Q: How has education research on inclusive education further improved how teachers and school staff are trained and supported to meet the diverse needs of SEN students in mainstream schools?
Our aspirations for a more inclusive society in Singapore are realized through our individual and collective efforts in how we understand ourselves, think about and act, in relation to how we respond to and treat diverse others within our society. It is therefore vital for schools, as microcosms of present and for future society, to embrace these efforts to educate and prepare our young for not only our diverse society but also for a diverse world with diverse others. Education research can support such efforts through studying the variables and conditions that influence and affect the inclusion of students with diverse learning needs and abilities, such as those with special educational needs (SEN), within mainstream school communities. The role of education research and its potential in supporting and enhancing inclusion in mainstream schools becomes even more salient in view of the substantial increases in the enrolment trends of students with SEN in our mainstream schools over the past two decades.
When we understand the state of inclusion in our schools more effectively through education research, especially research that seeks to illuminate local variables and conditions that impact on stakeholders in schools (e.g., teachers, students, parents, leadership, school personnel such as Special Educational Needs Officers – SENOs), we can gain clarity, consciousness, and even conviction of what needs to happen or change for schools to become more inclusive. The more informed, conscious and convicted teachers and school staff become via education research – through training/sharing platforms as well as being involved and engaged as stakeholders and co-researchers in learning about and evaluating how inclusive their schools are – the more targeted and organized their efforts are likely to be especially when informed and guided by the international body of educational research evidence from the field of inclusive education.
