Abstract
This paper considers how teachers, psychologists and policymakers can respect the rights of all school students, through methods that are principled, humane, cost-effective and democratic. It examines how special educational needs and disability (SEND) services affect all school students and teachers, and their rights. The paper considers the history of rights, their meaning and purpose, and how and why they are important. Respect for rights can grow in several ways: in understanding the social and medical models of disability; in choices about SEND services; in educational psychology services; in the way 'normal' and 'special needs' students learn to live and work together, or else to live separate lives when it is then harder for disabled people to join in mainstream society as children and adults. The conclusion relates inclusive and special school policies to larger political concerns.
Highlights
In January 2017, 14.4 per cent of all school pupils in England (1,244,255) were said to have special educational needs or disabilities (SEND)
Understand children’s rights’: Starting from a rights perspective will help develop an understanding of the duties that a school is required to fulfil. This helps to form a context for the implementation of the SEND Code of Practice, and explains why ensuring that all children have their requirements met is an essential part of being a teacher (Knight, 2017: n.p.)
Inclusive schools respect equal rights when they cater for all the ‘special needs’ of the local children, which is possible given the requisite political will and if local special schools could be closed and their funding, resources and expertise transferred into mainstream schools. This was possible 20 years ago, as our research showed, and our republished book (Alderson and Goodey, [1998] 2018) has a foreword explaining how many of our findings are still relevant despite the changed political contexts
Summary
In January 2017, 14.4 per cent of all school pupils in England (1,244,255) were said to have special educational needs or disabilities (SEND). Streaming tends to have negative effects on all groups (Johnston and Wildy, 2016) and socially it can increase difficulties for disabled or ‘special’ children and adults in joining in mainstream society when they and their ‘normal’ peers are not used to living, learning, playing and working together in the relaxed, respectful ways encouraged in inclusive schools (Alderson, 2013; Alderson and Goodey, [1998] 2018; Franklin, 2013; Pearson, 2016; Preparing for Adulthood, 2016; McConkey et al, 2013). When questions are raised about a child’s use of SEND services, about referral to a day or residential special school, or about exclusion, discussion with the family is vital If they are to be able to make informed decisions, they need both personal and general information, such as the above-listed six aspects of education as well as details of Ofsted reports and other records for each school being considered. Inefficiency and secrecy can limit educationalists’ and families’ ability to make informed choices about schooling while, in the medical model, families may be informed about the child’s problems with proposed remedies and referral, but not about other vital economic and everyday social matters and possible life-long effects
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