An Inclusive Education Debate Education Essay

An Inclusive Education Debate Education Essay The debate on inclusive education is bound to yield conflicting findings. Based on findings already reported in the research, and diversity in the process of inclusion, the field offers much scope for further study. First, the extent to which inclusion benefits students with various special needs whether they be academic, social, and functional in terms of life skills outcomes are yet to be ascertained. It is vital to assess this outcome of special education with reference to attitudes of the teaching community, infrastructure development, political back up and social supports to come to a conclusion about the benefits of special education in the inclusive setting. Special education research must hence intensify its emphasis upon student outcomes in relation to the general education classroom. The extent of teachers reception of the concept must be surveyed among students with special needs and the general student community to further generate data on the validity of the surveys taken on teachers. Only a two sided approach will help control against the urge to give socially acceptable views on survey questions as opposed to actual views to inclusion to ensure its success. This millennium is special in itself as its an era of accountability. It would be interesting to study the teaching communitys expectations of student outcomes for students of different disability types and degrees. This study may hold particular significance as it helps assess the attitude of teachers towards students with different types of special needs. In this study we have assessed teachers views on inclusivity, on collaborative efforts and improvement strategies and seen the overall gender based bias in views on these issues. Although supported by recent statistics, more research is needed to confirm these findings. Further, there is a need to further conduct correlative investigations on teachers attitudes and opinions of inclusion in relation to student outcomes in order to better understand how the concept of inclusion has been understood, evolved and practiced in todays educational forefront. It is apparent that teachers do have preferences and significant attitudes relati ng to the populations of students to whom they provide inclusive education. Both quantitative and qualitative attitude research may further delineate practical approaches to serve various student populations effectively. Education is not the only sector struggling with the tension between social justice-in rhetoric and social justice-in-practice. The education system has long moved past the conventional beliefs and stigmas that girls cant do that and the boys cant do this debates. Even in this age of globalization where gender inequality is taboo however, many teachers are protective of their turf in the curriculum and want to deny access to the curriculum by some learners. Hence the gender bias in education is still a topic whose limits are yet to be exhausted. Teacher stress in general and inclusive education is another field to be considered. In an age where stress and its ill effects are listed in every known field, the burden of inclusive education if any has to be assessed on the teaching community, the children with special needs and the general student population. In support of this theory, research shows that teachers feel ill equipped at times when they deal with the varied range of needs even though they play a key role in changing a students life (Forlin, Hattie Douglas, 1996). McGowan (1984, cited in Trent, 2002) estimated that approximately one quarter of teachers were experiencing acute stress and burnout. There is little evidence to suggest that teacher stress has diminished over subsequent decades. Though teachers play a major key role in shaping up the student generation, inadequacy and the feeling of frustration are the potential barriers to inclusive education. Such challenges are compounded where curriculum and assessment demands may appear inflexible. Pedagogical decision making is another key area of research that has to be widely explored. The real key to inclusivity is through wise pedagogical decisions that will save teachers from the stress of an unbending curriculum and the students from its burden. In fact, advocates of inclusion do not tend to focus upon inclusive education as a product but as a process (Robertson, 1999; Booth Ainscow, 2002; Winzer et al, 2000) founded very much on the democratic principles of mutual respect and collaboration (Jacobson, 2000; Marshall et al, 2002). Inclusive processes are becoming central to school effectiveness research and development. School communities must be invited to reduce the barriers to learning and participation through a collaborative investigation of the schools cultures, policies and practices and to set new priorities for development (Booth Ainscow, 2002). Hence the identification of these barriers and devising methods to overcome them gain prime importance if we expect inclusivity to gain success and acceptance. Initiatives for school effectiveness are attracting global attention for their potential to build collaborative learning communities that support individual learner success. A research-based framework must be laid down to guide teacher learning and development toward school improvement. Social justice, equity and inclusivity must be considered as the foreground and measures to investigate relationships between enhanced student outcomes and school-based management practices, both social and academic (Hayes, Lingard Mills, 2001) must be devised. The need to focus on alignment of curriculum, pedagogy and assessment are central to effective schooling. Educators need to shift their pedagogical focus from testing and reporting on outcomes to supporting and improving outcomes from schooling. The development of positive and self-fulfilling values within all participants in education depends on building learner confidence within a supportive learning environment. This is true for all learners whether they are experienced teachers participating in school improvement processes or whether they are learners who have been disadvantaged within the educational system. For inclusivity to gain its full strength, the educational system should be equipped with teaching fraternity with the following attributes that include: awareness of the history of injustice as a result of discrimination against diversity, recognition and acceptance, (Henderson, 2001); and the ability to collaboratively implement innovations. A system with these attributes will be able to accept difference as the norm and enrich schooling through sensitivity and responsiveness to the diverse contexts of students lives.

The athletic apparel industry of Nike

The athletic apparel industry in which Nike is involved is a major money maker in the United States, but the fact that none of the factories are located in North America has brought some heat to the company. Nike controls more than 40 percent of the U.S. Market for sports related goods, but doesn†t have a single sneaker factory in this country (Miller 1). Nike continues to make millions of dollars yet exploits workers overseas by paying them very little, while requiring long hours without overtime pay in factories that are not up to â€Å"American† standard. Nike subcontractors employ nearly 500,000 workers in plants in Indonesia, China and Vietnam (Saporito 1). The exploitation of workers in Third World counties, where the majority of Nike†s labor is done sparks a controversial issue. People question why is it that Nike continues these practices. According to â€Å"Just do it, Nike,† Nike seems especially fond of doing business in undemocratic countries like China and Indonesia, where the military can be relied upon to â€Å"crack heads† if workers get out of line (Miller 2). The military monitoring has been a large controversy due to the fact that these are often Chinese working against other Chinese workers, or Vietnamese against their own people also. For Nike there are two benefits: it it†s a cheap way to monitor in an overseas factory and it creates a sheaper labor workforce. In turn making the labor cheaper for Nike. This makes it possible for Nike workers from the states to work on other things and only tour the factories when nessecary. While still assuming a stable workforce without good pay. The critics of Nikes labor practices have taken tours and witnessed the mistreatment firsthand. Time magazine reported saying,† The plants were found to be modern and clean, well lighted and ventilated and paying a decent wage by local standards-although by no means are they trouble free. Make no mistake: these are factories not amusement parks, and even in developing Asia, where jobs are scarce and getting scarcer, this is not the job of choice.† (Saporito 1) The wages that the workers overseas are paid is nothing when compared to how much we pay for a pair of shoes or the profit that CEO Phil Knight is making off his sportswear giant he once operated out of the back of his car as a college student. â€Å"A big issue that surrounds sweatshops is wage. The minimum wage often does not reflect the cost of living.† (Hepner Online) Is the wage fair? There are many people who feel the wage is fair and the cost of living is taken into account when the wage is looked at, but studies show otherwise in many factories. Just recently, CNN reported a raise to entry level workers in Indonesia, Nike officials said â€Å"the increase will raise the minimum monthly compensation package-which includes bonuses, housing, healthcare, transportation and meal allowances to approximately $37.14 a month.†(Nike Establishes Labor† Online) To many people living in the U.S., that package may sound good however the compensation package doesn†t do away with the long hours, the poor conditions or the low rate of pay. Many of these workers are young children working to help support their families. The benefits do not make up for the low pay rates that keep them in the work force. The pay is only enough to get by where these children want to be saving in order to leave the factories and return home. In â€Å"Taking a Look inside Nike†s Factories†, part of Bill Saporito†s, â€Å"Can Nike Get Unstuck?† this is what was found. â€Å"Americans pay $100 for a pair of shoes that a worker gets less than $3 a day to make. They pay Michael Jordan $40 million to endorse them. Can†t they find more money to pay the workers? The short answer is no, because corporations pay the going rate for labor whereever they are.† (Saporito 1) If this statement is true Nike pays the wage for the country the factory is in, then what is the controversy about? Much of it stems from the overtime that these workers are forced to work without over time compensation. Here in the United States there are regulations placed on businesses that require then to compensate their workers with a higher wage for over time hours. So since Nike is an U.S. based company should Nike have to pay overtime? The answer is no. Nike doesn†t have to pay overtime like here in the U.S. so they don†t. In Vietnam â€Å"Workers so want a reduction in overtime, the length of annual leave for the Indonesian workers making Nike shoes is more than 30 days though dozens of workers interviewed in November, said the actual amount is 10 days.† (Ballinger 2) There has been evidence of Nike breaking at least nine labor laws in China according to AMRC; a Hong Kong based human rights group that has been monitoring the abuse of human rights in China for the last 20 years. â€Å"Children as young as 13, were found employed in Nike factories, working from 144-192 overtime hours per month to make ends meet.† (Designer 1) Ernest and Young, an accounting firm, hired by Nike, to do research and the issue reported conditions in Vietnam â€Å"where young women toil sixty-five hour weeks for $10, in air so bad that 78 percent of the employees have respiratory problems.† (Miller1) Factory workers endure abuse on the job lacking a voice or ablility to do anything about it. Since Nike contracts out for their factory managers, it has been hard for Nike to regulate what goes on when they are not on their tour or walk through. â€Å"A Korean supervisor in a Vietnam factory was found guilty of beating 15 Vietnamese about the head with a shoe â€Å"upper†, and another Korean supervisor was charged with sexual molestation.† (Saporito 3) In this instance it was not an U.S. supervisor, nor was it a military officer but someone of a different nationality. The hard part is that there are no independent unions and meaningful corporate codes of conduct to discipline management. So workers must turn to the courts for help which is a long fought battle that no one wants to attempt. In one case that made it to, a Vietnamese court recently found a Korean supervisor guilty of beating workers and extradition may be sought for the accused sexual molester who fled. In Indonesia 24 discharged Nike workers are challenging the legality of their dismissal before the country†s Supreme Court (Saporito 3). These are major breakthroughs in the court systems to have someone tried and convicted in these distant countries whose courts are often corrupted. Factory conditions are consistently getting press here in the U.S., as many are angry with Nike for not providing for their overseas employees. The following account is of the conditions in a Chiniese factory: Twelve hour shifts several days a week; wages as low as 16 cents and hour; 16 workers to a dorm room; pregnant women fired. Workers are not allowed to talk. There is constant pressure to produce-workers are yelled at. If you don†t meet your high production quota you must stay until you do-without pay. The factory is noisy, filled with dust and fumes. Workers have fainted, overcome by the long hours and the glue fumes. One worker died; another lost an arm; other has had their fingers broken by the equipment. Most workers have never heard of the Nike code of conduct. There is no union and workers are afraid that if they complain, they will be fired. When a group of workers stopped working in March to protest had not been paid, they were fired. The supervisor warns workers in advance of any inspection, the factory is cleaned and if workers are interviewed it is in the presence of factory management. (â€Å"The Neediest and the Greediest† 4) This is only one description of the factory conditions and the requirements that are put on the workers of these factories, on contract with Nike. In order to deal with the criticism Nike gets about working conditions and pay, â€Å"Nike Inc recently established a new department with a mandate to continue to evolve it†s monitoring of subcontracted manufacturing facilities and to continue to upgrade conditions for workers in subcontracted facilities around the world.† (â€Å"Nike establishes† 1) This department will monitor, compensation issues, benefits, the work environments, recruiting and hiring policies, overtime policies, worker management, environmental issues and supervision of independent monitoring systems. All these are large steps by Nike to improve it†s factories and to repair the relations with people here in the U.S. who are appalled by the reports of poor work environment workers are forced to endure. â€Å"The company has been tarred by an image as a sweatshop operator that exploits Asian workers who make shoes and apparel for Nike subcontractors. Nike†s efforts to be a good corporate citizen, and they have been considerable, have yet to sway the public forum. Basically, our culture, and our style, is to be a rebel, and we sort of enjoy doing that,† says Knight, who created a jock empire based on hero worship backed up with good product and great advertising. â€Å"Now that we reached a certain size there†s a fine line between being rebel and being a bully, and yeah, we have to walk that line.†Ã¢â‚¬  (Saporito 6) According to Knight he will continue to make the sport-wear giant successful any way he can. â€Å"The estimated net worth of co founder and current CEO Phil Knight is $5.4 billion, one of the wealthiest people in America.† (Miller 1) The issue remains whether the sports wear giant, Nike, will continue to do work in other countries, where labor is cheap and regulations are few, and not monitored on a normal basis. Nike will continue to exploit workers in these countries as long as America continues to buy the products. Nike, who recently spent $978 million in one year on advertising worldwide, depends upon Americans and their children to purchase its sneakers. Yet it locates 150 factories and some 350,000 jobs in Asia. Knight recently made the absurd and arrogant statement that, â€Å"Americans don†t want to make shoes.†Ã¢â‚¬  (Sanders 2) Is CEO Phil Knight right? Are American workers not willing to make the shoes that are so popular in stores and classrooms across the nation. If so, the exploitation will continue and Nike workers will remain underpaid and over worked in poor working conditions.

Compare/Contrast Organic Food Essay

You’re in a bit of a dilemma standing in front of the produce section of your local grocery store. In one hand, you’re holding conventionally grown (non-organic) Granny Smith apple. In your other hand, you have one that’s been organically grown. Both apples look the same and provide vitamins and fiber. The non-organic apple is a proven family favorite. But the organic apple has a label that says â€Å"USDA Organic. † Does that mean it’s more expensive? Grown differently? Better for you? Most organic food cost more than conventional food products. Higher prices are due to more expensive farming practices and more strict government regulations. Because organic farmers don’t use herbicides or pesticides, many tools that control weeds and pests use more labor and man power. Conventionally grown food may be more cost effective, especially when you’re on a budget, but remember ‘you always get what you pay for’. How is organic farming different from conventional farming? Organic Farming applies natural fertilizers such as manure to feed soil and plants. Crops are rotated, and farmers hand weed or mulch, to manage weeds. They give their animals a balanced organic diet and clean housing to minimize disease. Conventional farming uses chemical fertilizers to promote plant growth and herbicides to manage weeds. The farmers give their animals antibiotics and medicines to prevent disease. Some people buy organic food to limit their exposure to these chemicals. Organic produce claims to be healthier than non organic produce. Both are nutritional but organic contains higher levels of vitamins C and A, antioxidants, and essential minerals. They are free of synthetic additives that contribute to heart disease, cancer, osteoporosis, migraines and Alzheimer’s. Conventional farming uses chemicals that leave residues from more than five hundred chemical pesticides. So the next time you’re standing at the grocery store wondering if you should buy organic or conventionally grown food, think about if the money is worth living healthy or not. The irony is that up until about fifty years ago, organic was all we had. Once farmers started to use pesticides, hormones, and antibiotics we lost what eating was all about: health and nutrition.

Discover the Hidden Reality in The Great Gatsby Essay

â€Å"There is no logical way to the discovery of these elemental laws. There is only the way of intuition, which is helped by a feeling for the order lying behind appearance.† Said Albert Einstein about the relationship between appearance and reality. Einstein is telling the readers that people are discovering new things that were hidden behind illusions of what had appeared. Humans have to use hat feeling to see threw those appearances to discover the elements that form the reality they live in. Scott Fitzgerald uses the creation of illusive appearance but also writes a discoverable reality for the most of the characters in his novels. In his novel, The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald creates a strong relationship between the illusion of appearance†¦show more content†¦He helped him reconnect with Daisy and supported him loyally till his funeral. Meanwhile, Nick is a really nice person who cares and seems like he is always there for Daisy. Although he does not do the right thing when it comes to helping her choose between Tom and Jay, he just leaves the scene, probably because he did not want to take sides, as he was a close friend with all three parties of that conflict. â€Å"At this point Jordan and [Nick] tried to go, but Tom and Gatsby insisted with competitive firmness that [they] remain† (Fitzgerald 7, 130). Carraway tries to flee the scene, instead of advising Daisy that Jay would be a much better man than Tom who is cheating on her ever was. As her cousin, it was part of his duty to guide her and tell her about the most realistic option in spontaneous and unexpected situations of such. That’s is to say, Nick is one of the characters that will express the strong bond between the illusion of appearance and reality by his kind personality that covers the mistakes and bad decisions he makes. Secondly, Daisy is another example of an individual of the novel who appears to be things she really is not. Scott Fitzgerald’s illusions of the appearance of Daisy are meant to affect the events in the novel. Daisy is introduced as a pure hearted, guiltless and lovable character. â€Å"The other girl, Daisy, made an attempt to rise — she leaned slightly forward with a conscientious expression — then she laughed, an absurd,Show MoreRelatedColor Interpretations in The Great Gatsby Essay1302 Words   |  6 PagesDiscovering hidden messages in a novel compares to solving a puzzle or finding hidden treasure. Underlying symbols appear in many works of literature and lead the reader forward to discover the deeper substance of a character. In The Great Gatsby, Francis Scott Fitzgerald uses subtle tones and clues to tell readers more about a character. These signs aid the reader in revealing the meaning of certain situations and clearing up any confusion. Colors contr ibute much to explain the unconscious thoughtsRead MoreThe Great Gatsby By F. 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