Inclusive Education In Australia Essay

Over the past two decades, worldwide the focus has shifted towards a social justice and equity-based approach to education. In 1994, UNESCO’s Salamanca conference gave recognition to the need to work towards ‘schools for all’. The Salamanca Statement and framework for action, which was endorsed by the representatives of 92 countries including Australia, urges governments ‘to adopt the principle of inclusive education, enrolling all children in regular schools unless there are compelling reasons for doing otherwise’ (UNESCO 1994, p. ix). In Australia, the Commonwealth Disability Discrimination Act 1992 (DDA), mandates that students with disabilities are given the legal right to enrolment in regular schools and classes (Commonwealth of Australia,
Two Australian studies researched teacher attitudes towards inclusion of students on the autism spectrum. A quantitative study (Hay & Win, 2012) with teachers (n=81) and students with High Functioning Autism Spectrum disorder (n=32) in one particular mainstream school and a qualitative study (Soto-Chotiman et al., 2012) with 12 Western Australian primary school teachers who had recent experience of teaching a student with ASD in a mainstream class, reported a supportive attitude of teachers towards inclusion but found teachers to be a lacking confidence in their ability to teach this group of students. Despite their commitment to inclusive education, teachers lack necessary training and support to adequately cater for the needs of the pupils with AS (Humphrey and Lewis, 2008a, Robertson et al., 2003). Professional development and additional training in the needs of AS can increase teacher’s self-efficacy and confidence in their capacity to successfully teach students with AS in the inclusive settings (Hinton et al., 2008, Ross-Hill, 2009). Tobias (2009) also emphasised on the need for the teachers to have ‘a sound basic knowledge of the key characteristics of the condition’ (p. 156) as well as a good understanding of the individual