We do, I believe, have to be wary in our own musings that we do not disenfranchise, or belittle the professional status of, any particular group working within the area of special education. This can be done quite innocently and unintentionally. Here is a hypothetical but entirely possible situation:
A Specialist Educational Centre employs both unit class teachers and itinerating teachers. The school holds the belief and is seen to overtly state that:
"Students who are in the unit classes make better progress in the curriculum than those who are in the mainstream." As employers of teachers in both situations this could be seen by implication to suggest that the role of the itinerating staff therefore are of less importance. If indeed this was the view then one would need to question the validity of that centre employing the itinerating staff. By virtue of the stated pedagogical view point it could be extrapolated that the centre would view resources as better directed towards unit classes. What I am getting at is that there exists in this scenario an implied conflict of interests. To be truly effective and inclusive the Centre should hold more of a philosophy that students will do well in which ever placement and the centre is critical to making that happen within a continuum of service and placement options and that decisions around these placements will be made with the collaboration of the parents and specialists.
