Inclusive Education in China

Ideas, Practices, and Challenges

Wangqian Fu

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2022
• ISBN:
  9781000596502
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Inclusive Education

By adopting a comparative approach, this book investigates the philosophy, policy, practices, and challenges of inclusive education in the Chinese contexts, recognizing influences of Chinese culture, such as Confucianism, collectivism, and familism.

In the 1980s, the Chinese government promoted a policy named "Learning in Regular Classroom" to ensure educational rights for children with disabilities, which subsequently turned into an inclusive education program in the western sense. Starting from this point, the policy and practice of inclusive education have developed tremendously. To facilitate reflection and future development, this is the latest and most comprehensive attempt at understanding the status quo of inclusive education in China from a variety of perspectives: from early childhood to higher education, from family to schools and communities, from peers to teachers and parents. It also analyzed the unique Chinese philosophy of inclusive education, adding to current debates with a Chinese lens.

This book will appeal to academics, students, and practitioners in disciplines such as education, early childhood studies, sociology, social work, social policy, disability studies, and youth studies.

1 The concept of inclusive education in China

DOI: 10.4324/9781003221852-1

In June 1994, UNESCO held the World Conference on Special Needs Education in Salamanca, Spain, adopted the Framework for Action on Special Needs Education and issued the Salamanca Statement. The concepts of inclusive education and inclusive school were put forward, and from the perspective of protecting human rights, it emphasizes the protection of individuals' right to education and inclusive concept of non-discrimination (Dong, Fang, & Guo, 2017). Education must satisfy the needs of all children and the educational institutions for ordinary children should also accept all kinds of children and adolescents with special needs in their respective areas (UNESCO, 1994). In recent decades, developing inclusive educational practices has become a worldwide movement (Ainscow, 2005; Lindsay, 2007), including China. Successful inclusive education can not only provide equal access to education to all children but also, more importantly, provide appropriate education to students to achieve positive outcomes. Learning in regular classes (LRC) is an educational form of students with disabilities rose under the influence of Western inclusive education. LRC is usually considered to be the Chinese practice of inclusive education, and it is also considered to be the beginning of the exploration of inclusive education in China.

1.1 Inclusive education and LRC in China

LRC allows children with disabilities enter ordinary schools to receive compulsory education, which makes many children with disabilities outside the school's gates have access to school, and some Chinese scholars believe that LRC should belong to the category of inclusive education (Deng, 2004), which is the practice form of inclusive education with Chinese characteristics.

1.1.1 Inclusive education

With the progress of social and economic civilization, people with disabilities have experienced the transition from social exclusion, isolation, and integration. Children with disabilities have also experienced the same situation in education, gradually transitioning from isolation education to integrated education. The phenomenon of unequal educational opportunities for children with disabilities is still an indisputable fact. In response to this unequal educational opportunity, some developed countries began to implement compulsory education at the beginning of the 20th century, and children with disabilities were placed in specialized special education institutions to live and study. In the 1960s, new special education concepts such as normalization, anti-institutionalization, and return to the mainstream emerged. In the 1970s, the United States launched mainstream movement, the core idea of which was to allow children with disabilities to receive education in the least restrictive environment. Despite that, there is still a dual-track system of special education and general education in the education area, and children with disabilities are still isolated from the general education system. Until 1990s, inclusive education was put forward officially in the idea of Salamanca Statement (UNESCO, 1994).

Inclusive education is originally a suggestion for the educational placement of children with special needs. Its core proposition is not to isolate children with disabilities in a closed and isolated educational environment, but to enable them to truly receive education at all stages together with their normally developing peers. After that, inclusive education has developed into an educational ideology that penetrates the spirit of humanism and promotes the common development of normal children and special children (Gao & Guo, 2020). The concept of inclusive education has been universally recognized by the international community, and the practice of inclusive education has also been implemented in many countries and has achieved certain results. It became the mainstream direction of the development of education for individuals with disabilities, completely changing the traditional concept and development model of the separation of special education and general education (Li, 2013). The ultimate goal of inclusive education is to build education for all and an inclusive society. Its essential connotation and value orientation mainly include the following aspects (Ding & Li, 2017).

First, the value orientation of inclusive education points to fairness. Fairness is the first important element of inclusive education, and inclusive education is education based on rights and pointing toward fairness. The reason why children with disabilities should give priority to receiving education in the general education environment is that children with disabilities have the same right to receive education as ordinary children. This right is inherent and conforms to the essential attributes and requirements of individual growth and development. It is also a basic right granted to citizens by law. This right is equal only if it is realized in an integrated educational environment. Therefore, subject to individual conditions, allowing children with disabilities to receive inclusive education in the general education environment as much as possible is not only based on the need for children with disabilities to have equal rights to education, but also for the realization of educational equity and social justice (Ding, 2019). Education equity is the foundation of social fairness and an important channel to realize the rational flow of social strata. Education is a major livelihood issue, and educational equity is the starting point for social equity. The people's expectations for educational equity are far higher than those in other fields. The education of children with special needs highlights the importance of education equity. The report of the Eighteenth National Congress of the Communist Party of China regards the promotion of educational equity as an important task. While clarifying that education resources should be allocated to rural, remote, impoverished, and ethnic areas, it is especially proposed to support special education so that every child can have meaningful life.

Secondly, inclusive education is child-centered education. Inclusive education shines with the brilliance of humanism. People-oriented and teaching students in accordance with their aptitude are its basic connotations. Inclusive education focuses on individual differences and focuses on students. Inclusive education emphasizes that in an integrated education system, individual differences are taken care of to meet the diverse needs of students. Therefore, the establishment of the education system and the implementation of the education plan should take into account the wide differences in the characteristics and needs of special children and take their needs into consideration. Inclusive education is not only concerned with the educational rights of children with disabilities, allowing them to receive education with ordinary children, but more importantly, it emphasizes teaching students in accordance with their individual differences and special needs, paying attention to each child, and advocating the establishment of an inclusive education system and talent training model that not only has unified development requirements but also meets the personality differences of students, through inclusive education system and inclusive school reforms, so as to promote the high-quality development of each student and the improvement of the quality of education.

Besides, inclusive education is an inclusive and supportive education. The essential characteristics of inclusive education emphasize tolerance, acceptance, participation, cooperation, symbiosis and sharing, and oppose any discrimination and exclusion. It advocates providing more learning courses, cultural and sports activities, etc., so that children and adolescents with disabilities have more opportunities to participate in cooperation and learning, and promote the substantive integration of special students and ordinary students. However, one of the biggest problems of current school education and social life is that a considerable number of disabled students (including some ordinary students who are regarded as “poor students”) are often discriminated against, excluded, and marginalized. Therefore, inclusive education emphasizes the promotion of more student participation and cooperation (schools, community courses, culture and various activities, etc.), reducing exclusion and discrimination.

The beneficiaries of inclusive education are not only for children with disabilities. Typically developing children will also obtain spiritual growth and the joy of cooperation in inclusive education. Taking preschool inclusion as an example, in terms of personality development, some studies have found that preschool inclusive education can promote the acceptance and care of ordinary children to special groups, stimulate and deepen their emotional experience of caring, compassion, and helping others, and cultivate a sense of maturity and responsibility (Zhang, 2021). In terms of psychological development, Zhou Nianli proposed that preschool inclusive childcare and education have positive significance for the development of typically developing children theory of mind and the cultivation of self-efficacy; in terms of social development. Wang et al. (2021) have pointed out that ordinary children with preschool inclusive education experience show fewer prejudices and prejudices when dealing with others, respond more to the needs of others, and are more likely to help others. In addition, preschool inclusive education can make ordinary children from squeamish and willful to confident and responsible. Ordinary students and special students receive education together, and children with disabilities who have physical difficulties and the spirit of self-improvement will also affect typically developing children. Special attention should be paid to cultivating typically developing children who have the opportunity to grow up with disabled children to care for others and social development, so that they can learn to have a deeper understanding and respect for the disadvantaged in society, and make it easier for them to grow into outstanding citizens who build an inclusive society.

1.1.2 LRC

In fact, the form of LRC for children with disabilities scatteredly existed in China in the 1950s. In Chinese historical documents, there are long records of the education of individuals with disabilities in ordinary classes (Piao, 2014). For example, in the Education Yearbook of 1948, there is a record of blind people going to college. In the late 1970s, there were also instances of deaf and blind people studying and graduating in universities at home and abroad in Northeast China, Changsha, Beijing, Nanjing, and other places. In the early stages of reform and opening up, in some areas, children with intellectual disability, deaf children, and children with multiple disabilities were attending ordinary primary schools (Piao, 2004). Strictly speaking, the experiment of LRC in China began with Mr. Xu Bailun's “Golden Key” project for the visually impaired. In 1987, under the influence of the West's return to the mainstream and integrated thinking, Mr. Xu Bailun, who had experienced the pain of halfway blindness, conducted regular classes in Jiangsu, Hebei, Heilongjiang, Beijing Fangshan, and other places where blind children entered ordinary primary schools in their villages. The “Golden Key” project started an experiment to explore a new model of special education that suits China's national conditions. Beginning in 1987, 15 counties and cities across the country have carried out experimental studies on regular classes to explore the way for disabled children with Chinese characteristics to “return to the mainstream”. In 1989, the State Education Commission began to carry out LRC experiments in Beijing, Shandong, Liaoning, and other places, mainly targeting school-age children with intellectual and visual disabilities. In 1992, the State Education Commission commissioned a number of local governments and local education authorities to carry out regular class study trials for children and adolescents with hearing and speech impairments. During this period, the regular class study experiment has made great progress and fruitful results in popularizing compulsory education for special children, changing social concepts, and promoting the integration of special education and general education (Deng, 2004).

The emergence of LRC in China is since special education resources in China are far from meeting the demand of education for children with disabilities. According to data from the National Disability Sample Survey in 1987, there are more than 8 million school-age children with disabilities in mainland China. While the number and scale of special education schools at that time could not meet the enrollment requirements of the huge number of children with disabilities. And the financial and material resources at that time were not allowed to build large number of new and expanded special education schools. Under that circumstance, general education schools had to enroll children with disabilities in nearby schools and LRC have become an important way to increase the enrollment rate of compulsory education for children and adolescents with disabilities.

The early forms of LRC did not come from a rationally designed policy, but were subject to the objective conditions of insufficient educational conditions and lack of educational resources, not out of top-level design considerations in national policies. The term LRC first appeared in national documents in 1987. In December 1987, the State Education Commission clearly stated in the “Teaching Plan for Full-time Schools (Classes) for the Mentally Handicapped” (draft for comments) that “most children with mild mental retardation study in regular classes in ordinary schools”. In September 1988, the Five-Year Work Program for the Work for the Disabled in China (1989–1992) was released and the concept of LRC was formally put forward for the first time. In November 1988, LRC was established as the main form of special education in China at the National Special Education Working Conference. In addition, the meeting also exchanged experiences in developing special education in various regions, and proposed ways to develop special education suitable for China's specific conditions, that is, an education pattern for children and adolescents with disabilities is gradually formed with a certain number of special schools as the backbone, a large number of special education classes set up in ordinary schools, and the absorption of disabled children who can learn with the class as the main part (Piao, 1995). Nowadays, the state has formally adopted LRC as a policy for the development of special education.

In 1993, the Asia-Pacific “Special Education Seminar” was held in Harbin, Heilongjiang Province, and the concept of inclusion was introduced into China. Subsequently, there was an upsurge of research on inclusive education in China, and the development of regular classes in my country was discussed from the perspective of inclusion. In 1994, the State Education Commission held the “National Working Conference for Children with Disabilities in Regular Classes” in Jiangsu. At this meeting, the practical experience of studying in regular classes from the 1980s was systematically summarized (Hua, 2003). After that, the State Education Commission issued the “Trial Measures on Carrying Out the Work...