Unit V: Major components of successful change toward Inclusion
5.1 Communication
5.2 Interpersonal skills
5.3 Positive attitudes
5.4 Flexibility
5.5 Success Stories, Financial Resources and Infrastructure.
5.1 Communication
Inclusive thinking benefits more than just programs, however. Communication also becomes more effective when inclusivity becomes an organizational value. That’s because strategic communications requires talking and listening; an outbound behavior and an inbound one.
Inclusivity appears in many forms, ranging from diversity and cultural competency trainings to providing opportunities for partners, peers and grantees to share feedback on your organization’s performance. When organizations invest in growing the skills and systems required to truly solicit, hear and embrace a diverse set of internal and external opinions, they also expand their communication capacity.
The Three Principles of Inclusive Communication
Principle
1: Empathy
Inclusion is not a checklist but a continuous exercise
in empathy.
Do not approach inclusion (or specifically inclusive communication) as a checklist of experiences or accommodations to tick off a list. Instead, connect empathetically with your audience. Think about their experiences and how language and communication can impact the way they absorb your message. For example, consider the need for employees use a name other than what’s on their legal documents.
Principle
2: Culture
Communication is only one part of culture. Work with
your community to build inclusive company culture, bottom up not top down.
Work with your community groups (for example employee resource groups) by empowering them and giving them a voice in your communications. They know their community better than anyone — ask for their experiences, listen and take them to heart. Consider a program that features their stories and experiences in official communication. This empowers them, gives them visibility and gives more authenticity to your communication.
Principle
3: Empowerment
Provide tools for inclusion and showcase role model
behavior.
Leaders are role models, whether they want to be or not, whether they are good role models or not, they become role models as everyone looks up to them. They need your support including coaching and guidance to be experts in communication. They set the bar for the rest of the company so empowering them goes a long way for your organization.
And provide resources, like inclusive language guides, books and resources for everyone in your organization so people can build their own skills, awareness and grow. You have to meet people where they are and give them the tools to grow. Consider offering a library of books to borrow on topics of diversity and inclusion. Or try scheduling a podcast club (or discussion group) to encourage people to drive their own learning journey by listening to and discussing relevant podcasts. This empowers them to take ownership in creating an inclusive work environment.
Inclusive communication (like inclusion) has no finish line. It’s a continuous journey and it’s only possible to take this journey with small steps. Here are a few thoughts to help you along the way:
1. Learn. Actively and continuously challenge yourself to widen your own views.
2. Recognize progress. Recognize and celebrate incremental progress you have made as you work towards improvements with your team and communication strategy.
3. Start a conversation. Ask for feedback from employees on how inclusive your communication actually is. Listen, believe their experiences and take the feedback to heart to make improvements.
5.2 Interpersonal skills
Interpersonal skills are the skills we use every
day when we communicate and interact with other people, both individually and
in groups. They include a wide range of skills, but particularly communication
skills such as listening and effective speaking. They also include the ability
to control and manage your emotions.
When it comes to ‘what makes a good teacher‘,
this is considered to be the most important thing.
As no individual can become a teacher unless he or she is not able to communicate well. A teacher is required to share his or her experience with the students which demands interaction.
More the interaction, more will be the successful communication.
The teacher is not a complete teacher without best interpersonal skills including communication skills.
Even if a teacher has experience and knowledge but is not able to impart the same to the students, then he or she is not considered a good teacher. So, every teacher is required to have interpersonal skills because of the following:
What the teacher teaches must reach the students without any barrier. For this, a teacher must know how well to communicate to the students in a class.
If the students are not able to respond, it means somewhere, there was an issue with the way of communicating.
Not every student in class is equally brilliant. Some are slow while others are fast learners. Some catch the thing immediately, while others are not able to understand the concept in one go.
In order to diminish such a barrier, a teacher requires good skills so that she or he can communicate and discuss the problems of students, bringing them out of their issues.
A teacher is a bridge between the students and their parents. So, the problems of the students are to be discussed with the parents of the concerned students.
For the successful discussion, the teachers require good skills so that what she or he has in mind is properly communicated.
If the teacher is not able to make the concept clear to the class, the class may fail for the time; which a teacher never wants.
For making a concept clear, the teacher has to make use of both verbal and nonverbal communication.
The verbal communication includes the use of words which the non verbal refers to the use of hands and gestures. Both the verbal and nonverbal communication needs to be parallel to each other.
Well, the interpersonal skill, not only includes the verbal and nonverbal communication; but also listening skills are vital to complete the communication.
A teacher should be patient enough to listen what students or the parents say. If the teacher does not give anyone a chance to speak, then the possibility of misunderstanding arises and it leads to more issues and problems.
So, in order to make a communication success, a teacher requires great communicative skills, to be more apt, interpersonal skills.
Interpersonal skills are important for teachers to make a class lively than boring. The teacher shouting his or her vocal cord and no response is received in return, is not a two way communication or interpersonal communication.
A teacher must have the skills to make a class interesting and this can happen only when the teacher possesses good interpersonal skills.
So, due to the above reasons, the interpersonal skills are important for every teacher. If a teacher does not possess it means he or she is not a good teacher.
5.3 Positive attitudes
The real challenge of Inclusive Education
is to meet the special needs of all children with and without disabilities.
Inclusion is not a soft process. It requires lot of struggle and commitment to
overcome all types of barriers mainly attitudinal and social. Inclusive
Education can only flourish in a system, which generates inclusive ideology. So
people must change their negative attitudes towards inclusive education.
Indeed, practical problems
could be encountered while including children with diverse educational needs.
But often, the practical difficulties have more to do with attitudinal change.
Developing positive attitude among children
Teacher
plays a significant role to bring positive attitude among students towards
inclusive education. If teacher follow below approaches in teaching he
definitely bring positive attitudes to students towards inclusive education.
Child to child approach :
Child to child approach strategy Develops positive attitude among students
towards inclusive education. In this strategy, one student who has
problem in learning a concept on a one-to-one basis, a competent student is
paired with one who has difficulty in a given academic area.
Cooperative learning:
Cooperative learning is a method to develop positive attitude towards inclusive
education in students. The primary elements involved in this technique
are: positive interdependence, or the feeling that individual goal attainment
relies on the performance of all group members, student’s own responsibility,
face-to-face interaction with peers, use of social skills and involvement of a
group as a whole in the completion of a given academic task.
Children supporting children:
Children need to be actively involved in the transition to a caring
inclusive school as they are key stakeholders. Often children do not treat
their disabled peers with respect because they are uncomfortable with, or unsure
about, the difficulty. To ensure that students learn to work and
play together, they must be given the knowledge they need. Inclusive class
rooms require structure and organization to facilitate students learning
together. The way forward with students is as follows:
1] Students need to be
prepared to welcome the new child,
2] Children enhance their
learning by working together as the best way to learn is to teach it to someone
else,
3] Students need to have
understanding and knowledge to able to work together,
4] Students need social
opportunities to interact with peers in addition to their academic studies,
5] It is helpful for children
to recognize their own learning strengths, all children learn differently.
Developing positive attitude among parents
For an ideal inclusion programme there must be strong parent
teacher association group insisting on the importance of parental involvement.
This would enable to bring attitudinal changes on disability related
issues in parents.
It is critical that parents
are made aware of the goals of inclusive education. Difficulty child parents
are protective, apprehensive that their child will be teased, left out, and not
receive quality education in an inclusive setting . In the same way
normal child parents doesn’t want to sit their child with difficulty child in
inclusive class room.
It is school’s responsibility
to provide information and reassurance to the parents. Schools benefit from
involved parents who care about their child’s education. To bring
positive attitude among parents towards inclusive education schools can explain
following things to parents.
1] Their child being educated
in inclusive school can improve the child’s social abilities and academic
achievements,
2] Research indicates that if
the family participate in the education of the child, the child does better in
school,
3] Parents needs to prepare
the child entering an inclusive school, as the fear of unknown is powerful,
4] Challenged children need
advocates, the parents are the best advocate for the child,
5] To succeed in school
children need support, and families must to communicate the need for support to
the school effectively,
6] Parents and teachers need
to work collaboratively to develop individual education plans for their children.
Developing positive
attitude among community
Inclusion is a social and educational philosophy .
Those who believe in inclusion also believe that all people are valuable
members of mainstream society.
Community involvement in
planning activities and providing services such as education, health, and
skills training is crucial for building local capacity.
The attitude that ‘inclusive
education’ is develop in community in following ways.
1] Educational policies must
be able to meet the challenges of pluralism and enable everyone to find their
place in the community to which they primarily belong and at the same time be
given the means to open up other communities.
2] International Commission on
Education for the Twenty-first century reminds that education policies must be
so designed as not to become another cause of social exclusion and that schools
should foster the desire to live together. [UNESCO, 1990]
3] To Develop positive
attitude in society, a social worker who are responsible for creating the
link between school and community and have been able to successfully mobilize
community forces to support inclusion
4] Work with local social and
health agencies to provide services and educate students and their families
about pertinent issues.
5] Keep an ‘open door’ policy
in the school that invites community members and policy makers to become
involved in the school and its mission.
5.4 Flexibility
For a teacher, no two days are alike. Lesson plans are important to chart the course of each class, but it’s not uncommon for a meticulously mapped out lesson to deviate wildly – sometimes even necessitating that a lesson plan be thrown to the wind entirely. Interruptions and disruptions are the norm, and no single day can be described as “typical” for a teacher – especially not those that are being monitored. Children can be unpredictable by nature, and every teacher would do well to bear in mind that, when it comes to learning, everything is always in a perpetual state of change.
Because of this, it’s essential to have a flexible approach to teaching. This is imperative for your students, who are dependent on you to maintain a sense of structure and leadership, no matter what the circumstances. It’s also important for your own sanity.
Indeed, students are often incredibly perceptive when it comes to noting whether or not a teacher is adequately prepared and in control. If a class sense a teacher is not in control, they are liable to push boundaries; seeing what they can get away with comes naturally to many pupils, and, in particularly dire cases, your classroom might become a student-led, rather than teacher-led, one.
Being “in control” does not mean using an excessive forceful approach, either – something many teachers, newly qualified and established alike, get wrong.
Though natural, anger is an instinctual, knee-jerk response that is not dictated by reason and imposes an ineffective, catch-all response onto a situation. This epitomises the polar opposite to a more ideal, flexible approach that is tailored to the situation at hand.
Another way in which flexibility is important for a teacher is the need to respond to different learner abilities, needs and interests. Sometimes this might mean delving into your teacher’s “bag of tricks”.
Another possible solution to this issue lies in giving children a choice about where, when and how they learn. Alternatively, teachers can extend the children’s learning beyond the face-to-face classroom environment – for example, through the use of difference learning technologies, media and IT.
If you are responsible for learners from a mix of backgrounds, or older students who study part-time, and have other work and family commitments, flexibility should certainly be one of the central tenets to your teaching style.
The more flexible a teacher’s approach, and the better able they are to think on their feet, the higher the chances are of increased student participation – ensuring that no child gets left behind under your watch.
5.5 Success Stories, Financial Resources and Infrastructure.
Lack of financial resources devoted to education can be evidenced in many ways, including: lack of schools and other facilities; insufficient classrooms; insufficient, underpaid, and/or insufficiently trained teachers; lack of management and supervision; lack of and/or poor quality textbooks and other learning materials; and insufficient attention to standards and quality assurance. Each and every one of these results of insufficient funding can act as a barrier to any child seeking a primary education.
There is no denying how significant a school is in shaping up a student’s personality and holistic learning process. Like an experienced teacher and teaching pedagogy play a critical role in shaping students’ academic lives, infrastructure is also vital. It creates a favourable environment for students’ holistic development. It’s a common knowledge that every parent wants to spend money where their kids feel safe and secure while learning and enjoying their student life. They wish to ensure the schools have ample safety standards and facilities to make learning a joy.
Some of the key components which should feature in an ideal checklist while assessing any school infrastructure are as follows:
· Spacious and well- ventilated classrooms
· Libraries
· Playgrounds
· Well-equipped labs
· Facilities study tables, chairs, furniture and basic utilities such as water, electricity etc.
· Study halls
· Games equipment
· Assembly area
· Well-maintained sanitation facilities