What kind of support do teachers need for a real inclusive educational system?

It has still been noticed that the educational challenge represented by complexity inherent in the concept of “special normality” cannot be faced by emergency logics, and this involves the acknowledgement that “diversity” and “special needs” cannot be interpreted more as “interferences” of the system, but like constant variables of educational questions that society brings to school.

The adjective “special”, in this way, does not depend on, or refer to, disability but indicates those specific needs that any student can show after temporary or permanent difficulties, whose presence and steady survey require particular attention and specific resources by the school system; without doing this, the institution could fail the right of education that the State must provide for every citizen, not only in the recognition of the possibility offered to everyone to enter an ordinary school, but also granting everyone an efficient answer to the difficulties that prevent or restrict the real and effective exercise[i].

Therefore we would point out that the answer to the question about education coming from contemporary society can only be received if institutions have the courage, the strength and the resources to accomplish deep changes, especially in the organization and at management levels.

Among the basic nucleus of this transformation, the new plan of training courses for teachers and, generally, for school staff (primarily for those required to direct and manage the school system), is the most important aspect. In detail, for what concerns the use of professional resources, like support teachers, it is really clear at a European level the consciousness that “the support is not only to be centered on students” (European Agency for Development in Special Needs Education, 2003), both because it would be addressed to non specialized teachers, with the purpose of helping them to improve specific abilities in treating and managing special educational needs and also because it would have the important task of fostering the development of “Inclusive Education”.

Among the European States which started a progress in this way, it could be useful to mention the example om England, when in 2004 a prominent document was published by the Department for Education and Skill.

This document, which is entitled Removing Barriers to Achievement. The Government Strategy for SEN, points out the need for a special educational formation at an ITT (Initial Teacher Training) level, compulsory for every candidate teacher.

This measure has a deep and innovative character, because it removes the absolute separation present still nowadays in many countries, between ordinary teachers (without any knowledge about special education) and support teachers (the only ones at present who share the knowledge about special education).

The difference established between ordinary and support teachers about special educational training consists only in a different level of specialization, that conducts the former to carry out the function of first contact and connection, while the latter are invested with the function of specialist interventions.

Students with SEN are therefore not the object of specific attention only by specialized teachers, but also by ordinary ones; both are in fact involved in the elaboration of individual courses on the basis of individual SEN.

The developing trend delineated in the English case goes from separation to collaboration, and moreover in the ordinary teacher's profession a new qualification is included. The Removing Barriers summarizes the request in the teacher's training about the following knowledge and abilities:

• knowledge of one’s own responsibilities, provided in the SEN Code of Practice (2001), special methods which are requested in some uncommon cases;
• individualization of a method of teaching to answer everyone's needs, including who has SEN;
• identification and support for students who have difficulties in emotive and social attitudes;
• These competences, which use up the bases for ordinary teacher about SEN, are for specialized teachers only the essential platform to add more competences of specialization and a more complex and incisive activity (Orizio, 2006).