1. INCLUSIVE
CLASSROOMS
Attaining Goals, Social Inclusion and Staff
Support

2. Inclusive Classrooms
ATTAINING DEVELOPMENT GOALS OF

CHILDREN WITH DISABILITIES:
IMPLICATIONS FOR INCLUSIVE
EDUCATION
An Appreciative Inquiry into the Circle of

Friends Program: The Benefits of Social
Inclusion of Students with Disabilities
INCLUSIVE EDUCATION SUPPORT

SYSTEMS: TEACHER AND
ADMINISTRATOR VIEWS

3. Developmental Goals
ATTAINING DEVELOPMENT GOALS OF
CHILDREN WITH DISABILITIES:
IMPLICATIONS FOR INCLUSIVE EDUCATION
by Okey Abosi and Teng Leong Koay, University of Brunei Darussalam
The ability for School systems in developing countries to provide inclusive education

is based largely on their belief system. Many countries view the child with a disability
as karma, and the family had much guilt and fear. Many families hide these children
as it is lowers their social status. Most of the children with disabilities are seen as
hopeless. (Abosi and Koay, 2008)
The provision of special education to children with disabilities in developing countries

is seen as a privilege and not a right. Because of this many students are not able to
access education.(Obosi and Koay, 2008)
Some countries have difficulty rationalizing the reason to educate a child with a

disability if they are unsure whether the child will be able to hold a job. (Obosi and
Koay, 2008)
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article

4. Developmental Goals
Findings: Governments should:

 Give the highest policy and budgetary priority to improve their education systems
to enable them to include all children regardless of individual differences or
difficulties. (Asobi and Koay, 2008)
 Adopt as a matter of law or policy the principle of inclusive education, enrolling all
children in regular schools, unless there are compelling reasons for doing
otherwise. (Asobi and Koay, 2008)
 Develop demonstration projects and encourage exchanges with countries having
experience with inclusive schools. (Asobi and Koay, 2008)
 Establish decentralized and participatory mechanisms for planning, monitoring
and evaluating provision for children and adults with special education needs.
Encourage and facilitate the participation of parents, communities and
organization of persons with disabilities in the planning and decision-making
processes concerning provision for special education needs. (Asobi and
Koay, 2008)
 Invest greater effort in early identification and intervention strategies as well as in
vocational aspects of inclusive education. (Asobi and Koay, 2008)
 Ensure that, in the context of a systematic change, teacher education
programs, both preservice and in-service, address the provision of special needs
education in inclusive schools. (Asobi and Koay 2008)

5. Developmental Goals
As a future educator this article taught me much about the

struggle developing countries face when trying to implement
a successful inclusive education program. They lack the
resources, staff, and education to make this a priority. The
cultural backgrounds also contribute to this difficulty.
It is extremely important all children in every country have

access to education. I cannot imagine having a child that
would not be allowed to gain an appropriate education due to
their disability.
I often think of others in developing countries and my

thoughts are not so much about education but about food and
shelter. This article reminded me the issues we face in
America are also faced around the World. I must be
conscientious of the world around me and the issues others
are facing.

6. Social Inclusion
An Appreciative Inquiry into the Circle of Friends
Program: The Benefits of Social Inclusion of
Students with Disabilities by Calabrese,R.; Patterson, J.;
Liu, F., Goodvin, S.; Hummel, C.; Nance, E.;
The purpose of the study was to describe the benefits of those

involved with the Circle of Friends Program.
(Calabrese, Patterson, Liu, Goodvin, Hummel and Nance; 2008)
The COFP is in many communities in the United

States, Canada, and the United Kingdom. The program pairs
students with disabilities with buddies who provide social-inclusion
opportunities for the students with disabilities. This pairing benefits
both students by raising the self esteem of the students with
disabilities as they learn to better communicate and become a
greater part of the community and the buddies gain self confidence
and learn to accept differences in people. (Calabrese et al. 2008)

7. Social Inclusion
Findings:

Participation in the Circle of Friends Program reduced

the level of alienation felt by parents of children with
disabilities (Calabrese et al. 2008).
 Additional financial, human, and time resources are
crucial to sustain the Circle of Friends program
(Calabrese et al. 2008).
 This experience was transformative by allowing the
sponsors and buddies to put the interests of others
before their selves (Calabrese et al. 2008)
 Ecological conditions are created for inclusion into the
school’s social experience for students with
disabilities (Calabrese et al. 2008).

8. Social Inclusion
As the Mother of a child with a disability this article

made complete sense to me. I know first hand the
heartache when another child calls your own
handicapped. I have often pondered a way to
increase the socialization of my own child. This
program would be beneficial to all schools! I see
how the incredible time commitment is prohibiting
some from becoming involved.
“Sponsors and buddies felt a renewed sense of

purpose when they placed the interests of others
before self interests.”(Calabrese et al. 2008) This
quote was important to me because I truly believe
if we all practiced this our society would benefit
greatly!

9. Staff Support
INCLUSIVE EDUCATION SUPPORT
SYSTEMS: TEACHER AND
ADMINISTRATOR VIEWS by Angela Valeo, Ryerson University
This journal article discusses the support systems in the school with

inclusive education. It looks at the differences in perceptions of
administrators and teachers by looking at how both groups understand the
role of the school administrator in supporting the classroom teacher in
integrating students with challenging needs.
Specific research questions were:

what type of support did principals feel they offered regular classroom

teachers so that inclusion can take place?
what kind of support did regular classroom teachers want to see their

principals offering?
how did these views compare?


10. Staff Support
Results

Teachers had difficulty articulating their roles. They mostly responded with the

challenges of students instead of what there role is
All 6 Teachers encountered difficulty in their teaching due to the presence of kids

with special needs. One particular problem was “time”. They felt many factors
contributed to this (some of these are class size, need to modify
curriculum, student independence, lack of reading and writing skills, student
behavior).
Figuring out who had responsibility for the students was difficult. Some said the

special education teacher had full responsibility while others said the
responsibility was shared.
They all wanted the administrators to know the Special Education teacher was

the first line of support for the regular classroom staff.
Elementary Principals regarded their roles as being administrative and portraying

a distance between themselves and the everyday running of the classroom.
Principals were unsure which valued resources they would like to have available

to their school.

11. Staff Support
Conclusion

This article shows clear difference in perceptions regarding supports available for

successful integration.
Teachers found the curriculum driven system to be a hindrance in successful

integration.
Teachers expected enforcement of close cooperation by principals. The principals

reported feeling helpless.
Collaboration between the regular classroom teach and the special education

teacher was uncomfortable.
Findings

I found this article to be quite interesting. I expect to spend

a lot of time working with Special Education students and
to see the issues surrounding effective integration in
schools is helpful. It is quite obvious more research needs
done on this subject to come up with ways in which the
support system of the regular classroom teacher can be
strengthened.

12. Inclusive Education References
Abosi, O.; Koay, T.L.; (2008) Attaining Development
1.
Goals of Children With Disabilities.
International Journal of Special Education,
Vol 23 (3), pp. 1-10
Calabrese,R.; Patterson, J.; Liu, F., Goodvin, S.;
2.
Hummel, C.; Nance, E.; (2008) An Appreciative
Inquiry into the Circle of Friends Program: The
Benefits of Social Inclusion of Students with
Disabilities. International Journal of Whole
Schooling, Vol 4 (2), pp. 20
Valeo, A. (2008) Inclusive Education Support
3.
systems: Teacher and Administrator Views.
International Journal of Special Education, Vol 23
(2), pp. 8-16