1. ED6306 - Inclusive and Multicultural Education – Dan O’Sullivan Teaching Students with General Learning Disabilities: a) Barriers to Learning b) Principles of Effective Instruction 07/11/11 8 Inclusion: Societal and Whole-School Issues 24/10/11 7 Contextualising Inclusive Education 17/10/11 6 Theme Date Lecture No.

2. Dyslexia ~ From Theory to Practice - Delivering Effective Evidence-Based Instruction 28/11/11 11 Review & Discussion ED6306 Assignment – Guidelines (Submission: December 13 th 2011) 05/12/11 12 Inclusive Classroom Practices: a) Differentiation b) Collaborative Learning Strategies: ~ Peer Tutoring ~ Co-operative Learning (Group Work) 21/11/11 10 Inclusive Classroom Practice: a) In-class Support / Team Teaching 14/11/11 9 Theme Date Lecture No.

3. Contextualising Inclusive Education Dan O’Sullivan ED6306 - Inclusive and Multicultural Education Lecture 6: 17/10/11

7. Proposition 1 Inclusive education extends beyond special needs arising from disabilities – includes consideration of other sources of disadvantage / marginalisation: - gender - socio-economic status / disadvantage - language - ethnicity - geographic isolation………………… Complex inter-relationships that exist among these factors & their interactions with disability [e.g. parents & ‘social capital’] Scope varies internationally N.B. Inclusion of pupils with SEN = central concern of ‘Inclusive’ section of ED6306 Proposition = a suggestion to be considered

8. Contexts of inclusive education consideration should be given to the relationships among the - social political economic cultural and historica l contexts of inclusive education - at macro micro personal and interpersonal levels. Inclusive education embedded in a range of contexts:-

12. Proposition 5 The inclusive education / segregation divide is not limited to the regular class vs. the special class / special school, - also covers a range of other educational provisions that separate students – [ institutional access alone does not equate with educational inclusion ] - Segregating effects of enrolment / selection [and grouping] by academic ability / aptitude: Academic (& social!) selection practices - schooled with “like-ability” peers rather than with peers from an homogeneous “community”. {Issue of schools reproducing inequalities} 2 issues - Mini-special schools attached to the mainstream: Students with SEN ostensibly integrated, but placed in segregated and semi-segregated provision within mainstream schools - largely in isolation from their peers

13. Proposition 6 With regard to students with disabilities, inclusive education is a site of conflicting paradigms, centered on two different conceptualisations of special needs: A) Psycho-medical model: [ “defect model” / “categorical model” etc. ] - Assumption: disability = a stable trait – can be readily diagnosed and categorically grouped – category determines resource provision [ cf. Lecture 1 – Denis Burns - Slide 8: Application Criteria: Resource Teaching ] - School failure - ascribed to some defect, pathology, or inadequacy located within the student . Predominates within many ( most?) systems. - Reduces people to an essentialised set of characteristics - Influences teachers’ expectations ?

14. B) Socio-political model: [“social model” / “relational perspective”] - Special needs = social constructs. Task: Finding a balance between the two paradigms. - Special education = structural inequalities at the macro-social level are reproduced in institutional form. - Attention paid to system deficiencies.

18. Proposition 10 * Societal values & beliefs (12 & 13); * economic factors (14); * a lack of measures to ensure compliance with policies; * the dispersion of responsibility for education; * conservative traditions among teachers, teacher educators and educational researchers; * parental resistance; * lack of skills among teachers; * rigid curricula and examination systems; * fragile democratic institutions; * inadequate educational infrastructures (especially in rural/remote areas); * large class sizes; * resistance from the special education sector (especially special schools); * top-down introduction of inclusive education without adequate preparation of schools/communities. Manifold reasons for Policy / Practice gap in inclusive education: Specified - Enacted - Experienced

21. Proposition 13 Because cultural values and beliefs , levels of economic wealth , and histories mediate the concept of inclusive education, it takes on different meanings in different countries, and even within countries . The form taken by inclusive education in any particular country is influenced by the nature of the settlements reached at any one time between Tensions: global vs. local / modernization vs . traditionalism [Tensions exacerbated by the rapidity of modernization processes] All settlements are: a) complex ; b) unique to each country; c) are in a state of flux. [Also within-country cultural variations] b) modernization values [universal welfare / equity and equality / democracy / human rights / social justice / individualism / parental choice] a) traditional values [social cohesion & group identity / collectivism / images of wholeness / fatalism / hierarchical ordering of society and

25. Mitchell, David (2009) Sixteen propositions on the contexts of inclusive education, in Mitchell, D. (ed.) Contextualising Inclusive Education – Evaluating old and new international perspectives , Abingdon: Routledge, 1-21. [Chapter 1 - Introduction] Boole Q+2 371.9 MITC – 3 copies Recommended websites: Special Education Support Service: www.sess.ie [ Remit: Professional Development] National Council for Special Education: www.ncse.ie [ Remit: Resource Allocation / Research]