Placements
The principle of special education was established in the Western world during the last century to meet the humanitarian and moral needs of all students (James & Cherry, 2010). This concept has been evolving and changing in terms of content and form and has led to the development of the concept of inclusion, the term ‘inclusion’ explicitly refers to the elimination of any type of discrimination or exclusion of any kind of needs in the school environment. A brief discussion of the evolution of special education towards inclusion is highlighted here, as well as the different varieties of educational setting, such as special, integrated and inclusive education
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and mainstreaming for the various groups of deaf pupils. The differences between these educational placements is also investigated.
It is often pointed out that there is a difference between the meaning of the term “special needs” from a linguistic point of view and in the criteria of application, that is, what is considered as special needs. This terminology continues to create substantial variation with respect to policy, research and practice (Wilson, 2002). Many policies describe or define Special Educational Needs (SEN) based on intensity, thus the labelling of disability is made in terms of “severe”, “moderate” and “mild”. However, Vehmas (2008) wonders “whether sorting needs into ordinary and special is discriminatory” (p. 87). In addition, according to Hornby and Kidd (2001), avoiding certain categories should be implemented by legislation, in order to enhance specialists and researchers in learning, communication, social skills and sensory and physical that is four comprehensive aspects of SEN.
The significant impact of the different definitions has led researchers to elaborate upon the concept of SEN towards inclusive education. For instance, special needs might be exhibited by students who come from minority groups or social communities whose backgrounds differ from those of the majority of the school population. As a consequence, many children have not had the opportunity to learn in the mainstream school educational system, due to exclusion and have received different forms of special provision. However, there was a dramatic development in the concept of education as well as the challenge to apply such concepts throughout the world. The inclusion concept of education for all was the positive outcome of this challenge. In UK 1978, Warnock report remarkably created inquiry into Education Handicapped Children and become a framework of provision in learning students with disabilities (Warnock and Norwich, 2010).
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The aspiration of inclusive education is to remove social exclusion that is a result of discriminatory attitudes to diversity in social class, gender, ability, religion,race and ethnicity (Ainscow & Cesar, 2006). This concept was supported by the Salamanca World Conference on Special Needs Education (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation [UNESCO], 1994). Inclusion could reduce the negativity relating to exclusion that is caused by segregated educational forms, as special schools or special classrooms at schools might represent the exclusion of students who are educated at these types of educational settings.
Exclusion is defined as removing a pupil from school to comply with school rules (Booth & Ainscow, 2002). Exclusion from mainstream education is applicable because students have a disability or impairments that cause learning difficulties (Booth & Ainscow, 2002). However, exclusion also refers to being withdrawn from a school for usually disruptive behaviour (Nash, Schlösser and Scarr, 2015). Moreover, criticism of the special education approach was made in order to change and restructure the education of pupils with disabilities (Osgood, 2005).
Educating children with disabilities in mainstream schools is considered in some countries as an inclusive education approach (Ainscow, 2005; Farrell, Tweddle & Malki, 1999). Whereas, worldwide, supporting and embracing diversity amongst all students have been adapted (Ainscow, 2005; UNESCO, 2001, as cited in Booth & Ainscow, 2002). In this context, Mittler (2005) also argues that inclusive education could be defined as reforming and restructuring schools as a whole to ensure access for the whole diversity of learners.
The move towards inclusive education could mean focusing on supporting the involvement and learning for pupils’ diversity (Ainscow, 2005). However, the
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Salamanca Statement (1994) referred to above places emphasis upon, not just access to, but also the quality of education. It is suggested that it is essential that schools are developed, rather than only including efforts to integrate pupils with special needs into schools (Ainscow, 2005).
The terms “inclusive education” and “mainstreaming” are often used interchangeably but there are, in fact, fundamentally differences between them. Lindsay (2007) uses these terms together and indicates that inclusive education/mainstreaming is considered a key policy objective in educating children with SEN and disabilities. Therefore, Stinson and Antia (1999) state that inclusion and mainstreaming represent practices within a dimension, where the outcome of such practices is “integration”. Furthermore, in UK, a school that is not special or independent is defined as a mainstream school (UK Department for Education and Skills [DfES], 2001). For the purposes of this theses, the following definitions are:
Mainstreaming is the integration of children with disabilities with their peers in general education based on individual assessment, whereas inclusion is “Inclusion” goes beyond mainstreaming in that it implies that most children with disabilities will be educated in the general education classroom for most, if not all, of the school day (Hocutt, 1996, p. 79).
However, a clear working definition of inclusion might be elusive (Florian, 2014), because these continues to be widespread debate are the precise meaning of this term. Defining inclusion is faced by conceptual difficulties that continue unanswered (Hegarty, 2001, as cited in Florian, 2014).
Stinson & Antia (1999) discuss inclusion from three perspectives: placement, philosophy and pragmatism. The placement perspective represents the physical settings, so that inclusion indicates that students will be included for the whole of the school day within regular classrooms, while mainstreaming means that students will
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be educated within mainstream schools but not necessarily within regular classrooms. With respect to the perspectives of philosophy and pragmatism, inclusion in the former implies that mainstream classrooms should be adapted to the student, not the opposite, and in the latter inclusion refers to the partnership that should be made between mainstream teachers and special educators in order to accommodate the classroom for SEN. In this context, Ainscow (2006) argues that practice, culture and policies can be values that enhance inclusion. These values might be linked to the previous perspectives mentioned as strategies for implementing inclusive education.
Doherty (2011, p. 792) states that “inclusion can emphasise a location, a shared system of values or attitude”. Definitions of inclusion in education from the Index for Inclusion (Booth & Ainscow, 2002 p. 3) involve:
Valuing all students and staff equally.
Increasing the participation of students in, and reducing their exclusion from, the cultures, curricula and communities of local schools.
Restructuring the cultures, policies and practices in schools so that they respond to the diversity of students in the locality.
Reducing barriers to learning and participation for all students, not only those with impairments or those who are categorised as “having special educational needs”.
Learning from attempts to overcome barriers to the access and participation of particular students to make changes for the benefit of students more widely.
Viewing the difference between students as resources to support learning, rather than as problems to be overcome.
Acknowledging the right of students to an education in their locality. Improving schools for staff as well as for students.
Emphasising the role of schools in building community and developing values, as well as in increasing achievement.
Fostering mutually sustaining relationships between schools and communities.
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Unlike the UK, schools in SA do not have a school policy on inclusive education. In order to enhance the success and effectiveness of inclusion in schools, different requirements need to be considered to implement whole school ethos. Changing attitudes, developing professional skills and collaborating within ongoing partnerships are suggested as keys issues for successful school inclusion (Forlin & Rose, 2010, as cited in Lindqvist, Nilholm Almqvist and Wetso, 2011). Moreover, whether inclusive education could be a successful approach in educating deaf students has been widely debated by the deaf education community (Stinson & Antia, 1999). The educational settings that might be of benefit to deaf pupils and their requirements are discussed in the next section.