Introduction
Embracing inclusion and diversity is one of the most important things that teachers and schools can do in the classrooms. The Disability Discrimination Act (1992), the Salamanca Statement (1994), The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, UNESCO (2004) alongside The Australian Curriculum , AusVELS (2014), AusVELS Guidelines for Students with Disabilities (2014), are all policies that demonstrate the significance of inclusive education and guidelines that schools are required to follow.
Inclusion & Policies
Inclusion refers to no discrimination among students, embracing every student in every way in the classroom, and catering to every child “irrespective of disability” (Konza, 2008, p39) or level of
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A challenge with inclusive education is the way some teachers see students who have disabilities. If these students are seen as limited potential then they will not succeed. According to the AusVELS guidelines for Students with Disabilities (2014), a student with disabilities is not underachieving, but they merely have a learning struggle, which may require extra support from teachers and possible adjustments to tasks in order to accomplish what other students without learning difficulties can do on their own. This argument is also mentioned in The Disability Discrimination Act (1992) which describes that inclusion “implies a shift from seeing the child as the problem to seeing the education system as the problem.” This is both a challenge and a potential teaching strategy. If teachers stopped seeing the disability as a limitation, then they would be able to create better …show more content…
The implementation of inclusion in the classroom by the teacher was evident in the policies to be vital to its success or failure in the classroom. This requires school leaders to ensure their staff understand the impact and explain the significance of creating an environment where every student feels included so that the students will feel included, participate more and benefit in the classroom. Research by Cook et al (2000 as cited in Konza, 2008) found that when teachers show more interest, engagement and experience with inclusion they ultimately had a greater concern for students with special