Australia is very a multicultural and diverse country. Consequently schools are faced with many diverse students of different abilities and backgrounds. To ensure equity and fairness among students, policies and legislations have been put into place to ensure diversity is being catered for and that no student is being excluded from the education system. Some of these policies and legislation include: The Disability Discrimination Act 1992, The Salamanca Statement, Disability Standards 2005, Inclusive Education Statement, Disabilities Services Act QLD 2006 and the Melbourne Declaration.
As educators, it is important to acknowledge and implement these polices when planning activities/lessons/curriculum in the classroom. This essay aims to look at the different types of policies or legislations that Australia has and how they influence in the way schools or educators provide an inclusive educational experience for all students.
The Australian Federal Parliament has passed a number of laws which aim to protect people from certain kinds of discrimination in public life and from breaches of their human rights by Commonwealth departments and agencies. The Federal Disability Discrimination Act 1992 (DDA) was an act passed by the Parliament of Australia and provides protection for everyone in Australia against discrimination based on disability. Its objectives are to eliminate discrimination against a person with a disability and anybody associated with that person such as: relatives, friends or carers. It also aims to ensure that a person with a disability has the same rights as the rest of the community and to promote this equality with recognition or acceptance within the community.
To implement this Act successfully within a c...
... middle of paper ...
...ive and participate in a just, equitable and democratic global society. It also outlines that when schools embrace an inclusive education, students learn to respect and value differences within the community and they also develop equity within their own relationships (statement).
Educators need to ensure that they create a learning environment in the classroom that questions segregation and challenges social injustice, as this will develop the students’ skills to embrace equality. The classroom learning environment also needs to value, celebrate and respond to diversity. Furthermore educators should evaluate the curriculum, pedagogy and assessment they are using in the classroom, as this will provide evidence the interests, skills, knowledge and experiences of the diverse groups of students are central features and are catered for in the learning environment.
These children were now being seen as a group in which society had obligations to provide “normalisation” (Bowe, 2007, p.45) and would lead to a revolutionary law being introduced in America. The Education for All Handicapped Children Act was passed in 1975, of which Australia became a signatory. (AIHW, 2004). This Act mandated “that all school-age children with disabilities must receive a free appropriate public education” (Bowe, 2007, p. 101) “in the least restrictive environment” (Bowe, 2007, p. 5). For the first time in a century, Australia no longer segregated these children into an isolated “special facility” (Allen & Cowdery, 2012, p. 8). State governments established special education units within mainstream schools (AIHW, 2004). This is referred to as Integrated education and is described by Talay-Ongan & Cooke (2005), as an environment “where children with similar disabilities in special classes share the normal school environment, and utilise some classes (e.g., art or physical education) or the playground that all children enjoy.” In 1992, the Disability Discrimination Act was introduced in Australia which specifically covered the topic of Education and in 2005 a set of supplementary standards was passed which specifies the support schools are required to provide to students with a
There is a common, underlying perception that students from particular cultural and linguistic backgrounds – what is generally referred to as ethnicity - have a predisposition towards educational success in Australian schools (Watkins, 2013). Students from Anglo backgrounds, for example, are often seen as having a cultural advantage whilst others, such as Middle Eastern students, are perceived as culturally prone to underachievement. These claims confine ethnicity to fixed and bound stereotypes, and see educational achievement as a result of the inherent qualities of these groups (Watkins, 2013). However, ethnicity cannot be held solely responsible for the inequalities in Australian education. A densely interwoven fabric of socio-cultural factors, for instance, geographical location and socioeconomic status, is evident in the disparities between students' academic achievements. It is within fabric that it can be established that students from minority groups are educationally disadvantaged due to their ethnicities, geographical locations and socioeconomic statuses, incidentally influencing their chances of educational success in Australian schools (Groundwater-Smith, 2009).
The United States, New Zealand, and Italy all acknowledge and have moved forward with and inclusive education approach. It is a worldwide reaction to the belief that all children have the right to be educated. For instance, New Zealand’s education system has undergone a series of transformations over the past 20 years, which has included modifications to how schools and their students are funded and managed, and the responsibilities various government departments have for ensuring all children receive the best possible education in a variety of environments (Powell, 2012, p. 1). Also, Italy has implemented an inclusive approach by implementing laws that guarantee disabled students the education they deserve.
De Boer, A., Pijl, S.J. Minnaert, A. (2010). Attitudes of parents towards inclusive education: A
Sapon-Shevin, M. (2008). Learning in an inclusive community. In J. W. Noll (Ed.), Taking sides: Clashing views on educational issues (17th ed.) (pp.226-232). New York, NY:McGraw-Hill.
The implementation of policy and legislation related to inclusive education, thus being a focus on the diversity and difference in our society (Ashman & Elkins, 2009), would have vast implications on the way society views that which is different to the accepted “norm”.
It is an educator’s job to embrace and acknowledge the rich diversity all the children collectively bring to the classroom, while understanding that the children do not need to be treated the same because they are not the same as each other, but be respected and accepted for their differences. Inclusion is an essential; plank in the broad platform of social justice and raising achievement is a goal which all educators much hold for their pupils, It is important that early year professionals are aware of all different ways in which society constructs (Neaum 2010) this involves taking account children’s social cultural and linguistic diversity and including learning style, family circumstances, location in curriculum decision making process so all children are recognised and valued (Nutbrown and Clough 2006)
Sands, D., Kozleski, E., & French, N. (2000). Inclusive education for the 21st century: A new
...d Inclusive Education in Ontario Schools: Guidelines for Policy Development and Implementation . Toronto, Ont.: Ontario Ministry of Education.
Every child has the right to receive an education in a welcoming and inclusive environment where they are given the opportunity to grow emotionally, physically, socially, and intellectually regardless of their differences. I believe education is the foundation a child needs to grow and learn, and inclusion is a key ingredient in the makeup of the learning environment. Without the implementation of inclusion, students are deprived of the opportunity to learn acceptance, respect, and growth from their interaction with a variety of people with differing skills and perspectives.
Inclusion has become increasingly important in education in recent years, with the Education for Persons with Special Educational Needs Act being passed in 2004 to ensure equality in our system. In summary, inclusion is the idea of there being no child...
In this essay I will reflect upon the inclusive learning environment, i intend on reflecting this by researching, reading, extending my own knowledge and a recent exemplar visit. The main issues i have chosen to cover throughout this essay are inclusion, children’s learning and the environment. Issues i will also cover are Special Educational Needs (SEN), Every Child Matters (EMC), Diversity and legislations. I intend on doing this by arguing, analyzing and discussing the inclusive learning environment. Inclusive learning environments can be varied from the school environment to the home environment. Both having a significant impact to a child’s learning. The environment within schools needs to be stimulating, creative and enjoyable for all children to learn in. Effective classroom organization, interaction between both staff and children are essential to the inclusive learning environment.
“What does inclusive education mean for me as a teacher in 2014 and beyond? “
Social disadvantage in education is described by Marginson (n.d.) as the inequality for all students to be provided the same level of education. Within society, socio-economic status has a bearing on where someone lives, how they live and how their children are educated. Private schools are simply unaffordable for some and they must send their children to the government school within their catchment area. Education allows opportunity and success, however, Australia’s education system is far from fair and evenly distributed (Lamb, 2015). The educators and the curriculum stakeholders are constantly changing the way education is delivered in this country and it is up to teachers to implement the best practices to allow equality. Relying heavily
According to David O. McKay (2013), multicultural education is constructed to prepare pupils for citizenship in a democratic society by facilitating them to take into account the needs of all individuals; it shed light on how issues of language, ethnicity, culture, religion race, abilities/disabilities, and gender are entwined with educational content and processes. A multicultural curriculum is needed to accommodate for diverse learning and teaching styles of facilitators and pupils and to expose biases, stereotypes, and policies that can restrict achievement. What is more, a multicultural curriculum is also needed to help pupils, faculty, and staff become advocates for multicultural awareness, to ensure that content is fair, accurate, and inclusive, and to prepare pupils for diverse workplaces and multicultural environments. In writing this paper, the author will describe key issues of culturally diverse students, recommend a curriculum approach to address the issues, and discuss the challenges and benefits expected. In addition, she will describe three key issues of male and female students recommend a curriculum approach to address the issues, and discuss the challenges and benefits expected. In closing, she will describe three key issues of students with disabilities, who are mainstreamed, recommend a curriculum approach to address the issues, and discuss the challenges and benefits expected.