Bolton Data for Inclusion
The
Action Research Centre for Inclusion
(Sponsored
by: The Barrow Cadbury Trust)
at
Bolton Institute of Higher Education.
Data No 10 :
February 1997
Author(s) :
Joe Whittaker and John Kenworthy
Title :
Why Make Such a Meal of Inclusion?
Abstract :
This paper compares the challenges of having an important guest to dinner with the challenges facing a teacher in an inclusive education establishment.
Everyone should have
a right to a good education and good education demands good teachers.
Good teachers value different challenges in order that they are able to
maintain their freshness and zest for teaching.
A teacher's repertoire of teaching skills can be enhanced and increased
when their existing talents are exposed to new challenges.
An increased repertoire of teaching skills means that the teacher is in a
stronger position to accommodate a greater diversity of students within any
learning environment.
When an individual, who may have a particular learning disability, participates
within a mainstream setting, they contribute challenges that the good teacher,
will attempt to meet by being more creative in their use of strategies and
resources.
Creative teaching is more likely to be restricted when students who seek a more
creative approach to learning are excluded from the mainstream of education.
Consequently, teachers are denied the challenges that will enhance their
teaching talents. As a result of
excluding people from the mainstream of education the whole system and all
participants within it are diminished because of the lack of creativity
demanded.
The narrowness of
teaching styles that results from the restricted demands can be compared with
the cooking habits of the "average" English household.
It has been observed (by us!) that the average repertoire of meals over a
given period of time is around six or seven.
Not a particularly extensive repertoire.
Families can become more familiar with the way in which the meal is
cooked and the night of the week it will be served rather than its impact upon
the digestive system. Such a menu
can be seen as safe and reliable but often reassuringly dull.
Let us consider the consequences of inviting an "outsider" around for
an evening meal. Often hasty, but a
reasonable amount of planning is completed before the guest is received.
Out comes the dusty cook-book, discussions about what the person likes;
will they eat meat; do they throw up with the smell of boiled fish; should we
have a stodgy dessert or something light to follow a stew (or should we refer to
it as casserole when entertaining?).
After the person has been welcomed and
provided with a well-cooked meal, the evening will often evolve into an
environment that is comfortably enjoyable.
Pleased you made that little extra effort, you feel contented.
However, the rewards don't stop there!
The benefits to the eating repertoire of your family are often
significantly enhanced. The rest of
the family may now look at a new menu with renewed vigour and which contains
other culinary delights and quite effortlessly you have transformed Thursday's
Shepherds Pie to a Pork Surprise - most of the household will be delighted.
Just when you were
feeling rather proud of yourself and contented with the rather novel, but
enlightening experience, of some "outsider" coming for a meal, some
joker within the household has invited a "Professional Cook" to taste
your delights. She/he may well be a
cook in the factory canteen or the owner of a corner cafe but, in the state of a
panic attack that envelops, you have quickly bestowed upon the prospective
visitor the label of "The Cordon Bleu
Chef". They obviously eat
wonderful food every night, how can they possibly be impressed by my meagre
attempts to serve them edible food? I
don't want to look incompetent in front of the whole family.
I don't want to be found out!
The initial reaction is to check the diary to see if there is any
possibility of a respectable cancellation, or can one of the kids have German
Measles again? Or can we pretend we
have an important, long-standing engagement? - who are they trying to kid?
Once the dreaded event has been accepted
gracefully, but nevertheless reluctantly, and you have been persuaded to take
responsibility for the evening entertainment (including the menu!), a more
detailed plan of action is called for.
First stop is Asda, the supermarket for a sophisticated cookbook, or is there
one in the bottom cupboard (bought as a Christmas Present by some naive
relative)? This cook book provides
not only exotic recipes but clearly demonstrates how you set the table, how you
serve the meal and what wine goes with what course, how many glasses you might
use, making sure you don't sit your visitor at the place with the chipped dinner
plate.
The event arrives, you greet this "Michelin 4 **** visitor". The palms of your hands and your armpits are hot and sweaty,
but you maintain a smile on your face and the familiar complimentary platitudes
are exchanged about your cuisine.
After the fourth glass of wine when, you realise your invited guest has no meat
skewer coming from the head and conversation flows more easily and everyone is
feeling comfortable, the menu experience has been relegated to the second
division. You realise that few
people are going to be critical of the collapsed soufflé, or the ice cube in
the red wine or the bullet-like peas, as long as they have a feeling of being
welcomed and included in your home. However,
the skills we can learn by going through this process can again have many
positive "spin offs" for the rest of the family, adding a new
dimension to weekday eating habits. Serving
soup with croutons is not necessarily better than dunking bread - just
different.
If in the first instance, we would have been courageous enough to ask our
visitor what do they enjoy eating? Or if it is something really sophisticated
they desired, could they themselves make suggestions.
They may even let you in on one of their personal recipes and give you
some free advice on how to serve it up!
The chances are they can manage the odd dish of junk food like everybody else -
the most important feature about eating habits have little to do with a
sophisticated menu, but more to do with the act of eating and sitting around the
table together!!!
Further information is available from:
Karen Barton (k.barton@bolton.ac.uk)
Bolton Institute
Chadwick Street
Bolton, BL2 1JW
England