Personal Research Journey

As an early childhood special education specialist, I am professionally and personally passionate about young children with disabilities having every opportunity – socially, emotionally, academically – as their same-age peers.  I have chosen to focus my simulation on the effectiveness of inclusive practices in early childhood education with the three subtopics being the benefits of inclusion, establishing an inclusive culture, and overcoming the barriers of inclusion.

My teaching career began on a self-contained special education campus that served children between the ages of 3 – 22 with varying abilities and disabilities.  For many of these children placement in a general education classroom would have been the most restrictive learning environment.  My fifth year of teaching, I transitioned to teaching children that were 3-, 4-, and 5-years-old with disabilities in a self-contained special education classroom on a general education campus.  For some of my students, placement in my classroom was the least restrictive environment (LRE); however, for others, my classroom was more restrictive, and for these students my classroom became a transition into the general education classroom.  It became my goal to “kick these students out of my classroom” and transition them into the general education classroom with their grade-level peers.

As a specialist serving multiple school districts and charter schools, I am discovering more children being served in self-contained special education classrooms and less being served in the general education classroom with their grade-level peers.  I want to learn more about how to help early childhood educators and parents understand the benefits of early childhood inclusive practices.  To do this I need to develop a better understanding of the overall benefits of inclusion for children with and without disabilities, how to develop a healthy inclusive culture within the classroom and on the campus, and what barriers to inclusion there are and how to overcome these barriers to ensure successful inclusion in early childhood.

One of my favorite references to share during professional development training and conversations with educators and families on inclusion in early childhood is the Policy Statement on Inclusion of Children with Disabilities in Early Childhood Programs released in 2015 by the U.S. Department of Education and Department of Health and U.S. Human Services.  It states that "inclusion in early childhood programs refers to including children with disabilities in early childhood programs, together with their peers without disabilities; holding high expectations and intentionally promoting participation in all learning and social activities, facilitated by individualized accommodations; and using evidence-based services and supports to foster their development (cognitive, language, communication, physical, behavioral, and social-emotional), friendships with peers, and sense of belonging” (ED & HHS, 2015).  

As we progress through Week 1 and now transition to Week 2, I am beginning to be develop a better understanding that as I explore research articles, new articles, websites, and other medias about the early childhood inclusion, I must be mindful of what is truly research-based materials and reports.  These articles, websites, et.al. must adhere to the to the accepted standards/guidelines regarding quality research and/or scientific information.  To truly serve the district administrators, educators, parents, and children, it is my responsibility to ensure the information used to coach, train, and inform is from high-quality research.  

The internet is overflowing with information and research on early childhood, special education, and inclusive practices.  I tend to search information on one topic and gradually find myself with multiple tabs and windows open in Google.  It is easy for me to become overwhelmed with an over abundant amount of information that may or may not be related to my initial search topic. I try to save research documents in my Google-drive and website in Symbaloo.  I am curious, how do you manage the information and resources you acquire when researching a topic?  

Reference:

U.S. Department of Education (ED) and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).  (2015).  Policy Statement on Inclusion of Children with Disabilities in Early Childhood Programs.  Retrieved January 13, 2019 from https://sites.ed.gov/idea/files/joint-statement-full-text.pdf.