Apr 30, 2021, tes: Has inclusion had its day as a concept in education? https://www.tes.com/news/has-inclusion-had-its-day-concept-education
"Inclusion" has become one of the most inflammatory words in education, having evolved to synonymise with behaviour, specifically undesirable behaviour.
The most common themes in any inclusion discourse tend to be negative: underfunding, lack of resources, varying quality and/or availability of training, and lengthy waits to access health services being the most frequently referenced barriers to inclusion, no matter where you are in the UK.
We are still awaiting the eagerly anticipated SEND (special educational needs and disabilities) review in England, with publication pushed back to sometime later in 2021. The Scottish government published its review of additional support for learning (ASL) implementation in June 2020 – and anecdotal evidence suggests that the Scottish findings could be a good indicator of what is to come in the English SEND review.
Unfortunately, the Scottish review paints a rather grim, but not unsurprising, picture, reporting that 98 per cent of the education workforce feels that initial teacher training does not adequately prepare staff for teaching young people who have additional support needs (ASN)….
The review also found that there were mixed views about inclusion among teachers: “Unfortunately, we cannot assume and take for granted that all individual professionals are signed up to the principles of inclusion and the presumption of mainstreaming.”
And that some teachers did not think ASN was part of their job: “Others have shared their core belief that their role should only be to teach children and young people capable of learning within traditional academic standards.”…
