The Application of Inclusive Principles and Practice in Schools in South India: Successes and Challenges

The Right to Free and Compulsory Education Act (Ministry of Human Resource Development 2009) requires that all schools in India make provision to include children who have previously been denied opportunities to formal education. Many teachers working in Indian schools have expressed their concerns that they are inadequately prepared to address the needs of a more diverse population (Soni and Rahman 2013), and that there is a need to provide greater access to professional development in this area. This chapter considers the ways in which teachers who have undertaken an accredited course focused upon inclusive education, have attempted to apply their learning within a range of school contexts in South India. Having completed a two year course, teachers were interviewed to identify changes in their practices in assessment, planning and delivery of lessons to children in their classes. The authors used data from the interviews to construct case studies and these in turn were utilised as a focus for discussion with groups of teachers in order to ascertain their perceptions of those factors which either support or inhibit changes in classroom practice.
Examples of innovative practice were identified and indicate that skills, knowledge and understanding gained through professional development have been applied and are having a positive impact in classrooms. However, in some schools there are significant challenges in disseminating these changes beyond the individual teacher who has received training in order to influence sustainable change.