Leadership for Inclusion

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ROBERT B. MACMILLAN AND ALAN L. EDMUNDS 1. LEADERSHIP FOR INCLUSION: QUESTIONS & DILEMMAS INTRODUCTION Over the previous century, we have seen significant changes in the education of students with exceptionalities. Initially, the common practice was to place these students in institutions designed to address their specific educational needs based on fairly incomplete beliefs about the nature of each exceptionality. In most cases, these students were not equipped to later integrate easily into their communities and to meaningfully participate in wider society. As we gained better techniques for identification and diagnoses, our understanding of the spectrum and characteristics of each exceptionality improved as did our conceptualizations of meeting their educational needs. With this increasing understanding, we began to shift away from institutional care towards developing programs delivered in separate classrooms within schools that provided specialized instruction and which allowed students to experience a somewhat “normal” school environment outside of their classroom. While good intentioned, these initial steps still forced students with special needs to be segregated and excluded. Eventually, programming in separate classrooms was replaced by “pull-out” programs, some of which remain today, and later by attempts to include fully students with exceptionalities in all aspects of school life and, by extension, in all aspects of life out of school. In the last three decades, the right of children with exceptionalities to be included in the “regular” classroom has become accepted, at least philosophically if not practically (Bunch, Lupart & Brown, 1997), but we are still struggling with how to include these children while delivering appropriate programs designed to meet the individual needs of each child. There is scant but significant evidence that the success of such inclusive programs is largely attributable to the leadership of the principal and the ability of that administrator to create an inclusive school environment (Baker, 2007; Reyes & Wagstaff, 2006; Ryan, 2006). This book has been designed to help school leaders to first think about, and then address, the issues involved in leading for inclusion. Educational Change Two predominant factors led to changes in the types of education provided for students with special needs. The first has been an increasingly better understanding of the range and nuances of exceptionalities. Advances in this area have helped A. L. Edmunds and R. B. Macmillan (eds.), Leadership for Inclusion: A Practical Guide, 01–06. © 2010 Sense Publishers. All Rights Reserved.
R. B. MACMILLAN AND A. L. EDMUNDS to inform educators who design specialized educational programs that incorporate our current understanding of the roots and characteristics of each exceptionality. When these programs enable students to accomplish what had been previously believed not possible or not feasible, we have seen changes in community and societal beliefs about what these students can and cannot do. This has often followed by commensurate shifts in attitudes about what comprises an appropriate education for such students. The second factor has been changes to the laws concerning students with special needs. Some laws have set the framework for the educational rights of all children, and especially for children with special needs. The courts, through decisions on specific cases, have been instrumental in clarifying and defining the implementation of the laws, particularly those governing the issues of equity and equality, and the responsibilities of schools to students with exceptionalities (Williams & Macmillan, 2001; 2003; 2005). Unfortunately, some decisions have left schools and school systems struggling to understand all implications emerging from such decisions and attempting to translate the essence of those decisions into practice. This has resulted in teachers attempting to do what is best for children within the spirit of the law, but having to do so without a definitive framework. Without a clear framework, teachers have experienced a great deal of professional discomfort due their uncertainty about the appropriateness of their decisions (Macmillan & Meyer, 2006). For principals, this task is especially troublesome because they are responsible for supporting teachers and for creating an inclusive environment (Ryan, 2006), but without a clear, legal direction about how this is to be done. Moreover, because principals mostly play an indirect role in the enactment of inclusion, they also have not had a clear set of practical directions about how to help their teachers working on the front lines of inclusion day-to-day. The overriding problem for educators is: how can schools who must adapt to a broad spectrum of abilities and needs in their students address all their inherent specific and personal abilities and needs, especially given current resources? This book is an attempt to help administrators examine these complex issues, to analyze and reframe them in a way that may provide insights, and to provide possible indications about how to proceed. The purpose of this first chapter is to lay the groundwork for the subsequent chapters. The authors of each chapter identify areas that we, as educators and particularly administrators, need to consider in order to properly engage in the work of creating inclusive schools. We acknowledge that some of the suggested approaches are reasonably straightforward and may indicate rudimentary and easy paths to follow. However, we also recognize that not all of these complex issues are easily resolved and will remain dilemmas to varying degrees because no clear path to a solution exists. For this reason, the insights, suggestions and recommendations provided here are meant for the reader to consider, to analyze, and to use in ways that are appropriate to his or her administrative context. We hope that in the process, we have provided assistance to those charged with the difficult, but essential, task of envisioning, creating, leading, and sustaining inclusive schools. 2
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