5.1 Inclusive education and dilemmas of difference
5.1.3 Salaahiyat ke hisaab se: Following individual time
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might be…yes, they are different schools. But this should not happen. We must have everyone together…poor, rich, disability students must be taught together. We should not identify that these students are this and you will not be able to learn….(Yasmin,
Ahmedabad)
Teaching everyone together involves teaching students together across lines of difference, here class and disability, and not identifying difference. Identifying difference is viewed as a form of discrimination, singling out, and as a way in which expectations might be lowered. Dissolving difference involves “dealing with all students in the same way” and “no one is flawed.” Further, dissolving difference, especially disability as difference, involves considering disabled children as “normal”, “they should not feel that they are different from others, they are like everyone else.” Teachers consider it their responsibility to teach this form of inclusion to the students, to prevent bullying, and to ensure children form friendships across lines of difference. Partiality or favoritism is considered particularly problematic. Further, teachers attempt to dissolve individual differences through group work, such that “weak students” can learn from their high-achieving peers.
As discussed in the previous chapter, difference is constructed in time and pace. Within this orientation to the dilemma of difference, difference is viewed as a site of potential
discrimination and stigmatization (Artiles, 1998). Paradoxically, in attempting to enact inclusion by dissolving difference, the futility of these attempts is highlighted. Teachers recognize the paradox of curriculum times, enacting inclusion in another vein.
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The second way of doing inclusion emphasizes responding to individual differences by identifying and catering to the needs and preferences of individual children. Instead of trying to ensure collective pace and uniform standards of learning, teachers seek to work along with the pace of the child, “if not today, he’ll understand later”. As Angelica explains,
Suppose I’m teaching, one particular topic. And if there’s one child who understands quickly, they’ll answer quickly, they’ve understood. Suppose multiplication. Children are learning multiplication and one child has learned it. Some other child is facing problems.
They need more time. So I am giving them that time. You have this time and I will give you extra explanations, I will call out your name and explain it to you. But it’s not that I’m doing an injustice with other children. I am explaining according to their need. It is like that. (Angelica, Mumbai)
The context within which difference is understood is speed, such that slowness is constructed as need. Inclusive practice for teachers is about providing additional time and additional instruction to those who “need” it. In observations, I find that teachers accomplish this extra time and extra attention within whole class instruction by sitting next to individual students and addressing their doubts. In some cases, teachers modified tasks, changing the level of difficulty for the child.
Children identified as out of age, out of pace, and out of sync are not challenges to uniformity and togetherness – it is meeting their individual needs that is deemed as inclusion. In asserting that this is not “injustice with other children”, Angelica clarifies that paying attention to individual children based on their particular needs is not a form of favoritism. Unlike the
togetherness approach to inclusion, which requires attending to all children at the same time, the individual approach does not see paying attention to individual children as undesirable.
Difference is not stigmatizing but the expression of need.
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While pace is the predominant way of determining need, it is not the only way. Individual differences are also defined in terms of learning styles. In the next chapter, I will explore how NGOs introduce a range of teaching practices to address individual differences in the classroom.
In both schools, learning styles were commonly used by teachers to articulate their understanding of individual differences,
Yes, teachers need to care for the needs of each child. For example, some children listen and learn, some children are visual learners, some enjoy doing activities, some have fun through sports. I cannot demotivate anyone based on their grades. If that child is good at sports, it’s great. These are the diversities that exist between children. So my job is to make sure I do not demotivate any child. (Zoya, Mumbai)
Zoya points to different ways to understand difference. The first is learning styles. The second is the distinction between academic excellence and interest in domains that are less valued in school, like sports. The teachers’ task then is to ensure that each child, regardless of learning styles, grades, or interests, is not discouraged or neglected in the classroom in any way. Further, inclusion is the practice of using different teaching strategies based on individual needs,
What will inclusion look like in the classroom? Each child’s special need, their own individual needs, their individual ways of learning. The teacher takes each child’s needs and incorporates it into her lesson. This is how we see inclusion in the classroom.
(Yasmin, Mumbai)
Yasmin gives an example of a science lesson. She is proud of this lesson and references it often in conversations. To teach complex biological systems through different methods, she stuck pictures of the system on the board, made a flowchart on the board to explain the types of systems, and created a song with actions for students to be able to understand how different
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systems were connected. Teachers describe providing students with response options based on their preferences. For instance, Jackie, with the intent of student autonomy, provided submission options to students for the same homework assignment.
Teachers view understanding individual children as an imperative to being a good teacher. Even within large class sizes, teachers pride themselves on their knowledge of each child’s needs, abilities, and preferences,
even though I have 61 now if you ask me, I know each and every one personally. What their strength are, what their weaknesses are, which is the thing they lack in, you know with the help of inclusion you can do all these things which I personally... (Bushra, Mumbai)
Teachers set aside time during attendance, at the start of class to ask students about their day and check in with them, or through individual conversations over WhatsApp and phone calls.
Inclusion is described as speaking to students with love, being polite and considerate, and encouraging them to share their experiences in the classroom. Teachers seek to introduce individual differences in the classroom by including student voices and opinions in the classroom. Teachers talk about this process as a form of democratizing classrooms that have historically involved teacher control and greater teacher talk time. Inclusion is viewed as a possibility because “now our focus is on the kids”. Incorporating student voice, feedback, and preferences involves creative use of classroom time,
You will...you will listen to the kids also. You can't decide everything on your own. They also have mann (preferences) to do things.
Interviewer: Right. Right. But suppose one kids wants to draw and another wants to listen to a story, what will you…?
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You can do both the things. You can do both the things. You have 40 minutes. 20 minutes you can do coloring. Okay, today we will be doing one-page coloring and we will be doing it really nicely and we all will be doing it all together. And then that’s done, after that okay now, you all can close your books and then now we start with story.
(Haniya, Mumbai)
Haniya, the only teacher who identified as having a learning disability, describes strategies to respond to conflicting needs. Thus, teachers are invested in ensuring that children have the space to be different,
Inclusive education, I think it is equality... Like, everyone has the right to be educated, right hai. So, those who are not able I will not say not able but just different in... different with us, they also have right to just like educ...get educations and could be educated person. So, that thing I will... I think it's included in this. (Jackie, Ahmedabad)
Jackie switches from “not able” to “different in”, perhaps indicating that the inability to conform to existing standards of achievement does not count as ‘inability’ but is simply a form of
difference. Those rendered ‘different’ then also have the right to be educated. This stems from teachers’ belief in the potential of each child to learn,
Inclusive education means a kind of education where each child, whether they are disabled, whatever they are, every child can learn in the classroom. I mean I won’t see that okay this kid is disabled in something, or some kid has a hearing problem, or a child has an eye problem. Every student sit together and they learn. And by their own way.
(Khadija, Ahmedabad)
In declaring “by their own way”, Khadija makes clear that inclusion is about ensuring children with and without disabilities are included in the classroom without dissolving differences.
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Further, teachers express that teaching must occur in ways that students develop their interest in learning and do not feel “that I cannot do it, or this is something that I cannot do.” Being
inclusive here is to avoid comparison between children and focus on the individual. Teachers accomplish this by providing extra attention and not lowering expectations from children who may be viewed as low performing.
Overall, this way of enacting inclusion settles on responding to differences as the foundation of enacting inclusion. Instead of prioritizing the pace of the curriculum, this way of enacting inclusion prioritizes identifying and responding to the pace and capacity of individual children in the classroom. However, curriculum time cannot be bypassed, and its specter looms large in teacher attempts to create individualized classroom times. Individual needs are catered to and addressed almost surreptitiously, maneuvering time and institutional pressures.