Inclusion Essay

Inclusion essay

Asante, (2010) defines inclusion as allowing people in that have historically been locked out of functional society.  It is this allowing people in which the inclusion agenda is based around.  The most common association for the inclusion agenda is Special Educational Needs (SEN) however Dyson et al., (2004) shows that inclusion is much wider and complex which covers race, gender, age, disability, religion/belief and sexual orientation.  Frederickson et al., (2004) supports this statement by stating that inclusion does not just focus on SEN but any situation where students require additional support to achieve their potential due to any reason.

It is the schools responsibility to provide inclusive education to all the students on its role. In doing this they must ensure that all students are receiving the attention and support that they require. This can be provided in a number of different ways from differentiated work to one on one teaching.  Inclusion is designed to remove the barriers to learning that children may have in reaching the potential.  As the inclusion agenda covers a vast amount of disabilities, impairments, and learning problems, it is vital that the school works alongside external agencies that can provide expert help to the students and their needs.  An inclusive educational environment works toward the 5 outcomes. The inclusive educational agenda is part of ensuring that every child has the right to the 5 outcomes (formally known as every child matters) set down in law.  These are designed to ensure that every child has a legal right to be healthy, stay safe, make a positive contribution, achieve economic wellbeing and to achieve and enjoy, no matter what their physical social or mental states is.  

This inclusion essay will be looking at two different stands to the inclusive education agenda.  I will be looking at hearing impaired students and dyslexic students.  In both of these cases I will be looking at the policies that have been implemented to support these students to overcome their learning barriers and relating to the classroom practice.  

Gale, (2010) has shown that the majority of deaf and hearing impaired students do not see their condition as a disability that affects them but do see it as something that makes them different from everyone else.  Gale, (2010) shows that hearing impaired or deaf students may be left at a disadvantage in their education if they are not given the correct support to achieve their potential.  It is the support that they are provided with that makes them feel themselves.  Since the equality act was introduced it has allowed for students that have hearing impairments to be integrated in to main stream education.  Cawthon, (2001) suggests that this has been the first step of inclusion for hearing impaired students as they can interact and develop communication skills with non-hearing impaired students.  Although Wiesel, (1988) shows that there has been cases where this integration has not been effective it has been demonstrated by Hung and Paul, (2006) that the majority of hearing impaired students respond better to being in mainstream education alongside hearing peers.