Inclusion in Schooling System: Policies and Strategies

This essay delves into the critical importance of fostering an inclusive schooling system, with a specific focus on the Australian context. It begins by highlighting the historical and ongoing challenges of exclusion within education, particularly for indigenous populations. The essay then examines how educational practices and policies contribute to unequal outcomes, emphasizing the need for curriculum revisions and pedagogical shifts. It analyzes the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Education Strategy, emphasizing the importance of curriculum development, attendance, and post-school guidelines. The paper advocates for inclusive policies and equity within classrooms, emphasizing the need to respect cultural differences and provide equal access to resources. The essay concludes by offering practical strategies for teachers to promote inclusiveness, including incorporating songs and visual aids, fostering informal learning environments, and expanding their knowledge of indigenous literature and culture. The essay underscores the vital role of teachers in creating a welcoming and equitable educational experience for all students.

Running head: INCLUSION IN SCHOOLING SYSTEM
Inclusion in schooling system
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1INCLUSION IN SCHOOLING SYSTEM
Introduction
The field of education has the primary objective of imparting the necessary
information and knowledge to all the individuals on Earth. Thus, all the people of the
world have an equal share of interest within this field. However, often times it is
observed that the relevant parties associated with this field makes this sector exclusive
in nature. For instance, during the dawn of the human civilization, education was
available to all who were desirous of attaining such knowledge. There were no
discrimination made. However, with the turn of each century, the field of education
started to become more discriminatory in orientation. It was available only to those
people who could afford it in monetary terms. Furthermore, educator slowly started to
become a field only for the main stream population, meaning that those who could not
integrate themselves efficiently with the society, were excluded to receive such
knowledge (Connell, 2007). This severely affected the indigenous population of some
of the nation states of the world. In this context, the thesis statement of this essay is to
understand the importance of the system of schooling to reduce such discriminatory
activities and make the field of education more inclusive in nature. Moreover, the
necessity of the transformation of the system of schooling in terms of a changed
pedagogical structure and curriculum revision is also looked in to in this essay. To
this regard, the national level educational policies of Australia has been analyzed in
the course of this paper. The essay concludes with certain recommendations and
strategies that might be adopted by the teachers to ensure a more inclusive system of
schooling.

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Educational practices (in schools and systems) contribute to unequal
education outcomes and experiences of exclusion for indigenous
group
The inherent inclusive nature of the field of education has been changed
significantly as a result of certain man made activities. Human beings are responsible
of making this field exclusive in orientation. The different schools and colleges have
been established across the world in order to ensure that people who are desirous of
learning and knowledge, have an easy access to this field of education (Lingard &
Keddie, 2013). However, the construction of school has played a highly
discriminatory position in the society. It has brought in to the concept of financial
resources and the ability of the people of the community to access educable with the
aid of such financial resources. In other words, only those people who have the
required monetary means can have an access to educator by the way of enrolling
themselves in to such institutions.
Similarly, this posses a problem for the indigenous group of the society who are
usually not financially strong in nature. They prefer to live away from the main
stream population and close to the heart of nature. As a consequence of this, they do
not engage in lucrative economic activities and therefore, their monetary sources are
scant in supply (Lingard & Keddie, 2013). This highly affects their ability to have
access to education. This has been discussed in the Fair Go Project which is a research
trying to understand the impact of the changes brought about in the field of pedagogy
development.
This exclusive nature of education has been significantly dealt with in the context
of the national educational policy of Australia. The National Aboriginal and Torres

3INCLUSION IN SCHOOLING SYSTEM
Strait Islander Education Strategy has been formulated in the year 2015. The objective
of this policy was to ring about several important reforms with regards to the
education received by the Aboriginals in the country of Australia. The main sectors
where such reforms were sought were those of the Australian curriculum segment, the
issue of attendance and engagement, the early childhood transitory requirement, the
provision of a guideline after school to such indigenous population and to make them
work force friendly in nature.
Among all these areas of reformation, the change in the curriculum is considered
to be necessary as the indigenous population needs to be integrated with the main
stream population of Australia (Munns, 2007). In this regard, they need to be able to
speak their language and understand their culture. However, this does not mean that
the unique values and culture of the indigenous population would be disregarded. This
is where the importance of the development of curriculum comes in to play.
Curriculum refers to the development of a time line where by the different topics
taught to the students is outlined along with the different teaching strategies that
would be engaged with by the teachers is also explained. In the contemporary time
period, the field of teaching has undergone many significant changes, and among
them one of the most important change is that of the use of audio visual aid in the
process of teaching. The use of demonstrations and presentations in the field of
teaching enables the students to get a visual representation about the existing
differences in the society. It enables the students to become more tolerant in nature
and thereby, to accept the different cultures and traditions of the society, especially
that of the indigenous population.
It has been noted that the development of the syllabus and pedagogy is inter
connected and that it flows from the theoretical frame work of social constructivism

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(Munns, 2007). The students are required to take an active participation in their own
learning process which in turn, would empower them to break such an exclusive
nature of the field of education. This has been supported by the ideas of curriculum
development, pedagogical theories and the manner it leads to the development of the
status of the indigenous population of Australia.
Inclusive policy and attainment of equity within the classrooms
It can be suggested that there is a necessity on the part of the schools to be more
inclusive in nature and create an equity among the chosen focus group which is
indigenous students. For being more inclusive in nature, the respect of each others’
cultural differences and their identities is paramount within the schooling system
(Windle, 2008). The schools not only aid in the impartation of the necessary
knowledge and education to the students but also tries to mould them in to ethical
human beings who are desired by the society. As a result of this, certain ethical and
social values need to be inculcated in them in order to bring abut such higher forms of
transitions. This can be done so with the aid of such inclusive policies
Furthermore, the concept of equity is also essential. Equity implies that all the
resources for the system of schooling are equally made accessible to the students
(Munns, 2007). No one should have a higher claim on a particulate resources because
of his or her socio economic back ground or their cultural and ethnic identity. This
idea is deemed to be essential because the students are considered to be the future
generation. Thus, they should be developed in an efficient manner so that they can
bring about significant changes in the society for its own improvement. In the event
that the students are made to discriminate amongst themselves based on certain
parameters of social evil, such discrepancies made on economic level and social level

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would never be eradicated. Thus, in this context, the ideas of inclusiveness and equity
are important in the field of education whose objectivity should be to bring about a
change in the inner ethical being of the concerned individuals.
Strategies to be implemented by the teachers to promote
inclusiveness
The country of Australia is essentially a multi cultural country in nature. This
means that there are many different ethnic and cultural groups who occupy this land
and call it their home. Besides the indigenous population and the Aboriginals that
have been inhabiting this land since its formation, the period of colonialism has
brought about many cultural races to this region of the world. However, it can be
observed that the percentage of such colonized people were more than the indigenous
population. This acted adversely for the Aboriginals who were soon relegated to the
back ground of the country.
With the end of the period of colonialism, focus was made on the sector of
education so that people would be able to recognize the worth of their own cultural
identity. A grave error that was made on the part of the policy makers during that tme
that not enough attention was paid to the marginalized section of the population,
among whom the indigenous population were included. The development of a country
can only take place when the entire population of that country is educated and receive
the necessary knowledge which would enable them to resolve their problems in an
efficient manner. However, the over looking of this aspect of multi culturalism proved
to be disastrous for the indigenous population and their social and economic
development.

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In this regard, it can be stated that certain effective teaching strategies are
required to brought about in the field of education to ensure the proper inclusion of
the Aboriginal communities of Australia. The first strategy suggested is that of
teaching with the aid of songs, often substantiated by visual images and drawings
(Connell, 2007). Songs can be used as effective method of teaching as they need to be
properly comprehended by the students which in turn, would require them to use their
mental maturity. The more they try to reflect on a particular issue, the more they
would be able to develop their mental frame of mind.
A second recommendation of teaching strategy that can be suggested is that of
keeping the system of education informal in nature whereby the students would be
made to pay more attention to certain observations in the society. Oral instructions in
the form of lectures can be considered to be important to a particular extent. However,
in order to ensure the development of the power of critical thinking ability within the
students, they should be made to observe the different occurings in the society
(Connell, 2007). This would enable them to judge a real life incident based on the
education and knowledge received by them. Furthermore, such judgements should
then be followed by an encouragement on the part of the teachers to justify their
alternative course of action and to evaluate themselves if they were in the same
position. This aids in the transformation of knowledge to that of wisdom which is
considered to be the primary objective of the teachers.
A third recommendation on teaching strategy that can be ensued is on the part of
the teachers. Often times it is found that the teachers are aware about the different
literature belonging to the main stream population. However, when it comes to the
indigenous population or Aboriginals, the teachers are not aware about their literature
and their different personalities. This acts as a great limitation on the ability of the

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teachers to reach out to the indigenous students of the class. Thus, it can be
recommended that the teachers should read extensively the different sources of
literature of the indigenous population and try to make them relatable to the students
of the classroom (Connell, 2007).
Conclusion
Thus, to conclude, it can be observed that certain limitations and obstructions
exists in the field of education with regards to the indigenous population of Australia.
The national government of the country has under taken significant measures to
ensure that such exclusivity in the sector of education is done away with but much
needs to be done to properly implement such strategies of the government.
Furthermore, the essay also outlines certain recommendations which would aid the
teachers to perfect their teaching practice. Within the schooling system, it is the
teachers who are mainly responsible to ensure that all the students in the class rooms
are effectively integrated with one another and made to feel part of the process. As a
result, there is a need on the part of the teachers to adopt certain teaching strategies
which would aid in the achievement of their objective of spreading equity. This would
in turn, make the process of education more inclusive in character.

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References:
Connell, R. (2007). Education, change and society. Oxford University Press, USA.
Lingard, B., & Keddie, A. (2013). Redistribution, recognition and representation:
Working against pedagogies of indifference. Pedagogy, Culture &
Society, 21(3), 427-447.
Munns, G. (2007). A sense of wonder: Pedagogies to engage students who live in
poverty. International journal of inclusive education, 11(3), 301-315.
Windle, J. (2008). The management and legitimisation of educational inequalities in
Australia: some implications for school experience. International Studies in
Sociology of Education, 18(3-4), 157-171.