Harvard Graduate School of Education - Leadership: an Evolving Vision 2007

I listened to Norman Kunc and Emma Van der Klift today talking about Inclusion. This lecture was extremely powerful and thought provoking. It emphasised the importance of building a ‘sense of belonging’ for staff and pupils in order to allow them to grow and learn. Two things that stood out for me during this lecture were:

• the importance of listening to those with experience, mainly pupils and their families.
• How we provide support in schools to ensure that the needs of the children are really met. Making sure it is the child’s needs and not the teacher’s needs

Often the support we think people require is not actually what is needed. Without taking time to ascertain the need by asking those who have the experience we will struggle to get it right.

For me one of the most important skills we can instil in our pupils is independence – the ability to initiate the support we require. There are different kinds of support for teacher that can be put in place to assist inclusion. Some of these highlighted by Norman and Emma were:

Information, collaborative planning, shared agreement on goals and expectations, classroom and school based support, classroom assistant and administrative support.

Too often people think that the answer of ‘support’ is additional staffing. Pupils who have someone there to scribe for them, carry their bags and be with them all the time may be being robbed of their independence and their ability to find solutions for themselves. We need to ensure that ALL pupils are leaving school with life skills and are not too dependent on others. ‘Avoid co-dependent symbiotic relationships’.

It is imperative that we ask the pupils and their families how we can support them and what works best for them. Norman Kunc suggested that the first question we ask pupils with a disability is ‘How can I help you?’ Shouldn’t we ask all pupils this?

This would allow us to focus on the experience rather than make generalisations which could lead to mistakes and misunderstanding.

The use of ‘passports’ and ‘My meeting booklets’ for pupils with ASN are an excellent tool to ensure that the pupils voice is heard. We must also be listening at other times to these children to guarantee that we do not overpower them with unnecessary support. We must allow them to feel valued and respected – providing a sense of belonging. Emma Van der Klift spoke about how important it is to ask pupil what their dream/vision is. As teachers we need to know this if we want to assist pupils along their path.

‘Relationships are the only way to get authentic influence’.