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Inclusive Education. Vision, Theory and Concepts. Module 1. Overview. Unit 1: Introduction to ‘Inclusive Education’ Unit 2: ‘Personal Professional Development’ Unit 3: ‘Valuing Student Diversity’ Unit 4: ‘Supporting all Learners’ Unit 5: ‘Working with Others’.
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Inclusive Education Vision, Theory and Concepts Module 1
Overview Unit 1: Introduction to ‘Inclusive Education’ Unit 2: ‘Personal Professional Development’ Unit 3: ‘Valuing Student Diversity’ Unit 4: ‘Supporting all Learners’ Unit 5: ‘Working with Others’
Aims of Unit 1 • Develop an inclusive learning community within the training space. • Develop a common situation analysis: where are you coming from? • Clarify expectations (where are you going to) and provide motivation. • Clarify understanding and develop a preliminary definition for ‘inclusive education’. • Understand role of teacher as a change agent.
River of Life The river represents what you experience and learn on ‘inclusion’ in your school – in the past, in the present (our module) and in the future.
River of Life - Instructions • You are sitting at a table with colleagues who you don’t know (not from your school). • The outline of a river is drawn across the paper on your table. One quarter represents the past (what you bring to the training), two quarters represent the present (where we are now), and one quarter represents the future (what we will learn during the training and what we hope to take away with us): • All participants draw pictures that represent their own past experiences that relate to ‘inclusive education’. • All participants share their images within their group as a way to introduce themselves and get to know each other. • All participants write down 3 different outcomes or questions that they would like to reach or have answered during this training module (second and third quarter). • All participants name 3 things they want to learn in this training to build their capacity to promote inclusion (fourth quarter).
Do you have a ‘vision of inclusive education’? Inclusive education is a process that aims to overcome barriers to learning and participation. Inclusive education responds to diversity by creating situations where all children and youth can learn and experience competence, autonomy and belonging. Inclusive education builds on the experience and knowledge of everyone involved and by doing so enables the expansion of everyone’s experience and knowledge. What is your vision of inclusive education? All participants name 3 long-term outcomes they want to reach for their school (fourth quarter in the River of Life). All participants develop their own preliminary definition of inclusive education.
Case study: Person and System approach The local school has worked hard to become inclusive. The teachers are well-trained and child-focused, the environment is accessible and welcoming, the curriculum is flexible, there is good hygiene and sanitation, and children themselves participate actively in making the school an enjoyable, friendly and productive environment. However, it is clear that there are still children in the local community who do not attend school. One is a child who is from a marginalised group who has never been to school, comes from a very poor family, and speaks a language that is not the main language of instruction at the school. Another is a child who has had polio, has difficulty in walking, has never been to school, and sits at home doing nothing, afraid to go out in case of being called names. Write down all the points that in your view are important considering your vision of ‘inclusive education’.
Access – Participation – Achievement Inclusive education is about ensuring access, participation and achievement for all students. Person and System approach: • Focus on the learners who are vulnerable to being excluded. • Focus on the system – identify and seek to overcome barriers to inclusion. Focus on system: Learning environments, attitudes, methods respond to diversity and promote inclusion. Removing barriers Focus on the learner: Respecting their views and providing appropriate support to them as rights-holders. Empowerment Inclusive Education Responding to Diversity Creating Participatory Social Situations and Systems
Inclusion in communities and systems Inclusion in communities Being part of family and school activities. Belonging to a community. Being a member of a society. Inclusion in education systems Participation in classroom activities. Being active and included in school life. Being acknowledged and promoted by the education system.
Inclusion in society and community Microsystem: Groups or institutions that have a directimpact on individual, impact isdirect through relationships. Mesosystem: Interconnectionsbetween microsystems (e.g. between family and school). Exosystem: Microsystems notin direct contact, but influencethrough others. Macrosystem: Culture in whichindividual lives. Chronosystem: Patterns developin an individual’s environment andlife situation across time. Uri Bronfenbrenner: Ecological Systems Theory
Circles of Inclusion Society Community Relationships Schools ascommunities!
Instruction to exercise on circles of inclusion Circles of inclusion and exclusion Please brainstorm on the following questions: • What makes an ‘inclusive society’? • What makes an ‘inclusive community’? • What makes an ‘inclusive relationship’? Think of vulnerable children that you know or take case study example: • Which processes can help make an inclusive society? • Which process can contribute to exclusion? Think of the community/municipality in which you live and consider the applicability of your responses.
Circles of inclusion: application example ‘Circles of Support’ developed by Inclusion Europe
Schools as a public institution and policy domain SystemsPerspective
Definitions for ‘access’, ‘participation’, ‘achievement’ Access: Refers to school-related input factors that facilitate or hinder the access of vulnerable children and influence whether a child is present in the classroom or not. This includes also the access to necessary support systems and to the general curriculum. Participation: Refers to school-related process factors that facilitate or hinder a sense of belonging, a sense of competence and a sense of autonomy in the child. Meaningful participation is shared with peers of the same age group and is oriented towards goals that are relevant for society and the individual. Achievement: Refers to school effect on children and youth: what has a child achieved as a result of participating in education? What does it take with it after leaving school? Access: Right to Education Participation: Rights in Education Achievement: Rights through Education
Instruction to exercise on school as an institution Inclusion and exclusion in education systems Please brainstorm on the following questions: • What makes an ‘inclusive education system’? • What makes an ‘inclusive school’? • What makes an ‘inclusive classroom’? Think of vulnerable children that you know or take case study example: • Which processes can help create inclusive education? • Which process can contribute to exclusion? Think of the school in which you work and consider the applicability of your responses.
Some evidence: home effect on student achievement Effect of some home-related factors. Do schools in general and teachers in particular have greater impact on achievement or less impact than these home-related factors?
School effect on achievement What do you think is the contribution of the following factors on student achievement? ‘High contribution’, ‘medium contribution’ or ‘low contribution’? Providing formative evaluation to teachers. Teacher-student relationship. Reducing class size. Student control over learning. Ways to stop labelling students. Individualised instruction. Ability grouping/tracking. How to develop high expectations for each student. Computer-assisted instruction. Retention (holding back one year).
School effect on achievement What do you think is the contribution of the following factors on student achievement? ‘High contribution’ (1 to 4), ‘medium contribution’ (5 to 7) or ‘low contribution’ (8 to 10)? Providing formative evaluation to teachers (2) (Effect size: 0.90) Teacher-student relationship (3) (Effect size: 0.72) Reducing class size (7) (Effect size: 0.21) Student control over learning (9) (Effect size: 0.04) Ways to stop labelling students (4) (Effect size: 0.61) Individualised instruction (6) (Effect size: 0.22) Ability grouping/tracking (8) (Effect size: 0.12) How to develop high expectations for each student (1) (Effect size: 1.44) Computer-assisted instruction (5) (Effect size: 0.37) Retention (holding back one year) (10) (Effect size: -0.13)
Influence of different teacher factors on achievement Which teacher factors do you think have a high, medium or low impact on student achievement? Quality of teaching. Teacher subject knowledge. Micro teaching. Teacher training. Teacher clarity. Not labelling students. Teacher-student relationship. Professional development. Teacher effect. Expectations.
Teacher effect on student achievement Micro teaching Teacher clarity Teacher-student relationship Professional development Not labelling students Quality of Teaching Expectations Teacher effect Teacher training Teacher subject knowledge John Hattie (2009). Visible Learning. A Synthesis of over 800 Meta-Analyses relating to Achievement. Routledge.
European Agency project on ‘teachers for inclusion’ ‘Personal Professional Development’ (Unit 2) ‘Valuing Learner Diversity’ (Unit 3) ‘Supporting all Learners’ (Unit 4) ‘Working with Others’ (Unit 5)
Aims of Unit 2 • Understand the importance of professional development for inclusive education. • Get to know a definition of teacher competencies for inclusion. • Become aware of the biases that influence our actions. • You know some of the differences between novice teachers, experienced teachers and teacher mentors. • Develop your vision of an inclusive teacher.
Teacher competencies for diversity Competence can be attributed to individuals, social groups or institutions “when they possess or acquire the conditions for achieving specific developmental goals and meeting important demands presented by the external environment”. A competency involves a related set of knowledge, skills and attitudes that enable a person to perform the activities of a given occupation effectively or function in such a way that meets or exceeds the standards expected in a particular profession or work setting. Teacher competency for teaching socio-cultural diversity concerns the ’what‘, ’how‘ and ’why,’ the know-how of acting in a specific diverse educational content so that knowledge, resources and abilities are mobilised, added and transformed to bring added value. Council of Europe Competence Framework for ‘Key competences for diversity’. See also UNICEF Competencies Definitions for Employment: http://www.unicef.org/about/employ/files/UNICEF_Competencies.pdf
‘Action cycle’ or ‘problem-solving cycle’ Situation, problem
Our actions are subject to bias State of the Environment
How well are we observing? Playing basketball. Please count how many times the players in the white shirts pass the ball to each other. Available on the Internet: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJG698U2Mvo
Judgment and interpretation are personal Question of perspective: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M3bfO1rE7Yg Context influences our interpretation: Actor-Observer-Bias: We tend to attribute others' behaviour to personal or dispositionalfactors, but we typically attribute our own behaviour to situational factors.
Projection into the future and decision-making Just hold on, you can do it alone! Give me your hand then it will be alright. If you get yourself dirty, you will be in trouble!
Evaluation and reflection Confirmation bias. Self-fulfilling prophecies. Placebo effect. Selective recall. These are just a few of the phenomena known as cognitive biases http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cognitive_biases. To be biased is human, but teachers have to be aware of these biases if they want to support all learners in a diverse society.
Novice teachers – leaving behind student views From student to novice teacher • Acquiring an identity as a teacher. • Seeing classroom through eyes of a teacher rather than a student. • School subjects are more than facts and rules. • Teaching is a complex and ambiguous activity. • There are multiple contextualisations of teaching which they may not have experienced as student. • Strong wish to control student behaviour is not a good idea.
Experienced teacher – dealing with complex situations From novice teacher to experienced teacher • Seeing learning through the eyes of the students. • Systematically reflect own practice. • Collaboration and peer support becomes part of everyday practice. • Develop a situational understanding of learning rather than being focused on student attributes. • Develop a sense of self-efficacy and competence in managing. conflicting goals
Teacher mentor – networked expertise From experienced teacher to teacher mentor • Being able to identify essential representations of one’s subject or knowledge domain. • Systematically guide learning through classroom interactions without controlling students. • Monitoring learning activities in a meaningful way and provide feedback for learning and to build positive identities. • Learn to help students regulate themselves and attend to effective attributes. • Effectively influence positive student outcomes.
What is your vision and what do you seek to achieve? Quotes that reflect the understanding we seek to achieve: “To teach is to learn twice over.” (Joseph Joubert) “Learned we may be with another man's learning: we can only be wise with wisdom of our own.” (Michel de Montaigne) “Treat people as if they were what they ought to be and you help them become what they are capable of becoming.” (Johann Wolfgang von Goethe) “The authority of those who teach is often an obstacle to those who want to learn.” (Cicero) What is your vision of a novice teacher, and experienced teacher and teacher mentor/teacher educator? Where are you presently in the professional life-cycle?
Aims of Unit 3 • Understand the in-group – out-group bias (in-group favouritism) and how it links to labelling. • Get to know the most important dimensions of diversity. • Understand the cycle of oppression and draw your own cycle of empowerment. • Consider the importance of human rights for valuing student diversity. • Think about ways this knowledge could be relevant for your school.
Understanding our social identities How do we perceive ourselves in social groups and how are we perceived by others? Which aspects of our identity are we comfortable to expose in our community and which aspects do we prefer to keep private? Please fill in the questionnaire. Consider what your social identity means at the following levels: • Personal: values, beliefs, feelings. • Interpersonal: actions, behaviour, language. • Institutional: roles, policies, procedures. • Cultural: beauty, truth, right. Which dimensions of diversity were identified in the questionnaire? Are there other dimensions that you think are important?
In-group – out-group bias With or even without intergroup interaction the following can be observed: • In-group identity vs out-group labelling. • In-group favouritism vs out-group discrimination. • Exaggeration and over-generalisation of differences between in-group and out-group. • Minimising differences between in-group members. • Remember more detailed and positive information about the in-group and more negative interaction about the out-group. Phenomena can be observed everyday, e.g. with football fans. Experiment which shows these dynamics: Robbers Cave Experiment. What can you do about this as an individual? What should you do about this as a teacher?
Cycle of Oppression In-group with institutional power Perceiving others Thinking about others Effect on out-group member Overt or covert actions Consideringand planning actions
Stereotypes, prejudice, discrimination and oppression A stereotype is a generalisation about a group of people in which identical characteristics are assigned to virtually all members of the group, regardless of actual variation among the members. It can also be an exaggerated or distorted belief that refuses to acknowledge differences among members of a group. Prejudice is a negative or hostile attitude toward people in a distinct group, based solely on their membership within that group. It is reflected in judgments or opinions formed before the facts are known. It can be unlearned. Discrimination is the systematic preference of the in-group over the out-group with the power to act on these preferences. Oppression is a combination of prejudice, stereotype and discrimination which is backed by institutional power. Internalised oppression is the effect this has on individuals in the out-group. Institutional power is the ability or official authority to decide what is best for others which comes with the availability of resources and the capacity to exercise control over others.
Human rights in education system Progressive realisation • Transforming the rhetorical aspirations of CRPD and CRC into concrete results. • Realistic understanding of the restraints states confront when fulfilling their human rights obligations. Awareness of circumstances • Requires flexibility to changing circumstances. • Situational differences affecting the distribution of resources. Negotiation • Universal human rights are said to be ‘non-negotiable’, but… • … negotiation is the primary political mode of the realisation of human rights. What do youknowaboutthe CRPD andthe CRC? Whatwouldyou like tolearn?
Cycle of empowerment Situation, problem Please try now to create a cycle of empowerment – what is required at each step?
Transfer to your school setting What is the current situation in your school with regard to valuing student diversity? What do you think would be a good next step to make your school value student diversity even more? What would help students, parents and the community to value student diversity? What do you think is important to convey to your colleagues in order for your school to take these actions? • What goals do you have? What would you like to achieve? • Which ideas, theories, contents are important and why? • Which methods or tools would you use? • In which setting or context would you plan activities – and what activities would you plan?
