1st Edition
The Ecology of Inclusive Education Strategies to Tackle the Crisis in Educating Diverse Learners
Educators today face two major challenges. The first, is to develop an education system which meets the needs of an ever more diverse student population. The second, is to successfully implement such a system. This requires nothing less than a revolutionary transformation of current approaches taken to education.
Drawing on research-based evidence and offering over 70 concrete strategies to help educators respond to these challenges, this unique book provides a blueprint for an education system which will recognize the rights of all students, while engendering social cohesion and an equitable society. Broadening the scope of inclusive education, the author presents an ecological model – a system which places children at its centre and acknowledges the impacts of school, community, bureaucracy and society, to maximize opportunities for learning, and see students achieve the same levels of attainment, regardless of their gender, socio-economic status, ethnicity, religious beliefs or disability.
A timely book which addresses the concerns of teachers and educators around the globe, The Ecology of Inclusive Education will give its readers the knowledge and confidence they require to meet the needs of each and every learner.
Acknowledgements 1. Introduction: What crisis? 2. Societies: Unity in diversity 3. Bureaucracies: Governments propose, bureaucracies dispose 4. Communities: Making connections 5. Schools: Learning organizations with permeable borders 6. Classrooms: Innovative learning environments 7. Families: What counts? 8. Children: Constructors of knowledge 9. Conclusions: It is time to radically re-think our education systems
Biography
David Mitchell is an Adjunct Professor at the University of Canterbury in Christchurch, New Zealand. He is the author of What Really Works in Special and Inclusive Education and Diversities in Education.
