Inclusive Education : What has happened in the last 30 Richard Rieser 2009 unpublished written for book to be edited Tony Booth What has been the nature of your involvement in the desegregation and mainstream participation of disabled children in England in the period Thirty years ago I was in my first year of teaching at Hackney Downs , an school which had only been comprehensive for four years. The intake was predominantly Afro-Caribbean, Asian and Turkish with around 20% white. Like in many Inner London Schools the staff were highly politicised and strongly organised in the NUT. I had previously done a post graduate research degree at LSE, a three year stint in a factory, taught part time in further and higher education and completed a PGCE. The staff in the Humanities department spent a lot of time developing a more comprehensive curriculum, combining world history, geography and an understanding of society and beliefs, combined with English. We did a lot of team teaching. In the Upper School I taught geography and under the CSE Mode 3 we had the possibility of shaping the curriculum and assessments, to both draw on the experiences of our pupils and to be interesting and stimulating. We relied heavily on course work and engaged the majority of our students. However, those with special educational needs were not well served by what was provided. I remember having a long haired pupil from a nearby special school, on outreach for Geography, and not being told until after a term that he was deaf and relied on lip reading. Soon after starting, the Warnock Report was hotly debated and the trade union response to the proposed integration it advocated was to perceive it as a threat to teachers’ jobs and conditions. This was because from 1978 the Labour Government had had to go in hand’ to the international Monetary Fund, ‘cap following a speculator driven on the pound’ against Labour’s policies and the ‘run IMF had demanded cutbacks in public expenditure.
Inclusive Education : What has happened in the last 30 Richard Rieser 2009 unpublished written for book to be edited Tony Booth What has been the nature of your involvement in the desegregation and mainstream participation of disabled children in England in the period Thirty years ago I was in my first year of teaching at Hackney Downs , an school which had only been comprehensive for four years. The intake was predominantly Afro-Caribbean, Asian and Turkish with around 20% white. Like in many Inner London Schools the staff were highly politicised and strongly organised in the NUT. I had previously done a post graduate research degree at LSE, a three year stint in a factory, taught part time in further and higher education and completed a PGCE. The staff in the Humanities department spent a lot of time developing a more comprehensive curriculum, combining world history, geography and an understanding of society and beliefs, combined with English. We did a lot of team teaching. In the Upper School I taught geography and under the CSE Mode 3 we had the possibility of shaping the curriculum and assessments, to both draw on the experiences of our pupils and to be interesting and stimulating. We relied heavily on course work and engaged the majority of our students. However, those with special educational needs were not well served by what was provided. I remember having a long haired pupil from a nearby special school, on outreach for Geography, and not being told until after a term that he was deaf and relied on lip reading. Soon after starting, the Warnock Report was hotly debated and the trade union response to the proposed integration it advocated was to perceive it as a threat to teachers’ jobs and conditions. This was because from 1978 the Labour Government had had to go ‘cap in hand’ to the international Monetary Fund, following a speculator driven ‘run on the pound’ against Labour’s policies and the IMF had demanded cutbacks in public expenditure.
Inclusive-Education-RR-for-TB-2.docx