Authentic Approaches to Inclusive Education

Tim Villegas: As you’re thinking about, you know, how inclusion actually impacts learners. If you have any, stories or thoughts that come to mind.

Aaron Lanou: Yeah. Yeah, a lot of times when I talk about inquisitive practice, I have this little, keynote animated video thing I’ve developed, that I don’t think translates as well, just purely audio, but I’ll do my best to sort of describe it. It frames. The way I think about it, and that’s, you know, sort of simply as, thinking about learning as climbing a mountain, all, all people have to do it.

It’s hard work to climb a mountain. learning is hard. the way we’ve designed school, Kids don’t just have to climb the mountain of learning. They have to climb the mountain of learning that we’ve like thrown all these boulders on top of. And the boulders are things like, Hey, in order to learn, let’s say math, you also have to sit still for 45 minutes at a time, that’s not like required of learning, that’s like in the way we’ve designed school, In order to learn math, you’ve got to, listen to and attend to and retain a lot of verbal information

That’s not required for learning, that’s just how we do school, right? And there’s a lot of those things. We just, the way we’ve set up the system of schooling requires things that aren’t expected of actual learning, but are expected you, expected of kids to do well in school the way we made it, right?

And so each of those things, like sit still, listen to me, attend, produce written work, are all these like boulders or barriers we throw in kids paths on their climb up this, right, learning mountain. And the thing is, it’s different kids come to the base of that mountain, with different tools naturally, because humans are different

Some kids come To the base of the mountain with like pickaxes and shovels and stuff that are really good for getting over that boulder, the sit still boulder. No problem. Now I can learn math in school other kids come with other tools that are great tools, like, screwdrivers, which is a great, very handy tool.

I installed a dimmer switch in my, in my apartment the other day. Well, I thought I was going to electrocute myself and burn down the building and I didn’t know. Screwdrivers a great tool. Kids might have like a snorkel snorkels, a great tool. It just doesn’t help you when you’re climbing a mountain, trying to get over a boulder.

We don’t value those strengths that Kids bring to school. We value only certain subset of strengths that kids bring to school. And so getting to inclusive practice, like the way I think about it is, like weaving, a net of support over the mountain. when boulders come crashing down on top of the mountain, it catches at least most.

Of the stuff that’s going to get in kids way and impede their journey. So like, if sitting still is an expectation, we have desks and chairs and they’re not well designed, but we can make movement breaks, just normal practice in our classroom. We can incorporate body movement, to the extent that kids are able to, in, into lessons like meaningfully.

Right. if we expect kids to listen a lot, attend, remember information, we can also Right directions on the board. We can have visual supports. We can create broken down checklists for kids. so like there are things we can do practices we can do that like minimize the impact of these unnecessary barriers we’ve created in the way we’ve designed school.

Tim Villegas: What are some barriers inclusively minded teachers, face in schools that still segregate learners?

Aaron Lanou: There’s often a misconception of inclusion as a place, right? We’re doing our job by, by the fact that the kid with an IEP is in this particular class and we know that’s not inclusion. inclusion involves, The structures that get the kid into that space in part, but they’re also practices and they’re also like mindsets that right, like philosophy approach, And so I sometimes talk about the M and M’s of inclusive education, a catchy way to try to remember those things, which is like, method mindset.

The S at the end is for those structures. So you need the method, you need the practices, you need to know what tools to use. but if all you have is like a great graphic organizer and you don’t know who to work, who to use it with, like you’re a little stuck, right? Graph can be organized for everyone, even if you don’t need it.

And it’s the wrong one, you need the mindset, you need the approach, you need the understanding, of why and when, you need that like commitment to strengths based, work. So we don’t fall into sort of, you know, deficitized kinking and models of supporting kids.

And you need those structures, the systems you need to make sure that the kids are actually. In the building the building is accessible and there’s professional development support for teachers. So you need Mindset, method and structures. barriers show up in each one of those things, unfortunately, um, for the teachers you’re describing, right?

Like there are mindset barriers. If you find yourself in a school where you’re really committed to inclusion and it’s not the norm, it can be exhausting. It can be isolating. you might have to deal with. Either condescending or sometimes like combative things that your colleagues say or hint about your work.

And that’s not great. you might fall into this thing where there’s not shared responsibility and commitment. That’s really hard you might be like, Working in a, in a place and a culture where like it’s very medical, my medical model mindset of like, you know, kids have certain kids have problems.

And it’s your job to fix them. I don’t have to worry about it. that’s the mindset stuff. Then there’s the practice stuff you might not have the resources, you might not have the, access to training and support that you need to know what to do.

Yeah. To support your students. you might not have the students in your room that should be there You might not have a co teacher all the time because the funding or the scheduling, you know, hasn’t allowed for it.

You might be constantly having to advocate for your kids to be able to go on field trips or like be at the assembly, even though assemblies often are terrible. And I, Would love for any kids to not, you know, have an alternative if they’re not even thought of not even included, right? They’re just like structural Systemic things that explain kids all the time.

I think they show up in all those spots all the things we want to have work in kids favor sometimes unfortunately Do the opposite?