The Context of Professional Learning for Inclusion: A 4-Ply Model.
Year: 2010
Type: article
Abstract: Introduction Inclusive education espouses educational values of diversity, equity and social justice; it is about the entitlement of all children to a quality education irrespective of their differences. (Booth, Ainscow, Black-Hawkins, Vaughan, & Shaw, 2000; Thomas & Vaughan, 2004; Florian, 2007; Moran, 2007). Ireland has recently adopted a policy of inclusion in the pursuit of equal educational opportunities for all children. As noted in other jurisdictions, legislation alone is an insufficient condition for reform (Thomas & Loxley, 2007; Slee, 2006) and the current practices in schools are more reflective of traditional segregationist thinking than inclusive thinking (O'Gorman & Drudy, 2009). The operationalisation of a policy of inclusion in Ireland has been to focus on student deficits and to provide resources to overcome the barriers posed by an unchanged, unaccommodating education system. Following the increase in the numbers of students identified as having SEN in mainstream Irish schools, additional teachers were provided to specifically assist these students. There has been a concurrent expansion in teacher professional learning (PL) programs in the area of inclusion/SEN. The context of where and how this PL is provided, is the subject of this paper with a specific focus on a 4-ply model of PL which evolved in Ireland as a response to efforts to promote inclusion. The four layers of the model are the government/system layer; the tertiary institute layer; the school community layer; and the individual teacher layer. The analysis of the teacher's role in inadvertently reinforcing exclusionary practices is discussed elsewhere (O'Gorman, Drudy, Winter, Smith, & Barry, 2009). Rationale for Teacher Professional Learning Many variables contribute to positive educational outcomes for students. The most influential are non-school variables such as family and community background, ability and attitude (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development [OECD], 2005). Of the in-school factors which impact on student learning, however, teachers are the single most significant source of variation and students benefit from a well educated teaching force (Barber & Mourshed, 2007; OECD, 2005). The importance of a highly skilled teaching profession is also noted by the EU in the document Education and Training 2010. Thus, the expertise and proficiency of teachers is crucial to the educational experience of students not benefitting from the existing education system. To date major concerns of the inclusive movement have been lobbying for changes in policy to legislate for inclusion; promoting organizational changes at regional and school level to enable inclusion; and developing research on appropriate curricular content and teaching strategies that promote positive educational outcomes for all students. If the quality of learning for students' with SEN is to be enhanced then the quality of teacher education must be continuously upgraded. Systematic research, therefore, is necessary to ensure that PL for inclusion is grounded in research based evidence. Aspects of Professional Learning The need for specific PL in SEN may be debated given recent research findings which maintain that there is no significant difference between pedagogy for students with and without SEN but merely a difference in the degree of its intensity and appropriateness of the application (Davies & Florian, 2004; Lewis & Norwich, 2001, 2004). A logical progression of this argument is to propose that if there is no specialist SEN pedagogy there is no need for specific PL in SEN/Inclusion. The response to this dilemma is the acknowledgement that the current education system is exclusionary and that a change towards a more inclusive system will require a change in the regular class teacher's unitary strategy where all students, irrespective of individual difference, are given the same educational experience. …
Author: Elizabeth O’Gorman
Language: English
Subfield: Education
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W2098393546