Inclusion and diversity as

dimension of the

curriculumThe language of diversity and curriculum, impact and thinking on curriculum design and practice

What is an inclusive curriculum? Inclusive teaching means recognising,

accommodating and meeting the learning needs of all your students.

It means acknowledging that your students have a range of individual learning needs and are members of diverse communities: a student with a disabling medical condition may also have English as an additional language and be a single parent.

Inclusive teaching avoids pigeonholing students into specific groups with predictable and fixed approaches to learning.

Ken Robinson: Changing education paradigms | TED Talk | TED.com

Inclusive Teaching takes a coherent approach which is proactive. has a strategy for ensuring the delivery of equal

opportunities Is embraced by the whole school or institution matches provision to student needs incorporates regular reflection, review and

refinement of strategies and methods that actively involve students and in some cases parents

Bourdieu: a theory of practice and the inclusive/diverse curriculum

-a cultural theory of human behaviour field: a space where

individuals occupy different social positions

habitus: ingrained ways of behaving and acting

capital: what is prized/at stake in a field

What is the classroom field like?

does it reproduce/reinforce existing inequalities e.g. type of diverse/inclusive curriculum or lack of it?

do different children exhibit different kinds of habitus? how can the curriculum address this?

“Inclusion is a never-ending process, working towards an ideal when all exclusionary pressures within education and society are removed.” Booth, T (2003:2)

What does inclusion mean in your setting?

Inclusive Pedagogy

Learning is a complex activity. At least 15% of learners learn in a different way than they are generally taught. Learners whose cognition involves processing of information and methods of learning that are different from the ‘traditional’ teaching and learning methods are disadvantaged in education if an inclusive approach to pedagogy is not adopted.

It is widely accepted that learners with different approaches to learning experience difficulty in most formal settings. For some of these learners, the process of education becomes a process of rejection. As identified by Crabtree, D. and Maguire, D (2008:3)

“Inclusion in education is concerned with breaking down barriers to learning and increasing participation for all students,

treating all learners on the basis of equality and non-discrimination.” (CSIE) (Booth and

Ainscow, 2000)

What barriers could exist in your setting and how are these exhibited or reinforced?

Inclusive teaching is good teaching

In making your teaching inclusive you reassess the material you use in your teaching and the way in which it is delivered and assessed.

Teachers and tutors should place learners in the best possible learning environment for their needs, whatever those needs may be.

Varied strategies may be required to ensure that the specific needs of an individual are met.

Points to consider when critically reflecting on practice

First, we learn about learning itself by understanding how learners who learn differently learn.

Secondly, by including approaches to teaching and learning which play to the strengths of these learners and enable learners who ordinarily find learning difficult to become successful, we become more able to support all learners. By removing obstacles to learning for those who found learning most difficult, we open pathways for all learners and, in that process, develop a broader range of strategies and develop professional expertise.

Thirdly, we make our teaching more engagingand thereby begin to reduce disaffection. In sucha way, the process of educating becomes more inclusive, supports widening participation and raises achievement.