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An Outsider Looking In: Total Inclusion and the Concept of Equifinality

1999; Project Innovation Austin; Volume: 119; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês

0013-1172

Peter Chow, Lynn E. Blais, Jamee Hemingway,

Parental Involvement in Education

Introduction Efforts to integrate disabled students into the least restrictive milieu, generally the neighborhood school, are fast becoming the dominant educational ideology. The concepts of mainstreaming, integration and inclusion are now practiced as formal educational policy or legislation in most Western countries. More and more disabled students are placed under the care of regular classroom teachers. Consequently, regular classroom teachers are taking on more responsibilities and perhaps more To be effective educators, classroom teachers must adjust to the added responsibilities by assuming new roles, developing new competencies, becoming aware of the philosophy and process of inclusion, knowing the availability of resources and support systems and most importantly, understanding the nature of disabled students and harboring positive attitudes toward them (Chow & Winzer, 1989). When one is brave enough to run the theoretical gauntlet of including disabled students into regular classrooms, one will be bewildered to discover that there are basically two camps fighting for theoretical recognition. As a cost-cutting measure, administrators and politicians fling their supports behind the inclusionist camp wholeheartedly, while others believe that children with disabilities require individualized education--the LRE (least restrictive environment) camp. Advocates for full inclusion have been pushing hard to have all disabled children educated in regular classrooms, regardless of the nature and severity of their disabilities. school boards, ministry of and legislators back full inclusion because they see as a golden opportunity to cut back on expensive special education services. These services have become a crushing financial burden because special education is about 2.3 times the cost of regular education (Chaikind, Danielson, & Brauen, 1993). The purpose of this paper is to discuss the pros and cons of total inclusion as well as to introduce the concept of equifinality to evaluate the worth of this approach. Positive Aspects of Total Inclusion Proponents of total inclusion see special education as more harmful than helpful. From a social justice perspective, these people (e.g., Gerrard, 1994; Wolfenberger, 1995) decry the use of segregation and institutionalization as a legitimate lifestyle strategy for individuals with disabilities. They point out that separating the education of these students is not only unequal but is also detrimental to the development of all They value social participation in the regular school setting as paramount. Staub and Peck (1995) agree that this setting is essential in promoting improvements in self-concept, growth in social cognition, and development of personal moral and ethical principles to foster warm and caring friendship among all As well, Vaidya (1997) concludes that inclusion into the regular classrooms does not mean doing away with special education, instead, it entails integrating the best that special education has to offer with regular education for the benefit of all students. (p. 622). Data collected from high schools and elementary schools indicate that general education teachers do not feel adequately prepared to meet the needs of disabled students in their classrooms, especially those with learning disabilities (Vaidya, 1997). Hunt and Goetz (1997) argue that the general education staff first resisted the idea of inclusion, then changed their opinion to cooperation and finally to overt support. McLaughlin and Warren (1994) determine that inclusion is expensive to implement at the start but should become cost effective over time. Osborne and DiMattia (1995) urge school officials to take a more active role in restructuring educational systems so that inclusion can become a reality. They warn that if educators do not take the lead, the courts will! Negative Aspects of Total Inclusion Fuchs and Fuchs (1995) state that, Many students with learning disabilities have learning needs substantially different in amount and kind from those of nondisabled children . …