The past sixty years have seen inclusive education go from an idea to being debated and fought

for in and out of the classroom. (Loreman, 2007; Poed & Elkins 2012) This paper looks at these

changing views about inclusion and teaching skills in school settings while underscoring the

legislation that brought us to this point. Additionally, inclusion examined concerning students

with a disability, including students with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and how teachers,

schools, and the community can assist in this process. However, to understand this topic, we

must start at the very beginning, with a definition.

According to the Google dictionary, inclusion is “the action or state of including or of being

included within a group or structure.” When juxtaposed against education, this means that

classrooms have ‘mainstream’ students and students with disabilities learning alongside each

other. (Loreman, Deppeler, Harvey 2011) Inclusive education is about a “philosophy of

acceptance and about providing a framework within which all children…” regardless of

disabilities or not “can be valued equally, treated with respect and provided equal

opportunities at school.” (Thomas, 1997) However, inclusive education was a mystifying idea

until the late 1980’s. The changing views about inclusion started out much like the racial divide

in the past - segregation was a known and used practice for dealing with students with

disabilities. (Gartner & Lipsky 1987; Parliament, 2017; Poed & Elkins 2012)

Lloyd M. Dunn, one of the "scholars with a social conscience," fought against that ideal. In his

work (1968), he argued that special education, regarding segregating slow learning children,

was obsolete and unjustifiable. This education was costly, discriminatory and lacked reliability

and validity regarding the measuring criteria. Furthermore, Dunn believed that by removing the
students with disabilities from the mainstream classroom, they were harming not only those

students but their mainstream peers as well.

If Dunn were alive today, he would have celebrated the Australian legislation that allowed his

dream to have the possibility of becoming a reality. Specifically, the Disability Standards for

Education 2005 (the standards) that outlined legal obligations for education under the Disability

Discrimination Act 1992. (Department of Education and Training (DET) 2018; Loreman,

Deppeler, Harvey 2011; Parliament, 2017; Poed & Elkins 2012) Under the Standards, students

with disability and additional needs can access and participate in education “on the same basis”

as other students. (DET, 2012; Poed & Elkins 2012)

‘On the same basis’ means "that students with disability are provided with opportunities and

choices that are comparable to those available to students without disability." (University of

Canberra (UoC) 2014) This statement refers to the law that requires all education providers to

not discriminate against a child based on their disability and to make “reasonable adjustments”

to assist students with a disability. (DET, 2012; Poed & Elkins 2012) ‘Reasonable adjustments’

are “actions taken to enable students with disability to participate in education on the same

basis as other students while balancing the interests of all parties." (UoC 2014) Which refer to

supporting the educational needs of “students with disability being informed by their functional

educational needs, rather than their disability type or label…" Additionally, students or their

parents "must be consulted about the adjustments." (DET, 2012) This opportunity to have

equitable prospects, choices and education only came after the lengthy social justice battle for

inclusive education. (Poed & Elkins 2012)

Historically, education for “disabled children” was community driven and done to protect said

children and to provide what little educational services they could. Then in the 19 th century,

deafness and blindness were recognized as "disabling conditions." "It is therefore perhaps not

surprising that as the course of public education for all progressed, biological causes were

sought and generalized in attempts to explain why certain other children found difficulty in

adapting to schooling and the available teaching methods." (OECD 1999) This understanding

was the first step, and it led to special education, which was, of course, segregated.

Then the 20th century took off, and some real progress toward inclusive education was made.

As stated before, Dunn was fighting the good fight against segregation, but he was not alone.

Garner and Lipsky (1987), Gary Thomas (1997), and the OECD (1999) all argue against

segregation in varying degrees. For Garner and Lipsky, they contended that not only law or

pedagogy but values and morality should guide us toward inclusive education. Thomas also

believed in the morality argument, as well as pushing the fact that "empirical evidence" is in

inclusive education's "favor" (p. 106) For the OECD, they researched the costs of different forms

of provision. "In general terms, integrated provisions is usually either less expensive than or as

equally costly as segregated provisions”. (p.21) They argued that there was no reason,

especially cost, not to integrate students with disability into the mainstream classrooms.

Loreman (2007) concurs with the OECD stating, “The advantages of an inclusive approach

toward educating all learners has been well outlined in research and literature. It is increasingly

evident…that there are social, academic, and even financial benefits for school systems ad all

children involved in inclusive education.” This century took segregation, threw it out and

replaced it with integration. Integration was understood more as "assimilation by the

mainstream," focused more on the aspect of moving the child from one place to another with

no expectation "of necessary change by the mainstream school.” (Thomas, 1997, p.103)

Inclusive education has taken a long time to get here. What was once a common contention is

now more of a worldwide prerogative. Policy varies significantly amongst countries “based on

varying levels of commitment to and interpretations of international agreements…and various

UN conventions.” (ARACY, 2013, p.15) Australia, along with other countries, helped promote

"equal and active participation of all people with disability with the ratification of the United

Nations Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities (2008)." (ARACY, 2013, p.5) In

saying all that, inclusive education is not only policy, and it must be fashioned in the classroom.

“In many instances, where inclusive policies exist, these have not been typically translated into

classroom practice.” (ARACY, 2013, p.15)

While the world has finally come to an almost universal definition of inclusive education, the

fact remains that we must now put these ideals within the heads and hearts of all our teachers.

For Australia, all education providers are required to know and implement the Standards to

enable equally equitable education. (Poed & Elkins 2012) However, research shows that

teachers need better preparation for effective inclusive education (ARACY, 2013) and that the

process of inclusion remains fragile. (OECD, 1999) Furthermore, teachers and schools have

expressed concerns about moving forward with inclusive education, the “education system

[has] not been appropriately matched by resources, and support. As a result, teachers reported

feeling overwhelmed, stressed and under significant pressure to provide quality education that

meets the needs of their students, especially those with disabilities and special needs.”
(Parliament, 2017) This sentiment echoes within ARACY (2013), DET (2012) Loreman (2007),

and Loreman, Deppeler, and Harvey (2011).

Teaching skills have changed throughout the last sixty years evolving parallel with inclusive

education. Teaching skills have grown more compassionate, understanding, and more

relational. Looking toward international evidence indicates that inclusive education involves a

mixture of facets, from whole-school practice to in-class support. (ARACY, 2013; Loreman,

Deppeler, Harvey 2011) These include: general teaching strategies, attitudes, and beliefs, skills,

adjustments, physical and mental accommodations, school support, collaboration with

stakeholders, instructional methods, clear policy and guidelines, involvement of parents and

community, engaging in lifelong learning, differentiation, flexible curriculum, engaging in

meaningful assessment, and positive teachers, just to name a few. (ARACY, 2013; Conway,

2008; DET, 2012, 2015, 2018; Loreman, 2007; Loreman, Deppeler, Harvey 2011; Poed & Elkins

2012; Teacher Vision, 2017)

Looking at the NSW public school system in 2016, there were more than 790,000 students

enrolled with around 110,600 of those students having a disability or additional learning or

behavioral needs. (DET 2012; Parliament, 2017) Of these 110,600 students, around 37,130 have

a certain disability; intellectual, physical, hearing, vision, mental health, and autism. While the

other 57,670 have additional needs relating to disability such as dyslexia, reading or

communication delay, and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) (DET, 2012;

Parliament, 2017). The number of disabled students has increased from 2012 and will continue

to increase. (Parliament, 2017) As these students enter one of the 50,000 classrooms operating

at any given time in NSW (DET, 2012), teachers and educators must prepare to equitably
embrace the diversity of the students and support the full participation of all students.

(Parliament, 2017)

One of the most common disabilities is Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), and it affects 1 in 100

children (Legge, 2016) or 230,000 Australians. (Autism Spectrum Australia, 2018) Broken down,

Autism defined as the lifelong developmental condition which affects the way an individual

relates to their environment and how they interact with other people whereas the word

spectrum is described as the range of difficulties that people on ASD may experience. (Autism

Spectrum Australia, 2018) Students (or any human) with ASD can have many difficulties which

include; social communication, social interaction, restricted or repetitive behaviors and

interests, unusual sensory interests, sensory sensitivities, and intellectual impairment. (Autism

Spectrum Australia, 2018; Boutot, 2007) Teachers, educators, principals, and the larger

community can assist in bringing an inclusive education to the classroom and school by

promoting a culture of inclusion, developing support structures, and having inclusive policies

which are easily found and read. (ARACY, 2013; Loreman, Deppeler, Harvey 2011)

Research demonstrates that one of the most significant contributions toward educational

outcomes in school is the teacher. (DET, 2012; Loreman, Deppeler, Harvey 2011) As stated

above, teachers who are ill-prepared in evidence-based methods for teaching and managing

behavior will face frustrations in their teaching practice. (Kurth & Mastergeorge 2009) To

combat this problem, teachers can get more quality learning and training based on inclusion

from professionals and colleagues. (ARACY, 2013; DET, 2012; Loreman, 2007) From there,

teachers can begin promoting and using strategies within the classroom such as scheduling,

classroom arrangement, selecting supports (be it copied notes or a paraeducator). To preparing

the mainstream students for the arrival of the student with a disability, preparing the student

with a disability for the mainstream, and securing and maintaining family involvement and

communication. (ARACY, 2013; Boutot, 2007; Conway,2008) However, one of the most

important aspects that teachers/educators must work on is developing positive attitudes.

(Loreman, Deppeler, Harvey 2011) A positive attitude is crucial to creating an inclusive

education (ARACY, 2013) as it allows and encourages practices which “virtually guarantee the

success of inclusion.” (Loreman, 2007)

Teachers must understand the specific educational needs of individual students by getting to

know the student. (DET, 2015) Without this understanding, which should also come from

consulting family and experts (DET, 2015), it would be impossible to identify and plan the

support and adjustments each student might need. (DET, 2012) Those adjustments include

curriculum, teaching materials, assessment, certification, teaching and learning activities.

(Conway, 2008) This pedagogy means teachers must use differentiation of curriculum materials

and not a "watering-down of what is presented to the remainder of the class." (Conway, 2008)

An example of this is a student with ASD who is having trouble reading the required text. The

teacher, having made the appropriate adjustments and accommodations, can give the student

differentiated reading options such as bypass, decrease, support, organize, or guide reading.

(Conway, 2008) Another example of this is with alternative assessments, or modified

examinations, or extra time for completion of tasks. (DET, 2018) This type of differentiation

allows the student with a disability (ASD or otherwise) to tackle what once was an
insurmountable task. However, it takes time to create individual education plans for each

student and time is one the scarcest resources teachers have.

A likely answer for the time poor teacher is Universal Design for Learning (UDL) or Universal

Curriculum (UC). Both ideas are new to the table so to promote them as the champions of

inclusive learning is a bit premature. (Loreman, 2007; McGuire & Scott & Shaw, 2006) However,

they do provide a framework to build upon. UC operates under three principles which state to

provide multiple representations of content and various options for expression, control,

engagement, and motivation. (Loreman, 2007) UDL, on the other hand, has nine principles that

reflect quite well on inclusive education. (McGuire & Scott & Shaw, 2006) The idea here, for

UDL or UC, is about creating a lesson using instructional goals, methods, materials, and

assessments that work for all student. This lesson plan can then be customized and adjusted to

make the appropriate accommodations for struggling students.

In conclusion, the views about inclusion and teaching skills have changed drastically over the

last two centuries. By executing legislation such as the Disability Standards for Education 2005,

the Disability Discrimination Act 1992, and the Rights of People with Disabilities 2008, students

(Australian and around the world) with a disability are placed within mainstream schools more

frequently than ever. As a result, teachers and schools must work collaboratively with

stakeholders and the community to ensure an inclusive education. By using UDL,

differentiation, adjustments, and accommodations, and fostering the teacher-student

relationship, teachers can create an inclusive culture for everyone involved. Schools can help

foster this inclusiveness by promoting positive attitudes, having clear policy and guidelines, and

a support system in place.

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