Education
Cultivating Inclusive Classrooms
What it really means to have an inclusive classroom
Inclusion is not a place
Inclusion is an attitude; it’s an embodied philosophy. Inclusion is borne out of school culture.
Inclusion is not simply about physical proximity. It is about intentionally planning for the success of all students.
When children with disabilities are lumped into general education classrooms without proper support, this is unfair to both the students and teachers. Policy-makers put out “inclusive schools” legislation and dust their hands off as though they’ve done something positive.
Governments must provide adequate funding so that all students can thrive, regardless of their physical location within the school, and to ensure that inclusion is much more than physical proximity to their classmates.
I’m going to describe a fairly basic example from our own lives, but teachers and school administrators may need to think outside the box and be creative to meet student’s needs in a way that does not separate them from their peers simply for the convenience of the school staff.
