Perspectives on inclusive early education
Dr Cathy Nutbrown and Professor Peter Clough

Dr Cathy Nutbrown of the University of Sheffield and Professor Peter Clough of Queen's University, Belfast, summarise their findings concerning the perspectives of UK practitioners on special educational needs and inclusive early education.

In recent years early education in the UK has been the subject of intensive policy development, with recognition that early childhood education and care is a major factor in a country's economic development (OECD, 2001). Wales has radical new proposals for learning opportunities from birth to seven (QCAAW, 2004). In Scotland, the future of early years provision lies in strategic integration (SE, 2003), and provision for the early years is currently under review in Northern Ireland (DENI, 2004). The Curriculum Guidance for the Foundation Stage in England (QCA, 2000) highlights the diverse needs of children and the inclusive principle alongside multi-agency, multi-professional working and involvement of parents. These UK policies are paralleled in many other European countries as gradual international movement towards inclusion gains momentum.

This project compared the different approaches of pre-school educators across the UK to teaching young children with learning difficulties. It aimed to take 'snapshots' of views and practices from volunteer participants from a wide range of settings and services, using a variety of curricular and pedagogic approaches. Ninety-four pre-school educators were questioned either by questionnaires, email dialogues, or face-to-face interviews.

Distribution of respondents across three types of pre-school provision in the four countries

Five key themes emerged:

• educators' personal experiences
• professional development
  
• views of childhood
  
• inclusion and exclusion
• the roles of parents.

Pre-school educators had a wide range of personal experiences, roles, responsibilities and backgrounds. All but three said they had some experiences of working with children with learning difficulties - most with just one or two children. The learning needs and difficulties most commonly listed as exceptionally demanding were emotional and behavioural difficulties (including ADHD), autistic spectrum disorder, and multiple and physical learning difficulties.

Three respondents said they had specific responsibility for children with learning difficulties and all respondents, though their roles and responsibilities varied, shared the common experience of daily contact with young children at work. The majority of participants were working in provision which they regarded as "non-specialist".

Surprisingly few respondents felt appropriately equipped for their work with children with learning difficulties. Most (89 of 94 respondents) reported that their understanding was derived "on the job" through experience. The few who valued their professional development highly were experienced professionals who had studied in areas related to early education, special educational needs and inclusion at postgraduate level.

Rating of professional development and the impact of experience on educators' professional insight and knowledge

Respondents' views of early childhood fell into two broad areas. The first was that childhood is a vulnerable state where adults must protect children from risk. The second was that childhood is a time of discovery, of oneself as well as of knowledge of the world, where adults have the responsibility to support and encourage.

Few were unequivocal advocates for full inclusion. Participants fell into one of three categories of statements:

• all children should be included
• children should be included "in principle"
• children with learning difficulties should not be included.

Educators' beliefs on inclusion and exclusion

"Yes, in some cases, but not all. It must be beneficial to the SEN child but not disruptive to the other children." (Nursery nurse, Wales)

Six respondents said that children with learning difficulties should not be included:

"No, some children cannot tolerate the presence of their peers and become very distressed." (Playleader, Scotland)

Many of our "Yes - but…" respondents identified the availability of adequate support as an issue. Though such resources can be crucial, it is often equally a matter of professional willingness and responsiveness; arguably, it is teaching not children which needs support.

There was broad agreement that parents should be involved in their young children's learning and development programmes, though views differed. Overwhelmingly, it was suggested that parents should be included because:

• parents need information about processes, systems and intervention strategies
• parents have ultimate responsibility for the care and education of their children
• fundamentally, parents spend more time with and have the most intimate knowledge of their children.

Some behavioural difficulties have been explained by a lack of parental support for children at home. A small number of participants felt that, where emotional and behavioural difficulties were a concern, parental involvement would exacerbate existing difficulties.

We are cautious about making any general claims as a result of our findings, but our work and related literature lead us to four broad conclusions:

• different policy responses in the four countries of the UK seek to achieve similar goals of inclusion
• pre-school educators are broadly supportive of inclusive early education
• pre-school educators' responses and emphases vary according to professional background and experience of systems and settings
• pre-school educators have strong views on inclusion of children with learning difficulties and are willing to share these views with openness and honesty.

There is still much to learn about the ways in which various policies of UK countries are realised in practice and how practitioners' views are embodied in their setting-based work. This is a task for future research.

References

P. Clough and C. Nutbrown (2003) Inclusion and exclusion in the early years: viewpoints from European educators, paper presented at the EECERA Conference, September 2003, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow.
P. Clough and C. Nutbrown (2004) Special Educational Needs and Inclusive early education: perspectives of UK practitioners, Journal of Early Childhood Research, vol. 2, no.1, pp. 191-211.
Department of Education in Northern Ireland (2004) Review of Preschool Education in Northern Ireland, Bangor, Co. Down: DENI.
Qualifications Curriculum and Assessment Authority for Wales (2004) The Foundation Phase in Wales: a draft framework for children's learning, Cardiff: National Assembly for Wales.
C. Nutbrown and P. Clough (2004) Inclusion and exclusion in the early years: conversations with European educators, European Journal of Special Needs Education, vol. 19, no. 3, pp. 301-315.
Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (2001) Starting Strong: Early Childhood Education and Care, Paris: OECD.
Qualifications and Curriculum Authority/Department for Education and Employment (2000) Curriculum Guidance for the Foundation Stage, London: QCA.
Scottish Executive (2003) Integrated Strategy for Early Years - consultation document, Edinburgh: Children and Young People's Group, Scottish Executive.

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