Approaches to Inclusion. Institutional and Professional Requirements for its Implementation in the EFL Classroom

Seminar paper from the year 2016 in the subject Pedagogy - Common Didactics, Educational Objectives, Methods, grade: 1,3, University of Frankfurt (Main), language: English, abstract: When it comes to the topic inclusion, it is very hard to keep it simple, as the term itself carries a wide complexity and paradoxical elements. It opens up a broad field within the social, theoretical and practical contexts. Since The UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, inclusion became a legally binding right, and its implications within the educational system are immense. The concept of inclusive pedagogy and inclusive classroom became important to the EFL classroom.

Within the seminar Inclusion and Differentiation - Methods Embracing All Students in the Modern EFL Classroom, we concentrated for the most part on practical expressions of the idea of inclusion regarding inclusive didactics and inclusive methods. As a future teacher, I am grateful for any practical tools I can use to teach prospective students in the EFL classroom. However, the question that lingers is, why should I even care about inclusive didactics and methods in the first place? What is the basis and fundamental idea behind this? For me, this paper is a search for the reason why I should consider inclusive methods. I want to take a step back and inquire about the basics of inclusion. Where does it come from? What is its history within legal rights, and what concepts are there to define the term inclusion? How did the UN Convention affect requirements that relate to institutional and professional foundations?

The three main questions concern inclusion as a human right, concepts and definitions of inclusion, and the institutional and professional requirements of an inclusive school system. I will present scientific approaches and attempts to determine similarities and differences. I will start out with a selective chronological order of the legal historical declarations and conventions of inclusion, aiming to provide a basis for the definition of the term and its practical influence. The definition of the term inclusion is important to show the diversity of approaches and descriptions. I will start out with the comparison of inclusion to integration, and continue with its connection to inclusive schools and inclusive education. In the last chapter I will present structural necessities in the original form of the UN Convention and discuss requirements concerning the level of institutions and professionals.