Reform, Inclusion and Teacher Education

Towards a new era of special education in the Asia-Pacific Region

Christine Forlin, Ming-Gon John Lian

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2008
• ISBN:
  9781134040636
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education General

This ground-breaking book considers current perspectives on special education reform in the Asia-Pacific region. It has a major focus on a new era of special education, and how this relates to education reform towards inclusive education.

With major changes being proposed under current educational reform and confusion as to how to instigate these measures, this book provides ways to better prepare teachers. It is helpfully divided into three different sections of education reform:

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• "Education Reform in the Asia-Pacific region" reviews broad trends and issues in special education across the region, including Taiwan, Korea, Australia, India, China and Hong Kong.

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• "Preparing Teachers to work in Inclusive Classrooms" focuses on curricula and pedagogical practices for teacher education. This section considers different approaches to preparing teachers such as cross-categorical, collaborative, innovations, and the impact of teachers' attitudes, perceptions and concerns on inclusion.

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• "Effective Special & Inclusive Practices" draws upon evidence–based research to provide best practice models to assist in developing inclusive school communities.

Each section addresses a list of objectives and questions; suggests best practice pedagogy; and concludes with a support section with useful websites and suggested professional development activities. This book will interest teachers, teacher educators, university lecturers in education and post graduate students.

Section 1
Education reform in the Asia-Pacific region

1 Contemporary trends and issues in education reform for special and inclusive education in the Asia-Pacific region

Chris Forlin and Ming-Gon John Lian

Chapter objectives

• To investigate education reform for special and inclusive education.
• To consider current reforms in teacher education for inclusion.
• The identification of the impact of cultural diversity on education reform.
• To identify the development of effective special and inclusive practice.
• To consider appropriate support structures for special education reform in the Asia-Pacific region.

Focus questions

1. How is education reform being implemented in the Asia-Pacific region?
2. How can teachers be prepared for the changing paradigm?
3. What makes effective special and inclusive schooling?
4. What strategies need to be employed to support special education reform?

Introduction

Similar to what has been happening internationally, special education in the Asia-Pacific region is undergoing a major reform, resulting in paradigm shifts in the way schools operate and children are educated. Educational opportunities for students with disabilities have in many countries altered dramatically since the introduction of the normalization principle in the early 1970s, the initiation of the first World Conference on Education for All in Jomtein in 1990 [United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), 1990], the development of the influential Salamanca Statement in 1994 (UNESCO, 1994), and the opening of the World Education Forum at Dakar in April 2000. All of these have led to an increased awareness of governments to reconsider inclusive education opportunities for children with special or diverse learning needs who, in many instances, have been educated previously in segregated facilities.

In the Asia-Pacific region major evolutional changes have occurred (e.g. in China, Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan) or are starting to occur (e.g. in Vietnam, Cambodia, Indonesia) in special education programs for students with disabilities. These include curriculum reform, changes in academic structure, quality-level school program advancement, greater devolution of responsibility to schools and increased local accountability, and the introduction of inclusive education.

In this region education for learners with disabilities was originally offered by missionaries and most of this occurred in the past 40 years. During this time many special education schools were established by non-profit and charity organizations or parental groups, mainly with the aim of providing learners with an opportunity for special needs education. The education of children with disabilities was not seen as the role of government schools, so facilities and staffing relied almost entirely on the generosity and good will of Non-Government Organizations (NGOs) (Forlin, 2007a).

While most education systems in the Asia-Pacific region have been relatively supportive of the move towards a more inclusive approach and are starting to encourage inclusive schools, there still remains a wide continuum of school provision including many segregated special schools now operated by governments or NGOs. There have also been many local and cultural issues that have created tensions when trying to move the inclusive philosophy forward, particularly in systems that have traditionally focused on the importance of examination results, while employing didactic teaching approaches to achieve them.

In addition, reforms to teacher education have frequently not kept pace with these changes, making teacher preparation for inclusion often an ad hoc and invariably an add on approach (Forlin, 2007a). Even within these constraints, systems are increasingly reporting positive changes when implementing new reforms, including program enhancement in more appropriate assessment, accessible curriculum, effective teaching pedagogies, increased information/instructional and assistive technology, greater parental involvement, and better home school partnerships, as well as a focus on action research (Rose, 2007).

Equity and justice

Embedded within a rights-based philosophy, the education of students with disabilities has gradually focused more on providing equal education opportunities, which has led in many instances to increased inclusive practices in regular classes. Regular schools, which have conventionally catered for the needs of children within a “normal” intellectual range, aim to include all children within their local community, regardless of special educational need. While this has occurred mainly to date in Western countries, a similar trend is now starting to transpire in many of the Asian jurisdictions (Forlin, 2007a; Rose, 2007).

Gradually, the education of children with disabilities, in many although not all areas, has been accepted as a government responsibility. In addition to special schools, most of the Asia-Pacific region is starting to implement a series of more inclusive programs and these are offered in an increasing number of mainstream schools. These can take the form of resource or smaller sized special focus classes, school-based intervention or remedial programs, peripatetic teaching services, and consultant services, plus related services such as education psychology, audiology and speech therapy (Poon-McBrayer and Lian, 2002).

In the West, where countries have been involved in this paradigm shift for some time, legislation has been enacted that mandates for schools to become more inclusive and to ensure that they provide appropriately for the needs of all children. Such legislation not only aims to ensure fairness of access but also provides direction to schools on responsibilities towards their students, while additionally supporting the rights of parents.

Although as yet legally formalized mandates specifically focused on inclusion do not exist in the Asia-Pacific region, most countries have started to develop policy that reflects the statements in international documents such as the highly significant Salamanca Statement (UNESCO, 1994). In addition, with the exception of Malaysia in 2007, most regions have enacted or are in the process of enacting either laws or acts that incorporate some form of disability discrimination (see Forlin, 2007b for a detailed overview of legislation in the Asia region). By utilizing a disability rights perspective, support for inclusion in law and policy is thus being provided.

Where legislation exists, for example the Disability Discrimination Ordinance (Equal Opportunities Commission, 2007) in Hong Kong, the Law of the People’s Republic of China on the Protection of Persons with Disabilities (National People’s Congress, 1986) and the Regulations on Education for Persons with Disabilities (Chinese State Council, 1994), together with corresponding rules and regulations (Department For Education and Employment, 2001), regular schools have been directed to accept students with disabilities wherever possible except where there are severe difficulties that cannot be addressed. The degree to which this is implemented, nevertheless, varies greatly because of the many other barriers faced in providing education to children where class sizes are still extremely high and trained teachers difficult to appoint. In many of the Asia-Pacific regions the goal of achieving universal primary education for all is clearly challenging (UNESCO, 2005a, 2005b). In many instances, however, it is the lack of specific legal protection that creates one of the major barriers to providing equal education opportunities for all students. To overcome the difficulties faced when trying to facilitate equality of access by those with disabilities, a broader perspective that goes beyond the school is needed. As Forlin (2006) suggests, this requires:

a concerted effort at all levels of society and must be acknowledged by the provision of appropriate fiscal spending to enable the desired outcomes to be achieved. Regardless of financial support it is still critical to recognize that this will only be effective if people believe in the value and merit of incorporating diversity in all schools and are prepared to commit to enabling this to happen.

(Forlin, 2006, p. 265)

The Confucian approach to education

Another major factor influencing special education reform in Asia is the Confucian philosophy that has dominated societal decisions over the years. The philosophical underpinning regarding people with disabilities is, according to Confucius, that they should be cared for with tolerance and acceptance (Pang and Richey, 2006). In the early Confucian writings in the Book of Rites (Liji) there were many references to people with special needs that related to how they should be treated, for example “People should respect others’ parents and treat others’ children like their own: All those who are bachelors, widows, orphans, single, handicapped and sick should be supported” (Piao, 1992, p. 35). Education was considered the key to societal change and everyone was deemed to be educable (Pang and Richey, 2006). According to Piao (1991), the support for people with disabilities and the expectation that they should be treated in an honorable way was enacted at least a thousand years before similar human rights perspectives were initiated in the West.

Even though the Confucian philosophy has traditionally advocated an empathetic view towards those with special needs, the movement towards enacting an inclusive educational philosophy has been relatively slow to be adopted in the region (Forlin, 2007a). The emphasis on an inclusive education system is, however, noticeably starting to gain increased momentum as the Asia-Pacific region follows the international trend to embrace the ideology of greater inclusivity. The focus is also no longer on those students who exhibit a specific disability. Inclusion seeks to address the needs of all students who may have difficulty in accessing the mainstream curriculum and attempts to do this within a whole school approach to diversity (Forlin, 2005). This has led in the Asia-Pacific region to an emphasis on an Education for All model. According to UNESCO (2005b), this involves:

the need for education systems to be equitable, inclusive and relevant to local circumstances. Where the access to or the process of education is characterized by gender inequality, or by discrimination against particular groups on ethnic or cultural grounds, the rights of individuals and groups are ignored. Thus, education systems that lack a strong, clear respect for human rights cannot be said to be of high quality. By the same token, any shift towards equity is an improvement in quality.

(UNESCO, 2005b, p. 124)

The coordination of responses towards the achievement of the goals of Education for All in the Asia-Pacific region is spearheaded by the Asia and Pacific Regional Bureau for Education (UNESCO, Bangkok). This is supported by the Asia Education for All website (http://www.unescobkk.org), which provides data and resources from across the region to aid in research, policy making and the implementation of education programming towards the attainment of quality education for all.

While Special Administrative Regions (SARs) such as Hong Kong and Macau share a Chinese cultural heritage with greater China, their education systems have developed from a completely different perspective (Maosen et al., 2004). Special education reform towards a more inclusive approach has taken many different shapes across the region and requires change at a number of levels. The newly developing disability discrimination legislation, for example, offers a blueprint for ensuring that people with disabilities are able to access equal opportunities across a range of domains. By itself, however, it does not ensure an inclusive education system. Special education reform also requires consideration of policy development, funding mechanisms, resource allocation, system-wide directives, support and most critically, appropriate teacher education. It similarly requires positive people with a disability. Whilst being able to reflect on international changes in special education towards more inclusive education systems, it is critical for the Asia-Pacific region to review these in light of their very different cultural needs and societal expectations.

International reforms in teacher education

A major issue in the Asia-Pacific region continues to be the preparation of teachers for this changing form of special education. In much of the region teachers have limited qualifications and in some systems no formal teacher training at all. Most systems are working towards embedding the preparation of teachers for more inclusive teaching within courses that aim to give them at least a basic introduction to catering for difference (Forlin, 2007a). In order to do this, consideration must be given to the conflicting traditional and progressive approaches to teaching in order to draw from them a new direction that will prepare teachers for the major paradigm shift encountered by implementing an inclusive education philosophy. At the same time, teacher preparation must also address the needs of teachers who continue to work in special schools, especially as their role tends to be moving towards providing greater support for mainstream schools (Forlin, 2007a). Although such changes to special education are being introduced, they are still in their infancy. In many places (such as Hong Kong) recent research has found that teachers believe that they still have had insufficient training for implementing inclusive education (Lian, 2004a) and that they demonstrate a hierarchy of preference in relation to the inclusion of students with different types of special education need (Pearson et al., 2003). Although this phenomenon is not unique to the Asia-Pacific region it does propose specific challenges due to the highly structured mainstream education system.

The traditional perspective on teacher preparation involves a focus on learning content and the transference of knowledge; a progressive perspective needs to be aimed at guiding the development of the whole child who is encouraged to create their own meaning of the world around them. The traditional approach of transmitting knowledge has worked well if classes are homogenous and students are educated using a formal didactic structure, as tends to be found in the Asia-Pacific region. The trend in recent years, however, has been to move towards more Western child-focused approaches such as social constructivism. Systems that have taken this direction have found it much easier to embrace an inclusive approach as constructivist values fit well with the developmental learning philosophy. It is in areas, such as the Asia-Pacific region, where they try to establish inclusive classes while retaining traditional expository instructional teaching approaches that problems arise.

In teacher education, the progressive education philosophy has tended to move away from the importance of promoting content knowledge, which has previously d...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• List of illustrations
• Notes on contributors
• Editorial board
• Foreword
• Preface
• SECTION 1 Education reform in the Asia-Pacific region
• SECTION 2 Preparing teachers to work in inclusive classrooms
• SECTION 3 Effective special and inclusive practices