When integration is being initiated, a student may be placed in a Grade 8 class instead of a Grade 7 class because of particular Grade 8 students who may be more supportive and helpful in including the student with special needs. Initially, a teacher who is active in extracurricular activities may feel more comfortable being responsible for including the student with special needs in extracurricular activities rather than in classroom activities.
Use and Enhance Support Services
The teachers felt that school administrators should advocate at the school board level for support personnel such as a methods and resource teachers and para-professionals. They also indicated that the principal should organize in-school support such as volunteer programs, peer support groups and resource centres.
Once principals have established a variety of support structures within their schools,teachers may be more willing to accept assistance from other staff, using in-school services more readily. Initially, many teachers felt challenged by the experience of integration, assuming it was totally up to them to make integration successful. They hesitated to ask for help and often the school administrators and other staff members were not sure how to help their colleagues. Over time and with the establishment of additional school resources, these teachers realized they didn’t have to do it alone, and there were other people available to help them solve problems.
Teachers identified their principal most frequently as the person to listen to them and occasionally teach their class to give them an extra period for planning. The methods and resource teacher was also identified as a source of this assistance, as well as an aid in adapting curriculum and providing additional resource materials. Once classroom teachers realized that the principal was working to provide additional supports for them, they were more likely to ask for help and less inclined to feel like failures because they did ask for that help.
