ABSTRACT
The importance that the Department for Education Skills places upon educational inclusion is perhaps exemplified nowhere more clearly than in the OFSTED guidance for inspectors and schools Evaluating Educational Inclusion (OFSTED, 2000). The document begins by addressing inspectors in the following manner:
It is, therefore, not surprising that the prime position in the list of Professional Values and Practices is given to a standard premised upon a belief in equality of educational opportunities. Standard 1.1 states that student teachers are expected to ‘have high expectations of all pupils; respect their social, cultural, linguistic, religious and ethnic backgrounds; and are committed to raising their educational achievement’. The TTA Handbook of Guidance (TTA, 2003) is quite clear about the scope of the task involved in meeting this Standard, which encapsulates the essence of teaching and learning:
Teachers need to know how to draw on their awareness and understanding of their pupils’ social, cultural, linguistic, religious and ethnic backgrounds to support learning and to teach in ways that engage and challenge pupils.
