All humans are born equal and ought to be treated as such, not because it is expedient but because it is the right thing to do. From the perspective of education, the concept of equality is implemented inter alia through the concept of inclusion (Pulliam & Van Patten, 2007). Under this concept, children are taught together without inordinate division in spite of their intellect, talent, IQ, social, or cultural affiliation. The move to include students has had a varied impact that includes some positive and negative elements. Among the positive elements is the reduction of stigma for children who seem different for a variety of reasons, making learning easier for almost all children, and making effective and efficient use of available resources (Vargas-Sanchez & Smith, 2017). Among the adverse effects include the need for specialized training for more teachers and a higher working load for educators. A careful evaluation of the impact of inclusion in modern education will, however, reveal that the present and future benefits thereof far outweigh the adversities.
The most important impact of inclusivity in the classroom which is also the primary ground for inclusivity in education is the reduction of discrimination and stigmatization amongst children (Vargas-Sanchez & Smith, 2017). At the advent of education in America, students were not considered equally. Among the determinants of whether or not a child would get an education included race, gender, and ethnicity. Over and above these considerations, not all children would be allowed to go to school, more so if they were considered as intellectually challenged. A majority of children would thus grow up with the belief that they were incapable of getting an education. Inclusion eventually cured this beginning with acts such as the Old Deluder Satan Act of 1642 and 1647 and laws that allowed for more inclusivity in education (Pulliam & Van Patten, 2007). Girls, African Americans, Native Americans and non-Christians would eventually be allowed to have an education. From a more recent perspective, the pre-inclusive education would seek to separate children based on a variety of reasons. In some cases, race, religion, language, and ethnicity would be the dividing factor while in others, children considered as very intelligent would be educated separately from those considered to be daft or having learning handicaps. These divisions, though in some cases well-meaning also resulted in discrimination and stigma with many children being compelled to feel inferior (Pulliam & Van Patten, 2007; Vargas-Sanchez & Smith, 2017). Among the critical impact of inclusivity was to eliminate this discrimination and stigma.
Delegate your assignment to our experts and they will do the rest.
Inclusivity has also made learning much easier for all students from a general perspective and. Prior to inclusivity, children would be classified into different segments based inter alia on their intellect, talent or handicaps. For the very intelligent, there would be a lot of pressure for them to overperform . Most average students would either be pushed up to study with the very intelligent or, as it were, pulled down to study with the handicapped. To some extent, there would be a lot of pressure, assumption, and presupposition (Vargas-Sanchez & Smith, 2017). Inclusivity, more so from the perspective of intellects has created an element of balance. Teachers seek to teach in a balanced manner where the very bright students, those of average capabilities, and even those with handicaps can learn together. Available commentary on inclusive education indicates that the balanced manner where all students are able to learn at the same pace has net benefits on all students when evaluated from a general perspective. Inclusivity has the impact of creating a better learning environment for all students thus, making them better learners (Vargas-Sanchez & Smith, 2017).
The final positive impact of inclusivity in education was to create an efficient and better use of available resources. American education has almost perpetually been operating on a pecuniary and resource deficit for a variety of reasons including poor policies (Vargas-Sanchez & Smith, 2017). The sharing of the already limited funds and amenities was complicated by having to divide them among the different categories of children. In most cases, the majority, who would be the students considered as normal would get the bulk of the available resources leaving the children considered to be different to operate with limited resources. Shared amenities such as classrooms and reading materials would sometimes not be sufficient to be shared with all groups upon segmentation thus, some groups would have to make do with scarcity and improvisations (Vargas-Sanchez & Smith, 2017). Currently, American education is still operating at a deficit from a pecuniary and amenity perspective. Having integrated classes makes it easier for teachers and administrators to share the resources amongst the students, leading to more efficient usage.
Among the cardinal adverse impacts of inclusivity in education more so in the classroom is the need for specialized training for almost all teachers. The traditional teacher would be trained to cater for what used to be termed as ordinary or average learners. Specialized training would be available for teachers who would handle talented or handicapped children. Upon inclusion, almost all children in spite of their special talents or intellectual challenges were placed together to learn contemporaneously, under one instructor. A specialized training thus became necessary not only to be able to handle students with special needs but also to be able to handle them while handling the other kids at the same time (Nelson, Palonsky & McCarthy, 2017). In the absence of specialized training, the efficacy of the instructor in training the inclusive class would be highly compromised.
Besides the need for training, inclusivity also increased the workload for teachers and made teaching more complex, and in some cases stressful. For example, a fast learner will easily lose patience more so when a teacher has to slow down to take care of the slower learners. If the teacher speeds up the class to avoid inconveniencing the faster learners, the slow learners may need remedial attention to catch up. In some cases, the teacher will need to find a means of keeping the faster learners occupied as the slower learners are brought to speed (Nelson, Palonsky & McCarthy, 2017). Academic innovation has been used to create tools and means of enabling the inclusive class to perform better together, but learning how to use the tools as well as actually using them, increases the teacher’s workload. With or without specialized training, inclusivity has resulted in a more challenging job for teachers.
The totality of the above presents a varied impact of inclusivity in education from both the perspective of the teacher and that of the students. It would, however, be important to state that in its entirety, inclusivity was a good thing for education since school is meant to prepare children for their adult world, which is generally inclusive. To focus on the benefits, there are a number of high impact positive benefits that overshadow the adversities that have come with inclusivity. Most importantly, the adversities as defined above can and perhaps will be mitigated, reduced, and eventually eliminated in the near future. The elimination of stigma and discrimination among children can be considered as the flagship benefit and most important impact of inclusivity. Better utilization of resources and the creation of a better learning environment are also part of the positive impact, which will keep on improving into the future. The teaching staff was , however, to some extent highly inconvenienced by the inclusivity. These teachers have to educate a combination of differently gifted students under one roof at the same time. Specialized training at a cost in time and resources becomes necessary to enable teachers to handle this combined obligation. Even with the specialized training, the teaching obligation is still heightened and more challenging than before the inclusion.
References
Nelson, J. L., Palonsky, S. B., & McCarthy, M. R. (2017). Critical issues in education: Dialogues and dialectics . Long Grove, Illinois: Waveland Press
Pulliam, J. D. and Van Patten, J (2007). History of Education in America . Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson Prentice Hall.
Vargas-Sanchez, A., & Smith, S. (2017). Sit with us: benefits of inclusion. Capstone projects and master's theses. 201. https://digitalcommons.csumb.edu/caps_thes_all/201
