Inclusive and Supportive Education Congress
International
Special Education Conference
Inclusion: Celebrating Diversity?
1st - 4th August 2005. Glasgow, Scotland
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Inclusive and Supportive Education Congress 1st - 4th August 2005. Glasgow, Scotland |
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Written for the ISEC 2005 symposium ‘School renewal and inclusive education: Australian, Canadian and U.S. perspectives on the relationship of overall school improvement and the creation of inclusive schools’
Heather Raymond and Tim Loreman
tim.loreman@Concordia.ab.ca
Abstract
This paper describes a single case of a school in Edmonton, Canada, that has successfully moved towards a model of Whole Schooling. This has been brought about largely through the work of a knowledgeable and skilled principal, and a school community that has been willing to support an overall ‘Whole School’ vision. The processes of school change and how these are linked to the Six Principles of Whole Schooling is described, and reasons for the success of the school are outlined.
Introduction
The principles behind the Whole Schooling approach for education are based on a philosophy of inclusion, equity, community and democracy. Those who support Whole Schooling are interested in making schools effective places of authentic, meaningful learning for all students. This is, in many ways, an extension of the idea of inclusion – and a recognition that the ideals of inclusive education can only be fully realized through the undertaking of a process of school and school system reform. Norwood School in Edmonton, Alberta, is one Canadian school that has taken up the challenge to meet the diverse range of needs its student population presents without resorting to segregation, or surrendering to values inconsistent with an inclusive, Whole Schooling approach.
The practice of inclusive education in Canada varies considerably from region to region, with some regions actively supporting, and indeed mandating the approach, and others doing little to encourage the practice (Hutchinson 2002). The responsibility for education in Canada is primarily delegated to the individual Provinces. While the Federal government does have some minimal involvement in education in a broad, national sense through Constitutional guarantees of non-discrimination (Government of Canada 1982), it is the Provinces who oversee, maintain, and distribute funding to individual school districts (Hutchinson 2002). The Provincial ministerial body which governs education in Alberta is known as Alberta Learning. Alberta Learning sets broad provincial policy and curriculum which local school districts (governed by elected trustees) must then implement and follow. The Alberta School Act (Revised statutes of Alberta 2000)is the main piece of legislation addressing the actions of school authorities, individual schools, staff and students. This Act is, however, supplemented by Ministerial Order 015/2004, otherwise known as the Standards for Special Education. It is these standards which are intended to set the direction for matters related to special education in Alberta.
The Alberta Learning Standards for Special Education (2004) begin with the statement that “…educating students with special education needs in inclusive settings is the first placement option to be considered by school boards in consultation with parents and, when appropriate, students (p. 1).” The standards then continue to discuss four domains local school authorities need to consider when educating students with diverse learning needs. These include access, appropriateness of programming, accountability, and appeals procedures where an educational placement decision is disputed by the student and/or parent. The Standards for Special Education were amended and signed as a Ministerial Order in June of 2004; however they have been widely available in Alberta since 2003, albeit without the authority of a Ministerial Order.
Given that local school districts have been aware of the Alberta Learning Standards for Special Education since September 2003, it might be expected that districts have moved towards more inclusive modes of education (Hutchinson, 2002). While this is true of some provincial school jurisdictions, it clearly is not always the case. Part of the reason Norwood school is able to follow an approach to education based on the principles of Whole Schooling has to do with the administrative structure of Edmonton Public Schools, which has a district policy of parental choice of either inclusive or segregated special education settings. The responsibility for many decisions affecting the running of an individual school is that of the principal (and the school community which that principal leads). In this respect schools have a significant amount of autonomy in how they operate, providing they do not violate district operational policy and Alberta law and Ministerial standards.
The following policy is currently in effect with respect to ‘special education programs’ in Edmonton Public Schools:
In November 2004 Superintendent Angus McBeath made a report to the Edmonton Public School Board stating that the district was expanding the focus on inclusion (first initiated in 2001) and was working with community stakeholders, parents, students, and staff to “ensure that inclusion of students with special needs in their community school is a genuine option (McBeath, 2004, p. 4).” Norwood is one school that has taken genuine, concrete steps to see that this inckusive option is realised in the local community.
Norwood School
Norwood School has an enrolment of approximately 175 students and serves students of various ethnic backgrounds from junior kindergarten to grade six. The school is located in the inner city. Relative to other schools in the district, Norwood School serves a low socio-economic needs community and is ranked among the top 5% of the neediest schools in the district (Edmonton Public schools 2005). Almost half of the students attending the school bring with them some developmental gaps in their learning (i.e., academic, social, or language acquisition). Many individuals and families living in the school’s area are transient, resulting in a high turnover rate amongst the student population. Over the past seven years the rate of student turn over has ranged from a high of 76% to a low of 35% per school year (Edmonton Public Schools 2005).
Norwood school has a literacy and numeracy emphasis at the centre of its Instructional Focus and is part of a seven school collaborative that came together in 2002. This collective is known as the City Centre Education Project (CCEP). This configuration of the seven schools allowed school administrators to pool their resources while maintaining their distinctiveness in order to offer children attending schools in CCEP enriched programming, and literacy and numeracy learning opportunities. CCEP was founded on three pillars: (a) focus on supporting teaching and learning; (b) interagency and business partnerships; and (c) organization as a multi-campus model. Schools’ staffs combine their efforts by collaborating to set goals, select assessment strategies, and choose best instructional practices to meet all students’ needs.
The role of the principal
In establishing an inclusive school environment the principal is responsible for setting the climate of the school, developing the culture, and initiating the process of shared instructional practices and leadership. In addition to this the principals in Edmonton Public Schools must ensure that decisions are made, challenges are met, and that courses of action are supportive and consistent with the school's Instructional Focus. Within the Instructional Focus work, the central role of the principal is to share the belief that all children can learn. Further to this they assist colleagues to continually grow in their ability to support all students in their learning, while setting high standards for collegiality and effective collaboration between all staff. It is believed that through professional conversations shared thoughts become more concrete. Hearing these thoughts and their peers’ reactions to them provides staff an opportunity to consider and reflect on personal ideas and beliefs in a more dynamic and creative way, thus enhancing their practices in the classroom to met all students’ needs in an inclusive school.
A number of factors have conspired to produce the success of inclusion at Norwood. The school has developed a ‘tradition’ of inclusive practice spanning back at least 10 years, and which is widely recognized throughout Edmonton. This tradition has in part been the result of successive school principals who have supported inclusion, and over the years worked to gradually improve how it is practiced at the school. These administrators have not only actively removed the segregated classrooms which formerly existed at the school, but have also welcomed the local community, and have sought their assistance and collaboration. According to school staff, Norwood school now has a culture which truly believes in inclusion.
Whole Schooling: Norwood School and the Six Principles of Whole Schooling
The notion of Whole Schooling as developed by Peterson (2003)is an extension of the idea of inclusive education. It involves schools working as a community to produce effective education for all children. Practice at Norwood School is consistent with the ‘Six Principles of Whole Schooling’. These principles are as follows:
Empowering citizens for democracy
According to Peterson (2003) “The purpose of schooling should not be a test score but to help children become active, effective citizens for democracy. This means that sharing of power and decision-making is an integral part of the culture of a school at all levels among staff, partnerships with parents and the community, and within classrooms (p. 3).”
The culture of inclusion at Norwood school works to challenge structural inequality, discrimination and exclusion. The foundation for Norwood has been to create a learning community of a collective of individuals which include staff, students, parents and community members in learning together and sharing leadership to work towards creating a school community with a common, shared sense of purpose. At Norwood the focus is on supporting the broad aim of helping all students and caregivers to develop confident identities in the context of the school. The school community works together to put this vision into practice. From the weekly 100 community mentors who work with students on literacy activities, to the guardians in the “grandparent support group” who seek a place for support from others as they raise their grandchildren, the school community works together in building each others capacities.
Norwood School has put into place various partnership strategies encompassing parents, school, and community to benefit student learning. The purpose of the partnerships is focused on sharing the responsibility of meeting students’ learning needs. Partnerships with various non-profit organizations include Big Brother Big Sisters, Success by Six, United Way, Edmonton School Lunch Program, YMCA and Regional Health Authorities. Each partnership brings new ways to support the school’s desire to create a school community that meets the needs of all children, ensuring they have the resources to grow up to be healthy contributing citizens.
Including All
According to Loreman (1999) “Inclusion…assumes that all children are a part of the regular school system from the very beginning of school. The need, therefore, for children to adapt to a school setting is not an issue as they are already a part of that system. Inclusion assumes that schools are set up to meet the needs of a wide variety of learning abilities and preferences…(p. 21).” At Norwood School all students learn together in heterogeneous age appropriate classrooms. There is a mix of children from a variety of social, racial and ethnic groups, as well as students with disabilities in each classroom. This mix is reflective of the racial and ethnic make-up of the surrounding community. This diverse mix of people, far from being seen as an impediment to the success of the school, is instead celebrated and embraced by school staff. It is evident to anyone who spends any amount of time in the school that staff are passionate about their work, and value the children and wider community that surround Norwood.
Informal discussions and observations suggest that staff at Norwood see the school as one which puts inclusive theory into practice. Teachers support having students tested and designated as having ‘special needs’, but only because this is necessary in order to be eligible for additional funding. The idea that this could also make a child eligible for placement in one of the many segregated classrooms in the district is not entertained by school staff. The assumption at Norwood is that inclusion is the norm, and no child is sent away.
The school community is proud that diversity is ‘visible’ and celebrated in the school, and that a point has been made of employing people from the local community who themselves have disabilities. They clearly believe that Norwood leads by example. The local community is welcome to gather at Norwood. Volunteers, employees, and parents from all backgrounds are constantly in school both during the day and in the evenings. In the words of one staff member “Everyone is involved in the Norwood family”. Staff are dedicated to not only working with children, but with the families of those children and the local community. They value them and want them at the school, finding it “heartbreaking when kids leave us for another school.”
Providing authentic, multi-level instruction
Teachers work within a frame of understanding that they play an important role in meeting all students’ learning needs. They approach this by developing their instruction based on students’ ability in relation to the graded curriculum. Adaptations in instruction, goals, and assessments are individualized based on students’ learning styles and skill level within the graded curriculum. Teachers understand they are responsible to assess where students are in relation to the graded curriculum and develop differentiate instruction to ensure students are learning at their individual instructional level.
Staff at Norwood say they provide students with multi-level programming based on their strengths rather than a sole focus and emphasis on needs. High expectations for achievement – socially and academically – are placed on all students. Staff are flexible in how they work, collaborating with other professionals, paraprofessionals, parents, and community members to provide instruction which is individualized but not individual (with all the connotations of isolation and segregation implied by the word ‘individual’).
Building Community
The main idea behind community building is that “effective schools…serve truly diverse students in authentic and democratic learning…[and]…work together to build a community and provide mutual support within the classroom and school… staff make commitments to caring for and supporting…[all]…students in their school (Peterson, 2003, p. 3).”
Achieving an inclusive learning community where all children are welcomed, educated and assisted to achieve is dependent on establishing an inclusive school culture. In building an inclusive community at Norwood School the community has collectively worked to reinforce the importance of staff collaboration to meet all students’ needs. This has been accomplished through Instructional Focus work where teachers and support staff regularly engage in professional dialogue to share ideas, knowledge and techniques about best practices while participating in collaborative problem solving around instructional practices related to meeting the diverse students’ learning needs. This is further actualized through the encouragement of staff, by the principal, to be leaders themselves by sharing information, knowledge, and resources.
A significant amount of support is available at Norwood to assist with an inclusive approach to working with the student population. More than the usual amount of human and physical resources are provided to the school, enabling smaller class sizes, extra field trips, guest speakers, and more ‘extra’ services such as snack and lunch programs. The extra funding to make this possible is not provided by Edmonton Public Schools (other than the regular yearly funding provided to all schools to support children with special needs), but rather by local community agencies and philanthropists. Community members who cannot afford to provide the school with financial support are welcomed as volunteers who give the gift of their time and expertise. This support is, however, viewed as a ‘two-way street’ at Norwood. The school gives back to the community by running and hosting community events, some of which fall outside of the traditional realm and scope of ‘education’.
Supporting Learning
For the students and the adults at Norwood School to be successful in including all they have had to receive support in various ways. Teaching staff are supported through opportunity for collegial conversations within the school and within the CCEP monthly meetings as they reflect on their implementation of the school’s Instructional Focus. Support includes access to a health nurse on site 1.5 days a week and a trained therapist 5 mornings a week to support students who may be experience social and emotional difficulties. An outreach program provides support to the junior and senior kindergarten classes to support the learning needs of students who have mild, moderate and severe learning disabilities. Teacher assistants are available for portions of the day and average from full-time in junior and senior kindergarten classes to half time in each classroom per day from grades 1 to 3 and eight hours per week in each classroom from grades 4 to 6. The location of a teacher assistant may change as the teacher teams collaborate and see where the needs may be as the year progresses. Pull out services are minimal and only occur when programs are designed to specifically assist with student literacy needs (i.e., Reading Recovery).
The district has a team of consultants that are available to staff to further assist them in developing skills to meet all students’ needs. This support comes in the form of off site training sessions, on site coaching of new skills and in the classroom observation and consultation to support specific students. Staff are encouraged to access these services when ever they wish when working to meet the diverse student population.
The nature of the staff also contributes to the success of inclusion. Teachers are on staff out of choice rather than necessity, with the clear expectation of the inclusive requirements of Norwood School being outlined in job advertisements. Staff who do not support the approach generally leave the school quickly. Staff are expected to work hard at Norwood, and to attend community events outside of school hours. A newer teacher to the school (not the profession) remarked that “I have never worked harder in any school”. Staff are willing to work long hours because of their commitment to the school and what it is doing. They believe that the adoption of an inclusive approach has resulted in a successful school. Staff make an effort to set examples of good inclusive practice for each other, and while the emphasis is on collaboration, a friendly, healthy ‘competition’ between staff regarding who can best implement inclusive practices is evident. School staff receive professional development opportunities in ‘best practice’ for inclusion, with the emphasis being on instructional strategies and techniques that are effective for all students.
Partnering with Parents and Community
In the work at Norwood School and CCEP, the development of a positive identity and understanding of parents’ ability to be active partners in their children’s school has been observed. This increasing desire to be involved in these empowering experiences is a sharp contrast to the deep alienation that many inner city parents felt when confronted with the invitation to be involved in school related activities prior to CCEP. Parents have begun to be active in their children’s learning more than ever at Norwood School. This includes the simple act of walking their children to and from school to attending the twice a year Student-led conferences.
Norwood school holds the attitude that if parents do not come to the school it is because they were not invited in the right way. This humanizing approach has been working to create a variety of spaces for parents to be involved, from attending family nights to forming a CCEP seven school parent council. Norwood continues to look for ways to increase parental involvement. One way has been to establish classroom parent representatives who make phone calls to invite parents to school events. A monthly school and classroom newsletter is sent home to inform parents about the learning taking place and to give them ideas on how to help their children at home. Components of the school’s Instructional Focus are translated into Chinese and Vietnamese to assist parents in learning about this work. In addition to this, the school sends weekly reminders of up-coming events through flyers and students’ agenda books. In the fall of 2004, 92% of parents attended the evening celebration of their children’s learning. This was the highest turnout rate in the past seven years. Parents that were not present were called and invited to come at a later date to see their children’s learning. Through the continual invitation to attend the school is encouraging parents to see what a powerful message they send their children when they come to school to celebrate their learning.
Collaboration with the community has been focused on children’s and families’ access to community and support services, such as after school enrichment activities, health services, cultural events and other types of programs families would find hard to access due to financial and other difficulties. Partnering with a multitude of non-profit groups and institutions coupled with additional revenue from fund development opportunities through CCEP has provided an enhanced learning environment and extra curricular opportunities for students and families.
Norwood school, in partnership with the CCEP schools, has worked to attract plenty of outside support. Organizations such as Big Brothers and Big Sisters and the YMCA have worked directly with Norwood school to offer enrichment activities to students from summer camps to after school recreational activities. An anonymous donor provided dollars for extra field trip opportunities. At Norwood School, United Way, a charitable organization, supports a full-time staff position to run a mentoring program that matches community volunteers with students to support academic development. At the time of writing close to 100 volunteers make their way into Norwood school every week to mentor over 100 students.
Norwood School continually works to make the connections with the community that speaks of inclusion of all. Recently, a service provider for people with developmental disabilities opened up a centre in the Norwood community for citizens with disabilities to have opportunities to explore their artistic talents. Norwood staff worked to welcome the centre and looked for joint projects to create a community connection for the centre with those that lived within the neighbourhood. An art auction, summer art classes, and family art nights were offered to create awareness of the centre and bring the neighbourhood into the centre to support community inclusion.
The principles behind the Whole Schooling approach for education which are based on a philosophy of inclusion, equity, community and democracy are reflective of what has helped guide the Norwood School community to support all students to be successful in their neighbourhood school.
The Norwood School community understands the world is inclusive therefore it is important that students learn and grow within a community that welcomes all its citizens no matter what their ability. This culture of valuing diversity and the success of the school’s inclusive practices are largely due to the dedicated teachers who are empowered to work with all students. Through the collegial collaboration, the staff has come to understand sound teaching strategies are effective best practices that will help all students succeed.
The Norwood students, parents, staff and community members have learned, first hand, the meaning of equal worth and have learned to be aware, sensitive and accepting of differences within the culturally diverse school community. The Norwood collective of individuals has a strong belief that all individuals have abilities and our collective focus is and must be on helping all students strive to meet their full potential no matter what challenges they may face.
References
Alberta Learning Special Programs Branch (2004) Standards for Special Education, Alberta
Learning: Alberta.
Edmonton Public Schools, (2005), High Needs Schools, Budget Services: Edmonton Public Schools.
Edmonton Public Schools (2001) Board policies and regulations: Student programs from
http://www.epsb.ca/policy/ha.bp.html
Hutchinson, N.L., (2002), Inclusion of exceptional learners in Canadian schools, Prentice Hall: Toronto
Loreman, T, (1999), Integration: Coming from the outside, Interaction 13 (1).
Government of Alberta (2002), School Act, Revised Statutes of Alberta, Government of Alberta printer: Edmonton.
Government of Canada (1982), Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, Government Printer: Ottawa
McBeath, A, 2004, Inclusion of Students with Special Needs. Report to Edmonton Public
School Board, Nov 9 2004
Peterson, M (2003), Key elements in building a Whole School: Promoting excellence and equity for a democratic education , Renaissance Community Press: Detroit MI
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