The Alberta Teachers’ Association

Supporting Inclusive Schools takes courage

It’s within schools that children and adults learn some of the most basic lessons about who matters in the world.
—Mara Sapon-Shevin, Widening the Circle

Alberta Education’s Setting the Direction and Action on Inclusion initiatives shone a spotlight on students with special learning needs, but inclusion means much more than accommodating an identified ability or disability. Inclusion is about belonging to a community—whether it is a classroom, school or broader public community. It is about valuing each member of that community and providing equitable opportunities for all. There is peril in oversimplifying inclusion and the resultant confusion about what the term means. Inclusion can be thought of as “the myriad of ways that students differ from one another: race, class, gender, ethnicity, family background, sexual orientation, language, abilities, size, religion and on and on” (Sapon-Shevin 2007). We must be clear about the terminology and courageous about what we mean by and what we value about inclusion in public education. We must ask, Do all students matter or only certain ones? What about students who have needs that are not visible? What about students who are marginalized by the system?

Educators are encouraged to review Alberta Education’s (2011a) Action on Inclusion initiative and to imagine an inclusive school system where every student is successful. In the government’s response to the Setting the Direction Framework (Alberta Education 2010), two principles underlying this new system are as follows: “An education system that is fair, appropriately resourced, highly accountable and which provides equitable opportunities for all students” and “Ensuring students and families are welcomed, respected and supported so they can be successful.” These principles are consistent with a social justice framework for education that has been developing in education research across the Western world for more than 40 years.

John Rawls (1971) describes the two tenets of social justice as a spirit of equality and a spirit of diversity. In a spirit of equality, all people have rights; therefore, justice requires equality of treatment for all people. All people have equal opportunity, so justice requires that every person must have a fair and equal chance. In a spirit of diversity, all people are different; therefore, justice requires treating people as individuals and, when rectifying inequalities, a favour or advantage should be given to the more vulnerable and marginalized members of society. Social justice, therefore, is built on the distinction and interrelationship between equality and equity (Theoharis 2009). Consistent with Rawls’s framework, the vision for Alberta’s Action on Inclusion recognizes equality as all students having the right to learn and equity as all students having the right to the resources and help they need to succeed.

Are we brave enough to have conversations about how public education can support an equitable society? If we believe we are courageous enough, are we willing to venture beyond philosophies and visions and actualize the necessary resources for inclusion? In order to have equity of access, we need to put in place resources and services to achieve the necessary changes across the system. For example, when a building is slated to be retrofitted for wheelchair ramps, let’s not just envision people accessing the building; let’s get busy and build ramps. We must remove barriers to inclusive education, but taking action requires a plan and comes with a price tag. Action does not come without a full understanding of how barriers are constructed and how they must be dismantled systematically to ensure access to an equitable education system.

People are quick to acknowledge that resources are needed so that students with physical or cognitive disabilities can be accommodated in the public education system. It is more challenging to develop a universal awareness and an understanding that some students are marginalized by the system. These students are sometimes labelled at-risk and have a wide range of diverse needs that affect their ability to learn. At-risk can include students who are learning English as a second language; students from First Nations, Métis and Inuit cultures; students living in poverty; students with a different sexual orientation; students new to Canada; and students who have experienced emotional trauma and those from nontraditional family structures or who are experiencing family turmoil. Many of these students are unintentionally marginalized by a system that does not recognize or provide the resources they need to succeed in school. Teacher and renowned intellectual Paulo Freire (1990) reminds us that the purpose of education and schooling must be to undo oppression and create schools, systems and individuals that resist and liberate.

In Alberta, educational choice is seductive. Albertans value choice as a characteristic of freedom and democracy, but choice in Alberta’s education system actually undermines the ideals of inclusion. Private and charter schools, by their nature, are founded on segregation either by student characteristics or by program niche. Charter and private schools appeal to parents who want special educational opportunities for their children and who have the financial resources to pay tuition and transportation costs. Currently, choice in the education system provides choice only to those in urban centres who have the means to exercise choice. And when these schools are publicly funded and topped up by tuition fees, it erodes the values of an inclusive public education system. The Alberta Teachers’ Association believes that the current policy and funding model for private and charter schools obstructs equity of access, promotes segregation by privilege and diminishes the resources needed to support inclusion in public schools.

Equal and equitable inclusion requires a wide range of resources and services to respond to student diversity. Grouping all students in a homogeneous mass and then expecting that schools and teachers will have the time, means and expertise to sort it out is not realistic. It appears that some school systems fail to recognize that all students will likely require inclusive resources and services, such as guidance counsellors and unique programming, at some point in their schooling. Or perhaps, in an effort to balance education budgets, schools are reducing funding in those areas without a full understanding of the unintended consequences for student learning.

If we believe that all students matter, shouldn’t public education be funded so that students have the resources necessary for equitable access to an education? Who will advocate for those children whose families are not savvy about the system or those with no advocates? The neediest students often do not have families with the means—financial, emotional or otherwise—to research programs, provide transportation and access resources in the school and community. 

Redesigning education in Alberta as an inclusive education system where all students are successful requires courageous leadership at all levels of the system. George Theoharis (2009), in The School Leaders Our Children Deserve, describes this type of leadership within a framework of social justice. His framework for social justice leadership forces the concerns and needs of marginalized students to the centre of education’s purpose. Theoharis stipulates that those needs and the needs of all students be addressed in inclusive settings with attention to creating and increasing access to the school’s core teaching and curriculum for every student in heterogeneous settings. To this end, leadership is about creating a climate that fosters a sense of belonging for all school community members (p. 11). Developing an authentic inclusive education system requires a wholesale systemic change and must be crafted with full participation of the teaching profession, experts and stakeholders.

In June 2010, Alberta Education embarked on redesigning its inclusive education system with the release of the government’s response to Setting the Direction (Alberta Education 2010). Initiatives are under way within the government to support inclusion. During this redesign, tensions between the old and the new systems have emerged. Stephen Murgatroyd (2011), in Rethinking Education: Learning and the New Renaissance, informs us that “this gap between the period of decline of the established system and the emergence of an alternative is known in systems thinking as the ‘in between time’”—a messy and difficult period when systems compete, resources are sought competitively and performance in either system is not optimal. This is a risky period; some educators and administrators will have confidence in the new system, and others will continue operating under the old system. The stalwarts will have to unlearn the old rules and develop new approaches and understandings in order to maximize the new system’s outcomes (p. 32).

Tension between the old and the new systems are playing out as Alberta Education prepares to change the special education funding formula, redesign individual program plans, restructure curriculum and formalize cross-ministry collaboration. Will the new forces prevail or will the old system resist and undermine the future promise of inclusive education?

Teachers and their Association have advocated for inclusive education for many years. In addition to the ATA’s Diversity, Equity and Human Rights Committee and an ad hoc committee on First Nations, Métis and Inuit education, the ATA offers workshops and presentations to schools and school districts that address diversity and promote strategies consistent with an inclusive approach. In addition to its Special Education Council, Guidance Council and Council on School Administration, the ATA sponsors the Inclusive Learning Communities Grant Program to help locals and individual teachers promote programs consistent with diversity, equity and human rights values. The ATA has also been active in developing policies and advocating for inclusion on a broad scale. In 2010, the Association was a leader in the provincial working group of education partners that created A Guide to Support Implementation: Essential Conditions (Alberta’s Education Partners 2010). This document describes the factors necessary for successful implementation of any kind of program or curriculum change. These factors include a shared vision, leadership, research and evidence, resources, teacher professional growth, time and community engagement. In order to achieve our vision of an inclusive education system, all stakeholders have a shared responsibility to work together for all children. “Simply dumping students in regular classrooms without addressing issues of exclusion, testing curriculum modification, peer support and pedagogical differentiation dooms inclusion to failure” (Sapon-Shevin 2007, xvi).

Building an authentic inclusive education system requires leadership and a commitment from everyone in the system. First, we must acknowledge that access to quality education for all is a basic human right in Alberta. Second, we must obtain commitment from all stakeholders to the social justice principles of a spirit of equality and a spirit of diversity. Third, we must be willing to accept the risks in testing new policies, procedures and strategies. Fourth, provincially, locally and at the school site, resources must be provided and allocated based on equity principles. Last, we have a responsibility to initiate courageous conversations when we see that the system or individual actions are contributing to the marginalization of students in need.

What is the promise of inclusion? In the quest for equity, we must remember that what makes us diverse makes us strong. Today’s students depend on the education system to get inclusion right. Tomorrow’s Alberta is counting on us to do it today.

References

Alberta Education. 2009a. Setting the Direction Framework. Edmonton, Alta.: Government of Alberta.

———. 2009b. Setting the Direction for Special Education in Alberta: A Review of the Literature. Ed. Nancy Mackenzie. Edmonton, Alta.: Government of Alberta.

———. 2010. Setting the Direction Framework: Government of Alberta Response. Edmonton, Alta.: Government of Alberta.

———. 2011a. Alberta Education Action Agenda 2011–14. Edmonton, Alta.: Government of Alberta. 

———. 2011b. “Alberta’s Action on Inclusion: Transforming Diversity into Possibility.” Leadership Update 7, no 5: 1–3.

Alberta’s Education Partners. 2010. A Guide to Support Implementation: Essential Conditions. www.essentialconditions.ca (accessed December 13, 2011).

Alberta Teachers’ Association (ATA). 2009. Success for All: The Teaching Profession’s Views on the Future of Special Education in Alberta. Edmonton, Alta.: ATA.

Freire, P. 1990. Pedagogy of the Oppressed. New York: Continuum.

Murgatroyd, S. 2011. Rethinking Education: Learning and the New Renaissance. Edmonton, Alta.: Future Think Press.

Rawls, J. 1971. A Theory of Justice. Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.

Sapon-Shevin, M. 2007. Widening the Circle: The Power of the Inclusive Classroom. Boston: Beacon Press.

Theoharis, G. 2009. The School Leaders Our Children Deserve: Seven Keys to Equality, Social Justice and School Reform. Columbia, New York: Teachers College Press, Columbia University.

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Jacquie Skytt is the ATA assistant executive secretary and Joni Turville is an ATA executive staff officer in the Professional Development program area.