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additional needs and believe the common myth among many educators that only
special educators have the expertise or knowledge of disability to teach children with
disabilities (Myhill, Hill, Link, Small and Bunch, 2012, p. 201). This myth began due
to many education courses at university not addressing teaching children with special
needs. The units addressed inclusion more generally and students with disabilities
were only one of a number of aspects of diversity that were covered (Stephenson,
ONeill and Carter, 2012). The article by Stephenson et al (2012) found that only
thirteen percent of sixty-one units on inclusion in education focused on developing
positive attitudes towards people with disabilities and special needs. With only
thirteen percent of inclusion in education units focusing on how to teach a child with
special needs in the classroom, lack of knowledge by teachers in mainstream
classrooms may be accounted for. One of my friends has a physical disability and
when in high school, one of her teachers would speak to her in a very condescending
way, always asking her Do you understand?. My friend had nothing wrong with her
intellectually but the teacher would always single her out just because of her physical
difference. This example shows the lack of knowledge some educators obtain and the
lack of understanding of inclusion and having positive attitudes towards people with
additional needs. Stephenson et al. (2012) believed that pre service teachers today are
being less well prepared to teach students with disabilities and special needs than they
were in 1993 (p. 21).
Schools and teachers are expected to cater for their communities, and communities
include people with and without disabilities, students who learn easily, and those who
need much assistance (Forman and Arthur-Kelly, 2014, p.31). For inclusion in
mainstream classrooms to occur, all individuals involved in the students education
should be appropriately trained, skilled and experienced (Forman and Arthur-Kelly,
2014, p.104). Although special educators have two degrees compared to general
educators with only, (which does not specialize in special needs), this does not mean
that mainstream general educators are not capable of teaching students with additional
needs, as expertise in the medical model of disability is not required for educators to
effectively teach students with disabilities, and it is often irrelevant to real life
experience (Brantlinger, 2006 as cited in Myhill et al., 2012, p. 202). General
educators need to be prepared to alter their classroom and lessons to meet the needs of
the child, despite classroom management being harder because of the addition of
disability can participate in the schools curriculum (Woolfson et al., 2007, p. 40).
A child with a disability may require expertise in the classroom that the general
educator may not be qualified for. This is why working together, often referred to as
working collaboratively, is a team process. It promotes a shared responsibility for
discussing and supporting students with additional needs (Forman and Arthur-Kelly,
2014, p.58). As McDonald (2014) expressed, Special schools hold a wealth of
information with special education professionals such as occupational therapist,
speech pathologists and physical therapists employed at the schools where as
mainstream schools often lack these professionals on a day to day basis, as found by
Anati and Ain (2012). Their study revealed participant teachers reporting that their
schools lacked special education professionals and personnel. Many educators
questioned the belief that students who needed extra services should routinely be
pulled out to receive them in a separate environment such as a resource room or a
special education classroom (Anati and Ain, 2012, p. 75). The idea of pulling
students out of their classroom is socially isolating the student from the rest of the
class. To reduce this social isolation for the student with additional needs, some
schools are given the funding from the government for an educational aid in the
classroom. The issue is that the amount of funding allocated for the student may not
be enough for a child to have an educational aid with them all the time. In my
personal experience, I have observed a child with special needs (autism) receiving
government funding for a educational aid but the funding is only enough for three
days a week instead of the five days he attends school. The Australian national
disability policy strategy 2010-2020 outcome 5 states, people with disability achieve
their full potential through their participation in an inclusive high quality education
system that is responsive to their needs(Commonwealth of Australia, 2011). If a
student is not receiving enough support in the mainstream education system through
an educational aid or special education professionals, how can it be expected for them
to meet their educational needs? Friend and Bursuck believe students with
disabilities should be fully integrated into general education classrooms as long as
they are making progress toward the achievement of IEP goals, even if they cannot
meet classroom or content demands (Friend and Bursuck, 2002 as cited in Anati and
Ain, 2012, p. 75) This demonstrates the essential need for mainstream schools to have
the resources of special education professionals to create a collaborative working