Professional Documents
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Chapter 2
Chapter 2
Chapter 2
ADDRESSING
DIVERSITY
THROUGH THE
YEARS: SPECIAL
AND INCLUSIVE
EDUCATION
Introduction
This chapter shall allow you to look at Special Needs
and Inclusive Education from historical and
philosophical contexts. The first step to becoming an
effective Special Needs and/or Inclusive teacher lies
not in one's skill to teach strategically, but in one's
willingness and commitment to respect individual
differences. As seen in the previous chapter, diversity
is a natural part of every environment and must be
perceived as a given rather than an exception.
Below are key points to summarize
this chapter.
• Everyone has a right to education.
Having a disability should not be an
excuse for being deprived access to
schools, neither should poverty,
religion, nor race.
• Inclusive education is an inevitable
direction to take and must be
properly understood, appreciated,
and prepared for within the context
of society being accepting of
individual differences.
• For a nation to be truly inclusive, one must
start from a humane perspective of
disability and a transformative mindset on
inclusion. Thus, the success of inclusive
education starts with an appreciation and
acceptance of diversity, reinforced by a
supportive and genuinely inclusive mind-set
among our general education teachers.
Competencies
This chapter aims for you to develop the
following competencies: