Report: Interview on Inclusive Education in the Classroom

This report presents a comprehensive analysis of an interview conducted with a classroom practitioner regarding inclusive education. The interview explores various aspects, including classroom demographics, the practitioner's experiences with students from diverse backgrounds, and the challenges faced in managing inclusive classrooms. The practitioner discusses the presence of students with a range of disabilities and the strategies employed to support their learning, such as individual educational programs and the "buddy" project. The report also highlights the barriers to inclusive education, such as physical infrastructure limitations, lack of teacher training, and negative perceptions of educators. The practitioner offers recommendations, including the need for more educators with specialized training, special instructional designs, and the use of ICT technologies. The report concludes with a discussion of the need for a collaborative approach involving stakeholders, organizations, and the government to achieve the universalization of inclusive education. References to relevant literature further support the findings and recommendations.

Running head: Inclusive Education
Inclusive Education
Name of the student
Name of the university
Author’s name

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Inclusive Education
Interview with the class practitioner about Inclusive classroom (Transcript)
Myself: How are you doing Mr Matthews? We have had a word before, about this interview on
call. Would you mind if I take some of your valuable time?
Practitioner: I would definitely try my best to help you out. Please proceed.
Myself: How many students are there in your classroom? Do they come from the same
community?
Practitioner: We have about 38 children in our classroom. They belong to different religion and
community. They even speak different languages and practice distinct cultures.
Myself: Does this multilingual character of your classroom acts as a barrier to you, when you are
rushing to complete the syllabus.
Practitioner: I would not entirely deny the fact, that in spite of using English as the common
medium of instruction, we often have to explain more than once to make them understand or we
use very simple English, so that they can understand?
Myself: You must have heard about inclusive classrooms. How do you think they might help
your students to get best learning experience?
Practitioner: I strongly admit, that inclusive classroom is a necessity for our diversified
classroom, where you both have slow as well as gifted learners.
Myself: In your work as an educator in an inclusive classroom, what are the conditions or the
disabilities do your children possess?

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Inclusive Education
Practitioner: I have experience in teaching children with various disabilities including cognitive
diseases like bipolar disorder, musculoskeletal diseases, other cognitive impairment, visual
impairment, auditory impairment. I have also worked closely with the school counselors and
have helped them to create better lesson plans.
Myself: Do you find it as a challenging task for managing both types of kids present in the
classroom? Or you think children with mild to moderate disabilities should be kept separately?
Practitioner: Our school had been trying to integrate inclusive education since the beginning. We
often get complaints from the parents of children without disabilities as they feel that their
children’s learning would be hampered. We also cannot deny this fact that the gifted learners
seek for special attention so that they can excel as per their age, but we cannot afford to give so
much of our time for supporting both the types of students.
Myself: So, what do you recommend for that? How would you manage it?
Practitioners: Probably we would need more educators, with training even in special education.
In order to bring them to the mainstream studies you need to use special instructional designs.
Myself: Are deliberate attempts made to ensure that students from diverse backgrounds are
actively engaged in learning?
Practitioners: We truly try our best. But most of the times, the educators are not competent
enough to manage students with special needs all at the same time. In most of the cases, the
classrooms do not have sufficient infrastructures to support inclusive education.
Myself: Can you please elaborate on this?

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Practitioner: In most of the cases the public schools are poorly funded which finishes off to
address the basic amenities for the children. Still we manage to support these children, probably
with the school funds.
Myself: How do classroom activities recognize the varied learning needs of students from
diverse backgrounds for all, or nearly all, of the lesson?
Practitioner: We develop individual educational program to cater to the needs of the diverse
learners. Inside the classroom, we the have introduced the “buddy” project, where each of the
disabled children will be guided by a student without disability. We ensure that these children are
not exposed to physical exertion during any activities. During the classes, we use presentation
with bright colors and large prints. There are also provisions for children with auditory
impairments. But a lot more is needed to be done in order to bring the children with disability in
the mainstream education.

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Written assignment
Inclusive education is a new approach that is being adopted by the schools around the world, for
educating children with learning difficulties and disabilities under the same roof with the
children who does not have any learning disabilities. It helps to bring all the students none
classroom and the community, irrespective of their strengths and weaknesses for seeking to make
best use of all the students (Göransson & Nilholm, 2014). In relation to this, we conducted an
interview with a class practitioner, who had been working both with the children with and
without disabilities. During the interview we came to know about several barriers to inclusive
educations and recommendations that should be focused on. I could also get a glimpse of the
perception of the educators about inclusive education.
As stated by the practitioner, inclusive education is a need for a diversified classroom.
Westwood, (2018) have stated that students in inclusive classrooms are more likely to develop a
society that is ready to accept the differences between people and able to respect people from
diversified backgrounds. Assisting, to create an inclusive classroom can be the first step to
create a diverse world and workforce. The potential benefits of an inclusive classroom are
increased opportunity for social interaction and formation of formal friendships, development of
good communication skills, an increased independence in all sectors of functioning, enhances
self-efficacy, helps children with disabilities receive the same mainstream education, higher
expectation for the social behavior and the school (Westwood, 2018). If a school love towards an
inclusive culture , it facilitates greater collaboration among the school staffs, team work and
sharing of the expertise, special education staffs working more closely towards the teachers in
classroom , increased use of the evidence based process of teaching and differentiation of the

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curriculum content and the path to learning as and when necessary. Hehir et al. ,(2016) have
found a considerable evidence that inclusive education can provide short and long term benefits
for children having physical and cognitive impairment.
In the interview, the practitioner had mentioned some important barriers to inclusive
education. One important barrier is the physical barrier. Transportation and infrastructure has
been identified as an important barrier to the introduction of inclusive education. Hence, the
schools must bring about important change in the infrastructure for making a comfortable and
safe environment for children with special care needs. Such as classroom modifications,
availability of assistive devices or special instructional designs suitable to their learning needs. A
lot of concern has been exhibited by the practitioner regarding the lack of facilities. Hence, there
lies the role of the government welfare department to look after the funding for making inclusive
classrooms.
The practitioners has rightfully identified a barrier to inclusive classroom that is negative
perception of the educators. Positive attitudes of educators are necessary for bringing children
with special care needs in the main stream classroom. Negative and stigmatized perception
against children with disabilities can have negative effect on these children and some does not
support the idea of inclusion (Saloviita, 2018). A study by Bornman and Donohue, (2013) have
recorded that younger teachers have felt slightly more positive to the idea of inclusion. It can be
said that self- efficacy and self-regulation is necessary for influencing the learning of the
students. The study has emphasized on the lack of teacher training or lack of resources like
administrative supports or adapted study materials or special assistants in classroom to address
the needs of the special children, to be the barriers for developing an inclusive classroom
(Saloviita, 2018). Again, there are separate schools for children with special needs in Australia.

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Hence, this creates confusion in the minds of people. The educator has admitted that although
they knew that most of the teachers are well aware of inclusive education, yet most of the
researches have showed that teachers feel thwarting, anger, fear and lack of confidence
regarding the their capability to meet the needs of all their pupils. Shani and Hebel, (2016) have
recommended few training models for inclusive education. The paper has recommended four
basic skills that teachers should incorporate during the training period, that is acquaintance with
the attributes of children with special needs and understanding the areas of accountability,
gaining expertise in the different teaching methods to be used in schools, excellent classroom
management tactics for the creation of a conducive classroom environment. The teachers should
also develop a sense of wellbeing among the students (Allday, Neilsen-Gatti & Hudson 2013).
The practitioner has expressed concerns, that most of the programs for teachers training does not
provide sufficient specialized development with respect to the four skills.
It can be seen from the interview, that in most of the cases the classroom does not possess
enough infrastructure like proper technologies to cater to their needs. According to Price‐Dennis,
Holmes and Smith, (2015) ICT technologies can provide real life and authentic experiences to
children with special needs. Tools with string visual elements like digital video, drama oriented
software and multimedia presentations can be used effectively for engaging the leaners.
Electronic bulletin boards can be used where color coded sticky notes can be used. These can act
as platforms, assisting the children to organize their thoughts.
Hence, it can be said that universalization of inclusive education in still a dream that can
only be achieved if a harmony exists between the stakeholders, organization and the government.
For a successful implementation of education it is necessary that teachers should develop an
inclusive attitude towards children with special care needs. Special learning designs needs to be

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constructed for supporting the inclusive education. It has been discussed that inclusive
approaches includes adoption of instructional designs, use of assistive devices and technologies,
making classroom modification, training to the teachers to develop classroom management
skills.

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References
Allday, R. A., Neilsen-Gatti, S., & Hudson, T. M. (2013). Preparation for inclusion in teacher
education pre-service curricula. Teacher education and special education, 36(4), 298-
311.
Bornman, J., & Donohue, D. K. (2013). South African teachers’ attitudes toward learners with
barriers to learning: Attention-deficit and hyperactivity disorder and little or no functional
speech. International Journal of Disability, Development and Education, 60(2), 5–104.
doi: 10.1080/1034912X.2013.786554
Göransson, K., & Nilholm, C. (2014). Conceptual diversities and empirical shortcomings–a
critical analysis of research on inclusive education. European Journal of Special Needs
Education, 29(3), 265-280.
Hehir, T., Grindal, T., Freeman, B., Lamoreau, R., Borquaye, Y., & Burke, S. (2016). A
Summary of the Evidence on Inclusive Education. Abt Associates.
Price‐Dennis, D., Holmes, K. A., & Smith, E. (2015). Exploring digital literacy practices in an
inclusive classroom. The Reading Teacher, 69(2), 195-205.
Saloviita, T. (2018). Attitudes of Teachers Towards Inclusive Education in Finland.
Scandinavian Journal of Educational Research, 1-13.
Shani, M., & Hebel, O. (2016). Educating towards Inclusive Education: Assessing a Teacher-
Training Program for Working with Pupils with Special Educational Needs and

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Disabilities (SEND) Enrolled in General Education Schools. International Journal of
Special Education, 31(3), n3.
Westwood, P. (2018). Inclusive and adaptive teaching: Meeting the challenge of diversity in the
classroom. Routledge.