Multicultural education

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Multicultural education is a set of educational strategies developed to assist teachers when responding to the many issues created by the rapidly changing demographics of their students. It provides students with knowledge about the histories, cultures, and contributions of diverse groups; it assumes that the future society is pluralistic. It draws on insights from a number of different fields, including ethnic studies and women studies, and reinterprets content from related academic disciplines. It is also viewed as a way of teaching that promotes the principles of inclusion, diversity, democracy, skill acquisition, inquiry, critical thought, value of perspectives, and self-reflection. This method of teaching is found to be effective in promoting educational achievements among immigrants students and is thus attributed to the reform movement behind the transformation of schools.

Aims and objectives

The aims and objectives of multicultural education tend to vary among educational philosophers and liberal political theorists. Educational philosophers argue for preservation of the minority group culture, by fostering children's development of autonomy and introducing them to new and different ideas. This form of exposure assists children in thinking more critically, as well as, encourage them to have a more open mindset. On the other hand, political theorists advocate a model of multicultural education that warrants social action. Hence, students are equipped with knowledge, values, and skills necessary to evoke and participate in societal changes, resulting in justice for otherwise victimized and excluded ethnic groups. Under such a model, teachers serve as agents of such change, promoting relevant democratic values and empowering students to act. Multicultural education has a host of other gains and goals:

• Promote civic good
• Rectify historical records
• Increase self-esteem of non-mainstream students
• Increase diversified student exposure
• Preserve minority group culture
• Foster children's autonomy
• Promote social justice and equity
• Enable students to succeed economically in an integrated, multicultural world

The outcomes listed might require great investment or additional effort from the teacher to ensure that the goals being sought are met. Multicultural education, in its ideal form,must be in an active and intentional structure, rather than a passive, accidental approach.

There are infinite ways to assure that such an educational approach is purposeful and successful. Adaptation and modification to established curriculum serve as an example of an approach to preserving minority group culture. Brief sensitivity training, separate units on ethnic celebrations, and closer attention paid to instances of prejudice, are examples of minimal approaches, which are less likely to reap long term benefits for students. Multicultural education should span beyond autonomy, by exposing students to global uniqueness, fostering deepened understanding, and providing access to varied practices, ideas, and ways of life; it is a process of societal transformation and reconstruction. "Creating inclusive campus environments is challenging, but there is also great personal reward to be gained from helping create a campus 'laboratory for learning how to live and interrelate within a complex world' and to prepare students to make significant contributions to that world."

Views

Multicultural education and politics

Advocates of democracy in schooling, led by John Dewey (1859–1952), argued that public education was needed to educate all children. Universal voting, along with universal education would make our society more democratic. An educated electorate would understand politics and the economy and make wise decisions. Later, by the 1960s, public education advocates argued that educating working people to a higher level (such as the G.I. Bill) would complete our transition to a deliberative or participatory democracy. This position is well developed by political philosopher Benjamin R. Barber in Strong Democracy: Participatory Politics for a New Age, first published in 1984 and published again in 2003. According to Barber, multicultural education in public schools would promote acceptance of diversity. Levinson (2009) argues that "multicultural education is saddled with so many different conceptions that it is inevitably self-contradictory both in theory and in practice, it cannot simultaneously achieve all of the goals it is called upon to serve" (p. 428) Multicultural education should reflect the student body, as well as promote understanding of diversity to the dominant culture and be inclusive, visible, celebrated and tangible. Multicultural education is appropriate for everyone. According to Banks (2013), "a major goal of multicultural education is to change teaching and learning approaches so that students of both genders and from diverse cultural, ethnic, and language groups will have equal opportunities to learn in educational institutions" (p. 10). Citizens need multicultural education in order to enter into the dialogue with fellow citizens and future citizens. Furthermore, multicultural education should include preparation for an active, participatory citizenship. Multicultural education is a way to promote the civic good. Levinson (2009) describes four ways to do so: From learning about other cultures comes tolerance, tolerance promotes respect, respect leads to open mindedness which results in civic reasonableness and equality (p. 431-432)

James Banks

James Banks, a lifetime leader in multicultural education and a former president of both the National Council for the Social Studies and the American Educational Research Association, describes the balancing forces in [8] (4th. Edition, 2008) "Citizenship education must be transformed in the 21st Century because of the deepening racial, ethnic, cultural, language and religious diversity in nation-states around the world. Citizens in a diverse democratic society should be able to maintain attachments to their cultural communities as well as participate effectively in the shared national culture. Unity without diversity results in cultural repression and hegemony. Diversity without unity leads to Balkanization and the fracturing of the nation-state. Diversity and unity should coexist in a delicate balance in democratic multicultural nation-states." [9] Planning curriculum for schools in a multicultural democracy involves making some value choices. Schools are not neutral. The schools were established and funded to promote democracy and citizenship. A pro-democracy position is not neutral; teachers should help schools promote diversity. The myth of school neutrality comes from a poor understanding of the philosophy of positivism. Rather than neutrality, schools should plan and teach cooperation, mutual respect, the dignity of individuals and related democratic values. Schools, particularly integrated schools, provide a rich site where students can meet one another, learn to work together, and be deliberative about decision making. In addition to democratic values, deliberative strategies and teaching decision-making provide core procedures for multicultural education.

Meira Levinson

According to Levinson, three distinct groups present different conceptions of "multicultural education." These groups are: political and educational philosophers, educational theorists, and educational practitioners. In the minds of the members of these groups, multicultural education has different, and sometimes conflicting, aims within schools. Philosophers see multicultural education as a method of response to minorities within a society who advocate for their own group's rights or who advocate for special considerations for members of that group, as a means for developing a child's sense of autonomy, and as a function of the civic good. Educational theorists differ from philosophers in that theorists seek to restructure schools and curriculum to enact "social justice and real equality" (Levinson, 2010, p. 433). By restructuring schools in this way, educational theorists hope that society will thus be restructured as students who received a multicultural education become contributing members of the political landscape. The third and final group, educational practitioners, holds the view that multicultural education increases the self-esteem of students from minority cultures and prepares them to become successful in the global marketplace. Though there are overlaps in these aims, Levinson notes that one goal, cited by of all three prominent groups within the field of education, is that of "righting the historical record" (p. 435).

Joe Kincheloe and Shirley Steinberg

Kincheloe and Steinberg in Changing Multiculturalism (1997) described confusion in the use of the terms "multiculturalism" and "multicultural education". In an effort to clarify the conversation about the topic, they developed a taxonomy of the diverse ways the term was used. The authors warn their readers that they overtly advocate a critical multicultural position and that readers should take this into account as they consider their taxonomy. Within their taxonomy, Kincheloe and Steinberg break down multiculturalism into five categories: conservative multiculturalism, liberal multiculturalism, pluralist multiculturalism, left-essentialist multiculturalism, and critical multiculturalism. These categories are named based on beliefs held by the two largest schools of political thought (liberalism and conservatism) within American society, and they reflect the tenets of each strand of political thought. In terms of Levinson's (2010) ideas, conservative multiculturalism, liberal multiculturalism, and pluralist multiculturalism view multicultural education as an additive to existing curriculum, while left-essentialist multiculturalism and critical multiculturalism see to restructure education, and thus, society.

David Labaree

David Labaree's Democratic Equality ideology, which is defined in Labaree's article, Public Goods, Private Goods: The American Struggle Over Educational Goals is a perfect example of different aspects of Multicultural Education. A teacher using Labaree's Democratic Equality, would have students who are able to feel like they belong in the classroom, which teaches students equal treatment, and gives support to multiculturalism, non-academic curriculum options, and cooperative learning (Labaree (1997), 45). Labaree use of Democratic Equality supports a multicultural education because "in the democratic political arena, we are all considered equal (according to the rule of one person, one vote), but this political equality can be undermined if the social inequality of citizens grows too great" (Labaree (1997), p. 42). By providing opportunities to engaged and enrich children with different cultures, abilities, and ethnicities we allow children to become more familiar with people that are different from them, hoping to allow a greater acceptance in society. By representing a variety of cultures reflected by the students in the classroom, children will feel like they have a voice or a place at school.

History in the United States

Multicultural affairs offices and centers were established to reconcile the inconsistencies in students' experiences by creating a space on campus where students who were marginalized because of their culture could feel affirmed and connected to the institution. Initial steps towards multicultural education can be traced as far back as 1896 with the United States Supreme Court case, Plessy v. Ferguson. In this controversial case, the decision upheld the constitutionality of racial segregation in all public establishments under the policy of "separate but equal." 

Even after the adopting the Thirteenth Amendment in 1865, where slavery was officially abolished, there was still great racial tension within the United States. To help support the ideals contained within the Thirteenth Amendment, Congress adopted the Fourteenth Amendment, which provided all citizens the privileges and immunities clause, as well as the equal protection clause.

The complete assimilation of all segments of a community is necessary for it to be immune to innuendo of threat from the unfamiliar. Multicultural education stands as a shield against divisive rumors, and so The Springfield Plan was implemented during the 1940s in Springfield, Massachusetts, by advocates for the Institute for Propaganda Analysis. The Springfield Plan addressed racism as one of the more debilitating weaknesses of a community.

It was the equal protection clause within the Fourteenth Amendment that stirred the debate of racial equality in 1954. The unanimous 9-0 Supreme Court decision in Brown v. Board of Education ruled that separate schools for black and white students was, in fact unequal, thus overturning the 60-year-old Plessy v. Ferguson decision. It was this victory that widened the path towards multicultural education and laid the course for nationwide integration, as well as a tremendous boost for the civil rights movement. Multicultural education considers an equal opportunity for learning beyond the simple trappings of race and gender. It includes students from varying social classes, ethnic groups, sexual identities, and additional cultural characteristics. On the other hand, there are other views that show the contrary. The fame of Brown v. Board of Education was to undercover all the issues on segregation that were still happening in schools. No matter how much everyone talked or used Brown v. Board of Education as a source to show a positive impact on integration, the reality was that students were still being treated unequally and separated from the rest.

10 years later the Civil Rights Act of 1964, known as "the most sweeping civil rights legislation since Reconstruction" was enacted. It outlawed discrimination in public spaces and establishments, made it illegal for any workplace and employment discrimination, and it made integration possible for schools and other public spaces possible. Students of exception are also a group that civil rights advocates have been fighting for in the implementation of quality multicultural education. With the continued support from civil rights groups coming out of their struggle, many of these students found support on a scale much larger due to the major push in education to provide equity to all students.

In 1968, the implementation of the Bilingual Education Act was prompted by limited English-speaking minorities, especially Spanish-speaking citizens who denounced the idea of assimilation into the Western way of thinking in fear of losing their personal connectedness to one's heritage and cultural ideals. It was in their hopes that "their lives and histories be included in the curriculum of schools, colleges, and universities…multicultural educators sought to transform the Euro-centric perspective and incorporate multiple perspectives into the curriculum". After 36 years, the Bilingual Education Act was dissolved and in 2002 the needs of English Language Learners were picked up by the No Child Left Behind Act. 

The Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s was a way to eliminate discrimination in public accommodations, housing, employment, and education. The movement pushed for minority teachers and administrators, community control and revision of textbooks to reflect the diversity of peoples in the United States. Multicultural education became a standard in university studies for new teachers, as Fullinwider states. One of the main focuses of this study was to have students identify their own culture as important, as well as, recognize the unique differences in other cultures. Multicultural education began to represent the significance in understanding and respecting diversity in various groups as much as finding the important meaning within one's own cultural identity. The success of the Civil Rights Movement sparked an interest in the women's rights movement, along with the Education for All Handicapped Children Act of 1975. Currently, "practicing educators use the term multicultural education to describe a wide variety of programs and practices related to educational equity, women, ethnic groups, language minorities, low-income groups, LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender) people, and people with disabilities". Additionally, learning styles within these groups can be different and recognizing this has supported changes educators are making to their approaches in the classroom. There is not a single standard for each sub group as it relates to learning styles. A general example is African-American students learn more productively in a group setting because their cultural components showcase a stronger attachment to the whole, as mentioned by Fullinwider. European-Americans, as an example, could be viewed to be more independent based on their cultural ties to learning styles.

During the 1980s, educators developed a new approach to the field of multicultural education, examining schools as social systems and promoting the idea of educational equality. The 1982 Plyler v. Doe Supreme Court shed light on the advances in the field of multicultural education as it upheld the educational rights of illegal immigrant children. In the 1990s, educators expanded the study of multicultural education to consider "larger societal and global dimensions of power, privilege, and economics." The shifting student populations of the 20th century have given multicultural education a new perspective to see the classroom as a community of diversity among its learners and not one of assimilation to a dominant culture The continued advancement of ideas to improve multicultural education is allowing students and teachers to strive for improving exposure to all cultural differences while never seeking an end to the progress. The numbers of minority students continue to increase in education that a multicultural approach is no longer looked at simply as educating the minority, as they will soon be the majority. Education has had to take a deeper look as educators recognize an increasingly multicultural nation and a shrinking planet demands people who are critical thinkers able to handle the complex realities of multicultural differences. At the turn of the century in 2001, the No Child Left Behind Act, aimed primarily at helping disadvantaged students, required "all public schools receiving federal funding to administer a state-wide standardized test annually to all students." Also, with the Race to the Top initiative, "Many advocates of multicultural education quickly found attention to diversity and equity being replaced by attention to standards and student test scores".

As multicultural education moves rapidly into the mainstream of the 21st century, the current focus is on moving towards an "intercultural model that advances a climate of inclusion where individual and group differences are valued." However, one must not forget the initial intentions of this model. When the civil rights movement and women's rights movement gained significant traction in support of their freedoms, multicultural education was beginning to receive similar support. Initially, multicultural education had intentions to expose and educate on the institutionalized racism that existed in the education system. Schools were, and had for many years, approached education from a singular historical perspective, aimed to educate a narrow student population. What seems to have been lost with the introduction of multicultural education was the desired outcome. Many people at the time of these various freedom movements sought to expose the lack of diversity in curriculum by introducing more culturally diverse content. The field of multicultural education can be criticized for turning away from its initial critique of racism in education and allowing the superficial exposure of cultures to become the standard in multicultural education. It should be remembered that inequality and oppression of families and communities was the initial objective set forth with this new idea of multicultural education. Colleges and public schools can make improvements to this field by revisiting the foundations of this freedom movement to be racism existing in education. Many minority groups are already recognizing an importance to be based strongly in one's own cultural identity before attempting to enter into a multicultural world continually dominated by systematic levels of oppression.

Implementation in the classroom

Multicultural education encompasses many important dimensions. Practicing educators can use the dimensions as a way to incorporate culture in their classrooms. The five dimensions listed below are:

1. Content Integration: Content integration deals with the extent to which teachers use examples and content from a variety of cultures in their teaching.
2. Knowledge construction: Teachers need to help students understand, investigate, and determine how the implicit cultural assumptions, frames of reference, perspectives, and biases within a discipline influence the ways in which knowledge is constructed.
3. Prejudice Reduction: This dimension focuses on the characteristics of students' racial attitudes and how they can be modified by teaching methods and materials.
4. Empowering School Culture: Grouping and labeling practices, sports participation, disproportionality in achievement, and the interaction of the staff and the students across ethnic and racial lines must be examined to create a school culture that empowers students from diverse racial, ethnic, and gender groups.
5. Equity Pedagogy: An equity pedagogy exists when teachers modify their teaching in ways that will facilitate the academic achievement of students from diverse racial, cultural, gender, and social-class groups.

Multicultural education can be implemented on the macro-level with the implementation of programs and culture at the school-wide or district-wide level and also at the mico-level by specific teachers within their individual classrooms.

School and district-wide practices for the promotion of multicultural education

While individual teachers may work to teach in ways that support multicultural ideas, in order to truly experience a multicultural education, there must be a commitment at the school or district level. In developing a school or district wide plan for multicultural education, Dr. Steven L. Paine, West Virginia State Superintendent of schools gives these suggestions:

• Involve stakeholders in the decision-making process.
• Examine the school climate and culture and the roles played by both students and staff.
• Gather information on what is currently being done to promote multicultural education already.
• Establish school-wide activities throughout the year that support multicultural themes.
• Focus on student and teacher outcomes that involve a knowledge of diversity, respect, cooperation, and communication. Involve the community in this plan.

Multicultural teaching strategies and practices

Robert K. Fullinwider (2003) describes one rather controversial method for multicultural teaching: teaching to "culturally distinct" learning styles. While studies have shown that "the longer these students of color remain in school, the more their achievement lags behind that of White mainstream students", it is still highly debated whether or not learning styles, are indeed culturally distinctive, and furthermore, whether implementing different teaching strategies with different racial or ethnic groups would help or further alienate minority groups.

All students have different learning styles so incorporating multicultural education techniques into the classroom, may allow all students to be more successful. "Multicultural education needs to enable students to succeed economically in a multicultural world by teaching them to be comfortable in a diverse workforce and skillful at integrating into a global economy". Teacher's should align the curriculum with the groups being taught, rather than about them. Every child can learn so it is the teacher's responsibility to not "track" them, but rather to personalize the curriculum to reach every student. "Teachers need to assume that students are capable of learning complex material and performing at a high level of skill. Each student has a personal, unique learning style that teachers discover and build on when teaching".

Another important consideration in implementing multicultural education into the classroom is how deep to infuse multicultural ideas and perspectives into the curriculum. There are four different approaches or levels to curricular infusion. They are:

1. The Contributions Approach – Dubbed the "Heroes and Holidays" approach; it is the easiest to implement and makes the least impact on the current curriculum. It does however have significant limitations in meeting the goals of multicultural education because "it does not give students the opportunity to see the critical role of ethnic groups in US society. Rather, the individuals and celebrations are seen as an addition or appendage that is virtually unimportant to the core subject areas".
2. The Additive Approach – Called the ethnic additive approach; it is slightly more involved than the contributions approach, but still requires no major restructuring of the curriculum. While this approach is often a first step towards a more multicultural curriculum, it is still very limited in that it still presents the topic from the dominant perspective. "Individuals or groups of people from marginalized groups in society are included in the curriculum, yet racial and cultural inequalities or oppression are not necessarily addressed".
3. The Transformative Approach – This approach requires pulling in multiple perspectives while discussing a topic. This approach is significantly more challenging to teach than the previous two: "it requires a complete transformation of the curriculum and, in some cases, a conscious effort on the part of the teacher to deconstruct what they have been taught to think, believe, and teach".
4. The Decision Making and Social Action Approach – This approach includes all of the elements of the transformative approach but also challenges students to work to bring about social change. The goal of this approach is not only to make students aware of past and present injustice, but to equip them and empower them to be the agents of change.

In looking into practical strategies for implementing multicultural education into the classroom, Andrew Miller offers several suggestions that might provide helpful:

• Get to know your students. Build relationships and learn about their backgrounds and cultures.
• Use art as a starting point in discussions of cultural and racial issues.
• Have students create collective classroom slang dictionaries.
• Find places in your current curriculum to embed multicultural lessons, ideas, and materials. (Please note that for this to be most effective, it must be a continuous process, not merely the celebration of Black History Month or a small aside in a textbook.)
• Allow controversy. Open your classroom up to respectful discussions about race, culture, and other differences.
• Find allies in your administration who will support your work.

Another essential part of multicultural teaching is examining your current lesson materials for bias that might alienate the students you are trying to teach. The Safe School Coalition warns against using a curricular material "if it omits the history, contributions and lives of a group, if ti demeans a group by using patronizing or clinically distancing language, or if it portrays a group in stereotyped roles with less than a full range of interests, traits and capabilities."

Critical literacy practices in early childhood education

The development of multicultural education is introduced at a young age in order to allow children to build a global perspective. Multicultural education can be introduced to children through the use of critical literacy practices; this will enable children to build an honest relationship with the world while recognizing multiple perspectives and ideologies. Teachers can use critical literacy practices to pose questions that will make students analyze, question and reflect upon what they are reading. Critical literacy can be useful by enabling teachers to move beyond mere awareness of, and respect for, and general recognition of the fact that different groups have different values or express similar values in different ways. There are three different approaches to critical literacy:

1. Examining texts for voice and perspective
2. Using texts as a vehicle to examine larger social issues
3. Using student's lives and experiences as the text and incorporating literacy practices

The choice of literature is important. The books must be chosen with careful consideration over how they represent the culture it is displaying, making sure that it is void of any racial or cultural stereotypes and discrimination. Criteria includes books that:

• Explore differences rather than making them invisible
• Enrich understandings of history and life and give voice to those traditionally silenced or marginalized
• Show how people can begin to take action on social issues
• Explore dominant systems of meanings that operate in our society to position people and groups of people as "others"
• Don't provide happily ever after endings or complex social problems

"After reading these books, dialog can follow that will enable understanding and facilitate making connections to one's life. It is in this discussion that universal threads of similarities and the appreciation of differences may be explored in a way that will enable the students to make connections that span different cultures and continents. However rudimentary these connections may be, they serve as a starting point for a new way of thinking."

Multicultural education programs implemented in schools

Focusing on minority groups can affect their future education. Cammarota's (2007) Team Program, intended for high school Latino/a students of low socioeconomic status and considered "at risk" of dropping out, was made to improve test scores and complete credits in order to graduate. Students felt they went from not caring about school at all to having a sense of empowerment from the program, which led to motivation to get better grades, finish school and have more confidence in themselves as who they are. From student evaluations after the program was over, 93% of the students believed the curriculum encouraged them to pursue a higher education, and their rates of going to college was higher than the national average for Latino/a students across the United States. Team Program for other minorities in more schools can influence more student outlooks on their education and can assist them in completing necessary credits for high school graduation. When schools are able to focus on inequity of minority students, school can become the foundation to the students' futures and create a positive, safe experience for them, where they will feel empowered to carry out in their future education and verify their importance within themselves.

Multicultural education can ultimately affect the way students perceive themselves. Six students felt their multicultural self-awareness grew and felt supported in their growth after taking a multicultural education course aimed to see if their self-awareness altered (Lobb, 2012). They also felt their cultural competency improved. Multicultural education is beneficial in academic, emotional and personal ways in which they learn about others and even themselves. As student perspectives of multicultural education remain positive, allowing other students to become exposed to this subject may encourage and conclude in consistent, positive attitudes towards other cultures. Curriculum, sequence, class climate, and grading criteria should be prioritized to see its impact on student learning. Replicating the course in order to give students from other schools the opportunity to take multicultural education courses in order to gain more perspectives and leads to transforming attitudes and create change.

Multicultural education curriculum examined in colleges

Multicultural education plays a huge role in the way students perceive themselves and others, but there is still more work to be done. In some college syllabi, there is cultural sensitivity and multicultural competence. However, a lot of them lack the design to prepare teachers with consistent ways of the defining principles of multicultural education and preparation of teaching multicultural education authentically (Gorski, 2008). Multicultural education is a complex subject with many concepts. It is important for teachers to be fully knowledgeable of its depth and open to learn more about it as time goes on so they can create a safe space for their students. It is also important to see that although multicultural education is becoming more known and taught, there is still so much to learn and discover within this topic, and there always will be more to learn as we evolve. Even teachers need to be taught and become exposed to different dimensions of multicultural education in order to teach and revolutionize student attitudes about this topic.

Multicultural education programs implemented for teachers

New teachers can be blind to the diversity of their students, which can lead to generalizations and stereotypes about different cultures. New teachers being able to take a multicultural education class leads to increased knowledge of diversity, altering of attitudes towards multiculturalism, and preparedness of them teaching multicultural education to students of a variety of backgrounds (Wasonga, 2005). Preparing those teachers include being able to effectively confront fears and openness of talking about sensitive subjects, such as diversity issues and transforming attitudes that students may also possess towards different cultures. Multicultural education courses conclude eye-opening measures for the teachers, including becoming more open to such issues and positively affected preparedness to teach about multicultural education to their students.

A similar result happened in another study, in which the multicultural education course led to "increased awareness, understanding, and appreciation of other cultures." This includes having a better vision of a multicultural setting in a classroom, become more flexible when it comes to multicultural issues, and becoming more open to different perspectives of different students (Cho & DeCastro-Ambrosetti, 2005). Some pre-service teachers can still feel hesitant because of the lack of knowledge they still hold about multiculturalism, which can encourage further courses intended to educate teachers on the variety of cultures their students may possess.

Challenges

Lack of a definition of culture

Many educators may think that when holding cultural parties, listening to music, or sampling foods related to different cultures that they are sufficiently promoting multiculturalism, but Fullinwider suggests these activities fail to address the deeper values and ideas behind cultural customs through which true understanding is reached (Fullinwider, 2005), and Levinson adds that such practices could lead to "trivializing real differences; teachers end up teaching or emphasizing superficial differences in order to get at fundamental similarities" p. 443. Fullinwider also discusses challenges which could arise in multicultural education when teachers from the majority culture begin to delve into these deeper issues. For example, when majority teachers interact with minority students, the distinction between "high culture" and "home culture" needs to be clear or else faculty and staff members could mistakenly withdraw their rightful authority to evaluate and discipline students' conduct and quality of work (Fullinwider, 2005). To clarify, without a clear understanding of true culture, educators could easily misattribute detrimental conduct or sub-par behavior to a minority student's cultural background (Fullinwider, 2005) or misinterpret signs that a student may require out-of-school intervention. Both would result in the student not receiving a fitting and appropriate education.

Different ways it ignores minority students

Multicultural education in classroom settings has been a hidden factor that affects students with a diverse culture. Although multicultural education has positive approaches on helping students, there are ways in which it does not fully benefit all of those who need it.are several factors on how it does positively influence all students. For example, "It generally it ignores the minority students' own responsibility for their academic performance." Students are seen as being self caretakers for their own education meaning they are the ones to held responsible for their consequences, even if it results on affecting the student even more. A second factor is "multicultural education theories and programs are rarely based on the actual study of minority cultures and languages." The idea of multicultural education has increasingly been noted that it lacks the exploration of minority communities yet in the actual school environment exploration of minority children/students has occurred. Lastly, "The inadequacy of the multicultural education solution fails to separate minority groups that are able to cross cultural and language boundaries and learn successfully even though there were initial cultural barriers." In other words, students who belong to minority groups and are able to excel are left in the same classroom setting with those who are struggling. These factors shows how multicultural education has positive intentions but in the societal spectrum it lacks aspects that are crucial for the development of minority students.

In-school application

Levinson notes that tenets of multicultural education have the potential to conflict directly with the purposes of educating in the dominant culture and some tenants conflict with each other. One can observe this tug of war in the instance of whether multicultural education should be inclusive versus exclusive. Levinson argues that a facet of multicultural education (i.e.-preserving the minority culture) would require teaching only the beliefs of this culture while excluding others. In this way, one can see how an exclusive curriculum would leave other cultures left out. Levinson also brings up, similar to Fullinwider, the conflict between minority group preservation and social justice and equity. Many cultures, for example, favor power in the hands of men instead of women and even mistreat women in what is a culturally appropriate manner for them. When educators help to preserve this type of culture, they can also be seen encouraging the preservation of gender and other inequalities.

Similar to the inclusive versus exclusive education debate, Levinson goes as far to suggest segregated schools to teach minority students in order to achieve a "culturally congruent"1 education. She argues that in a homogeneous class it is easier to change curriculum and practices to suit the culture of the students so that they can have equal educational opportunities and status in the culture and life of the school. Thus, when considering multicultural education to include teaching in a culturally congruent manner, Levinson supports segregated classrooms to aid in the success of this. Segregation, as she admits, blatantly goes against multiculturalism thus highlighting the inner conflicts that this ideology presents. 

Another challenge to multicultural education is that the extent of multicultural content integration in a given school tends to be related to the ethnic composition of the student body. That is, as Agirdag and colleagues have shown, teachers tend to incorporate more multicultural educational in schools with a higher share of ethnic minority students. However, there is no fundamental reason why only schools with ethnic minority pupils should focus on multicultural education. On the contrary, in particular there is a need for White students, who are largely separated from their ethnic minority peers in White-segregated schools, to become more familiar with ethnic diversity. While ethnic minority students learn in many contexts about the mainstream society in which they live, for White students the school context might be the only places where they can have meaningful encounters with ethnic and religious others.

School culture

Banks (2005) poses challenges that can occur at the systemic level of schools. First, it is noted that schools must rely on teachers' personal beliefs or a willingness to allow for their personal beliefs to be altered in order for multicultural education to truly be effective within classrooms. Second it requires for schools and teachers to knowledge that there is a blatant curriculum as well as a latent curriculum that operates within each school; with latent curriculum being the norms of the school that are not necessarily articulated but are understood and expected by all. Third schools must rely on teachers to teach towards students becoming global citizen which again, relies on teachers' willing to embrace other cultures in order to be able to convey to and open-mindedness to their students.

Fullinwider also brings to light the challenge of whether or not teachers believe and the effectiveness of a multicultural education. More specifically, he points out that teachers may fear bringing up matter within multicultural education that could truly be effective because said matters could be equally effective and potentially harmful (Fullinwider 2005). For example, discussing history between races and ethnic groups could help students to view different perspectives and foster understanding amongst groups or such a lesson could cause further division within the classroom and create a hostile environment for students.

Inclusion (education)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Inclusion in education refers to a model wherein special needs students spend most or all of their time with non-special (general education) needs students. It arises in the context of special education with an individualized education program or 504 plan, and is built on the notion that it is more effective for students with special needs to have said mixed experience for them to be more successful in social interactions leading to further success in life. Inclusion rejects but still provides the use of special schools or classrooms to separate students with disabilities from students without disabilities. Schools with inclusive classrooms do not believe in separate classrooms. They do not have their own separate world so they have to learn how to operate with students while being less focused on by teachers due to a higher student to teacher ratio.

Implementation of these practices varies. Schools most frequently use the inclusion model for selected students with mild to moderate special needs. Fully inclusive schools, which are rare, do not separate "general education" and "special education" programs; instead, the school is restructured so that all students learn together.

Inclusive education differs from the 'integration' or 'mainstreaming' model of education, which tended to be concerned principally with disability and special educational needs, and learners changing or becoming 'ready for' or deserving of accommodation by the mainstream. By contrast, inclusion is about the child's right to participate and the school's duty to accept the child.

A premium is placed upon full participation by students with disabilities and upon respect for their social, civil, and educational rights. Feeling included is not limited to physical and cognitive disabilities, but also includes the full range of human diversity with respect to ability, language, culture, gender, age and of other forms of human differences. Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett wrote, "student performance and behavior in educational tasks can be profoundly affected by the way we feel, we are seen and judged by others. When we expect to be viewed as inferior, our abilities seem to diminish".

Integration and mainstreaming

Inclusion has different historical roots which may be integration of students with severe disabilities in the US (who may previously been excluded from schools or even lived in institutions) or an inclusion model from Canada and the US (e.g., Syracuse University, New York) which is very popular with inclusion teachers who believe in participatory learning, cooperative learning, and inclusive classrooms.

Inclusive education differs from the early university professor's work (e.g., 1970s, Education Professor Carol Berrigan of Syracuse University, 1985; Douglas Biklen, Dean of School of Education through 2011) in integration and mainstreaming which were taught throughout the world including in international seminars in Italy. Mainstreaming (e.g., the Human Policy Press poster; If you thought the wheel was a good idea, you'll like the ramp) tended to be concerned about "readiness" of all parties for the new coming together of students with significant needs. Thus, integration and mainstreaming principally was concerned about disability and 'special educational needs' (since the children were not in the regular schools) and involved teachers, students, principals, administrators, School Boards, and parents changing and becoming 'ready for' students who needed accommodation or new methods of curriculum and instruction (e.g., required federal IEPs – individualized education program) by the mainstream.

By contrast, inclusion is about the child’s right to participate and the school’s duty to accept the child returning to the US Supreme Court's Brown vs. the Board of Education decision and the new Individuals with Disabilities Education (Improvement) Act (IDEIA). Inclusion rejects the use of special schools or classrooms, which remain popular among large multi-service providers, to separate students with disabilities from students without disabilities. A premium is placed upon full participation by students with disabilities, in contrast to earlier concept of partial participation in the mainstream, and upon respect for their social, civil, and educational rights. Inclusion gives students with disabilities skills they can use in and out of the classroom.

Fully inclusive schools and general or special education policies

Fully inclusive schools, which are rare, no longer distinguish between "general education" and "special education" programs which refers to the debates and federal initiatives of the 1980s, such as the Community Integration Project and the debates on home schools and special education-regular education classrooms; instead, the school is restructured so that all students learn together. All approaches to inclusive schooling require administrative and managerial changes to move from the traditional approaches to elementary and high school education.

Inclusion remains in 2015 as part of school (e.g., Powell & Lyle, 1997, now to the most integrated setting from LRE) and educational reform initiatives in the US and other parts of the world. Inclusion is an effort to improve quality in education in the fields of disability, is a common theme in educational reform for decades, and is supported by the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UN, 2006). Inclusion has been researched and studied for decades, though reported lighly in the public with early studies on heterogeneous and homogeneous ability groupings (Stainback & Stainback, 1989), studies of critical friends and inclusion facilitators (e.g., Jorgensen & Tashie, 2000), self-contained to general education reversal of 90% (Fried & Jorgensen, 1998), among many others obtaining doctoral degrees throughout the US.

Classification of students and educational practices

Classification of students by disability is standard in educational systems which use diagnostic, educational and psychological testing, among others. However, inclusion has been associated with its own planning, including MAPS which Jack Pearpoint leads with still leads in 2015 and person-centered planning with John O'Brien and Connie Lyle O'Brien who view inclusion as a force for school renewal.

Inclusion has two sub-types: the first is sometimes called regular inclusion or partial inclusion, and the other is full inclusion.

Inclusive practice is not always inclusive but is a form of integration. For example, students with special needs are educated in regular classes for nearly all of the day, or at least for more than half of the day. Whenever possible, the students receive any additional help or special instruction in the general classroom, and the student is treated like a full member of the class. However, most specialized services are provided outside a regular classroom, particularly if these services require special equipment or might be disruptive to the rest of the class (such as speech therapy), and students are pulled out of the regular classroom for these services. In this case, the student occasionally leaves the regular classroom to attend smaller, more intensive instructional sessions in a resource room, or to receive other related services, such as speech and language therapy, occupational and/or physical therapy, psychological services, and social work. This approach can be very similar to many mainstreaming practices, and may differ in little more than the educational ideals behind it.

In the "full inclusion" setting, the students with special needs are always educated alongside students without special needs, as the first and desired option while maintaining appropriate supports and services. Some educators say this might be more effective for the students with special needs. At the extreme, full inclusion is the integration of all students, even those that require the most substantial educational and behavioral supports and services to be successful in regular classes and the elimination of special, segregated special education classes. Special education is considered a service, not a place and those services are integrated into the daily routines (See, ecological inventories) and classroom structure, environment, curriculum and strategies and brought to the student, instead of removing the student to meet his or her individual needs. However, this approach to full inclusion is somewhat controversial, and it is not widely understood or applied to date.

Much more commonly, local educational agencies have the responsibility to organize services for children with disabilities. They may provide a variety of settings, from special classrooms to mainstreaming to inclusion, and assign, as teachers and administrators often do, students to the system that seems most likely to help the student achieve his or her individual educational goals. Students with mild or moderate disabilities, as well as disabilities that do not affect academic achievement, such as using power wheelchair, scooter or other mobility device, are most likely to be fully included; indeed, children with polio or with leg injuries have grown to be leaders and teachers in government and universities; self advocates travel across the country and to different parts of the world. However, students with all types of disabilities from all the different disability categories (See, also 2012 book by Michael Wehmeyer from the University of Kansas) have been successfully included in general education classes, working and achieving their individual educational goals in regular school environments and activities (reference needed).

Alternatives to inclusion programs: school procedures and community development

Students with disabilities who are not included are typically either mainstreamed or segregated.

A mainstreamed student attends some general education classes, typically for less than half the day, and often for less academically rigorous, or if you will, more interesting and career-oriented classes. For example, a young student with significant intellectual disabilities might be mainstreamed for physical education classes, art classes and storybook time, but spend reading and mathematics classes with other students that have similar disabilities ("needs for the same level of academic instruction"). They may have access to a resource room for remediation or enhancement of course content, or for a variety of group and individual meetings and consultations.

A segregated student attends no classes with non-disabled students with disability a tested category determined before or at school entrance. He or she might attend a special school termed residential schools that only enrolls other students with disabilities, or might be placed in a dedicated, self-contained classroom in a school that also enrolls general education students. The latter model of integration, like the 1970s Jowonio School in Syracuse, is often highly valued when combined with teaching such as Montessori education techniques. Home schooling was also a popular alternative among highly educated parents with children with significant disabilities.

Residential schools have been criticized for decades, and the government has been asked repeatedly to keep funds and services in the local districts, including for family support services for parents who may be currently single and raising a child with significant challenges on their own. Children with special needs may already be involved with early childhood education which can have a family support component emphasizing the strengths of the child and family.

Some students may be confined to a hospital due to a medical condition (e.g., cancer treatments) and are thus eligible for tutoring services provided by a school district. Less common alternatives include homeschooling and, particularly in developing countries, exclusion from education.

Legal issues: education law and disability laws

The new anti-discriminatory climate has provided the basis for much change in policy and statute, nationally and internationally. Inclusion has been enshrined at the same time that segregation and discrimination have been rejected. Articulations of the new developments in ways of thinking, in policy and in law include:

• The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989) which sets out children’s rights in respect of freedom from discrimination and in respect of the representation of their wishes and views.
• The Convention against Discrimination in Education of UNESCO prohibits any discrimination, exclusion or segregation in education.
• The UNESCO Salamanca Statement (1994) which calls on all governments to give the highest priority to inclusive education.
• The UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (2006) which calls on all States Parties to ensure an inclusive education system at all levels.

From the least restrictive to the most integrated setting

For schools in the United States, the federal requirement that students be educated in the historic least restrictive environment that is reasonable encourages the implementation of inclusion of students previously excluded by the school system. However, a critical critique of the LRE principle, commonly used to guide US schools, indicates that it often places restrictions and segregation on the individuals with the most severe disabilities. By the late 1980s, individuals with significant disabilities and their families and caregivers were already living quality lives in homes and local communities. Luckily, the US Supreme Court has now ruled in the Olmstead Decision (1999) that the new principle is that of the "most integrated setting", as described by the national Consortium of Citizens with Disabilities, which should result in better achievement of national integration and inclusion goals in the 21st Century.

Inclusion rates in the world: "frequency of use"

The proportion of students with disabilities who are included varies by place and by type of disability, but it is relatively common for students with milder disabilities and less common with certain kinds of severe disabilities. In Denmark, 99% of students with learning disabilities like 'dyslexia' are placed in general education classrooms. In the United States, three out of five students with learning disabilities spend the majority of their time in the general education classroom.

Postsecondary statistics (after high school) are kept by universities and government on the success rates of students entering college, and most are eligible for either disability services (e.g., accommodations and aides) or programs on college campuses, such as supported education in psychiatric disabilities or College for Living. The former are fully integrated college degree programs with college and vocational rehabilitation services (e.g., payments for textbooks, readers or translators), and the latter courses developed similar to retirement institutes (e.g., banking for retirees).

Principles and necessary resources

Although once hailed, usually by its opponents, as a way to increase achievement while decreasing costs, full inclusion does not save money, but is more cost-beneficial and cost-effective. It is not designed to reduce students' needs, and its first priority may not even be to improve academic outcomes; in most cases, it merely moves the special education professionals (now dual certified for all students in some states) out of "their own special education" classrooms and into a corner of the general classroom or as otherwise designed by the "teacher-in-charge" and "administrator-in-charge". To avoid harm to the academic education of students with disabilities, a full panoply of services and resources is required (of education for itself), including:

• Adequate supports and services for the student
• Well-designed individualized education programs
• Professional development for all teachers involved, general and special educators alike
• Time for teachers to plan, meet, create, and evaluate the students together
• Reduced class size based on the severity of the student needs
• Professional skill development in the areas of cooperative learning, peer tutoring, adaptive curriculum
• Collaboration between parents or guardians, teachers or para educators, specialists, administration, and outside agencies.
• Sufficient funding so that schools will be able to develop programs for students based on student need instead of the availability of funding.

Indeed, the students with special needs do receive funds from the federal government, by law originally the Educational for All Handicapped Children Act of 1974 to the present day, Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act, which requires its use in the most integrated setting. 

In principle, several factors can determine the success of inclusive classrooms:

• Family-school partnerships
• Collaboration between general and special educators
• Well-constructed plans that identify specific accommodations, modifications, and goals for each student
• Coordinated planning and communication between "general" and "special needs" staff
• Integrated service delivery
• Ongoing training and staff development
• Leadership of teachers and administrators

By the mid-1980s, school integration leaders in the university sector already had detailed schemas (e.g., curriculum, student days, students with severe disabilities in classrooms) with later developments primarily in assistive technology and communication, school reform and transformation, personal assistance of user-directed aides, and increasing emphasis on social relationships and cooperative learning. In 2015, most important are evaluations of the populations still in special schools, including those who may be deaf-blind, and the leadership by inclusion educators, who often do not yet go by that name, in the education and community systems.

Differing views of inclusion and integration

However, early integrationists community integration would still recommend greater emphasis on programs related to sciences, the arts (e.g., exposure), curriculum integrated field trips, and literature as opposed to the sole emphasis on community referenced curriculum. For example, a global citizen studying the environment might be involved with planting a tree ("independent mobility"), or going to an arboretum ("social and relational skills"), developing a science project with a group ("contributing ideas and planning"), and having two core modules in the curriculum. 

However, students will need to either continue to secondary school (meet academic testing standards), make arrangements for employment, supported education, or home/day services (transition services), and thus, develop the skills for future life (e.g., academic math skills and calculators; planning and using recipes or leisure skills) in the educational classrooms. Inclusion often involved individuals who otherwise might be at an institution or residential facility. 

Today, longitudinal studies follow the outcomes of students with disabilities in classrooms, which include college graduations and quality of life outcomes. To be avoided are negative outcomes that include forms of institutionalization.

Common practices in inclusive classrooms

Students in an inclusive classroom are generally placed with their chronological age-mates, regardless of whether the students are working above or below the typical academic level for their age. Also, to encourage a sense of belonging, emphasis is placed on the value of friendships. Teachers often nurture a relationship between a student with special needs and a same-age student without a special educational need. Another common practice is the assignment of a buddy to accompany a student with special needs at all times (for example in the cafeteria, on the playground, on the bus and so on). This is used to show students that a diverse group of people make up a community, that no one type of student is better than another, and to remove any barriers to a friendship that may occur if a student is viewed as "helpless." Such practices reduce the chance for elitism among students in later grades and encourage cooperation among groups.

Teachers use a number of techniques to help build classroom communities:

• Using games designed to build community
• Involving students in solving problems
• Sharing songs and books that teach community
• Openly dealing with individual differences by discussion
• Assigning classroom jobs that build community
• Teaching students to look for ways to help each other
• Utilizing physical therapy equipment such as standing frames, so students who typically use wheelchairs can stand when the other students are standing and more actively participate in activities
• Encouraging students to take the role of teacher and deliver instruction (e.g. read a portion of a book to a student with severe disabilities)
• Focusing on the strength of a student with special needs
• Create classroom checklists
• Take breaks when necessary
• Create an area for children to calm down
• Organize student desk in groups
• Create a self and welcoming environment
• Set ground rules and stick with them
• Help establish short-term goals
• Design a multi-faced curriculum
• Communicate regular with parents and/or caregivers
• Seek support from other special education teachers

Inclusionary practices are commonly utilized by using the following team-teaching models:

• One teach, one support:

In this model, the content teacher will deliver the lesson and the special education teacher will assist students individual needs and enforce classroom management as needed.

• One teach, one observe:

In this model, the teacher with the most experience in the content will deliver the lesson and the other teacher will float or observe. This model is commonly used for data retrieval during IEP observations or Functional Behavior Analysis.

• Station teaching (rotational teaching):

In this model, the room is divided into stations in which the students will visit with their small groups. Generally, the content teacher will deliver the lesson in his/her group, and the special education teacher will complete a review or adapted version of the lesson with the students.

• Parallel teaching:

In this model, one half of the class is taught by the content teacher and one half is taught by the special education teacher. Both groups are being taught the same lesson, just in a smaller group.

• Alternative teaching:

In this method, the content teacher will teach the lesson to the class, while the special education teacher will teach a small group of students an alternative lesson.

• Team teaching (content/support shared 50/50):

Both teachers share the planning, teaching, and supporting equally. This is the traditional method, and often the most successful co-teaching model. 

Children with extensive support needs

For children with significant or severe disabilities, the programs may require what are termed health supports (e.g., positioning and lifting; visit to the nurse clinic), direct one-to-one aide in the classroom, assistive technology, and an individualized program which may involve the student "partially" (e.g., videos and cards for "visual stimulation"; listening to responses)in the full lesson plan for the "general education student". It may also require introduction of teaching techniques commonly used (e.g., introductions and interest in science) that teachers may not use within a common core class. 

Another way to think of health supports are as a range of services that may be needed from specialists, or sometimes generalists, ranging from speech and language, to visual and hearing (sensory impairments), behavioral, learning, orthopedics, autism, deaf-blindness, and traumatic brain injury, according to Virginia Commonwealth University's Dr. Paul Wehman. As Dr. Wehman has indicated, expectations can include post secondary education, supported employment in competitive sites, and living with family or other residential places in the community. 

In 2005, comprehensive health supports were described in National Goals for Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities as universally available, affordable and promoting inclusion, as supporting well-informed, freely chose health care decisions, culturally competent, promoting health promotion, and insuring well trained and respectful health care providers. In addition, mental health, behavioral, communication and crisis needs may need to be planned for and addressed. 

"Full inclusion" – the idea that all children, including those with severe disabilities, can and should learn in a regular classroom has also taken root in many school systems, and most notably in the province of New Brunswick.

Collaboration among the professions

Inclusion settings allow children with and without disabilities to play and interact every day, even when they are receiving therapeutic services. When a child displays fine motor difficulty, his ability to fully participate in common classroom activities, such as cutting, coloring, and zipping a jacket may be hindered. While occupational therapists are often called to assess and implement strategies outside of school, it is frequently left up to classroom teachers to implement strategies in school. Collaborating with occupational therapists will help classroom teachers use intervention strategies and increase teachers' awareness about students' needs within school settings and enhance teachers' independence in implementation of occupational therapy strategies.

As a result of the 1997 re-authorization of the Individuals With Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), greater emphasis has been placed on delivery of related services within inclusive, general education environments. [Nolan, 2004] The importance of inclusive, integrated models of service delivery for children with disabilities has been widely researched indicating positive benefits. [Case-Smith& Holland, 2009] In traditional "pull out" service delivery models, children typically work in isolated settings one on one with a therapist, Case-Smith and Holland(2009) argue that children working on skills once or twice a week are "less likely to produce learning that leads to new behaviors and increased competence." [Case Smith &Holland, 2009, pg.419]. In recent years, occupational therapy has shifted from the conventional model of "pull out" therapy to an integrated model where the therapy takes place within a school or classroom.

Inclusion administrators have been requested to review their personnel to assure mental health personnel for children with mental health needs, vocational rehabilitation linkages for work placements, community linkages for special populations (e.g., "deaf-blind", "autism"), and collaboration among major community agencies for after school programs and transition to adulthood. Highly recommended are collaborations with parents, including parent-professional partnerships in areas of cultural and linguistic diversity (e.g., Syracuse University's special education Ph.D.'s Maya Kaylanpur and Beth Harry).

Selection of students for inclusion programs in schools

Educators generally say that some students with special needs are not good candidates for inclusion. Many schools expect a fully included student to be working at or near grade level, but more fundamental requirements exist: First, being included requires that the student is able to attend school. Students that are entirely excluded from school (for example, due to long-term hospitalization), or who are educated outside of schools (for example, due to enrollment in a distance education program) cannot attempt inclusion.

Additionally, some students with special needs are poor candidates for inclusion because of their effect on other students. For example, students with severe behavioral problems, such that they represent a serious physical danger to others, are poor candidates for inclusion, because the school has a duty to provide a safe environment to all students and staff.

Finally, some students are not good candidates for inclusion because the normal activities in a general education classroom will prevent them from learning. For example, a student with severe attention difficulties or extreme sensory processing disorders might be highly distracted or distressed by the presence of other students working at their desks. Inclusion needs to be appropriate to the child's unique needs. 

Most students with special needs do not fall into these extreme categories, as most students do attend school, are not violent, do not have severe sensory processing disorders, etc. 

The students that are most commonly included are those with physical disabilities that have no or little effect on their academic work (diabetes mellitus, epilepsy, food allergies, paralysis), students with all types of mild disabilities, and students whose disabilities require relatively few specialized services.

Bowe says that regular inclusion, but not full inclusion, is a reasonable approach for a significant majority of students with special needs. He also says that for some students, notably those with severe autism spectrum disorders or mental retardation, as well as many who are deaf or have multiple disabilities, even regular inclusion may not offer an appropriate education.^[34] Teachers of students with autism spectrum disorders sometimes use antecedent procedures, delayed contingencies, self-management strategies, peer-mediated interventions, pivotal response training and naturalistic teaching strategies.

Relationship to progressive education

Some advocates of inclusion promote the adoption of progressive education practices. In the progressive education or inclusive classroom, everyone is exposed to a "rich set of activities", and each student does what he or she can do, or what he or she wishes to do and learns whatever comes from that experience. Maria Montessori's schools are sometimes named as an example of inclusive education. 

Inclusion requires some changes in how teachers teach, as well as changes in how students with and without special needs interact with and relate to one another. Inclusive education practices frequently rely on active learning, authentic assessment practices, applied curriculum, multi-level instructional approaches, and increased attention to diverse student needs and individualization.

sometimes it is not necessary that there will always be a positive environment and therefore a lot of attention of the teachers is also required along with the support of other children which will ensure a peaceful and happy place for both kinds of children.

Arguments for full inclusion in regular neighborhood schools

Advocates say that even partial non-inclusion is morally unacceptable. Proponents believe that non-inclusion reduces the disabled students' social importance and that maintaining their social visibility is more important than their academic achievement. Proponents say that society accords disabled people less human dignity when they are less visible in general education classrooms. Advocates say that even if typical students are harmed academically by the full inclusion of certain special needs students, that the non-inclusion of these students would still be morally unacceptable, as advocates believe that the harm to typical students' education is always less important than the social harm caused by making people with disabilities less visible in society.

A second key argument is that everybody benefits from inclusion. Advocates say that there are many children and young people who don't fit in (or feel as though they don't), and that a school that fully includes all disabled students feels welcoming to all. Moreover, at least one author has studied the impact a diversified student body has on the general education population and has concluded that students with mental retardation who spend time among their peers show an increase in social skills and academic proficiency.

Advocates for inclusion say that the long-term effects of typical students who are included with special needs students at a very young age have a heightened sensitivity to the challenges that others face, increased empathy and compassion, and improved leadership skills, which benefits all of society.

A combination of inclusion and pull-out (partial inclusion) services has been shown to be beneficial to students with learning disabilities in the area of reading comprehension, and preferential for the special education teachers delivering the services.

Inclusive education can be beneficial to all students in a class, not just students with special needs. Some research show that inclusion helps students understand the importance of working together, and fosters a sense of tolerance and empathy among the student body.

Positive effects in regular classrooms

There are many positive effects of inclusions where both the students with special needs along with the other students in the classroom both benefit. Research has shown positive effects for children with disabilities in areas such as reaching individualized education program (IEP) goal, improving communication and social skills, increasing positive peer interactions, many educational outcomes, and post school adjustments. Positive effects on children without disabilities include the development of positive attitudes and perceptions of persons with disabilities and the enhancement of social status with non-disabled peers. While becoming less discriminatory, children without disabilities that learn in inclusive classrooms also develop communication and leadership skills more rapidly.

Several studies have been done on the effects of inclusion of children with disabilities in general education classrooms. A study on inclusion compared integrated and segregated (special education only) preschool students. The study determined that children in the integrated sites progressed in social skills development while the segregated children actually regressed.

Another study shows the effect on inclusion in grades 2 to 5. The study determined that students with specific learning disabilities made some academic and affective gains at a pace comparable to that of normal achieving students. Specific learning disabilities students also showed an improvement in self-esteem and in some cases improved motivation.

A third study shows how the support of peers in an inclusive classroom can lead to positive effects for children with autism. The study observed typical inclusion classrooms, ages ranging from 7 years old to 11 years old. The peers were trained on an intervention technique to help their fellow autistic classmates stay on task and focused. The study showed that using peers to intervene instead of classroom teachers helped students with autism reduce off-task behaviors significantly. It also showed that the typical students accepted the student with autism both before and after the intervention techniques were introduced.

Criticisms of inclusion programs of school districts

Critics of full and partial inclusion include educators, administrators and parents. Full and partial inclusion approaches neglect to acknowledge the fact that most students with significant special needs require individualized instruction or highly controlled environments. Thus, general education classroom teachers often are teaching a curriculum while the special education teacher is remediating instruction at the same time. Similarly, a child with serious inattention problems may be unable to focus in a classroom that contains twenty or more active children. Although with the increase of incidence of disabilities in the student population, this is a circumstance all teachers must contend with, and is not a direct result of inclusion as a concept.

Full inclusion may be a way for schools to placate parents and the general public, using the word as a phrase to garner attention for what are in fact illusive efforts to educate students with special needs in the general education environment.

At least one study examined the lack of individualized services provided for students with IEPs when placed in an inclusive rather than mainstreamed environment.

Some researchers have maintained school districts neglect to prepare general education staff for students with special needs, thus preventing any achievement. Moreover, school districts often expound an inclusive philosophy for political reasons, and do away with any valuable pull-out services, all on behalf of the students who have no so say in the matter.

Inclusion is viewed by some as a practice philosophically attractive yet impractical. Studies have not corroborated the proposed advantages of full or partial inclusion. Moreover, "push in" servicing does not allow students with moderate to severe disabilities individualized instruction in a resource room, from which many show considerable benefit in both learning and emotional development.

Parents of disabled students may be cautious about placing their children in an inclusion program because of fears that the children will be ridiculed by other students, or be unable to develop regular life skills in an academic classroom.

Some argue that inclusive schools are not a cost-effective response when compared to cheaper or more effective interventions, such as special education. They argue that special education helps "fix" the special needs students by providing individualized and personalized instruction to meet their unique needs. This is to help students with special needs adjust as quickly as possible to the mainstream of the school and community. Proponents counter that students with special needs are not fully into the mainstream of student life because they are secluded to special education. Some argue that isolating students with special needs may lower their self-esteem and may reduce their ability to deal with other people. In keeping these students in separate classrooms they aren't going to see the struggles and achievements that they can make together. However, at least one study indicated mainstreaming in education has long-term benefits for students as indicated by increased test scores, where the benefit of inclusion has not yet been proved.

Broader approach: social and cultural inclusion

As used by UNESCO, inclusion refers to far more than students with special educational needs. It is centered on the inclusion of marginalized groups, such as religious, racial, ethnic, and linguistic minorities, immigrants, girls, the poor, students with disabilities, HIV/AIDS patients, remote populations, and more. In some places, these people are not actively included in education and learning processes. In the U.S. this broader definition is also known as "culturally responsive" education, which differs from the 1980s-1990s cultural diversity and cultural competency approaches, and is promoted among the ten equity assistance centers of the U.S. Department of Education, for example in Region IX (AZ, CA, NV), by the Equity Alliance at ASU. Gloria Ladson-Billings points out that teachers who are culturally responsive know how to base learning experiences on the cultural realities of the child (e.g. home life, community experiences, language background, belief systems). Proponents argue that culturally responsive pedagogy is good for all students because it builds a caring community where everyone's experiences and abilities are valued.

Proponents want to maximize the participation of all learners in the community schools of their choice and to rethink and restructure policies, curricula, cultures and practices in schools and learning environments so that diverse learning needs can be met, whatever the origin or nature of those needs. They say that all students can learn and benefit from education, and that schools should adapt to the physical, social, and cultural needs of students, rather than students adapting to the needs of the school. Proponents believe that individual differences between students are a source of richness and diversity, which should be supported through a wide and flexible range of responses. The challenge of rethinking and restructuring schools to become more culturally responsive calls for a complex systems view of the educational system (e.g.see Michael Patton), where one can extend the idea of strength through diversity to all participants in the educational system (e.g. parents, teachers, community members, staff).

Although inclusion is generally associated with elementary and secondary education, it is also applicable in post-secondary education. According to UNESCO, inclusion "is increasingly understood more broadly as a reform that supports and welcomes diversity among all learners." Under this broader definition of inclusion, steps should also be taken to eliminate discrimination and provide accommodations for all students who are at a disadvantage because of some reason other than disability.

Benefiting in an inclusive environment

"The inclusion of age-appropriate students in a general education classroom, alongside those with and without disability is beneficial to both parties involved. (Waitoller and Thorius) With inclusive education, all students are exposed to the same curriculum, they develop their own individual potential, and participate in the same activities at the same time. Therefore, there is a variety of ways in which learning takes place because students learn differently, at their own pace and by their own style. (Carter, Moss, Asmus, Fesperman, Cooney, Brock, Lyons, Huber, and Vincent) Effectively, inclusive education provides a nurturing venue where teaching and learning should occur despite pros and cons. It is evident that students with disabilities benefit more in an inclusive atmosphere because they can receive help from their peers with diverse abilities and they compete at the same level due to equal opportunities given."