Future Directions for Inclusive Teacher Education

An International Perspective

Chris Forlin

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2012
• ISBN:
  9781136287336
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education General

Are teachers ready for inclusion? What is appropriate teacher education?

Traditional approaches to inclusive education focused on learners with disabilities. Modern approaches, however, conceptualise inclusion in terms of providing educational equity and equality of access for all students within the same regular school system.

Future Directions for Inclusive Teacher Education provides a wealth of ideas about how to support teachers to become inclusive through the application of positive training approaches. Written by some of the most influential internationally acknowledged experts in teacher education for inclusion and highly experienced researchers, together the authors provide a plethora of ideas for teacher educators to ensure that their training is pertinent, accessible, and futures-orientated.

This up to date and accessible book combines three key areas related to teacher education for inclusion, which provide:

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• A review of what is happening across the globe by offering examples from different regions;

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• Preparation for teachers to support learners with a range of diverse needs including disability, poverty, ethnicity, gender, cultural diversity, learning disabilities, Autism Spectrum Disorder, sensory impairments and those who are considered gifted and talented;

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• A consideration of systemic approaches, policy, and partnerships, and how these can be better employed in the future.

This highly topical text will support all teaching professionals, educational systems, and schools in their transformation of inclusive teacher education.

Part I

Global perspectives on teacher education for inclusion

Chapter 1

Responding to the need for inclusive teacher education

Rhetoric or reality?

Chris Forlin

Keywords: inclusion, rights, ethics, international, teacher, teacher educators, politics, curriculum, legislation.

Chapter overview

The focus of this chapter will be on a broad coverage of the key issues associated with teacher education for inclusion. In particular, it will concentrate on the impact of inclusion on the role of teachers and the need for better teacher education to support them. There is considerable variation in international approaches to preparing teachers for becoming inclusive practitioners. Examples will be drawn from different regions to indicate how systems are responding to the urgent need for better training to address the increasingly diverse classrooms that teachers need to work in. It is acknowledged that teacher education for inclusion, though, has such enormous variation between and within countries, regions and states, that this can only be a relatively cursory summary of some of the issues which would seem to be global concerns at present.

Introduction

Teacher education for inclusion has become an important debate that has resulted in some positive outcomes by way of forwarding the agenda for deliberating on existing programs and planning changes that better meet the new training needs of teachers. Some systems are actively involved in re-evaluating existing training models by developing and trialing new approaches through greater collaboration between training institutions and schools (Florian and Rouse, 2011). Others have legislated at state level minimum requirements for initial teacher training, and training institutions are required to register to ensure they meet these requirements. In some systems, such as in the UK and US, post initial training is a requirement for newly qualified teachers to upscale during their first few years of teaching. Yet there are still numerous regions where teacher education has not yet changed to accommodate the need to work in progressively more diverse classrooms.

There are many factors that interact in the development of teacher education for preparing teachers to work in an inclusive school. In response to global pressures, regions are keen to be seen to be adopting international conventions that focus on equity and education for all students. Many new policies and legislation have, thus, appeared that replicate the terminology of these global directives and expect schools to become inclusive, and teachers to adopt inclusive pedagogies (Donnelly and Watkins, 2011). Nonetheless in numerous instances these are not reflected in the pragmatics of implementation. Under the guise of establishing an ‘inclusive’ educational system promoted by national edicts, local interpretation and implementation has in many instances been far from the original intention. Likewise, teacher education for inclusion in most regions has been tokenistic at best and non-existent at worst.

Generalist teachers are now required to be able to cater for the needs of the most diverse student populations both academically and socially. School populationsworld-wide include students with special educational needs such as a disability or learning difficulty but also have learners with an enormous range of other needs that can impact on their learning. These can include students from different social economic backgrounds, racial minorities, asylum seekers, refugees, and those who have mental health issues caused by internal or external influences, with many youngsters being completely disenfranchised with school. Alongside this enormous diversity of student needs, teachers are being held accountable for student outcomes in ways they have not been previously. There are many stakeholders who monitor the capacity of teachers to support all learners. Together with the emphasis on achievement which is frequently still measured by narrowly defined examinationresults, these all make teaching a very challenging and demanding job, and teacher preparation an extremely important role.

Three areas of key global importance in relation to teacher education will be discussed in greater detail. The first section will focus on inclusive education and include a review of the impact this has had on teachers and what we are preparing teachers for in the new millennium. The second section will consider the training needs of teachers, the challenges faced in providing authentic practice, and the role of teacher educators. The third section will conclude with a summary of three key challenges faced in teacher education for inclusion, namely, political implications; the competing forces of government v. private schooling; and the role of universities in preparing teachers for inclusion.

Inclusive education

Inclusion is seen by many as the most equitable and encompassing method for educating all children (Ainscow et al., 2006). An international definition of inclusion that was provided as a Conference Resolution of the ‘Return to Salamanca’ conference (2009) stated that:

We understand inclusive education to be a process where mainstream schools and early years settings are transformed so that all children/students are supported to meet their academic and social potential and which involves removing barriers in environment, communication, curriculum, teaching, socialisation and assessment at all levels.

(Inclusion International, 2009)

Access to mainstream environments has improved for many children. Nevertheless insufficient training and a lack of resources to enable teachers to develop the appropriate mindset or attitude have been considered impediments to enabling full inclusion in many regions (Forlin, 2010; Watson, 2009). One of the biggest challenges for preparing teachers for inclusion is the enormous variation in the ways in which inclusion is defined. An earlier, widely acceptable designation was generally limited to the placement of children with disabilities into regular schools, either within the regular classroom or within a special resource class or center for part or all of the school day (Florian, 2009). In the past few years inclusion has gradually encompassed a much broader definition. It is commonly accepted internationally as meaning the placement of students with disabilities, learning difficulties, or other potentially marginalized groups into a regular school within the least restrictive environment so that no child is marginalized, alienated, shamed, embarrassed, rejected, or excluded. Inclusion should enable equitable participation in order for all students to achieve full potential in all aspects of education (Loreman, 2010). Inclusive education poses a duty upon schools to provide a curriculum that ensures all students are able to access an appropriate, relevant, and suitable education in order to reach their full potential. It further poses a duty on teacher training institutions to ensure that new teachers are effectively prepared to teach within inclusive classrooms.

Impact on teachers

In response to the earlier dual system of regular and special education, inclusive education is clearly a changed paradigm in the way that learners with special learning needs are educated. Evolving from a medical model of disability, there has been a distinct transition internationally towards a social model that encourages and supports the education of all learners regardless of need, within the same school and in the same classroom. Such a change in philosophy has resulted in new models of education that are more complex and often require difficult changes in the way schools function and in the expectations for teachers. In many instances teachers have reported a strong reluctance to support inclusion, and they are particularly concerned when the level of support needed for individual children increases (e.g. Woolfson and Brady, 2009). Preparing teachers for this new way of thinking and of practice has been addressed in many different ways globally, ranging from compulsory or elective preservice courses involving stand-alone or infused programs on inclusive education, to school-based or government-funded professional learning courses for inservice teachers (Florian, 2011; Forlin, 2010a).

The training needs of teachers

Even where major educational reforms are happening in schools to pursue more democratic and equitable education, there has been a rather slow and lagging parallel change in teacher education reform to support these new developments (Forlin, 2010a). Teacher education requires consideration at both pre- and inservice levels and good quality and appropriate training are imperative if inclusion is to be effective.

During initial training, preparation for inclusion is recognized as a critical factor in addressing attitudes and in promoting a greater commitment (Sharma et al., 2008; Sze, 2009). Yet newly qualified teachers in many jurisdictions still rate their training as ineffective, for example, in Australia (House of Representatives Standing Committee on Education and Vocational Training, 2007) and suggest that they are unprepared for working in inclusive schools. Many training institutions are also considered to be out of touch with the reality of how new teachers need to be prepared (O’Keefe, 2009). Even where governments are spending considerable sums of money to upskill existing teachers in basic information about inclusive education, for example, in Hong Kong, in 2009 this still only met the training needs of less than 10 per cent of existing teachers (Sin et al., 2010).

As a means of ensuring quality teacher education, some training institutions are being required to meet national expectations for course content and duration. The announcement of national professional standards for teachers in Australia, for example, has led to the development of arrangements for the accreditation nationwide of all initial teacher education programs. Every program will be assessed by expert trained panels against the same national standards (see www.aitsl.edu for further information).

Finding appropriate practicum placements

A further difficulty in many regions is the necessity to provide authentic quality practicum placements, so that teachers can acquire the competences needed to become inclusive practitioners through observation and participation in effective schools. For regions that are embracing inclusion for the first time, there is a lack of schools demonstrating inclusive methodologies where preservice teachers can be placed. In regions where inclusion is more firmly grounded, and where more inclusive mentoring models do exist, schools, however, may be reluctant to take on preservice teachers as they are frequently overwhelmed with other priorities. The difficulty in securing inclusive schools for placements is invariably further heightened by the number of universities and teacher training institutions competing for the few available school places.

The role of teacher educators

There is much debate about the competences required by teachers to become successful inclusive teachers (e.g. in Ireland (Watson, 2009)), yet there is a dearth of dialogue about the training of teacher educators so that they are able to provide this knowledge in an effectual and timely manner. To assume that teacher educators are able to provide relevant training by using innovative and applicable approaches, without themselves having received any such preparation, is rather unrealistic. Much greater emphasis must be placed on ensuring that those who are charged with the business of preparing teachers for inclusion are themselves appropriately trained to meet this demanding role.

Challenges faced in teacher education for inclusion

A political challenge

Teacher education is in many jurisdictions a key political issue that is being affected by the need to better prepare teachers, while at the same time working within limited budgets, fiscal constraints, and increased accountability. In response to international conventions, governments are required to give assurances that disability and diversity are being addressed, especially within an inclusive educational domain (Donnelly and Watkins, 2011).

The issue of equity has been the major force underlying the movement towards a more inclusive educational system. Through this approach, policy makers and governments have endeavoured to embrace a range of practices that will further inclusion. definitions of equity, like those of inclusive education, vary broadly with there being a focus on identification and solution. There has been little research on the causes of inequities or on the potential effectiveness or otherwise of borrowed ideas for intervention from other jurisdictions (Reid, 2011). Government education policies focus on greater accountability, assessment, and improved outcomes.

I believe it is germane to reflect globally that while inclusive education has been led by international proactive rights groups and supported by parents, that implementation in almost all regions has been a political decision. Such decisions are increasingly made away from educators who have tended not to be consulted or involved in the development of inclusive policy. Further, education is progressively being led by economists and politicians who focus more on the fiscal implications and the political kudos that can be achieved by supporting current idealisms such as inclusion in education. Many would argue that commitments to equity are being undermined by the emphasis on the economic goals of education (Reid, 2011). Few decision makers have any educational background and, in addition, governments are increasingly turning to entrepreneurs to provide business style solutions for educational problems.

Inclusive education is a complex issue,...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Half Title page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• List of figures
• List of tables
• List of contributors
• Editorial board
• Foreword
• Preface
• PART I Global perspectives on teacher education for inclusion
• PART II Diversity and its challenges
• PART III Future directions: What is needed now?
• Index