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Book Review

Karla Melinda Barth, “Management of Inclusive Education – Theoretical and Practical Aspects”, Republic of Moldova, Publisher: LAP – Lambert Academic Publishing, 2022.

 

The main role of inclusive education is to respond to the needs of all beneficiaries of education, regardless of their biopsychological  and sociocultural characteristics, respecting their age and individual particularities, with the ultimate goal of social and professional inclusion. The book by Dr. Karla Melinda BARTH, University lecturer, addresses the topic of inclusion, more precisely inclusive education, which is also a current and controversial topic in the field of Educational Sciences. Through this book, the author emphasizes the role of inclusive education, both through theoretical and practical aspects, combining them harmoniously, providing a logical structure of information.

KARLA MELINDA BARTH is a Doctoral University Lecturer, but also Dean of the Faculty of Social and Human Sciences, within the University of Oradea. She obtained his doctorate with the thesis: “Intervention programs for children with learning difficulties”, field of Educational Sciences, held on 24.02.2012, at Babeş-Bolyai University in Cluj-Napoca, Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, scientific coordinator : university professor Dr. Vasile CHIȘ. Indeed, many of the recent projects of Mrs. Dean fold and address the theme of inclusion, but she also addressed other themes in the field of Educational Sciences such as: TECI – Complex and integrated educational therapy, approaching a primary education curriculum, media education, mental disability, learning difficulties, as well as other interesting and valuable topics for those who are preparing to become teachers, but also for teachers who are active in the field.

The six chapters of the book are titled as presented furthermore. Chapter I: INTEGRATION OR INCLUSION? CONCEPTUAL DELIMITATIONS that includes subtopics such as: integration; inclusion; inclusive education; integration and inclusion: similarities and differences; dimensions of inclusion; principles of inclusion. Chapter II: FROM SEGREGATION TO INCLUSION, which includes the following subthemes: arguments for inclusion – international policy documents; arguments for inclusion – Romanian legislation. Chapter III: THE TEACHER AND HIS ROLE IN INCLUSIVE EDUCATION. Chapter IV: MANAGEMENT OF INCLUSIVE EDUCATION that includes the following subtopics: management of inclusive education and management of the inclusive classroom. The penultimate chapter: CLASSROOM APPROACH TO SPECIAL EDUCATION NEEDS, which includes: inclusion of students with mental disabilities; school inclusion of visually impaired children; school inclusion of visually impaired people; inclusion of students with neuromotor disabilities, and the last chapter: THE FAMILY AND THE ROLE OF THE FAMILY IN INCLUSIVE EDUCATION. It should be noted that at the end of each chapter the author also presents a bibliography, thus respecting the rules of ethics.

Moreover, the book presents us with an introduction by means of a positive opinion brought to its rich content of information by the University Lecturer Dr. Maria-Cristina FLORESCU, who states: “the work is structured in an educational manner in which the author prints her the working style crystallized in the assiduous work of his fundamental training in the field of educational sciences”.

The first chapter, INTEGRATION OR INCLUSION? CONCEPTUAL DELIMITATIONS, includes conceptual delimitations of the processes of integration and inclusion, which are also the key elements of the book. Thus, through the prism of the first chapter of the book, we learn that integrated education refers to the fact that all children, regardless of their type of disability, bio-psychic and socio-cultural characteristics, have the right to learn in the same school alongside other typical children, being -ensure them the same rights and possibilities of access in the community they belong to. The author of the book logically presents, by means of a well-structured table, the differences between the two processes: integration and inclusion. The keywords of this book are: education, integration, inclusion, deficiencies.

The second chapter, FROM SEGREGATION TO INCLUSION, contains information on international and national inclusion legislation. Thus, in Romania, which is a state of the European Union, it provides for the right and equal opportunity for education of all children in a progressive way through Law No. 18/1990 for the ratification of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, ART. 28.

The third chapter, THE TEACHER AND HIS ROLE IN INCLUSIVE EDUCATION, emphasizes the main role of the itinerant and support teacher, who is often seen as a usurper of the instructional-educational process.

The fourth chapter, THE MANAGEMENT OF INCLUSIVE EDUCATION, presents the following characteristics regarding the achievement of the objectives and the achievement of the goals of inclusive education: the global approach to all the elements of education and the applications specific to the management function, at different levels; the optimal use of the pedagogical resources of the education system, through managerial functions: a planning-organization, a methodological orientation, a regulation-self-regulation; ensuring the innovative evolution of the system perspective at different organizational levels etc.

The fifth chapter of the book, THE CLASSROOM APPROACH TO SPECIAL EDUCATION NEEDS, includes the characteristics and classifications of different types of impairments, the difficulties encountered in everyday life by people with disabilities: mental, visual, neuro-psycho-motor etc., but also the ways by which they can be supported.

The last chapter presents us in an optimal way the role of the family, but also the mother-child relationship in the lives of those who present certain types of deficiencies. Chapter VI is the chapter based on and characterized by understanding, support, cooperation, affection and love, because people with different special educational requirements also love and have the right to be loved, without feeling inferior.

Therefore, the book of the University Lecturer Dr. Karla Melinda BARTH is based on a solid, useful bibliography in the field of Educational Sciences, because I consider it to be a fundamental landmark for teachers in mainstream education, in inclusive education and in special education through the lens of information written with attention and meticulously selected.

 

About the Author

Denisa-Niculina Vidican

Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, Babeș-Bolyai University, Romania

denisaniculinaszilagyi@gmail.com

 

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