In September 2017, I launched a personal initiative to provide a platform for teachers, families, and advocates to discuss and to learn about inclusive education strategies for children with disabilities. Known as ‘Weekend Chat on Inclusive Education’, this cost-free initiative has been supported by the Global Observatory for Inclusion (GLOBI). For more information on how the initiative works, click here.
Through the ‘Weekend Chat on Inclusive Education’, I have been able to interact with around six participants every month since it was launched. Most of them are instructors from universities facilitating courses specifically on inclusive education for children with disabilities. Their students are individuals interested in pursuing teaching as their career or ‘soon-to-be-teachers’.
I have been grateful for these instructors for their confidence and trust to share their successes as well as challenges in promoting inclusive education in their own classrooms where they teach. Here are the three highlights:
Inclusive education as a stand-alone or a cross-cutting theme
Most of the instructors shared that the teacher education curriculum they are using emphasizes inclusive education as a stand-alone theme. This means that it is offered as a separate course that students should take. From the experiences of the instructors, this approach seems to miss the importance of emphasizing inclusive education as a cross-cutting issue, making it visible across all courses in teacher education curriculum. This means that when students explore the course on teaching strategies, for example, they will do it from an inclusive education perspective.
this approach seems to miss the importance of emphasizing inclusive education as a cross-cutting issue, making it visible across all courses in teacher education curriculum.
Universal Design for Learning
While their teacher education curriculum puts emphasis on specific teaching strategies for specific disabilities, some instructors take the initiative of focusing more on Universal Design for Learning, an education approach highlighting the importance of creating flexible learning environments that can accommodate individual learning differences. One of them shared, ‘What I like about the Universal Design for Learning is its emphasis on modifying the environments to be responsive to the needs of all children, and not the other way around’.
‘What I like about the Universal Design for Learning is its emphasis on modifying the environments to be responsive to the needs of all children, and not the other way around’.
Learning inclusive education through immersion
In my conversations with the instructors, they recognize the reality that their teacher education curriculum provides limited opportunities for students to learn inclusive education in practice. This implies that in order for students to substantially grasp what inclusive education means, they should should be able to directly interact with schools in communities that strive to move towards inclusive education. As one of the instructors stressed, ‘Students should be grounded and should have the critical thinking skills on how inclusive education is practiced. This can only be done if there is a balance between theory and practice’.
for students to substantially grasp what inclusive education means, they should should be able to directly interact with schools in communities that strive to move towards inclusive education.
How do you feel or think about the mentioned highlights from my conversations with the instructors? Do you have other reflections to add in terms of how inclusive education is promoted in teacher education curriculum? You are welcome to chat with me by filling this form.
Featured image: Rolando Jr as a facilitator on inclusive education training in Kampala, Uganda early this year.
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