Role of Teachers in Inclusive Education - Research Proposal Assessment Answer

RESEARCH PROPOSAL

Topic The Role of Teachers in Inclusive Education Teachers perceptions and the required training practices

NAME OF THE STUDENT

STUDENT NUMBER

NAME OF THE UNIVERSITY

Abstract

The concept of inclusive education supports the aspect of inherent dignity of human beings. According to the concept of inherent dignity it is important to encourage the active involvement of each individual in the society irrespective of their characteristics. Inclusive education is another concept that has been highly emphasized at the philosophical level and in the present literature on education. The needs and ability of every child is unique and the education structure of any country should be able to address the needs of the students. Inclusive education is one of the main aims of any educational structure.

However, it has also been evaluated through the philosophical level and present literature on education that there is widespread support for inclusive education. But there are loopholes in the implementation of policies aiming for inclusive education. The teachers in the school play a major role in helping the students having diverse needs thus making it necessary for the teacher to have the capability to understand the learning capabilities of the children and helping them in their manner to learn and write.

The aim of the present research study is to evaluate the perceptions of the educator about their roles and the responsibilities for promoting inclusive education. The study will prove to be useful for identifying the barriers faced by the researchers while teaching students with diverse needs and will also help in evaluating the support of school boards towards inclusive education through primary research approach including survey method.

Aims and Background

According to the concept of inclusive education it is important that all the students in the society should get opportunity to read and write. The concept also states that if a student is not able to learn that it is not because of the disability in the student but due to the fact that flaws are present in the education or school system. It is important for the education and school system to make sure that all students in the society are being given equal opportunities to get educated (Tharp, 2018).

According to a study conducted by Laes amp Westerlund (2018), the quality of an education system is highly dependent upon the quality of the skills and attitudes possessed by its teachers. It is the teachers in the school that can become the driving forces for inclusiveness in the education system. In order to effectively implement inclusive curriculum at schools it is important that the teachers at schools are able to identify the diverse needs of the students and are able to adopt flexibility in their teaching methods to help the students in achieving their goal of getting educated (Laes amp Westerlund, 2018).

According to a study conducted by Monteiro et al. (2019), in order to motivate teachers at schools to follow inclusive curriculum there needs to be implemented several changes in the teaching procedures adopted by the teachers and the content of the curriculum decided by the administration boards of the schools (Monteiro et al., 2019). It is important that the curriculum of the schools are evaluated on the basis of parameters of inclusiveness and then implemented in the schools. Another requirement for implementing inclusive curriculums at schools is that the schools should have enough resources and equipment in order to satisfy the diverse needs of the students at schools.

Inclusive education refers to educational structure in which the students with special educational needs are given equal opportunity to read and wrote with non-disabled students (Cochran-Smith et al., 2015). There are many important components of an educational structure like the administration boards, guidance counselors, school boards, teachers, students as well as their parents. It has been evaluated through many studies that changes in one component of the entire educational system will not help in increasing the factor of inclusiveness in education. It is important that every component of the educational system want to drive inclusiveness while being a part of education system (Panti, 2015).

The implementation of policies aiming to inclusive education is difficult because it needs to modify the mindsets of each component of education structure including the teachers, parents and school boards. Another factor behind the difficult implementation of inclusion policies is that the teachers in the schools are not sufficiently trained in order to handle the students with diverse needs (Sharples et al., 2016).

The teachers in the school play a major role in helping the students having diverse needs thus making it necessary for the teacher to have the capability to understand the learning capabilities of the children and helping them in their manner to learn and write. It is important that the teachers take up the responsibility of promoting the participation of every student in the class and reducing the under achievement and under involvement of the students who have difficulty in learning (Shaffer amp Thomas-Pown, 2015). Among the most effective barriers for the development of inclusive schools is that the teachers are unaware regarding their responsibilities and roles in a students life. It has also been recognized by various studies that the teachers in the school are not supported by the administration boards in order to give attention to the students with special needs in the class.

In order to make the teachers in the education structure understand their roles and responsibilities in developing inclusive classrooms it is important that the teachers are provided with adequate training in order to develop the skills and knowledge that is required for teaching students with diverse needs (Radford et al., 2015) According to the model of inclusive education if a student with special learning needs is not educated then the flaw is not in the disability of the student but the education system is not efficient enough to make the student educated. The inefficiency of the education system is due to the rigidity in the curriculum and poor quality of teaching methods adopted by the teachers at school (Panti amp Florian, 2015). The environment of the school is not supportive enough for the students with diverse needs and there is also lack of support from government agencies in order to provide the appropriate funds and resources required by the schools to adopt inclusive curriculum and inclusive teaching methods.

According to the concept of inclusive education it is important that the teachers in the classrooms do not only focus on the curriculum to be taught to the students. It is also important that the teachers take out time in order to provide self care training to the students. The teachers in the classrooms also need to prepare teaching aids according to the needs of disabled children in the class (Lee et al., 2015). Thus, the role of teaching material also plays a very important role in increasing the effectiveness of teaching. Teachers have to be involved in adopting flexibility in their training methods in respect of the specific disabilities of the students in the class.

Thus, through the above discussion it can be easily interpreted that teachers in schools have a big role in implementing the inclusive curriculum in the classroom given the support of parents, school boards, government agencies and the administrative boards. In such circumstances, the barriers to the inclusive education can be lack of training among the teachers and non-development of inclusive mindset among the teachers of the school.

According to the study conducted by Li et al. (2019) which was an observational study it was identified that the attitude of the teachers with students in the class have high association with the student development. It is important for the teachers to identify the students with disabilities in the classroom. After the identification of the students with different learning needs the teachers will further examine learning level of the students and will adopt certain strategies in order to increase the involvement of students with different learning needs in the classroom (Biesta, 2015). In order to adopt strategies that aim attargeting the special learning needs among the students it will be important that the teachers at their individual level learn to accept all the students in the classroom as equal (Li et al., 2019). If the teacher in the classroom will be able to develop mindset of equality then only the teacher will able to develop positive attitude among the normal and disabled children in the classroom.

One of the strategies that can be used by the teachers in order to develop positive attitudes among the normal and disabled children in the classroom is making them sit at positions in which they feel comfortable and the positioning should be done in a manner that it encourages interaction between the children in the classroom. The classroom should not be having any kind of architectural barriers so that the children with disabilities can move freely and independently in the classrooms. While performing interactive discussions in the classrooms it is the responsibility of the teacher in the class to make sure that the all students are involved in the interaction. According to a study conducted by Rukavina et al. (2019), children with special learning needs often lack in their confidence levels. Thus, there are chances that the students with special learning needs may hesitate in interactive activities. However, the teachers have to make sure that no students with special needs are underperforming in the interactive activities (Rukavina et al., 2019).

The academic curriculum plays a very important role in increasing inclusiveness among the students. While holding interactive sessions and other activities the teachers will come across various instances in which the teacher will be able to understand the learning capability of the students in the class (Page et al., 2019). Depending upon the results of the activities it is important that the teacher should make adjustments in the curriculum so that the curriculum should be made according to the learning ability of the students in the classroom. In order to address the special and diverse learning needs of the students in the classroom the teacher can take help of teaching aids and other equipments in order to communicate the concepts in a better way to all the students in the classroom (Page et al., 2019).

According to the background of inclusive education it can be interpreted that the teachers have major role to play in inclusive education. Teacher can be considered as the main driving force of inclusive education. There is high level of support for inclusive education at the philosophical level but there are very few educational structures in which the teachers know how to actually implement inclusiveness in the classrooms.

The aim of the study is to understand the role of teachers towards inclusive education and to identify how the teachers perceive their roles towards inclusive education.

The research objectives are

To understand the concept of inclusive education.

To evaluate the barriers in the implementation of policies aiming for inclusion.

To examine the importance of the role of teachers in inclusive education.

To investigate how teachers perceive their role in inclusive education.

To examine the training practices that are required by teachers for providing inclusive education.

The research questions of the study are

What is meant by Inclusive education

What are the barriers in the implementation of policies aiming for inclusion

What is importance of teachers in inclusive education

How does the teachers perceive their roles towards inclusive education

What are the training practices that are required by teachers for providing inclusive education

Literature Review

The Education for All initiative is one of the important initiatives of the Millennium Development Goals. Increasing the excess to education is one of the crucial agendas of the global economy. Education has been considered as a crucial element for human development. However, it has been evaluated that a large proportion of students in the global economy do not have access to proper education. According to a study conducted by Webster amp Blatchford (2019), in order to make the teachers understand the diversity of the students they can witness in the classrooms it is important that the teachers are arranged in homogeneous groups so that they can understand the pedagogical approaches that can be used by the teachers for dealing with the diversity of the students in a classroom (Webster amp Blatchford, 2019).

However, according to a study conducted by Westwood (2018) no curriculum will be able to provide quality education if the motive of the schools will be revenue generation. It is important that the motive of each component of the education system should be to provide quality education to the students at the schools only then the schools will be able to target the diverse needs of the students. Parents are also one of the important components of the educational system. The schools need to understand that without the support from the parents the schools will not be able to provide quality education to their students. As students only spend half of the time in schools and rest of the time is spent by the children at their homes (Westwood, 2018). Thus, it is important for the parents to inculcate the values of inclusiveness in the minds of their children so that they can consider every student in the classroom as equal. According to a study conducted by Westwood (2018), the students with special education needs tend to leave the schools because of being bullied by their classmates.

According to a study conducted by Winnick amp Porretta (2018), it is important to study the perception of educators towards inclusive education because they are committed to build an equitable education system for an economy. The study also points to the fact that schools and administrative boards play an important role in providing a working environment in which teachers can easily translate their commitments into reality. It is important for the mainstream schools to organize training programs aiming at building skills that will help educators in teaching students with special learning needs (Winnick, J., amp Porretta, 2018)

As this study will research regarding the perceptions of teachers about their role towards inclusive education. It is important to understand that people tend to create perception for an issue based upon their subjective experiences they face in their life. According to the PofenPenners theory, individuals tend to create perceptions based upon the reality along with the subjective experiences (Davies amp Heyward, 2019). It is important that to build the mindset of the educators so that they do not configure behavioral barriers while addressing the barriers in learning faced by the children. In order to motivate the children in the class do not accept each other as equal it is important for the teacher to have a positive mindset towards physical and mental disability of the students in the classroom. A teacher should be positive enough in order to accept every child as equal in the classroom (Davies amp Heyward, 2019).

According to the study conducted by Kasser amp Lytle (2018), there is lack of awareness among the educators regarding the barriers in learning that can be faced by the students. Apart from physical and mental disability there are many circumstances that can impact the understanding and learning speed of a student. It has been evaluated through many experimental studies that the home environment of a child also impacts the learning capability of the student. Unhelpful circumstances in family and non supportive social conditions and behaviors can be among the barriers of learning faced by a student in the class (Kasser amp Lytle, 2018). Another learning barrier that can be faced a student is existence of inappropriate education policies in an economy that does not matches with the special learning needs of the student.

Limited research studies have been conducted on evaluating the perceptions of educators and teachers about inclusive education. However, one such study is conducted by Koomen et al. (2018). According to the findings of the study all the teachers in the experimental study possessed positive attitude towards inclusive education. The findings of the study suggested that educators have a dedication in order to work towards inclusive education and the students who are unable to get access to the education due to the presence of inefficient school boards and mainstream classroom (Koomen et al. 2018). However, it was evaluated through the experimental study that the teachers were unaware regarding the process to be exactly implemented in order to implement the concept of inclusiveness in their classrooms. The teachers were also worried that how they will be able to teach so many students with diverse learning needs with a specific time period. Thus, it could be easily evaluated through the research findings that the educators did not possess the required skills and experience to teach the students with diverse needs (Koomen et al., 2018).

According to a study conducted by Pyant et al. (2018), there is a lack of support from the government agencies for promoting inclusive education because there is a lack of awareness among various institutions that the students with diverse needs can study with the non-disabled students (Pyant et al., 2018). Thus, there is a need to create awareness regarding the fact that students with diverse needs can study together. In order to effectively teach the students with diverse needs it is important that the teachers and the school board should understand that some students may learn faster than the other and some students may have slow understanding abilities as compared to the other students in the class. The understanding capability can also vary among the subjects within the students like some children may understand the concepts of mathematics faster than the concepts of English and there will be some children who are capable of understanding the concepts of English faster than those of mathematics.

However, according to a study conducted by Uzum et al. (2018) high proportion of individuals still associate inclusiveness with physical and mental disabilities. It is to be understood that along with physical and mental disabilities inclusiveness is also associated to human diversity related to the ability to learn, culture, gender and age of the students. Equal position of the students with special education needs in the education system is both a difficult task and solution for the removal of injustice in the education sector (Uzum et al., 2018). It has been evaluated through many observational studies that the students with special educational needs are excluded from the forms of schooling which is available to the students of their age.

Thus, it becomes for every component of the education system to develop the required mindset and the skills required in an educator for properly dealing with the student having special learning needs in the classroom (Fahd amp Venkatraman, 2019). It could easily be evaluated through the above analysis that flaws are majorly in the education system and the curriculum adopted by the school administration boards and not in the mindset of the teachers for inclusive education. The educators are positive enough in order to educate every single child of the society.

Empirical evidence for perceptions of the teachers towards inclusive education will be collected in the current research study.

Research Approach and Methods

This chapter will elaborate upon the methods that will be used by the researcher for conducting the research and understanding the perceptions of the teachers about their role and responsibilities towards inclusive education.

As the purpose of the study is to evaluate the educators perceptions for inclusive education it was important to personally talk to the educators and understand their viewpoints regarding inclusive education. In order to conduct the research study and find the answers to the research questions, qualitative research design will be adopted for conducting the research process. The aim of the qualitative research study will be to study the concept of inclusive education. Along with understanding the concept of inclusive education the barriers will also be identified in the implementation of policies aiming for inclusion. The present literature will be reviewed in order to understand the importance, role and responsibilities of the teacher towards inclusive education. In order to find empirical evidence the perceptions of the teachers regarding inclusiveness will also be evaluated through survey method.

The research method will be non experimental and descriptive research and will be using the tool of survey method in order to collect and analyze data for evaluating the perceptions of the teachers regarding inclusive education. Descriptive research design will help in meeting the aim of the study and finding the answers to the research questions of the study.

Sample is a representative of population. As the aim of the research study is to explore the perceptions of the educators in the Western Australia but it will not be viable for the researcher to interview every educator or teacher in the entire Western Australia. Thus, the research will be adopting convenient sampling and will choose 20 nearby schools in order to conduct with the teachers in those 20 schools (Hodge et al., 2017). There will be nearby 20 teachers in every school which makes the sample size of the study to be 400. The researcher will distribute the questionnaires to the teachers in those 20 schools after taking permission from the top authorities of the school. The questionnaire will be consisting of 10 relevant questions judging the perceptions of the teachers for inclusive education.

Along with the 10 questions there will be resource checklist that will confirm the presence of the equipment that are required for supplying inclusive education to the students in schools. In order to maintain the confidentiality of the participants no personal information was asked regarding the teachers in the questionnaires.

In order to increase the reliability of the questionnaire used in the survey method for data collection, previous questionnaires developed by Pyant et al. (2018) and Fahd amp Venkatraman (2019) was used as a reference while finalizing the questions in the final questionnaire. Most of the questionnaires in the questionnaire will be open ended questions in order to collect in depth information regarding the perceptions and the viewpoints of the teachers in the schools. While the other questions will have Likert scale in which the teachers will be selecting their preference on the scale of strongly agree to strongly disagree according to their preference and viewpoints.

The questionnaire will be consisting of questions addressing the perceptions of the educators for inclusive education, barriers to learns faced the students, skills that are required according to them for providing inclusive education and regarding the training programs that are initiated by the schools for teachers for building skills in order to effectively provide inclusive education.

Ethical considerations and researcher positionality

While conducting the research the researcher will make sure to abide by the obligations and regulations of the schools in which the researcher is conducting the survey method. The researcher will take prior permission of the top authorities of the school before asking the teachers to fill the questionnaires.

The researcher will try to take written permission from the principles of all the 20 schools for conducting the survey method. Before contacting the teachers they will also be mailed information letters and will be asked for their interest for being a part of the research study. Thus, the participation in the survey method will be voluntary for all the teachers. Any participant can withdrew their participation from the research study at any point of time.

Confidentiality and anonymity of the teachers who will be a part of the survey method will be maintained throughout the research process.

Data Collection and Analysis

Data obtained from the survey method will be analyzed using statistical tests and thematic content analysis. Thematic content analysis will be used by the researcher in order to identify the relevant and important themes in the content of the data that can help in answering the set research questions in the study. Thematic content analysis can prove to be a useful tool in order to organize and capture the richness of the data collected (Dorji et al., 2019).

Along with thematic con tent analysis the tool of Statistical Analysis System will be used in order to describe the data obtained from the survey method.

After analyzing the data collected from the survey method the researcher will be having plethora of information for finding the answers to the research questions of the study. It can be concluded from the background research and literature review that it is important for the administration boards of schools to adopt the mindset of inclusive education and to initiate programs in schools for teachers that will help them in developing the required skills for implementing the concept of inclusive classrooms. The training programs should aim at developing skills that are required by teachers for teaching students with diverse and special learning needs present in the same classroom.

Amendments in the curriculum can help in achieving the goal of inclusive education. Depending upon the results of the class activities the teacher can make adjustments in the curriculum so that the curriculum can address the special and diverse learning needs of the students in the classroom.

References

Biesta, G. J. (2015).Good education in an age of measurement Ethics, politics, democracy. Routledge.

Pyant, D. P., Pyant, B. R., amp Smith, D. D. (2019).Teaching students with special needs in inclusive classrooms. Sage Publications.

Cochran-Smith, M., Villegas, A. M., APams, L., Chavez-Moreno, L., Mills, T., amp Stern, R. (2015). Critiquing teacher preparation research An overview of the field, part II.Journal of Teacher Education,66(2), 109-121.

Davies, M., amp Heyward, P. (2019). Between a hard place and a hard place A study of ethical dilemmas experienced by student teachers while on practicum.Pitish Educational Research Journal.

Dorji, R., Bailey, J., Paterson, D., Graham, L., amp Miller, J. (2019). Bhutanese teachers attitudes towards inclusive education.International Journal of Inclusive Education, 1-20.

Fahd, K., amp Venkatraman, S. (2019). Racial Inclusion in Education An Australian Context.Economies,7(2), 27.

Hodge, S., Lieberman, L., amp Murata, N. (2017).Essentials of teaching adapted physical education Diversity, culture, and inclusion. Routledge.

Kasser, S. L., amp Lytle, R. K. (2018).Inclusive physical activity. Human Kinetics.

Koomen, M., Kahn, S., Atchison, C. L., amp Wild, T. A. (Eds.). (2018).Towards inclusion of all learners through science teacher education. PILL.

Laes, T., amp Westerlund, H. (2018). Performing disability in music teacher education Moving beyond inclusion through expanded professionalism.International Journal of Music Education,36(1), 34-46.

Lee, F. L. M., Yeung, A. S., Tracey, D., amp Barker, K. (2015). Inclusion of children with special needs in early childhood education What teacher characteristics matter.Topics in Early Childhood Special Education,35(2), 79-88.

Li, C., Wong, N. K., Sum, R. K., amp Yu, C. W. (2019). Preservice Teachers Mindfulness and Attitudes Toward Students With Autism Spectrum Disorder The Role of Basic Psychological Needs Satisfaction.Adapted Physical Activity Quarterly,36(1), 150-163.

Monteiro, E., Kuok, A. C., Correia, A. M., Forlin, C., amp Teixeira, V. (2019). Perceived efficacy of teachers in Macao and their alacrity to engage with inclusive education.International Journal of Inclusive Education,23(1), 93-108.

Page, A., Boyle, C., McKay, K., amp Mavropoulou, S. (2019). Teacher perceptions of inclusive education in the Cook Islands.Asia-Pacific Journal of Teacher Education,47(1), 81-94.

Panti, N. (2015). A model for study of teacher agency for social justice.Teachers and Teaching,21(6), 759-778.

Panti, N., amp Florian, L. (2015). Developing teachers as agents of inclusion and social justice.Education Inquiry,6(3), 27311.

Radford, J., Bosanquet, P., Webster, R., amp Blatchford, P. (2015). Scaffolding learning for independence Clarifying teacher and teaching assistant roles for children with special educational needs.Learning and Instruction,36, 1-10.

Rukavina, P., Langdon, J., Greenleaf, C., amp Jenkins, J. (2019). Diversity Attitude Associations in Pre-Service Physical Education Teachers.JTRM in Kinesiology.

Shaffer, L., amp Thomas-Pown, K. (2015). Enhancing teacher competency through co-teaching and embedded professional development.Journal of Education and Training Studies,3(3), 117-125.

Sharples, J., Blatchford, P., amp Webster, R. (2016). Making best use of teaching assistants.

Tharp, R. (2018).Teaching transformed Achieving excellence, fairness, inclusion, and harmony. Routledge.

Uzum, B., Yazan, B., amp Selvi, A. F. (2018). Inclusive and exclusive uses of we in four American textbooks for multicultural teacher education.Language Teaching Research,22(5), 625-647.

Webster, R., amp Blatchford, P. (2019). Making sense of teaching,supportand differentiation the educational experiences of pupils with Education, Health and Care Plans and Statements in mainstream secondary schools.European Journal of Special Needs Education,34(1), 98-113.

Westwood, P. (2018).Inclusive and adaptive teaching Meeting the challenge of diversity in the classroom. Routledge.

Winnick, J., amp Porretta, D. L. (2018).Adapted physical education and sport. Human Kinetics.

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