) as a process that deprives individuals and families, groups and neighbourhoods of the resources required for participation in the social, economic and political activity of society as a whole. This process is primarily a consequence of poverty and low income, but other factors such as discrimination, low education attainment and depleted living environments also underpin it’. According to this definition when people are not given the same opportunities as everyone else in the society, they become excluded.

The Centre for Analysis of social exclusion (CASE), point out that ‘an individual is socially excluded if he or she does not participate in key activities of the society in which he or she lives’. (Boardman et al., 2010, p.12).

The above definitions maintain that people who are excluded do not have the same opportunities as other people within society. With regard to inclusive education, children with learning difficulties not included in mainstream education will be excluded from important activities and they may not develop enough knowledge to participate within mainstream opportunities that other people enjoy and take for granted within society. The writer became interested in finding out about major causes of exclusion amongst people with learning disabilities when she worked with young people with learning disabilities in a day centre. She became aware that those young people did not have the same curriculum as other children in a mainstream school but all they did was painting and nothing to prepare them for employment. This made the writer realise that young people with learning disabilities are not prepared enough for mainstream chances and unless they are given the same chances as other children in education, they will remain marginalised. This dissertation aims to examine the effectiveness of an Inclusive Education programme for the 5-19 year old children with learning disabilities in England. The research will focus mainly on children with special educational needs. Hodkinson and Vickerman (2009, p.3) define a child with special educational need as a child who ‘has a learning difficulty which calls for special educational provision to be made for him’. In addition, England was chosen in this research instead of the United Kingdom because education systems for Scotland and Wales are not the same as the English education system hence their policies and practices would be different.

The examination will therefore begin in chapter one by reviewing literature about inclusive education in general discussing what it is and how it works. It will also explore concepts and definitions of inclusive education and will highlight principles of human rights, empowerment and the maximisation of all children’s potential. Reference will be made to international law, English law, legislation and policy on Inclusive Education. Other forms of education will also be discussed. Literature will be analysed so that it will be used to inform the research debate. In Chapter 2 will outline methods that have been used in this research. Chapter 3 will examine the history of inclusive education, looking how it emerged as a policy in England, while doing this reference will be made to international policies. Chapter 4 will examine England and international policies, government’s initiatives on Inclusive Education.  Chapter 5 will focus on the theory and practice of inclusive education and will outline the experiences of children with learning disabilities, how they feel about Inclusive Education and whether they feel included in education at all. Parents’ experiences will also be explored to find out if Inclusive education is best for their children. Educationalists and political views will also be examined. Chapter 6 will analyse the data in this study, followed by the study recommendations. Finally, the research will conclude by considering whether Inclusive Education in England has been effective in including young people with learning disabilities in mainstream life chances.

CHAPTER ONE

LITERATURE REVIEW

This chapter will review literature which includes the definitions of concepts and the discussions of major debates in the subject of Inclusive Education. Literature will be analysed and the review will gather information from academic textbooks, government policy documents, internet sources and journal articles. The review will be used to inform the whole dissertation with much of it evident in the critical analysis chapter.

DEBATES AND DEFINITIONS IN INCLUSIVE EDUCATION:

The Department for Education and Employment (1996, section 321), suggests that a child has a learning disability when he or she:

‘has a significantly greater difficulty in learning that the majority of children of his age’ or ‘has a disability which either prevents or hinders him from making use of educational facilities of a kind generally provided for children of his age in school within the area of local education authority’. (Cited in Frederickson and Cline, 2003).

Mencap (2007), a leading Learning Disabilities charity, points out that people with learning disabilities find it harder than others to learn, understand and communicate but with support may be able to learn.  According to Valuing People (2001, 14), everyone has had some varying degrees of learning difficulties at some point in their life and as a result we have all been assisted in our lives at some point. The two perspectives suggest that difficulties in learning could be overcome through the provision of some form of assistance to enable children with learning difficulties to benefit from their learning in the same way their peers do in order for them to feel socially included.

The idea of overcoming barriers in education is referred to as inclusive education, and involves a social model view of learning difficulties. Failure to remove social and environmental barriers leads to segregation in society for people with disabilities. Separate services such as special Needs Schools and residential homes, which are provided within a medical model view of learning difficulties, continue a model of education and care which separates children with learning disabilities from their peer group and community. Whether spate services is the correct form of provision is a major and current debate in England and internationally. It could be argued that segregated education means a segregated society full of inequalities and injustices, yet the fact remains that children are different. For them to benefit from their learning environment their individual needs should be adequately catered for in schools. Meeting the needs of children with learning difficulties, will help them be fully included like their peers.

Hodkinson and Vickerman (2009) support the above view by discussing the medical model view of learning for people with learning difficulties. They point out that under the medical model people’s inability to participate fully in their communities is due to their impairment, it is the individual who has to adapt to the way in which society is constructed. The medical model sees the impairment as the cause of disadvantage for the person and not the structures within society. In this model, people are defined by their disabilities or illness rather than what they can do when given support and the professionals want to cure these individuals rather than making services accessible. (Swain et al. 2003). According to Johnston (2001) the medical model views disability as a personal tragedy for individuals concerned hence these people are seen as needing protection and security. This notion encourages that people with disabilities need special provision of services, hence special schools, segregation and special benefits.

The Social Model was developed by disabled people movements in response to the medical model of disabilities. This model argues that people with learning disabilities are denied their civil rights; this is done by not providing them with environments that can accommodate their disabilities. For example a young person with learning disabilities in a mainstream education with no support will not feel included in the class room. According to this model, it is society that disables people by placing barriers that hinder people with impairments to access mainstream chances hence they become marginalised and discriminated against. For people with learning difficulties if their needs in education are not met, they will face barriers in education and in the employment sector. This will be because they will not be prepared enough to take on mainstream life chances (Swain et al. 2003).

Inclusion as a concept is defined by Cigman (2007) as a universal human right. Cigman points out that inclusion is about embracing people irrespective of race, gender, disability and other needs. He continues by saying that it is about giving people the same opportunities in life while taking away discrimination and removing barriers for people who are often excluded. In his definition Cigman accepts that inclusion is a human right that everyone should be given in order for people to feel accepted within their society and be able to participate in mainstream life chances. Inclusion is a way of involving people within their communities to fight exclusion and aims to promote equality (Swain et al. 2003).

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Inclusion in education is defined by Rumstemier (2001) as a process where all children and young people with and without learning difficulties learn together in ordinary schools with appropriate support. CSIE (2011) defines inclusion in education as a way of reducing barriers to learning and participation for all students, not only those with impairments enabling them to participate fully in mainstream settings regardless of their need. Cigman (2007), states that inclusion in education helps to make disability a part of everyday life. He continues to say that child with disabilities and those without; if they are taught together they get ...

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