According the NSW department of education inclusive education means that “all students,
regardless of disability, ethnicity, socio-economic status, nationality, language, gender, sexual orientation
or faith, can access and fully participate in learning, alongside their similar aged peers, supported by
reasonable adjustments and teaching strategies tailored to meet their individual needs” (NSW
Department of Education, 2019). The first aspect of inclusive education that will be explored is the history
of inclusive education. This history will also explore the international decelerations and push towards
inclusive education, Australia’s response to the decelerations and the state governments movement
towards inclusive education. Additionally an introduction into the seven pillars of support pedagogy will be
explored as well as outlining reasons for the different aspect of the pedagogy will be reviewed. Finally a
case study of how schools can apply inclusive education to a student with Autism spectrum disorder (ASD)
to better support the student and what strategies a teacher can use to support a student with ASD.
It has been a long road for inclusive education to get to where it is today with a change in
legislation and pedagogy needed for any real change to be implemented and successful. The first push
towards inclusive education came in 1964 where different articles published during the UN Convention
against Discrimination in Education, that addressed the need for equal education (Peters, 2007). The
following two decades saw an increase in the movement to inclusive education with a push towards free
and compulsory education for all students, the introduction of the concept of “maximum potential” for
disabled students and the right for all disabled persons to an education (Peters, 2007).
During the 1980’s the Sundberg Deceleration was produced by 103 countries it stated that the right
to an education started at infancy and remains a lifelong goal for all students. Additionally during the
decade a “focus on ability, not on disability of a disabled person” was promoted by the World Programme
many different countries around the world were being excluded from receiving an appropriate level of
education (Anderson & Boyle, 2015). Following this conference, in 1994, the Salamanca Statement was
published by the World Congress on Special Needs Education in Salamanca (Spain). The Salamanca
Statement promoted the idea that all students regardless of individual disabilities should be given the
opportunity to receive an education in their regular classroom at their local school. The Salamanca
Statement has been adopted by 92 governments and 25 organisations around the world (Hunt, 2011). The
Salamanca Statement is where inclusive education started to be adopted by many countries around the
world and has since be strengthened and improved in the EFA framework in 2000 and the 2008 UNESCO
The introduction of these policies and statement on the world stage isn’t enough to see inclusive
education brought into Australian schools as there needs to be a change in Federal, State and local school
education policies for real change to occur in local schools. Inclusive education was implemented early in
Australia with the Australian government introducing the Disability Discrimination Act 1992. This made it
against the law to treat people with a disability unfairly (Australian Government, 1992). The introduction of
the Disability Discrimination Act, lead to the creation of the Disability Standards for Education in 2005
(Anderson & Boyle, 2015). These standards seek to ensure that students, regardless of their disability, have
access to the same opportunities and choices that other student have (Australian Government, 2015).
So fare inclusive education has been about ensuring that student with a disability have access to
the same education as student without a disability (Anderson & Boyle, 2015). However once the
Melbourne Declaration on Educational Goals for Young Australians was published in 2008 inclusive
education in Australia shifted to a focus on the successful education of all students (Berlach & Chambers,
2011). The Melbourne Declaration on Educational Goals for Young Australians outlined two goals, first for
Australian schools to promote equality excellence. Secondly, all students become successful learners,
In 2011 the Australian government launched the National Disability Strategy with the vision of “an
inclusive Australian society that enables people with disability to fulfil their potential as equal citizens”
(Australia Government & Department of Families, 2011). The strategy identifies 6 outcomes that it aims to
achieve, the fifth outcome identifies that education as a key area in promoting an inclusive society. This
outcome lines up with the Disability Standards for Education and Disability Discrimination Act in promoting
inclusive education where students with disabilities are given the same opportunities to achieve their full
potential.
It is interesting to note that only the Disability Discrimination Act is considered legislation and that in
Australia there is no legislation that mandates the provision of inclusive education (Carroll, 2002).
Regardless the education community does need to follow the current legislative acts:
While an argument can be made that these Acts do lend themselves to supporting inclusive education
(Anderson & Boyle, 2015), there is still a gap in the legislation which appears to have an impact on the
ability for students with disabilities to access inclusive education (Cologon, 2013; Dempsey, Foreman, &
Jenkinson, 2002).
Each state and territory has produced policies on inclusive education, making a push towards
inclusive education mandatory for its schools. Research conducted by Berlach and Chambers (2011)into
the state of the different states documentation sounding inclusive education made comparisons in five key
and strategy and evaluation guidelines. Berlach and Chambers (2011) found that all states have sufficiently
met the first four criteria with the fifth criteria lacking in all states documentation except Tasmania and the
Northern Territory.
In New South Wales the NSW Department of Education has produced the Disability Inclusion Action
Plan 2016-2020, with the aim to provide guidance in order to remove obstacles and enable people with
disabilities the opportunity to maximise their participation and potential with in education environment
(NSW Department of Education, 2016). This plan gives education institutions a scaffold to develop their
own incisive education plans with in their own intuitions to help support and nurture all students.
These history and current policies have led to inclusive education being a focal point in schools give
a broad overview on what inclusive education should look like but it don’t give a full description on what
inclusive education looks like in schools and the classroom. Because of the very nature of inclusive
education needing to cater to the individual student, each case will have its own individual needs. With this
in mind first an overall look at the skills, adjustments and accommodations that might need to be mad for
students with additional needs, along with some key pedagogical strategies to help teachers. Following a
case study of inclusion strategies suitable for students with ASD will be discussed.
The seven pillars of inclusive education, is a pedagogy framework that has been developed to guide
schools and teachers to create an inclusive community culture. These seven pillars have been created using
a large body of current supporting research (Loreman, 2007). The seven pillars are, respectively:
developing positive attitudes, supportive policies and leadership, school and classroom processes
success of inclusion, research has linked teacher positive attitudes to increases in student’s attitudes.
Research has also shown that negative attitudes create low expectations for students (Loreman, 2007).
Pillar two, outlines the importance of the good supportive policies and leadership. The policies outlines
earlier in this document, form part of this pillar as does policies developed by the schools (Loreman, 2007).
Additionally school leadership, partially from the principle, develops positive attitudes towards inclusive
education. In addition a model of ‘shared leadership’ allows for a school wide responsibility towards
inclusive education (Schnorr, 2002). Pillar three, advocates for inclusion of research based best practices to
be included at a classroom level. This allows for classroom teachers to create truly inclusive classrooms
that will support students with additional needs based on researched pedagogies that deliver positive
experiences for all students (Loreman, 2007). Deppeler & Harvey (2004), additionally state that the entire
school needs to support inclusive education in both a policy and classroom level for a positive environment
to be created. In order to support teachers in the classroom a flexible curriculum needs to be available to
the school, as indicated by pillar four. Much of the NSW curriculum can be modified and differentiated for
student’s needs, this gives teachers the ability to cater for all students in their class which in turn helps
create a positive learning environment. Additionally NSW syllabuses have life skill aspect to the curriculum.
This life skills aspect of the syllabus map its outcome to outcome in the main syllabus (NESA, 2013),
allowing teachers to cater for students with disabilities and create an inclusive environment. The fifth
pillar focuses on the importance of community involvement, this involves a partnership between the
school, the parents, and local community. Loreman (2007) highlights the importance of community
involvement, to ensure the success of inclusive education in the school. Pillar six brings in the importance
of meaningful reflection in both policies and teaching practices. Reflection on teaching practices has
become an important part of teaching to ensure that good teaching practices are maintained. It also give
teachers the ability to analyse their practices in all aspects of inclusive education (Loreman, 2007). Finally
pillar seven, is about teachers requirement to the necessary training and resources required to deliver an
inclusive education. These seven pillars when working together provided a framework for schools to use to
Pillar three is of most relevance to classroom teachers and is also one that is most view and noticed
by the students and community and should be explored further by taking an example of a student with
ASD and outlining strategies that can be used to create an inclusive environment for the student. In order
to support students with ASD schools need to create an environment supportive of the student’s needs. In
order to support create and support an environment suitable to ASD students schools must be active in
providing staff training, student awareness environment modifications, a positive ethos, flexible provision
and suitable policies, which fit with in the Seven Pillars pedagogy (Goodall, 2015).
However it is teachers that make the biggest difference to students with ASD. The first step in
educating students with ASD for any teacher is to understand the condition and how to deal with it. If a
teacher had little or no understanding of the ASD condition they may consider some traits as being rude or
disobedient. For example, when a student with ASD listening to the teacher they tend not to look at them
at the same time, because they find looking and listening hard to do at the same time (Larkey, 2015).
Additionally understanding ASD can have benefits to teachers ability to engage the student. For example,
changing the environment even slightly can have great effect on a student’s engagement (Larkey, 2015).
Teachers can further improve their ability to engage students with ASD by incorporating teaching
strategies into their lessons. These can include; hands on activities, visuals in lists, clear beginning and end
to tasks, clear instructions, scaffolding and deconstruction of large task, using the students name when
delivering instructions and delivering tasks that are aimed at their level (Model Farms High School, 2014).
These teaching strategies have a huge benefit to students with ASD but will also give some benefit to
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