National curriculum for early childhood education 2007 pakistan pdf

PART II

EUROPE

Special Education International Perspectives : Practices Across the Globe, edited by Anthony F. Rotatori, et al., Emerald Publishing Limited, 2014. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/marymountu/detail.action?docID=1780814. Created from marymountu on 2018-09-26 20:41:47.

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Special Education International Perspectives : Practices Across the Globe, edited by Anthony F. Rotatori, et al., Emerald Publishing Limited, 2014. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/marymountu/detail.action?docID=1780814. Created from marymountu on 2018-09-26 20:41:47.

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SPECIAL EDUCATION TODAY IN

THE UNITED KINGDOM

Ron Smith, Lani Florian, Martyn Rouse and

John Anderson

ABSTRACT

This chapter aims to provide a critical analysis of special needs education within the United Kingdom today. Central to such an analysis is an understanding of the rapidly changing social and political milieu within which special needs education is embedded, including the rapidly chan- ging demographics of schooling, and the devolution of political power into four separate but linked countries � England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. Following a discussion of such wider social, political and educational issues, the authors explore the convergences and diver- gences in policy and practice across the four devolved administrations. The authors describe a plethora of contemporary policy developments within each of the four administrations that speak to the need for special needs education to change in response to 21st century concerns about the problems of access to, and equity in, education for all children. Despite this, the authors remain extremely circumspect about the potential of many of these developments to lead to successful inclusive practices and developments on the ground � and explain why. The analysis in the

Special Education International Perspectives: Practices Across the Globe

Advances in Special Education, Volume 28, 109�145 Copyright r 2014 by Emerald Group Publishing Limited

All rights of reproduction in any form reserved

ISSN: 0270-4013/doi:10.1108/S0270-401320140000028011

109

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http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/S0270-401320140000028011
concluding section focuses on the issue of teacher education for inclusion and some very innovate UK research and development projects that have been reported to successfully engage teachers with new paradigm think- ing and practice in the field of inclusive special needs education.

INTRODUCTION

Understanding that the United Kingdom (UK) is made up of four separate but linked countries � England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales � is an essential starting point for considering special needs education in the United Kingdom today. However, while the strong similarities and links between the different countries and their own educational systems often justifies grouping them for general discussion purposes, this can obscure important differences. Differences in national contexts have resulted in var- iations in special education policy (e.g. in the language used), and practices (e.g. types of data collected), making some direct comparisons difficult � if not impossible. In this chapter, consequently, the shared concerns that are relevant across all of the countries of the United Kingdom are discussed broadly, while differences are identified to make the distinctive nature of each country context explicit. Where data is available, some examples are provided to enable the reader to make comparisons.

This chapter will consist of three major sections each with a number of relevant sub-sections. The common, but mistaken, use of the term England to refer to the United Kingdom or Britain reinforces the misunderstanding that the island of Britain is one country. This error further compounds confusion about the relationships between Britain and the other devolved countries of the United Kingdom. To clarify this situation, Section 1 attempts to contextualize UK developments by, for example, describing changes in the broader UK social milieu within which education � and spe- cial needs education � are embedded. We will also discuss developments within the general school system and some of the recent educational agen- das being forged within the devolved countries. Section 2 focuses on UK developments with respect to special needs education more generally, as well as emerging trends within each of the devolved countries. With respect to special needs education, across the United Kingdom, three discursive influences can be seen to have impacted the consciousness and practice of UK educators, that is, ‘exclusion’, ‘integration or assimilation’ and, more recently, since the adoption and international use of the term inclusion

110 RON SMITH ET AL.

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(e.g. UNESCO, 1994, 2000), there has been much talk about ‘inclusion’ and ‘inclusive education’. Section 3 addresses selected current issues and challenges, and then discusses some of the implications of these for UK teacher education.

At this stage it should be said that, in order to maintain consistency throughout the book, we have endeavoured to address most of the topics suggested by the editor. However, of necessity, so as to take account of the specific UK context, the writing framework may take a slightly modified form. Nevertheless, the story told in this chapter makes use of the very sub- stantial knowledge base and practical experience of four UK1 practitioners, academics and researchers.

SECTION 1: THE UNITED KINGDOM: AN INTRODUCTION

Essentially, the interrelated but distinct nature of the national contexts of the countries of the United Kingdom is historical. The early 18th century political union of Great Britain brought England, Scotland and Wales under a single form of government in 1707. In 1800 a further Act of Union added Ireland until it was partitioned in 1921 to become the Irish Free State. However, during this time of political change, Northern Ireland opted to remain a part of the United Kingdom, hence today references to the United Kingdom are to Great Britain and Northern Ireland, also commonly (although incorrectly) referred to as Britain.

While education in each of the four countries has many features in com- mon, Scotland and Northern Ireland have always had separate systems. Historically Scotland’s education system has served as a distinctive marker of national identity and pride; an aspect indeed of resistance to assimilation with England (Anderson, 2003). In Northern Ireland, but for different historical and political reasons, in part due to the direct rule by the Westminster Parliament, educational reforms have generally followed developments in England and Wales, which until recently, operated a uni- fied system. However, the devolution of political powers within the United Kingdom more broadly has led to the emergence of a distinct system of education in Wales since 2007 that is the responsibility of the Department for Children, Education, Lifelong Learning and Skills (DCELLS) (Welsh Assembly Government, 2010). Devolution has also led to further distinc- tions in Scotland and Northern Ireland.

111Special Education Today in the United Kingdom

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The Social Fabric of the United Kingdom

Like other countries in Europe, the United Kingdom has been undergoing rapid economic changes brought about in part by the decline of many traditional industries and mining. Heavy engineering (e.g. iron and steel manufacturing, ship building, volume car making) has been replaced by hi-tech industries and the service sector (tourism and financial services). At the same time as these major economic changes, the United Kingdom is becoming increasingly urban and multicultural (de Blij, 2005). Government statistics estimate the population to be 67 million people (Office for National Statistics, 2012). Table 1 shows the 2011 census estimate for the main ethnic group categories. However, regional variations are substantial.

The United Kingdom has a long history of immigration and identifies itself as a multicultural society with a tradition of offering opportunity to others and refuge to those escaping persecution or hardship elsewhere (Home Office, 2007). After the Second World War, the government wel- comed immigrants who were needed to help rebuild Britain. From the 1950s immigrants arrived from the former British colonies in the Caribbean and South Asia, and this is reflected in the relatively large ethnic minority groups from India and Pakistan. In recent years, the enlargement of the European Union (EU) has resulted in a new wave of immigrants from the accession states of Eastern and South Eastern Europe. Additionally, an

Table 1. The 2011 Census Estimate for the Main Ethnic Group Categories.

Ethnic Group 2011 (Population) 2011 (%)

White 55,010,359 87.1

White: Irish Traveller 63,193 0.1

Asian or Asian British: Indian 1,451,862 2.3

Asian or Asian British: Pakistani 1,173,892 1.9

Asian or Asian British: Bangladeshi 451,529 0.7

Asian or Asian British: Chinese 433,150 0.7

Asian or Asian British: Asian Other 861,815 1.4

Asian or Asian British: Total 4,373,339 7.0

Black or Black British 1,904,684 3.0

British Mixed 1,250,229 2.0

Other (Total) 580,374 0.9

Total 67,594,426 100

Source: Office for National Statistics (2012).

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increasing number of refugees have sought asylum in the United Kingdom from conflicts elsewhere on the world.

In all countries of the United Kingdom, the majority of immigrants tend to be concentrated in urban areas, so, whilst overall numbers of some min- ority groups may be low, the concentration of groups within particular areas is often high. In addition, there has been an increase in East European migrants moving to rural areas to work in horticulture and farming. In recent years, many schools in these areas received non-English speaking children for the first time, while other schools in urban areas enroled a majority of students for whom English was not their first language. However, this is not the only language issue, as there are different dialects of English spoken throughout the United Kingdom. Many Welsh and Scottish people speak Welsh or Gaelic; Irish is also spoken in Northern Ireland, as is the dialect Ulster Scots (Home Office, 2007).

One of the many consequences of the Second World War was public demand for the post-war world to be better than the pre-war world. As part of the post-war reconstruction, the state took the view that full citizenship demanded the social rights of employment, health, housing and education (Carr & Hartnett, 1997). It was out of these expectations and aspirations that the United Kingdom moved to establish a welfare state, which included a new Education Act providing secondary education for all, and a National Health Service (NHS) that was free at the point of delivery (Board of Education, Education Act, 1944). More than sixty years after it was estab- lished, the NHS remains a crucial element of the social fabric of the United Kingdom and it continues to enjoy high levels of public approval. Nevertheless, since at least the mid-1980s, many of the socially progressive policies associated with the welfare state � particularly in England � have been replaced by a post-welfarist commitment to ‘market democracy and competitive individualism’ (Gewirtz, 2002, p. 2).

The General School System

The United Kingdom has a long history of universal provision of public education. Children between the ages of 5�16 years must attend school (in Northern Ireland the starting age is 4 years), and the majority remain in education beyond the age of 16 years.2 Education is financed largely through national taxation with funds distributed through local authorities, although some schools are funded directly by government. Across the United Kingdom, primary schools generally educate both

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boys and girls, but a small number of secondary schools are single-sex schools.

It is important to point out that in all four countries of the United Kingdom, faith schools are part of the state funded education system. Since compulsory school attendance laws were introduced in the 1870s and 1880s, the state education system developed in partnership with the mainstream Christian churches. Today around a third of maintained schools in England have a religious character (Church of England, Catholic, with a small numbers of Jewish, Hindu, Buddhist and Muslim schools) (Teachernet, n.d.). In Scotland, the majority of schools are effectively secular and are known as ‘non-denominational’ schools.

Currently in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, after five years of secondary education, the majority of students take examinations in a range of subjects at the level of General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE). The GCSE is a single-subject examination set and marked by inde- pendent examination boards. Students usually take up to 10 (there is no upper or lower limit) GCSE examinations in different subjects, including Mathematics and English language. After taking GCSEs, students may leave secondary school or they may choose to stay on at school for two more years (years 12 and 13), or continue their education at a further education college where a range of courses are available. Students who are aiming for university normally take A-Level (short for Advanced Level) examinations. Results on GCSE and A-level examinations are not only important for indi- vidual young people; they are also used to compare schools.

Recent reports of poor performances in international tests of mathe- matics, reading and science made headline news across the United King- dom. For example, the Programme for International Student Assessment Tests (PISA), which are administered every three years by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD, 2007), indicated that the United Kingdom’s recent performance had ‘flat-lined’ while competitors had improved. The United Kingdom remained stuck among the average, middle-ranking countries; in 26th place for mathematics and 23rd for reading, broadly similar to three years earlier. In science, the United Kingdom was reported to have slipped downwards, from 16th to 21st place, in a downward trend for results in the subject. In a breakdown of the UK results, England, Scotland and Northern Ireland were clustered around the average. Furthermore, the results were particularly poor for Wales which trailed behind the rest of the United Kingdom in all three subjects (British Broadcasting Corporation [BBC], 2013).

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Within all four devolved administrations of the United Kingdom, recent curriculum reforms have resulted in what might be called the official curri- culum (as opposed to the planned and informal or hidden curricula) becoming a much more demand-led system of skills acquisition with in-built flexibility and responsiveness. For example, from 2008 in England, schools have had a duty to consider the potential of the National Curriculum inclusion statement to improve teaching and learning � a duty to consider the flexibilities that exist to modify or personalize the curricu- lum and to make it relevant to student’s strengths and interests.

Teaching�Learning Agendas within the Four Countries

There is a national curriculum in England, which consists of English, mathematics, science, design and technology, information and communica- tion technology, history, geography, modern languages, music, art and design, physical education, and citizenship. In addition to these subjects, there are a number of other compulsory courses, such as religious educa- tion. Children also take national curriculum-based tests at age 7, 11 and 14 years. The school level results in England are public and are used to con- struct league tables of school performance (Qualifications and Curriculum Authority [QCA], 1999).

Since May 2010, with the formation of a new right-wing-leaning coalition Government between the Conservative and the Liberal Democratic parties, schooling in England has seen further significant changes. These have included: the introduction of Higher Education tuition fees; the eradication of the Education Maintenance Grant (EMA; financial support for 16 to 18 year-olds who want to continue their education after school leaving age); the introduction of Academies and ‘Free Schools’ and proposals to change the National Curriculum and assessment arrangements. Academies were almost exclusively opened by the former Labour Government in areas of multiple social deprivation to replace under-performing comprehensives. They are free of local authority control, gain funding directly from the gov- ernment, and head teachers (Principals) are given almost complete freedom over such issues as, for example, budgets, the curriculum, hiring staff, term times and the length of school day. Now, however, all schools can apply for academy-style freedoms and Secondary schools ranked ‘outstanding’ by the statutory Inspection quango (Ofsted) are being fast-tracked into the pro- gramme while other schools will undergo a more rigorous screening process.

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Education in Wales3 is distinctly Welsh both in terms of the languages of education and the curriculum. Education is seen as playing a key role in the development of a bilingual country and Welsh Government policy is com- mitted to upholding the right of all children to be educated through the medium of Welsh, if their parents so wish. There is also an expectation that the curriculum should be distinctly Welsh in terms of the opportunities lear- ners get to develop and apply their knowledge across the curriculum. While the national curriculum initially applied to Wales, a National Curriculum Council has retained oversight of the curriculum and undertakes a 5-yearly review cycle. Recently there has been considerable investment in the devel- opment of the statutory curriculum for all 3�5 year-olds (the Foundation stage). The perception that Wales performs poorly in international compari- sons of attainment with other countries of the United Kingdom has also had a major influence on recent education policy in Wales, with new literacy and numeracy frameworks and tests for 7�14-year-olds being introduced during 2012 (Welsh Assembly Government, 2012).

In 2000, the Scottish Executive of the newly created devolved Scottish Parliament set five national priorities for education. These were: achieve- ment in attainment; a framework for learning that included supporting and developing the skills of teachers and the self-discipline of pupils; inclusion and equality to promote equity and help every pupil benefit from education; teaching values and citizenship and learning for life. Scotland is currently making the transition to a new ‘Curriculum for Excellence’ designed to give teachers and schools more flexibility and greater curricular coherence across the 3�18 age range. The purpose of the Curriculum for Excellence is encap- sulated in what are called the four capacities � to enable each child or young person to be a successful learner, a confident individual, a responsible citizen and an effective contributor (Learning and Teaching Scotland, n.d.). The assessment and examination arrangements in Scotland are the responsi- bility of the Scottish Qualification Authority (SQA, 2006). The previous tiered system (called The Standard Grade) offered examination papers at three levels (foundation, general and credit). This system has been undergoing review and revision in light of the introduction of Curriculum for Excellence, mentioned above, in order to develop a new framework of national qualifications. As a result, new examination and assessment arrangements are expected to replace Standard Grades in 2014.

No matter the other similarities and differences between Northern Ireland and the rest of the United Kingdom, educational developments in the province need to be set against the backdrop of almost three decades of political violence which saw over 3700 people killed, and tens of thousands

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of people injured. The declaration of ceasefires by paramilitary groups in 1994 created an opportunity for political dialogue that led, in April 1998, to the Good Friday Peace Agreement (GFPA). The GFPA represented an attempt at a fundamental shift within society, a shift away from a ‘culture of violence’ through the establishment of new democratic structures. It enshrined commitments to pluralism, equality and human rights as essen- tial parts of the settlement. It is now 15 years since the GFPA, and, whilst it represented social and political possibilities of immense significance, to imagine that Northern Ireland had crossed some invisible Rubicon where social conflict magically disappeared would be naı̈ve. A realistic assessment of the present peace process suggests that reconciliation remains as yet an unfulfilled dream.

Segregation features in almost every aspect of life in Northern Ireland: people live, socialize, work and shop in areas where they feel safe (Leitch & Kilpatrick, 1999). Unsurprisingly, segregation also remains a distinctive characteristic of the school system. The vast majority of children and teachers attend schools that can be described as either Protestant (Controlled) or Catholic (Maintained) schools. There has been a trend towards Integrated schools that are attended in roughly equal numbers by Protestant and Catholic students, although, currently, only 7 per cent of the student population attend such institutions.

Northern Ireland retains a selective secondary education system as a result of transfer tests which are no longer regulated by the state because of contentious and unresolved policy changes relating to selective secondary education. This means that, at the age of 11 years, children in Northern Ireland are segregated at the post-primary stage by ability, and, in some cases, by gender.

Prior to 2008, Northern Ireland followed a curriculum framework simi- lar to the English national curriculum. However, from that date, a revised ‘Northern Ireland Curriculum’ was implemented. This aimed to provide better access to the skills and competences perceived as more relevant to a 21st century economy, to provide a richer entitlement and greater choice, and to enable teaching to be adapted more readily to meet pupils’ indivi- dual needs and aspirations. The curriculum also includes the study of the Irish language in all maintained schools and Irish is the language of instruction in a small number of Irish-medium schools (Council for the Curriculum, Examination and Assessment [CCEA], 2000).

In recent years, policy initiatives in Northern Ireland have prioritized issues of school improvement, raising standards, and addressing underachie- vement in literacy and numeracy (Department of Education Northern

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Ireland, 2008, 2009, 2011). International commitments to establish the abil- ity to read and write as a basic human right (UNESCO, 2000) have been mirrored in Northern Ireland by concerns to raise the literacy and numeracy standards of all children and young people � concerns brought to the fore by a number of influential enquiries and reports critical of the extant situation.4

At this point it should also be said that, there has been very little actual legislative reform affecting education in Northern Ireland in the last five years, due to the complexity of the political structures. Significant time lags between the planning and implementation stages of strategies, policies or action plans now appear to be a fact of life in the Province. For some, the peace process is now definitely just a protracted talking shop that, unfortu- nately, is heading into an abyss. The power-sharing arrangements resulting from the GFPA are viewed as only serving to perpetuate the sectarian divide, leaving no room for progressive and reforming voices to be heard. Furthermore, as suggested by O’Donnell (2013), it is the case that the Northern Ireland Executive was framed specifically to suit the post-conflict situation and that it was indeed a strange and limited democratic construct.

Others take a more positive and longer view, pointing to the inevitability of slow progress in the context of transitional societies, and, despite resolu- tion, point to the significant amount of policy consultation and discussion that has occurred. Some academics also point to the work of conflict trans- formation theories and theorists, such as Lederach (1995, 1997), to help contextualize slow progress and lacunae in decision-making within societies emerging from violent conflict.

SECTION 2: SPECIAL EDUCATIONAL NEEDS

General Developments

As in many other countries, there is a long-standing tradition of special school provision in the United Kingdom and many such schools were established during the 20th century to educate children with disabilities. Although the numbers varied in different parts of the United Kingdom, about 2 per cent of children attended special schools. In addition, until the 1970s a very small number of children were in hospitals or attended ‘junior training centres’ run by health authorities. The 1970 Education Act in England and Wales, followed by similar legislation in Scotland in 1974,5

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and Northern Ireland in 1987,6 ended the long-standing practice of classify- ing a small minority of children as uneducable, and put a stop to the arrangements for classifying children suffering from a disability of mind as children unsuitable for education at school. It also took away the power of health authorities and relocated responsibility to education authorities. For the first time in UK history, 100 per cent of school-age children were entitled to education (Vaughn, 2002).

In the 1970s the government established a Committee of Inquiry, chaired by the philosopher (now Baroness) Mary Warnock to undertake a review of special education policy and provision. The recommendations of the Committee report, commonly referred to as the Warnock Report (Department of Education and Science [DES], 1978), formed the basis for further legislative developments across all the four countries. That is, the Education Scotland Act (1980) (SOEID, 1980); the 1981 Education Act in England and Wales (Department of Education and Science [DES], 1981); and the Education Order (1984) in Northern Ireland, (DENI, 1984), which took place from January, 1986. These Acts were informed by Warnock recommendations that stressed the non-categorical nature of disability and an ecological or interactive view of special education need (SEN) which suggested that up to 20 per cent of students may have special educational needs at some point in their educational careers.

The idea that up to 20 per cent of all children might experience difficulty in learning at some time in their school careers required a definition of special educational need that was flexible and sensitive to the range and type of individual differences that make up the school-aged population. Subsequently, children with special educational needs were defined as hav- ing significantly greater difficulty in learning than other children of similar age, or having a disability preventing or hindering the child from making use of mainstream educational facilities, but the term has been problematic. For example, a student with a medical diagnosis or disability does not necessarily have a special educational need, unless special educational provision is needed to access the curriculum. Equally, a child with a special educational need does not necessarily have a disability.

The original intent of a flexible, non-categorical approach to SEN provi- sion was to enable support to be provided to children experiencing difficul- ties in learning without the delay and expense of multi-disciplinary assessment or the stigma of a label. It shifted the focus of special education away from the comfortable certainty of categorical handicaps towards a consideration of learning needs. However, notwithstanding the efforts that had been made to replace individual categories of difficulty with one

119Special Education Today in the United Kingdom

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overarching category, this has proved very difficult in practice for a variety of reasons. Riddell, Weedon, and Harris (2012), for example, noted that parents of children with particular types of difficulty, such as autistic spectrum disorder, and voluntary organizations representing these groups have campaigned for official recognition of specific categories. Government have also found it useful to request local authorities to audit the incidence of particular types of difficulty, partly as an accountability mechanism, but also to inform funding decisions. In England, the practice of gathering data by type of difficulty, which was abandoned following the Warnock Report, was reinstated in the 1990s. More recently, in response to concerns about the lack of specificity in SEN data, the English government has begun to collect data from schools to include 11 categories of SEN: Specific Learning Disability (SpLD), Moderate Learning Difficulty (MLD), Severe Learning Difficulty (SLD), Profound and Multiple Learning Difficulty (PMLD), Emotional and Behavioural Difficulty (EBD), Speech, Language and Communication Needs (SLCN), Hearing Impairment (HI), Visual Impairment (VI), Multi-Sensory Impairment (MSI), Physical Difficulty (PD), Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and other (OTH). However, such data are not collected consistently across the United Kingdom. In Northern Ireland and Wales, different categorical data are collected. In Scotland, local authorities provide information to the government on the numbers of children with particular types of difficulty (Riddell et al., 2012).

Despite the acknowledgement of the interactive nature of special educa- tional needs, the administrative procedures which have been set out to ensure that children are appropriately supported when they experience difficulty are based on an individual needs approach to provision. Commentators, such as Dyson (2005) have also argued that, in emphasizing the requirement that children and young people should be educated within the least restrictive environment (Frederickson & Cline, 2009), the view of pluralism in practice actually underpinning the Warnock Report, and its associated Education Acts, represented more of an ‘integrationist’ (assimila- tionist) than inclusionist impulse. In other words, children and young people were welcome in mainstream schooling as long as they could be accommodated with additional resources and without having to make too many changes to the regular curriculum. This integrationist discourse was, as Slee (2011) remarked, little more than the calculus of equity, concerned with measuring the extent of a student’s disability with a view to calculating the resource loading to accompany the student into school.

All of the UK countries use a variation of a staged assessment and inter- vention process that is specified in governmental guidance, called a Code of

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Practice. In Table 2, the staged assessment procedure followed in Northern Ireland is outlined. England and Wales follow a similar approach but stages of action are simplified and refer to School Action (Stages 1 and 2), or School Action Plus (Stages 3 and 4), and Statement. In Scotland, a particular staged intervention model is not specified but local education authorities are encouraged to use a wide range of approaches that ‘are built around discrete stages of intervention which seek to resolve difficulties as early as possible and with the least intrusive course of action’ (Scottish Government, 2005).

EUROPE

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Special Education International Perspectives : Practices Across the Globe, edited by Anthony F. Rotatori, et al., Emerald Publishing Limited, 2014. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/marymountu/detail.action?docID=1780814. Created from marymountu on 2018-09-26 20:41:47.

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SPECIAL EDUCATION TODAY IN

THE UNITED KINGDOM

Ron Smith, Lani Florian, Martyn Rouse and

John Anderson

ABSTRACT

This chapter aims to provide a critical analysis of special needs education within the United Kingdom today. Central to such an analysis is an understanding of the rapidly changing social and political milieu within which special needs education is embedded, including the rapidly chan- ging demographics of schooling, and the devolution of political power into four separate but linked countries � England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. Following a discussion of such wider social, political and educational issues, the authors explore the convergences and diver- gences in policy and practice across the four devolved administrations. The authors describe a plethora of contemporary policy developments within each of the four administrations that speak to the need for special needs education to change in response to 21st century concerns about the problems of access to, and equity in, education for all children. Despite this, the authors remain extremely circumspect about the potential of many of these developments to lead to successful inclusive practices and developments on the ground � and explain why. The analysis in the

Special Education International Perspectives: Practices Across the Globe

Advances in Special Education, Volume 28, 109�145 Copyright r 2014 by Emerald Group Publishing Limited

All rights of reproduction in any form reserved

ISSN: 0270-4013/doi:10.1108/S0270-401320140000028011

109

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http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/S0270-401320140000028011
concluding section focuses on the issue of teacher education for inclusion and some very innovate UK research and development projects that have been reported to successfully engage teachers with new paradigm think- ing and practice in the field of inclusive special needs education.

INTRODUCTION

Understanding that the United Kingdom (UK) is made up of four separate but linked countries � England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales � is an essential starting point for considering special needs education in the United Kingdom today. However, while the strong similarities and links between the different countries and their own educational systems often justifies grouping them for general discussion purposes, this can obscure important differences. Differences in national contexts have resulted in var- iations in special education policy (e.g. in the language used), and practices (e.g. types of data collected), making some direct comparisons difficult � if not impossible. In this chapter, consequently, the shared concerns that are relevant across all of the countries of the United Kingdom are discussed broadly, while differences are identified to make the distinctive nature of each country context explicit. Where data is available, some examples are provided to enable the reader to make comparisons.

This chapter will consist of three major sections each with a number of relevant sub-sections. The common, but mistaken, use of the term England to refer to the United Kingdom or Britain reinforces the misunderstanding that the island of Britain is one country. This error further compounds confusion about the relationships between Britain and the other devolved countries of the United Kingdom. To clarify this situation, Section 1 attempts to contextualize UK developments by, for example, describing changes in the broader UK social milieu within which education � and spe- cial needs education � are embedded. We will also discuss developments within the general school system and some of the recent educational agen- das being forged within the devolved countries. Section 2 focuses on UK developments with respect to special needs education more generally, as well as emerging trends within each of the devolved countries. With respect to special needs education, across the United Kingdom, three discursive influences can be seen to have impacted the consciousness and practice of UK educators, that is, ‘exclusion’, ‘integration or assimilation’ and, more recently, since the adoption and international use of the term inclusion

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(e.g. UNESCO, 1994, 2000), there has been much talk about ‘inclusion’ and ‘inclusive education’. Section 3 addresses selected current issues and challenges, and then discusses some of the implications of these for UK teacher education.

At this stage it should be said that, in order to maintain consistency throughout the book, we have endeavoured to address most of the topics suggested by the editor. However, of necessity, so as to take account of the specific UK context, the writing framework may take a slightly modified form. Nevertheless, the story told in this chapter makes use of the very sub- stantial knowledge base and practical experience of four UK1 practitioners, academics and researchers.

SECTION 1: THE UNITED KINGDOM: AN INTRODUCTION

Essentially, the interrelated but distinct nature of the national contexts of the countries of the United Kingdom is historical. The early 18th century political union of Great Britain brought England, Scotland and Wales under a single form of government in 1707. In 1800 a further Act of Union added Ireland until it was partitioned in 1921 to become the Irish Free State. However, during this time of political change, Northern Ireland opted to remain a part of the United Kingdom, hence today references to the United Kingdom are to Great Britain and Northern Ireland, also commonly (although incorrectly) referred to as Britain.

While education in each of the four countries has many features in com- mon, Scotland and Northern Ireland have always had separate systems. Historically Scotland’s education system has served as a distinctive marker of national identity and pride; an aspect indeed of resistance to assimilation with England (Anderson, 2003). In Northern Ireland, but for different historical and political reasons, in part due to the direct rule by the Westminster Parliament, educational reforms have generally followed developments in England and Wales, which until recently, operated a uni- fied system. However, the devolution of political powers within the United Kingdom more broadly has led to the emergence of a distinct system of education in Wales since 2007 that is the responsibility of the Department for Children, Education, Lifelong Learning and Skills (DCELLS) (Welsh Assembly Government, 2010). Devolution has also led to further distinc- tions in Scotland and Northern Ireland.

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The Social Fabric of the United Kingdom

Like other countries in Europe, the United Kingdom has been undergoing rapid economic changes brought about in part by the decline of many traditional industries and mining. Heavy engineering (e.g. iron and steel manufacturing, ship building, volume car making) has been replaced by hi-tech industries and the service sector (tourism and financial services). At the same time as these major economic changes, the United Kingdom is becoming increasingly urban and multicultural (de Blij, 2005). Government statistics estimate the population to be 67 million people (Office for National Statistics, 2012). Table 1 shows the 2011 census estimate for the main ethnic group categories. However, regional variations are substantial.

The United Kingdom has a long history of immigration and identifies itself as a multicultural society with a tradition of offering opportunity to others and refuge to those escaping persecution or hardship elsewhere (Home Office, 2007). After the Second World War, the government wel- comed immigrants who were needed to help rebuild Britain. From the 1950s immigrants arrived from the former British colonies in the Caribbean and South Asia, and this is reflected in the relatively large ethnic minority groups from India and Pakistan. In recent years, the enlargement of the European Union (EU) has resulted in a new wave of immigrants from the accession states of Eastern and South Eastern Europe. Additionally, an

Table 1. The 2011 Census Estimate for the Main Ethnic Group Categories.

Ethnic Group 2011 (Population) 2011 (%)

White 55,010,359 87.1

White: Irish Traveller 63,193 0.1

Asian or Asian British: Indian 1,451,862 2.3

Asian or Asian British: Pakistani 1,173,892 1.9

Asian or Asian British: Bangladeshi 451,529 0.7

Asian or Asian British: Chinese 433,150 0.7

Asian or Asian British: Asian Other 861,815 1.4

Asian or Asian British: Total 4,373,339 7.0

Black or Black British 1,904,684 3.0

British Mixed 1,250,229 2.0

Other (Total) 580,374 0.9

Total 67,594,426 100

Source: Office for National Statistics (2012).

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increasing number of refugees have sought asylum in the United Kingdom from conflicts elsewhere on the world.

In all countries of the United Kingdom, the majority of immigrants tend to be concentrated in urban areas, so, whilst overall numbers of some min- ority groups may be low, the concentration of groups within particular areas is often high. In addition, there has been an increase in East European migrants moving to rural areas to work in horticulture and farming. In recent years, many schools in these areas received non-English speaking children for the first time, while other schools in urban areas enroled a majority of students for whom English was not their first language. However, this is not the only language issue, as there are different dialects of English spoken throughout the United Kingdom. Many Welsh and Scottish people speak Welsh or Gaelic; Irish is also spoken in Northern Ireland, as is the dialect Ulster Scots (Home Office, 2007).

One of the many consequences of the Second World War was public demand for the post-war world to be better than the pre-war world. As part of the post-war reconstruction, the state took the view that full citizenship demanded the social rights of employment, health, housing and education (Carr & Hartnett, 1997). It was out of these expectations and aspirations that the United Kingdom moved to establish a welfare state, which included a new Education Act providing secondary education for all, and a National Health Service (NHS) that was free at the point of delivery (Board of Education, Education Act, 1944). More than sixty years after it was estab- lished, the NHS remains a crucial element of the social fabric of the United Kingdom and it continues to enjoy high levels of public approval. Nevertheless, since at least the mid-1980s, many of the socially progressive policies associated with the welfare state � particularly in England � have been replaced by a post-welfarist commitment to ‘market democracy and competitive individualism’ (Gewirtz, 2002, p. 2).

The General School System

The United Kingdom has a long history of universal provision of public education. Children between the ages of 5�16 years must attend school (in Northern Ireland the starting age is 4 years), and the majority remain in education beyond the age of 16 years.2 Education is financed largely through national taxation with funds distributed through local authorities, although some schools are funded directly by government. Across the United Kingdom, primary schools generally educate both

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boys and girls, but a small number of secondary schools are single-sex schools.

It is important to point out that in all four countries of the United Kingdom, faith schools are part of the state funded education system. Since compulsory school attendance laws were introduced in the 1870s and 1880s, the state education system developed in partnership with the mainstream Christian churches. Today around a third of maintained schools in England have a religious character (Church of England, Catholic, with a small numbers of Jewish, Hindu, Buddhist and Muslim schools) (Teachernet, n.d.). In Scotland, the majority of schools are effectively secular and are known as ‘non-denominational’ schools.

Currently in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, after five years of secondary education, the majority of students take examinations in a range of subjects at the level of General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE). The GCSE is a single-subject examination set and marked by inde- pendent examination boards. Students usually take up to 10 (there is no upper or lower limit) GCSE examinations in different subjects, including Mathematics and English language. After taking GCSEs, students may leave secondary school or they may choose to stay on at school for two more years (years 12 and 13), or continue their education at a further education college where a range of courses are available. Students who are aiming for university normally take A-Level (short for Advanced Level) examinations. Results on GCSE and A-level examinations are not only important for indi- vidual young people; they are also used to compare schools.

Recent reports of poor performances in international tests of mathe- matics, reading and science made headline news across the United King- dom. For example, the Programme for International Student Assessment Tests (PISA), which are administered every three years by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD, 2007), indicated that the United Kingdom’s recent performance had ‘flat-lined’ while competitors had improved. The United Kingdom remained stuck among the average, middle-ranking countries; in 26th place for mathematics and 23rd for reading, broadly similar to three years earlier. In science, the United Kingdom was reported to have slipped downwards, from 16th to 21st place, in a downward trend for results in the subject. In a breakdown of the UK results, England, Scotland and Northern Ireland were clustered around the average. Furthermore, the results were particularly poor for Wales which trailed behind the rest of the United Kingdom in all three subjects (British Broadcasting Corporation [BBC], 2013).

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Within all four devolved administrations of the United Kingdom, recent curriculum reforms have resulted in what might be called the official curri- culum (as opposed to the planned and informal or hidden curricula) becoming a much more demand-led system of skills acquisition with in-built flexibility and responsiveness. For example, from 2008 in England, schools have had a duty to consider the potential of the National Curriculum inclusion statement to improve teaching and learning � a duty to consider the flexibilities that exist to modify or personalize the curricu- lum and to make it relevant to student’s strengths and interests.

Teaching�Learning Agendas within the Four Countries

There is a national curriculum in England, which consists of English, mathematics, science, design and technology, information and communica- tion technology, history, geography, modern languages, music, art and design, physical education, and citizenship. In addition to these subjects, there are a number of other compulsory courses, such as religious educa- tion. Children also take national curriculum-based tests at age 7, 11 and 14 years. The school level results in England are public and are used to con- struct league tables of school performance (Qualifications and Curriculum Authority [QCA], 1999).

Since May 2010, with the formation of a new right-wing-leaning coalition Government between the Conservative and the Liberal Democratic parties, schooling in England has seen further significant changes. These have included: the introduction of Higher Education tuition fees; the eradication of the Education Maintenance Grant (EMA; financial support for 16 to 18 year-olds who want to continue their education after school leaving age); the introduction of Academies and ‘Free Schools’ and proposals to change the National Curriculum and assessment arrangements. Academies were almost exclusively opened by the former Labour Government in areas of multiple social deprivation to replace under-performing comprehensives. They are free of local authority control, gain funding directly from the gov- ernment, and head teachers (Principals) are given almost complete freedom over such issues as, for example, budgets, the curriculum, hiring staff, term times and the length of school day. Now, however, all schools can apply for academy-style freedoms and Secondary schools ranked ‘outstanding’ by the statutory Inspection quango (Ofsted) are being fast-tracked into the pro- gramme while other schools will undergo a more rigorous screening process.

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Education in Wales3 is distinctly Welsh both in terms of the languages of education and the curriculum. Education is seen as playing a key role in the development of a bilingual country and Welsh Government policy is com- mitted to upholding the right of all children to be educated through the medium of Welsh, if their parents so wish. There is also an expectation that the curriculum should be distinctly Welsh in terms of the opportunities lear- ners get to develop and apply their knowledge across the curriculum. While the national curriculum initially applied to Wales, a National Curriculum Council has retained oversight of the curriculum and undertakes a 5-yearly review cycle. Recently there has been considerable investment in the devel- opment of the statutory curriculum for all 3�5 year-olds (the Foundation stage). The perception that Wales performs poorly in international compari- sons of attainment with other countries of the United Kingdom has also had a major influence on recent education policy in Wales, with new literacy and numeracy frameworks and tests for 7�14-year-olds being introduced during 2012 (Welsh Assembly Government, 2012).

In 2000, the Scottish Executive of the newly created devolved Scottish Parliament set five national priorities for education. These were: achieve- ment in attainment; a framework for learning that included supporting and developing the skills of teachers and the self-discipline of pupils; inclusion and equality to promote equity and help every pupil benefit from education; teaching values and citizenship and learning for life. Scotland is currently making the transition to a new ‘Curriculum for Excellence’ designed to give teachers and schools more flexibility and greater curricular coherence across the 3�18 age range. The purpose of the Curriculum for Excellence is encap- sulated in what are called the four capacities � to enable each child or young person to be a successful learner, a confident individual, a responsible citizen and an effective contributor (Learning and Teaching Scotland, n.d.). The assessment and examination arrangements in Scotland are the responsi- bility of the Scottish Qualification Authority (SQA, 2006). The previous tiered system (called The Standard Grade) offered examination papers at three levels (foundation, general and credit). This system has been undergoing review and revision in light of the introduction of Curriculum for Excellence, mentioned above, in order to develop a new framework of national qualifications. As a result, new examination and assessment arrangements are expected to replace Standard Grades in 2014.

No matter the other similarities and differences between Northern Ireland and the rest of the United Kingdom, educational developments in the province need to be set against the backdrop of almost three decades of political violence which saw over 3700 people killed, and tens of thousands

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of people injured. The declaration of ceasefires by paramilitary groups in 1994 created an opportunity for political dialogue that led, in April 1998, to the Good Friday Peace Agreement (GFPA). The GFPA represented an attempt at a fundamental shift within society, a shift away from a ‘culture of violence’ through the establishment of new democratic structures. It enshrined commitments to pluralism, equality and human rights as essen- tial parts of the settlement. It is now 15 years since the GFPA, and, whilst it represented social and political possibilities of immense significance, to imagine that Northern Ireland had crossed some invisible Rubicon where social conflict magically disappeared would be naı̈ve. A realistic assessment of the present peace process suggests that reconciliation remains as yet an unfulfilled dream.

Segregation features in almost every aspect of life in Northern Ireland: people live, socialize, work and shop in areas where they feel safe (Leitch & Kilpatrick, 1999). Unsurprisingly, segregation also remains a distinctive characteristic of the school system. The vast majority of children and teachers attend schools that can be described as either Protestant (Controlled) or Catholic (Maintained) schools. There has been a trend towards Integrated schools that are attended in roughly equal numbers by Protestant and Catholic students, although, currently, only 7 per cent of the student population attend such institutions.

Northern Ireland retains a selective secondary education system as a result of transfer tests which are no longer regulated by the state because of contentious and unresolved policy changes relating to selective secondary education. This means that, at the age of 11 years, children in Northern Ireland are segregated at the post-primary stage by ability, and, in some cases, by gender.

Prior to 2008, Northern Ireland followed a curriculum framework simi- lar to the English national curriculum. However, from that date, a revised ‘Northern Ireland Curriculum’ was implemented. This aimed to provide better access to the skills and competences perceived as more relevant to a 21st century economy, to provide a richer entitlement and greater choice, and to enable teaching to be adapted more readily to meet pupils’ indivi- dual needs and aspirations. The curriculum also includes the study of the Irish language in all maintained schools and Irish is the language of instruction in a small number of Irish-medium schools (Council for the Curriculum, Examination and Assessment [CCEA], 2000).

In recent years, policy initiatives in Northern Ireland have prioritized issues of school improvement, raising standards, and addressing underachie- vement in literacy and numeracy (Department of Education Northern

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Ireland, 2008, 2009, 2011). International commitments to establish the abil- ity to read and write as a basic human right (UNESCO, 2000) have been mirrored in Northern Ireland by concerns to raise the literacy and numeracy standards of all children and young people � concerns brought to the fore by a number of influential enquiries and reports critical of the extant situation.4

At this point it should also be said that, there has been very little actual legislative reform affecting education in Northern Ireland in the last five years, due to the complexity of the political structures. Significant time lags between the planning and implementation stages of strategies, policies or action plans now appear to be a fact of life in the Province. For some, the peace process is now definitely just a protracted talking shop that, unfortu- nately, is heading into an abyss. The power-sharing arrangements resulting from the GFPA are viewed as only serving to perpetuate the sectarian divide, leaving no room for progressive and reforming voices to be heard. Furthermore, as suggested by O’Donnell (2013), it is the case that the Northern Ireland Executive was framed specifically to suit the post-conflict situation and that it was indeed a strange and limited democratic construct.

Others take a more positive and longer view, pointing to the inevitability of slow progress in the context of transitional societies, and, despite resolu- tion, point to the significant amount of policy consultation and discussion that has occurred. Some academics also point to the work of conflict trans- formation theories and theorists, such as Lederach (1995, 1997), to help contextualize slow progress and lacunae in decision-making within societies emerging from violent conflict.

SECTION 2: SPECIAL EDUCATIONAL NEEDS

General Developments

As in many other countries, there is a long-standing tradition of special school provision in the United Kingdom and many such schools were established during the 20th century to educate children with disabilities. Although the numbers varied in different parts of the United Kingdom, about 2 per cent of children attended special schools. In addition, until the 1970s a very small number of children were in hospitals or attended ‘junior training centres’ run by health authorities. The 1970 Education Act in England and Wales, followed by similar legislation in Scotland in 1974,5

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and Northern Ireland in 1987,6 ended the long-standing practice of classify- ing a small minority of children as uneducable, and put a stop to the arrangements for classifying children suffering from a disability of mind as children unsuitable for education at school. It also took away the power of health authorities and relocated responsibility to education authorities. For the first time in UK history, 100 per cent of school-age children were entitled to education (Vaughn, 2002).

In the 1970s the government established a Committee of Inquiry, chaired by the philosopher (now Baroness) Mary Warnock to undertake a review of special education policy and provision. The recommendations of the Committee report, commonly referred to as the Warnock Report (Department of Education and Science [DES], 1978), formed the basis for further legislative developments across all the four countries. That is, the Education Scotland Act (1980) (SOEID, 1980); the 1981 Education Act in England and Wales (Department of Education and Science [DES], 1981); and the Education Order (1984) in Northern Ireland, (DENI, 1984), which took place from January, 1986. These Acts were informed by Warnock recommendations that stressed the non-categorical nature of disability and an ecological or interactive view of special education need (SEN) which suggested that up to 20 per cent of students may have special educational needs at some point in their educational careers.

The idea that up to 20 per cent of all children might experience difficulty in learning at some time in their school careers required a definition of special educational need that was flexible and sensitive to the range and type of individual differences that make up the school-aged population. Subsequently, children with special educational needs were defined as hav- ing significantly greater difficulty in learning than other children of similar age, or having a disability preventing or hindering the child from making use of mainstream educational facilities, but the term has been problematic. For example, a student with a medical diagnosis or disability does not necessarily have a special educational need, unless special educational provision is needed to access the curriculum. Equally, a child with a special educational need does not necessarily have a disability.

The original intent of a flexible, non-categorical approach to SEN provi- sion was to enable support to be provided to children experiencing difficul- ties in learning without the delay and expense of multi-disciplinary assessment or the stigma of a label. It shifted the focus of special education away from the comfortable certainty of categorical handicaps towards a consideration of learning needs. However, notwithstanding the efforts that had been made to replace individual categories of difficulty with one

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overarching category, this has proved very difficult in practice for a variety of reasons. Riddell, Weedon, and Harris (2012), for example, noted that parents of children with particular types of difficulty, such as autistic spectrum disorder, and voluntary organizations representing these groups have campaigned for official recognition of specific categories. Government have also found it useful to request local authorities to audit the incidence of particular types of difficulty, partly as an accountability mechanism, but also to inform funding decisions. In England, the practice of gathering data by type of difficulty, which was abandoned following the Warnock Report, was reinstated in the 1990s. More recently, in response to concerns about the lack of specificity in SEN data, the English government has begun to collect data from schools to include 11 categories of SEN: Specific Learning Disability (SpLD), Moderate Learning Difficulty (MLD), Severe Learning Difficulty (SLD), Profound and Multiple Learning Difficulty (PMLD), Emotional and Behavioural Difficulty (EBD), Speech, Language and Communication Needs (SLCN), Hearing Impairment (HI), Visual Impairment (VI), Multi-Sensory Impairment (MSI), Physical Difficulty (PD), Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and other (OTH). However, such data are not collected consistently across the United Kingdom. In Northern Ireland and Wales, different categorical data are collected. In Scotland, local authorities provide information to the government on the numbers of children with particular types of difficulty (Riddell et al., 2012).

Despite the acknowledgement of the interactive nature of special educa- tional needs, the administrative procedures which have been set out to ensure that children are appropriately supported when they experience difficulty are based on an individual needs approach to provision. Commentators, such as Dyson (2005) have also argued that, in emphasizing the requirement that children and young people should be educated within the least restrictive environment (Frederickson & Cline, 2009), the view of pluralism in practice actually underpinning the Warnock Report, and its associated Education Acts, represented more of an ‘integrationist’ (assimila- tionist) than inclusionist impulse. In other words, children and young people were welcome in mainstream schooling as long as they could be accommodated with additional resources and without having to make too many changes to the regular curriculum. This integrationist discourse was, as Slee (2011) remarked, little more than the calculus of equity, concerned with measuring the extent of a student’s disability with a view to calculating the resource loading to accompany the student into school.

All of the UK countries use a variation of a staged assessment and inter- vention process that is specified in governmental guidance, called a Code of

120 RON SMITH ET AL.

Special Education International Perspectives : Practices Across the Globe, edited by Anthony F. Rotatori, et al., Emerald Publishing Limited, 2014. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/marymountu/detail.action?docID=1780814. Created from marymountu on 2018-09-26 20:41:47.

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Practice. In Table 2, the staged assessment procedure followed in Northern Ireland is outlined. England and Wales follow a similar approach but stages of action are simplified and refer to School Action (Stages 1 and 2), or School Action Plus (Stages 3 and 4), and Statement. In Scotland, a particular staged intervention model is not specified but local education authorities are encouraged to use a wide range of approaches that ‘are built around discrete stages of intervention which seek to resolve difficulties as early as possible and with the least intrusive course of action’ (Scottish Government, 2005).