EDU40009: Analytical Essay - Education for Inclusion & Diversity - Essay Writing Assignment Help 

Internal Code: 2ACBF

Analytical Essay - Education for Inclusion & Diversity

Task: As teachers, we work within a complex cultural context that requires us to teach a wide range of students. Each of these students brings with them possibilities as well as challenges, including those with additional needs. Understanding diverse needs, and the impact they have on our teaching practices, is essential for any teacher. Across the course of your teaching career, you will teach in a range of schools, and teach a range of students, all with different needs. Of course, teaching happens within a wider political and social context, and that means others, outside of education, have an impact on how and what we teach, as well as the resources available to us. This essay provides you with an opportunity to deeply consider the implications of this wider political context on the ways we teach children with additional needs and those learners who are culturally diverse. In coming to a deepened understanding of these policy implications, you will be better placed to understand why particular decisions are made that will impact on your teaching, and thus more able to advocate for appropriate levels of support for all those you teach. The researchers used as a method to gain insight into the student experiences. This allowed the researchers to "support participants through the interview process in a way that balanced power, created a sense of ownership, fostered trust, built capacity and respond to cultural difference; and secondly, to provoke focused discussions with participants" as highlighted by Edward-Groves & Murray (2008). This method opens up new possibilities in how students can present their work in the classroom. It creates a personal connection to what being presented, encouraging ownership, deeper self exploration and honesty. What students present and how its presented would suggestively become more reflection of their thoughts, feelings and attitudes. A great example here - photo interviews could be a great way of creating "personal connections to what's being presented, encouraging ownership, deeper self exploration and honesty". The aim of these overall was to support the participants, respond to cultural difference and promote an honest and focused discussion. They allowed for a deeper understanding of the participants experience in school. I believe that using ‘photo interviews’ not only promotes engagement for learning but as mentioned in the text provides an opportunity for communication between the teacher and students. As stated by Edward-Groves & Murray (2008) this particular kind of methodology promoted ownership of the content being discussed thus building a rapport where trust can be developed. This type of interactive learning then led to a thought-provoking discussion in which both the teacher and learner can be involved. Being able to harness learning through various methodologies provides a platform for all learners to be involved. Achievement can be recognised through an activity like ‘photo interviews’ as students of all academic levels are able to participate. I think that by giving the student the freedom to produce photos of items such as paintings and traditional artworks promotes the learner to effectively represent themselves by using items which are important to them. Reading the various comments by the learners highlights the fact that not all learners are the same and the teacher needs to not only be aware of this but design lessons so that all students are involved in the learning process. Simply stating that a student should know the content because it has already been covered in class and that they must not have been listening, is not productive and only leads to further isolation in individual learning. Of course, it would seem that if the teacher singles out and overlooks learners when they ask questions this can only lead to that learner not wanting to participate for fear of being singled out. In my opinion, this type of response only initiates a breakdown in communication and is a detriment to building rapport between learners and teachers. Not to mention the fact that the learning environment is also negatively affected as some students may not feel secure enough within themselves to honestly communicate about how they feel. From reading the texts this week I do believe that the teachers could have done more during the learners’ primary education. Having a high expectation of all students and giving them all specific responsibilities encourages the class to work together, rather than competing against each other. Demonstrating that there is zero tolerance towards discriminatory comments and behaviours is also something which the teacher can implement from the first day at school. By the teacher demonstrating that this type of behaviour is not acceptable the learners are able to understand and raise their awareness of what is acceptable and not acceptable.