Inclusion Essay

Inclusion

O'Connell(2013) explains the history of the education of children with special education needs (SEN), the Deaf pupils were educated in specialised school which "gave rise to notions of isolation and segregation from mainstream education and society" (O'Connell 2013). In this study, it finds the Deaf students are segregated into specialised "Deaf" unit in a mainstream school with three teachers with the knowledge of ISL. All participants states the Deaf children are experiencing isolation from their hearing peers in the mainstream setting through communication barriers. The teachers and SNAs feel adequate on Special Educational Needs training but states they do not have enough knowledge of ISL and need an qualified ISL interpreter

A bilingual approach entails using signed language as the language of instruction in all subjects for Deaf children, which many researchers said is the most effective language for learning and communication for Deaf people along with the strong importance on teaching reading and writing of the language used in the country. In this study, it finds teachers are using the bilingual approaches in the unit classes and not in the mainstream classes. But the most dominant approach that is used worldwide is “Total Communication” which involve the use of speech and signs at the same time. Haualand & Allen (2009) cited Johnson, Liddell and Erting (1989) have conducted studies that show that it is impossible to deliver messages using either of the two languages through TC and one or both parts of the communication will weaken. This study shows that in a mainstream classes, Total communication approach is used. Teachers are delivering the curriculum through spoken English in the classroom. One teacher states that her signs dropped while speaking English which states that it's impossible to deliver the information in two language at the same time. Participants pointed out the information would get lost for Deaf children in mainstream class and many factors would contributed to it like the speed of teacher's speech and other noises like students chattering amongst themselves. Depending on the hearing loss of the Deaf children, how much the information was received and got lost are unknown. SNAs expressed sometime they translate for the teachers and intervene when they don't understand. This findings marry Keating & O’Connor (2012) 's findings that SNA are involved in duties outside their official remit. In this study, a teacher argues the Deaf children do not have the confidence to tell the teachers when they don't understand because they want to fit in their hearing