Video Production to Advance Inclusion in Schools

• In Event: Video Production as Democracy Education

Abstract

Since the authorization of EAHCA (1975) and its 1986 amendment to provide free appropriate public education (FAPE) to all children including early childhood, we have witnessed different efforts to include students with special needs in typical classrooms. While video therapy is the most common method for individuals’ intervention (using video modeling as video documentation by the interventionists as described by Baker, Lang, & O'Reilly, 2009), video production as an inclusive practice promotes real collaboration on problem solving that reduce biases and misconception about students with special needs (Kennedy, & Swain-Bradway, 2012). This presentation will showcase three examples of video production in an elementary school that promoted the inclusion of students with special needs.

This case study features a 4th grade initiative to integrate video production. After receiving the IRB approval, the elementary school staff was invited to volunteer. Since many special educators and service providers volunteer from the whole school staff, I had a unique opportunity to document their work in special education. More specifically, the participants in this part of the research included the behavior specialist, the speech pathologist, the school psychologist, one special educator and her co-teacher. During a yearlong documentation via interviews and observations the researcher gathered evidence of the work of each participant to promote inclusion using video production. Though these findings are contextualized and cannot be generalized, they will allow the participants in the session to transfer the applicable findings to their own educational settings.

The findings consist of three main categories in which video production was used: informational video (5 Book Trailers), social interventions (4 Animation), civic action (25 PSA). Each one of the projects covers a different aspect of inclusion. In the 4th grade inclusive class the two co-teachers worked for three months on a video production adaptation to a book review. The production groups had different roles. The students with special needs could contribute to the production by applying their strength in either filming, editing, or acting. In the social interventions consisting of two students on the autistic spectrum and two typical students, the school psychologist and the speech pathologist encourage the students to portray positive social interaction by creating animated videos on their iPads. In the PBIS classes (Positive Behavior Interventions and Services), the behavior specialist taught the students about three types of communications (aggressive, passive, and assertive) by having all 4th grade students produce a PSA about positive behavior.

In conclusion, we can see that the different uses of video production advance inclusion in various ways while giving opportunities for diverse learners to shine and contribute. This democratic practice merges the benefits of the current educational technology reforms and trends while applying humanistic values of inclusion, collaboration and civic action. Although this finding represents a unique school setting, it shows that video production has the power to bring students together on a project based learning to promote these democratic values in any other educational setting.

Author

• Yonty Friesem, Central Connecticut State University