Education Studies: Evaluating 'Difference' and Its Educational Impact

This essay critically evaluates the notion of 'difference' and its application in education, focusing on how diversity is conceptualized in educational settings. It explores the importance of understanding individual differences in students, including race, religion, gender, and special educational needs (SEN). The essay discusses the challenges and opportunities of classroom diversity, the development of SEN policies, and the practical implementation of these policies. It highlights the SEN Code of Practice and the importance of parental involvement. Furthermore, the essay emphasizes the need for trained facilitators, dialogue, and group discussions to promote inclusivity and ensure that all students' needs are met. The importance of diversity in the field of education, and how it is being implemented to create a positive learning environment is also highlighted.

Running head: EDUCATION STUDIES
EDUCATION STUDIES
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Topic: Critical Evaluation of the Notion of ‘Difference’ and its Application in Education
Introduction:
The concept of difference consists of respect and acceptance. The term difference
necessarily means the understanding of the fact that each and every individual is different in
almost every aspect and all have their own strengths and weaknesses. The differences may be in
the categories of race, religion, sense of ethics, morality, gender, orientation of sexuality,
physical abilities, ideologies and much more (Blaine and Brenchley 2017). Understanding the
concept of difference means understanding these diverse aspects of every human being and
letting them grow and nurture them in a proper, safe and healthy environment. It is all about
mutual understanding and pushing the walls of simple tolerance to a broader level and accepting
people as they are. Difference or diversity is thus a reality that has been created by a large
number of people out of differences in mentality and philosophical choices. It is very important
that every individual understands that how important it is to make differences survive, as it is
diversity that helps to build on an equality-based co-existence among individuals. Understanding
the notion of difference does not only mean to accept the prevailing diversities present in the
society but also respecting them and helping them to grow.
The proper understanding of diversity also includes the knowledge of relating to the
difference existing in the society and accepting them and also trying to help them grow even if
they are essentially different from the views shared by a particular section of the society. The
first step towards a healthy and culturally enriched society is accepting the difference that it
provides and helping in a mutual growth. The more a society makes itself open and liberated to
diversity and differences the more improvement it can access to (Blaine and Brenchley 2017).

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But a society that is rigid and is not liberated enough to accept the differences cannot move
forward and experience any growth or improvement. This essay is particularly going to focus on
the concept of difference as observed in the field of academia. The essay is going to discuss how
the term ‘difference’ or ‘diversity’ has been conceptualized in terms of educational needs,
especially for the children who require something more than the conventional educational
systems can provide.
Notion of Difference in a Classroom:
The definition of difference in the context of a classroom does not change much. It
simply means to understand the fact that every individual student is different from the other and
that they all have different skills and needs (Rose et al. 2015). The teacher who understands the
notion of difference and diversity will help the individual beings of the classroom to focus on
their respective strengths and also look after the different needs that they have. The concept and
presence of diversity within the four walls of a classroom can prove to be both a challenging and
promising experience for the teacher (Abeysekera and Dawson 2015). On one hand the more the
diversity a classroom offers the more both the students and the teacher get to learn about
different languages, cultures, religions and races (Powell and Powell 2015). This helps in a
mutual growth of both the guide and the pupils. This knowledge that diversity in the classroom
offers helps us in making ourselves more acquainted with the twenty fast century world that is
fast turning into a ‘global village’ (Abeysekera and Dawson 2015). However, the presence of
diversity in classroom has its negative sides too. A cultural gap can be noticed in the classrooms
that contain too much diversity, the students belonging to different races and religions may be
made an element of harassment by the students of different races and religions. Language can
prove to be a serious problem in a classroom that contains students belonging from different

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backgrounds. Discrimination of the sexes and the minorities can also be mentioned as issues that
a diverse classroom can face.
Understanding the notion of Difference and Diversity:
It should be noted that understanding the concept of diversity in terms of educational
factors does not only mean to accept and embrace the fact that each individual student is
different from the other. It is also realizing that there are students whose needs are special and
who are entirely different, both physically and mentally, from the major portion of the students
that the teachers have to deal with in normal classrooms (Ballard 2016). For the children with
special education needs it is very important that the teachers understand their needs properly and
provide them with the education they deserve. In many of the countries throughout the world
development of special education systems has been started (Abeysekera and Dawson 2015). The
reason for the development of a separate kind of education system for the children with special
needs are that the normal and conventional schools have in most of the cases failed to understand
the kind of education that those children need (Smith 2017). The problem that was mostly faced
with the conventional schools was that in majority of the cases the learning disability was said to
be in the student himself as he was unable to adapt to the environment that the conventional
school offered (Abeysekera and Dawson 2015). This failure in adapting to the demands put
forward by the school led to the shifting of the child in the provision made for the special kids.
This is how the notion of diversity and difference started to get accepted in the context of
conventional schools.
The Special Educational Needs Policy:

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For the students with special educational needs, i.e. students who face a learning
difficulty that cannot be addressed in conventional terms and rather calls for provisions that are
special, a policy has been made to exist (Banks 2015). The policy is called the Special
Educational Needs policy and it gives a detailed description of how children with special
educational needs should be dealt with. The necessity of establishing a policy like this occurred
in the early twentieth century (Betancourt et al. 2016). The ideas that led up to the creation of the
policy were based on models which dealt with ‘defects’ (Smith et al. 2015). This model
emphasized on diversity or differences rather than normalcy. Children were diagnosed medically
and the emphasis was give on the problems rather than the potential of the child. This led to the
establishment of SEN that originally was established in the form of special schools completely
separate from the conventional ones for those who were thought to need them. In the year 1944
major changes were brought in the field of education (Schmidt and Block 2017).
These changes, however, addressed mainly the needs of conventional education. In the
60s and 70s the behaviourists helped the SEN policy to move forward. The behaviourists
rejected the medical problems. They focused on working on what they could observe in a child
(Betancourt et al. 2016). As expected, this idea put forward by the behaviourists were not
supported by all at the beginning but gradually it proved to be quite helpful in understanding the
special educational needs of the concerned children (Blaine and Brenchley 2017). This changed
the attitude with which special educational needs were looked at. It was the approach put forward
by the behaviourists that helped even the teachers of conventional schools to understand the
special needs of the concerned children (Bennett 2013).
In the month of September in the year of 2014 the ‘SEN Code of Practice’ started to work
(Bennett 2013). In a span of almost thirty years this was the biggest stir given to the system of

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Special Education Needs. This assured that children with special needs to be given proper
education and health care support instead of just giving a statement of SEN (Januszyk, Miller
and Lee 2016).
In order to make SEN workable it is important that the schools maintain a thorough
connection with the parents of the student. The parents should be kept updated with each and
every development that the student is making and also the points where he is lagging behind
(Findlay-Thomson and Mombourquette 2014). Proper communication with the parents of the
concerned student also helps the school to understand the student in a better way as it is the
parents who know more about the habits and needs of their child (Betancourt et al. 2016).
Practical implementation of the SEN Policy:
However, simply bringing a policy into work would not help the special educational
needs of children who need it, unless and until the practical implementation of the SEN policy is
practiced in the class. The practical implementation of SEN policy certainly requires a number of
steps (Blaine and Brenchley 2017). First, the concerned educational institution, no matter what
its status is, should understand and value the concept of a diversity programme and how it is
going to help the students with special needs in the long run. The concerned institutions must
first choose the policy that fit them the best and proceed accordingly. Instead of following the
general pattern of a policy the institutions should focus on particular programmes according to
the needs of their students (Cote 2018). According to Sorensen the first work that the institutions
should do while implementation of a policy is the development of a programme that will see to
the needs of the students of that institute (Wilhelmsen and Sorensen 2017). The second step in
the process is to put forward the resources in order to make the chosen programme work in a

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proper way. The resources consist of space, time and tools. It must be noted here that time is an
important factor while dealing with the concept of implementing programmes for children with
special needs. The time that a student spends inside or outside his classroom helps to build a
relationship between the teacher and the student. Another important aspect in the implementation
issue is that the selected programme needs to be handled by a skilled facilitator (Betancourt et al.
2016). The facilitator would help the student move and grow freely within his group but would
also look after if the student id properly achieving his objectives in time. The necessary approach
towards the diversity programme should be a hands-on one. The concerned trainers and trainers
at each level of the implemented progarmme and policy should act in synchronization on order to
achieve a successful diversity outcome (Cote 2018).
Ways of practically implementing the SEN Policy:
The practical implementation of diversity policies in classrooms necessarily includes the
creation of a programme that encourages dialogues among the created groups. Trained
facilitators are extremely important in order to have successful group conversations(Forde and
Dickson 2017). The facilitators must invest considerable time and energy in order to form the
groups and allow proper group discussions that will bear fruitful results. The most important
thing in creating a proper conversation is knowing the proper amount of time that is to be
invested and finding the neutral space where all the members of the group are comfortable
enough to speak (Fulcher 2015). The group created should obviously consist of diverse people
whose needs are somewhat different from each other. In this way only the implementation of
diversity in the field of education will work out properly.

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The more the diverse the conversational groups will be the more growth will be observed
among the students. The facilitators should be extremely conscious about all the steps that come
in order to make a group discussion successful (Forde and Dickson 2017). The first thing that the
facilitator should do in a diversity programme is that he should appreciate every individual
participant of the programme and encourage them to put forward their views on the
discussion(Montgomery 2013). Secondly, the facilitator must appreciate the diversity present in
the class as it will help building confidence among the students and make the diversity
programme a successful one. The facilitator should also encourage the participants of the
programme to critically analyse each others’ views as it will help them sharpen their critical
skills (Green 2014). Lastly the facilitator should look after building proper alliance among the
members of the group of the diversity programme. In order to make a diversity programme work
properly it takes a lot of work on the part of the facilitator. That is why it is important that the
institutions hire professionally skilled facilitators who will make sure that all the four steps of the
group discussion are followed and a proper relationship is built among the participants, which is
often expected from a diversity programme (Hodkinson 2015). The facilitators should also look
after the whole growth that the group is making as well as look after individual students too.
Promoting and implementing diversity in the classrooms, however, do not only include
inter group discussions. Diversity can also be promoted by classrooms in the forms of building
proper relations and collaboration among the students who belong from different diverse
backgrounds (James, Garrett and Candlin 2014). It is important that the students who belong to
the communicative group and also who do not belong to the group receive the same kind of
education. The facilitators must be careful about giving each of the students hands-on direction.
This kind of behavior in a diverse classroom from a facilitator helps to build equity among the

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existing groups and allow them to aspire for better grade (James, Garrett and Candlin 2014). The
classrooms should act as tools that will help to promote the concept of diversity even outside the
boundaries of identity (Jeffreys 2015). It is very important to promote the construction of groups
in a diverse classroom as it will be the difference of opinions and arguments that will help to
make the diversity programme work in the proper and expected way. The students should be
given new kinds of tasks and problems to solve as it will help them harness their abilities and
also keep them interested in their task. The teachers should also be careful about not
discriminating gender while teaching in a diverse classroom as it might have a direct effect on
the learning (Knight 2015). However, it should be kept in mind that even the institutions that are
not under the diversity policies and offer conventional education should respect the concept of
diversity and do everything within their reach to help the diversity grow and enhance itself.
Positive Impacts of Diversity Programmes:
The diversity policies have proven to bring out positive results in the fields of academia.
The policies help to increase the amount of positive educational outcome and understand the
children with special needs in a better way (Manning, Baruth and Lee 2017). Moreover, the
classrooms, which value the importance of diversity are proved to act as a better help to the
students, even to those who are considered to be normal and not special by the existing social
norms. As diversity can establish itself in any form, like in the forms of gender, class, race,
language and religion, it more important to understand the necessity of its existence rather that
just implementing the policies. The implementation of policies would not change anything unless
and until the people associated with it understand the concept properly (Mertens 2014).
Negative Impacts of Diversity Programmes:

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However, it should also be kept in mind that the diversity programmes and policies have
their share of draw backs too. The issues of diversity is faced mainly by the teachers who might
often find it difficult to cope up with the vast diversity that is present in a class (Januszyk, Miller
and Lee 2016). The students also might feel difficult to accept the diversities existing in the
classroom. The teachers who are responsible for the children with special needs are the ones who
might find the issues of diversity too tough to deal with (Findlay-Thomson and Mombourquette
2014). The classrooms, which consist the specially needy children offers diversities to the
extents that might be too difficult for the teacher too handle. The teacher might lose his temper,
which will in turn harm the growth of the student only. The teacher might find it difficult to
acknowledge the differences that the various students are showing. He may also be unable to
connect to the family of the concerned student which happens to be a very important factor in the
diversity programmes (Findlay-Thomson and Mombourquette 2014). The facilitator or the
associated teacher might find it almost impossible to establish kind of collaboration that is
necessary to make a diversity educational programme a success. On the other hand, students of
the diversity programme may find it difficult to connect to the teacher as well (James, Garrett
and Candlin 2014). It proves to be extremely difficult in a diverse classroom to satisfy the
different needs of everybody. This happens to be the major issue associated with the diversity
programmes and the implementation of the concept of diversity in the field of education.
Conclusion:
Thus, the essay can be concluded by saying that in this constantly changing era where
people are removing physical barriers every day, it is important that everybody understands the
concept of diversity and value it. In the field of education, valuing diversity will not only help
the children with special needs but also children who are conventional. The idea of diversity has

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been specially modelled for children who have special educational needs that cannot be fulfilled
in a conventional school. Moreover, the hand-on outlook towards a diverse classroom has its
own civic benefits. The diverse classrooms do not give out diverse results, rather if a diverse
classroom is handled in a proper way the results are supposed to coherent and linear. The way
the classrooms of today are incorporating people belonging from different cultures and
backgrounds, it is high time to develop diversity programmes and implement it successfully. The
concept of diversity however is a bit more complex in the classrooms where children with
special needs are taken care of. Those classrooms are not only diverse in the aspects of only
culture or race but also different in terms of need and requirements also. The institutions will
have to create their diversity programmes according to the students they get and implement it
successfully and better outcomes will be created, for both the students and the teachers. The
diversity programme in spite of having its own flaws and positive sides is something that must be
followed in order to create a better educational situation.

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Betancourt, J.R., Green, A.R., Carrillo, J.E. and Owusu Ananeh-Firempong, I.I., 2016. Defining
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