Improving Implementation in Disability-Inclusive Education

Group Submission Type: Formal Panel Session

Proposal

Inclusive education is an approach to education that ensures that all students, including those with disabilities, are able to participate and learn in the same schools and classrooms. It is based on the understanding that all students have the right to a quality education, and that this right can only be achieved if schools are designed and adapted to meet the needs of all learners (OHCHR, 2016).

Inclusive education has a number of benefits for students, such as increased academic achievement, improved social-emotional development, and increased self-esteem and confidence (De Vroey, 2016). Inclusive education creates a more collaborative and supportive school culture.

Inclusive education is not without its challenges, however. Educators need to be willing and supported to make changes to their curriculum, teaching practices, and physical environment in order to accommodate all learners. Teachers need to be trained in how to support students with different abilities. And, families need to be supportive of inclusive education. The panel will address these challenges along with budgeting, stigma and discrimination, collaboration, and training, particularly in the “Universal Design for Learning” in curriculum development and the classroom.

This panel will explore the application of research findings from two white papers on Financing Disability-Inclusive Education and Disability Inclusive Pre-Primary Education. After publication of the white papers, stakeholders were engaged globally to ground-truth and contextualize the findings, generated recommendations, and then converted the recommendations into actionable practices for donors and implementers. This panel will also share findings from an inclusive education landscape analysis in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) and experiences from an inclusive teacher training activity in Morocco that focused on deaf education and Moroccan sign language.

REFERENCES

De Vroey, A., Struyf, E., & Petry, K.. 2016. “Secondary Schools Included: A Literature Review.” International Journal of Inclusive Education 20 (2): 109—135.

Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR). 2016. General comment No. 4 on Article 24 - the right to inclusive education. www.ohchr.org/en/documents/general-comments-and-recommendations/general-comment-no-4-article-24-right-inclusive.

Sub Unit

• Inclusive Education SIG

Organizer

• maureen jacobs plaisimond, Education Development Center

Chair

• Nathaniel Haight, USAID

Individual Presentations

• Actionable Steps Toward Disability-Inclusive Education and Lessons Learned from Implementation - Anne M. Hayes, Inclusive Development Partners; Amy Deal, Education Development Center EDC

• Inclusive Education Landscape Assessment in El Salvador, Colombia, Haiti, and Honduras - Carla M Doolin Paredes, DevTech Systems; Siham Bojji, DevTech Systems

• Morocco Inclusive Teacher Training Activity (MITTA) - Jose Pineda Pineda, DevTech Systems