Dismantling Barriers: Understanding Inclusion as a Choice

08/10/2023

Dismantling Barriers: Understanding Inclusion as a Choice

When a child walks into a room, your child or anybody else's child, do your eyes light up? That's what they're looking for.
Toni Morrison, 1931-2019, novelist and Nobel prize for literature recipient

Mike Huber, early childhood practitioner and author of Inclusion Includes Us, shares thoughts about barriers to inclusion and belonging:

In the world of education, there is a lot of discussion of being inclusive. I think it is helpful to avoid this passive construction and instead talk about whether our programs are including children or excluding them. To do this, we need to take a look at the learning environment, both physical and emotional, and ask, “What are the barriers preventing a child from engaging in the community?”

Huber then shares physical, informational, attitudinal and cultural barriers — what each means, examples of each and possible ways to address them.

Regarding informational barriers, Huber notes:

Informational barriers are addressed by creating materials and communicating the information as needed. The educator builds a bridge between the information and the child’s understanding of it… How much information a child needs is related to their ability to remember, as well as how stressed they are. You may need to remind one child several times that the class will be going back inside soon, while another child will simply follow the others in.

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