Inclusive Education: What It Is! What It is Not!

Creating successful inclusive learning environments ensures all students feel valued and supported in their educational journey. This requires intentional efforts from educators, school leaders, agencies, and parents to address and remove barriers to participation. The following imperatives are critical to fostering such environments: positive teacher attitudes, equitable and meaningful classroom engagement, and celebrating diversity without the expectation of normalization.

Three imperatives critical to creating successful inclusive learning environments:

1. Teacher attitudes are vital in creating a successful inclusive program, and “educators who believe that all children have a right to participation are more likely to find ways to reduce barriers and to understand how each child learns.”

2. Inclusive programming must ensure that equitable and meaningful engagement and participation are happening in the classroom.

3. Create space for diversity - bodies and abilities – inclusion strategies should not result in an expectation of sameness or normalization.

Educators, school leaders, agencies, and parents ask:

What is Inclusive Education?

1. In an inclusive classroom, all students experience a sense of belonging and social citizenship (e.g., membership, inclusion, shared power, and value).

2. An inclusive classroom modifies the environment to fit the student, not the student to fit the environment.

3. An inclusive classroom is a space where all identities and cultures (including disability culture) are celebrated.

4. An inclusive classroom prioritizes the right to participation and promotes a positive climate for social engagement and friendships.

5. An inclusive classroom rejects deficit thinking and does not segregate or organize students according to ability.

What Inclusive Education is Not:

1. Inclusion is not assimilation. The goal of inclusion is not to “normalize” students or create sameness within a classroom. Inclusive education celebrates diversity and creates a space where all students with disabilities can feel a sense of pride.

2. Inclusive education does not restrict opportunities and spaces where students with disabilities can be together. Students with disabilities should have the chance to meet and create networks and communities of support.

3. Inclusive education is not based on a template; no ‘one-size-fits-all’ formula exists. Inclusive schools and classrooms are organized and responsive to the demographics of students in attendance.

4. Inclusive education is dynamic; there is no end point where the inclusive education project is complete. Inclusive education is a continual state of becoming. It is a project that requires continuous review, assessment and revision.”

Dr. Gillian Parekh is an Associate Professor and Canada Research Chair in Disability Studies in Education (Tier 2) at York University's Faculty of Education.

Dr. Kathryn Underwood is a Professor at the School of Early Childhood Studies and Dimensions Faculty Chair for the Faculty of Community Services at Toronto Metropolitan University.