The language of positive relationships and inclusive classrooms

We have outlined some of the important aspects of working alongside and supporting the learning of pupils with disabilities. Teaching assistants are a vital component in the inclusive activities of mainstream and special schools.

They are the vital link between the pupil or student and his or her learning opportunities. If these are to be equitable (may not be ‘equal’), then the learning support person is the vital factor in that equalization process. To sum up, it is important to realize that the process of inclusion requires cooperation and collaboration to solve problems. It involves understanding and needs actively working on over a period of time and then reviewing and re-visiting constantly. It is a process, not an end point. The road to inclusion is also a choice. People choosing inclusion, look at whole systems and only label partnerships at many levels. Inclusive educators, paramedic professionals and teaching assistants know through experience that they can solve virtually any student problem by getting together with the student and brainstorming on the problem. The people know the person involved intimately, and they care. The first label is citizen, then neighbor, relative or friend (some of whom may be psychologists and doctors). Inclusion proponents believe in technology and science which serves people and is not used to make profit or war at the expense of human beings (Forest and Pearpoint, 1991). To summarize:

■ We are unique in value; however, each has unique capacity.

■ All people can learn. Social development, (academic) achievement, movement skills, therapeutic outcomes and successful partnerships are all part of a LEARNING PROCESS.

■ All people have contributions to make towards ‘entitlement’ and ‘access’ and support is all about enabling disabled youngsters to make their contribution to the learning process.

■ We all have a responsibility and an opportunity to give every person the chance to make a contribution.

Approximately one in twenty children are considered disabled. Social policy research has revealed that families with disabled children experience a range of social and economic difficulties. However, most research into disabled childhood has been preoccupied with impairment, vulnerability and service usage, and has compounded a view of disabled children as passive and dependent. Moreover, the voices of disabled children themselves have frequently been excluded, as research has focused on the perspectives of parents, professionals and other adults. This has often had the effect of objectifying and silencing disabled children. As a consequence, research has often concealed the roles of disabled children as social actors, negotiating complex identities and social relationships within a disabling environment, and as agents of change who can adapt to, challenge and inform the individuals, cultures and institutions which they encounter during their childhoods. In such an environment, all children will feel better about themselves and learn more efficiently. We know that, when children feel these ABCs. They will also learn the famous educational three R’s (Forest and Pearpoint, 1991):

READING

‘RITING

RELATIONSHIPS

Relationships, seen in their broadest sense, are the building blocks of effective and good quality partnership. Partnerships between pupil or student and teaching assistant or teacher facilitate learning, and partnerships between teachers or teaching assistant in a school or college make for a pleasant and productive learning and working environment. The data from the study undertaken by Corker et al. (1999) challenges a universal concept of ‘a disabled child’ and instead identifies the range of ways in which accepted meanings and values are contested or reinforced in daily interactions and institutional practices. In reality, the mixing up of categories and dynamics of daily experience all suggest that listening to children’s voices leads to a more nuanced understanding of their lives. If this process, which demands that adults reflect on their practices, were part of policy and practice, then the structures that promote a disabling environment could begin to be dismantled.