CHARACTERISTICS OF AN INCLUSIVE SCHOOL

2.10.1 The Davidoff–Lazarus model for building inclusive schools

Davidoff and Lazarus (as cited in Engelbrecht, 2003, p.64) have recommended a model for building an inclusive school. These researchers have framed the following questions for discovering the key elements in the model:

(a) School policy: Do the school’s mission statement, aims, objectives, and policy

guidelines include elements that would enable the school community to become more inclusive?

(b) Strategies (school development): Does the school development plan (including the

school’s goals, action plans, and evaluation frameworks) include aspects that will facilitate the development of an inclusive teaching and learning environment?

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(c) Strategies (curriculum development): Do the curriculum goals, plans, and evaluation

procedures of the school ensure that the diverse needs of the learner population are being adequately addressed?

(d) Human resource utilization and development: Are the resources and competencies of

all role players in the school (including parents and community resources) being optimally utilized for the purposes of providing an effective and inclusive teaching and learning process?

(e) School culture: Do all the above elements of school life reflect and work towards the

development of values and norms that reflect an inclusive and supportive teaching and learning?

(f) External context: How do factors relating to family, community, district, and

provincial, national, and global contexts hinder or support the development of an inclusive school?

(g) Leadership and management: Do the school governing body and the management

team (principal, heads of departments, and others in leadership positions in the school) have the competencies to know how to accommodate diversity and address barriers to learning and development? (Davidoff and Lazarus, as cited in Engelbrecht, 2003, p. 66, p.29).

2.10.2 The Mitchell formula for identifying key components of inclusive education

Mitchell (2008,p.28-29), in turn, is of the opinion that the idea of inclusive education reflects two, or possibly three, main factors or underlying ideas:

(a) Firstly, if inclusive education is handled appropriately, learners with special

educational needs will gain academically and socially, and will improve their self- esteem.

(b) Secondly, it is now generally accepted in most countries that learners with special

educational needs have a right to be educated alongside their peers who do not have special needs.

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(c) Thirdly, it is sometimes put forward that inclusive education is more economically

viable given the expenses involved in transporting and accommodating learners in special schools, especially in rural areas.

Mitchell (2008,p.28-29) also maintains that the success achieved in inclusive education depends on the skills of educators at the school level, who in turn depend on the leadership of the educational and administrators at national, state, provincial, and district levels. He has summarised the essential elements for success in the form of the following formula:

Inclusive education = V + P + 5A + S + R +L

where

(a) V = vision: Commitment is required on the part of educators at all levels of the

system to the underlying philosophy of inclusive education and a willingness to implement it.

(b) P = placement: This means placement in an age-appropriate classroom in learners’

neighbourhood school, which is a necessary (but not sufficient) requirement for inclusive education. Furthermore, it is important that learners with special needs in regular classrooms should not then be placed in ability-based groups for all their activities, thus creating a form of within-class segregation, though mixed individual attention is to be given if possible.

(c) 5A = five A’s: These stand for—

(i) Adaptations and modifications to the curriculum, which are central to inclusive education. They also constitute the biggest challenge that educators have to face in creating inclusive classrooms.

(ii) Assessment, which is not merely a simple tool for sorting or selecting which learners should have opportunities to continue their education. When assessment is used for selection or ranking, it is inevitable that learners with special education needs will feel the worst, thus stigmatizing them as failures and demotivating them.

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(iii) Adapted teaching, in which educators need to adapt their teaching to

accommodate learners experiencing barriers to learning.

(iv) Adapted learning, in which different teaching styles need to be applied so as

to help all learners.

(v) Access, which means that learners experiencing barriers should have access

to both school and learning.

(d) S = Support: This refers to the development of ILSTs as a supporting tool within the

school environment for all learners, including those with impairments, and, moreover, for teachers who may have experiential difficulties in teaching them. (e) R = Resources: Little or nothing can be achieved with the other elements if a school

lacks resources such as assistive devices, for example, to enable learners to acquire an education.

(f) L = Leadership: The school management team should be thoroughly familiar not only

with the theoretical principles of inclusive education, but also with the practical ways and means of carrying it into effect (Mitchell, 2008, p. 29).

2.10.3 The input-process-outcome-context model

This model for inclusive education, as noted by Peters (2004,p.10), asserts that school climate, and teaching and learning, are two domains that are of critical importance in the process of inclusion. Within these domains, a whole-school approach to inclusive education is a critical factor for effective implementation.

2.10.4 Collaboration with sectors in the community

In addition to the whole-school approach, collaboration with other sectors in the community is viewed as critical in developing inclusion. Green and Stofile (2004,p.55) maintain that since the publication of Education White Paper 6 in 2001, there have been several initiatives to facilitate the effective implementation of an inclusive education system. One of the most significant initiatives has been that most schools, especially primary schools, have established ILSTs. Some of these teams, but not all of them, are

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reported to be functioning effectively (DoE, 2002; Engelbrecht, 2003,p.160-164). According to Mitchell (2008,p.29), the practice or implementation of inclusive education will only be successful if it is viewed as part of a system that extends from the classroom to the broader society. Its viability depends on what goes on from day to day and minute by minute in classrooms and playgrounds. It also depends on the skills of educators at the school level who, in turn, depend on the leadership of the educational administration at the national, provincial, and district levels.