Topic 2: How Inclusive am I? Inclusive Education and SEL

Inclusive education is about how we develop and design our schools, classrooms, programs and activities so that all students learn and participate together. It is about ensuring access to quality education for all students by effectively meeting their diverse needs in a way that is responsive, accepting, respectful and supportive. Students participate in the education program in a common learning environment with support to diminish and remove barriers and obstacles that may lead to exclusion (Inclusive Education Canada 2022).

Social and emotional learning (SEL) is the process through which all young people and adults acquire and apply the knowledge, skills, and attitudes to develop healthy identities, manage emotions and achieve personal and collective goals, feel and show empathy for others, establish and maintain supportive relationships, and make responsible and caring decisions. SEL advances educational equity and excellence, by establishing learning environments and experiences that feature trusting and collaborative relationships, rigorous and meaningful curriculum and instruction, and ongoing evaluation. SEL can help address various forms of inequity and empower young people and adults to co-create thriving schools and contribute to safe, healthy, and fair communities (CASEL 2020).

Emotional education and inclusive education answer the basic formative needs of all students. When talking about education the main focus is not competence. We never, or very rarely, find anything about formative needs. How can we define formative needs? Basically, it is what the students need to be successful. Everybody should be given the chance to get better. Why? Because the most important formative need is to promote positive motivational beliefs and self-esteem. You can’t build up anything without that. The teachers should observe and monitor the class in order to clarify the formative needs of everyone. We find lots and lots of literature talking about formative assessment but how can you do it if you don’t recognize formative needs first? They are not only linked with knowledge gain or the learning process. Basically, to fulfill a formative need you have to use tools that identify misconceptions, struggles, and learning gaps,…and find a way to close all these gaps.

Emotional education and inclusive education are interwoven. A classroom is a place where students come from a range of different backgrounds, and hold different beliefs. Socio-emotional education tries to find constructive ways to deal with emotions and interact with one another in respectful ways helping each other to become more self-conscious and socially aware, and to build positive relationships with others thus becoming active and responsible citizens. It is about increasing the sense of belonging and well-being of all students and teachers.

How Inclusive am I? 
Read the article by Scott I. (2021) on “Becoming a More Inclusive Educator”

What inspires you? Would you like to share it with your peers on the forum?