A case study of inclusive education in Hong Kong

Abstract

This paper reports a case study conducted at a local Government-aided primary school in Hong Kong to explore the teaching and learning of three students with special educational needs (SEN). The research aims to investigate the perceptions of the principal, teachers, social workers, students and parents on inclusive education, and look at the practicability and feasibility of the school inclusive policy. Results indicated that although the school embraces the inclusive ideology in principle, the interviewees expressed serious reservation on the Government promoted whole school integration approach to include all students with special educational needs. The study on one hand examined the government and school policy and practice on inclusion, and on the other hand identified the difficulties and obstacles encountered by the school, some of which were regarded as fundamental problems that require changes in the educational system. The paper ends with recommendations for further research that is worth exploring in order to achieve a true and effective inclusive educational system in the Hong Kong landscape.

Research methodology is qualitative. Interviews were conducted with a number of school staff and two parents of the SEN students. The interviews focused on how school key personnel and teachers viewed their roles, contributions, and difficulties in implementing inclusive education, and how parents view the studies and growth of their children at the case school. A 10-week observations aimed at observing how the three students under the case study adapted, learnt and grew in a mainstream school environment. Through inductive reasoning, data collected was subsequently grouped into patterns and regularities. There are two recurrent themes brought up at the study. First, the success of inclusive education rests largely and predominately on the ‘heart and soul’ – the attitudes and values of the teachers in educating the SEN students; and second, the school does not have the right conditions, in particular, sufficient resources to provide a true inclusive environment for the SEN students with intensive support needs, where the system must change to adapt to the children’s needs and not the vice versa.

The general conclusion developed is that the case school, in face of the increasing number of SEN students, is forced to do more with less under the current government inclusive policy; and the SEN students themselves are forced to squeeze in the shoes of the regular students in a mainstream school. Without a system change, there is only partial inclusion at the mainstream school, and the SEN students must adapt to the regular classroom mode and curriculum, or fail.