Towards Inclusive Education: Overcoming Implicit Bias of General Education Teachers

Inclusive Education described by Salamanca Statement (UNESCO, 1994) refers to a schooling in which all the children including the ones with special needs have access to regular class rooms with the help of adequate support. Inclusion in education means that the students having special needs spend most of their time with the non-disabled students, considered normal by the society. Inclusivity refers not only to physical and cognitive disabilities but also to the full range of human diversity including ability, language, age, culture, gender and other human differences. Although there is a wide spread support for the policy of inclusion but it seems difficult to implement it due to the lack of an overall level of acceptance of inclusive education among general-education teachers. Learning to live together, one of the agendas of Delor‟s commission, could not be achieved unless the teachers as well as the students of the mainstream schools learn to live with the children having special needs and are ready to accept them as one of their co-citizens in society. This paper seeks to discuss the bias of general education teachers towards the children with special needs. Some inclusive pedagogy practices for the successful inclusion of the entire class would also be discussed.