Leadership for Inclusion

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CONCLUSION DISRUPTING DOMINANT DISCOURSES School leaders have a moral, legal and ethical obligation to provide for the education of those with special needs alongside their non-disabled peers in schools. Sometimes this requires that additional resources be allocated to physically adapt the environment so that all students may participate in meaningful ways. Sometimes, this requires an intentional focus on grouping and regrouping students in order to promote mutually beneficial and responsible social interaction. On occasion, it also requires modifications of learning goals and objectives. Here it may be useful for educational leaders to be aware of the findings of the President’s Committee Job Accommodation Network, that on average 15% of accommodations cost nothing and 51% cost less than $500 (Walker, n.d.). If modification of the workplace is so cost effective, it is incumbent on educational leaders to take steps to allocate appropriate budgets to the task of creating an inclusive learning environment for all students. At times, educators may be so paralyzed by the negative implications of dominant discourses that the task seems overwhelming. To ensure that inclusion fosters and enhances the learning and well-being of students requires that educational leaders constantly promote an understanding of alternative discourses and to challenge discourses that, although dominant, may be inappropriate. On the other hand, the rights discourse provided here presents a progressive framework for developing a respectful, engaging, humane, and thus, more inclusive education. The beliefs and values that accompany exclusionary discourses such as the lay, medical, and charity discourses, need to be recognized, “challenged, and replaced by more inclusionary paradigms” (Kearney & Kane, 2006, p. 216) as suggested here. Most importantly however, is the obligation to ensure that the human rights of every student are upheld in the educational processes and environments to which they are fully entitled. REFERENCES Bishop, R., & Berryman, M. (2006). Culture speaks: Cultural relationships and classroom learning. Wellington, New Zealand: Huia. Dorris, M. (1989). The broken cord. New York: HarperCollins. Edmunds, A. L., & Edmunds, G. A. (2008). Special education in Canada. Toronto, ON: McGraw-Hill Ryerson. Erwin, P. (1993). Friendship and peer relations in children. Chichester, West Sussex: John Wiley & Sons. Fraser, D. (2001). The educational needs of children with cancer: A qualitative study of 12 families. Hamilton, ON: Waikato Institute for Research in Learning and Curriculum. Ladd, G. W. (1990). Having friends, keeping friends, making friends and being liked by peers in the classroom: Predictors of children’s early school adjustment? Child Development, 58, 1168–1189. Levy, S. M. (1975). The development of work skill training procedures for the assembly of printed circuit boards by the severely handicapped. AAESPH Review, 1(1), 1–10. Kearney, A., & Kane, R. (2006). Inclusive education policy in New Zealand: Reality or ruse? International Journal of Inclusive Education, 10(2–3), 201–219. MacArthur, J., Kelly, B., & Higgins, N. (2005). Supporting the learning and social experiences of students with disabilities: What does the research say? In D. Fraser, R. Moltzen, & K. Ryba (Eds.), Learners with special needs in Aotearoa New Zealand (3rd ed., pp. 49–73). Southbank, Victoria: Thomson. 17
D. F. G. FRASER AND C. M. SHIELDS Meyer, L., & Bevan-Brown, J. (2005). Collaboration for social inclusion. In D. Fraser, R. Moltzen, & K. Ryba (Eds.), Learners with special needs in Aotearoa New Zealand (3rd ed., pp. 168–192). Southbank, Victoria: Thomson. Meyer, L., Park, H-S., Grenot-Scheyer, M., Schwartz, I., Harry, B. (Eds.). (1998). Making friends: The influences of culture and development. Baltimore: Paul Brookes. Neilson, W. (2005). Disability: Attitudes, history and discourses. In D. Fraser, R. Moltzen, & K. Ryba (Eds.), Learners with special needs in Aotearoa New Zealand (3rd ed., pp. 9–21). Southbank, Victoria: Thomson. Newcomb, A. F., & Bagwell, C. (1996). The developmental significance of children’s friendship relations. In W. M. Bukowski, A. F. Newcomb, & W. W. Hartup (Eds.), The company they keep: Friendship in childhood and adolescence (pp. 289–321). Cambridge, USA: Cambridge University Press. Outlook BBC. (2007). UN disabilities convention. London: British broadcasting Systems. Retrieved from www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/programs/outlook.html Peters, S. (2000, December). “I didn’t expect that I would get tons of friends…more each day.” Children’s experiences of friendship during transition to school. Paper presented at the New Zealand Association of Research in Education conference, Hamilton, New Zealand. Rosenthal, R., & Jacobson, L. (1968). Pygmalion in the classroom: Teacher expectations and pupils’ intellectual development. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston. Van der Klift, E., & Kunc, N. (1994). Friendship and the politics of help. In J. S. Thousand, R. A. Villa, & A. I. Nevin (Eds.), Creativity and collaborative learning: A practical guide to empowering students and teachers (pp. 391–401). Baltimore: Paul Brookes. Sawicki, J. (1991). Disciplining foucault: Feminism, power and the body. New York: Routledge. Shields, C. M., Bishop, R., & Mazawi, A. E. (2005). Pathologizing practices: The impact of deficit thinking on education. New York: Peter Lang. Skrtic, T. M. (1991). Behind special education. A critical analysis of professional culture and school organization. Denver, CO: Love. Starratt, R. J. (1991). Building an ethical school: A theory for practice in educational leadership. Educational Administration Quarterly, 27(2), 155–202. Taylor, G. R., & Harrington, F. (2001). Incidence of exceptionality. In G. R. Taylor (Ed.), Educational interventions and services for children with exceptionalities (2nd ed., pp. 3–13). Springfield, IL: Charles C. Thomas Publisher. Wagstaff, L., & Fusarelli, L. (1995). The racial minority paradox: New leadership for learning communities of diversity. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the University Council for Educational Administration, Salt Lake City, Utah. Walker, S. (n.d.) Dispelling myths about people with disabilities. Retrieved January 2008, from http://www. disaboom.com/Career-Center/For-Employers/Articles/Dispelling-Myths-about-People-with-Disabilities. aspx 18
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