A Comparison of Provision and Access to Inclusive Education for Children with Disabilities in a Metropolitan City and a Rural District in Telangana State, India
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
- S. 1 “However, some observers of developments in this area have expressed concerns that the concept of inclusive education and the practicalities of its application has been subjected to a limited interpretation in India, a country that is diverse in terms of its culture, languages, socio-economic situations and geography (Singal 2006, 2019; Mukherjee 2017)”
Could you perhaps explain a bit more what the concerns and interpretations are? Is there a discussion in India about closing or maintaining special schools as in many other countries? What are the discussions about this?
- is this correct, that there is only 1 specialist teacher in each of the schools mentioned? If not it should be made more clear.
- it is a bit unclear how the services SEN children receive are determined. How much service exactly do they get from specialist teachers or are those specialist teachers only available for consultation? Is there a determination of service delivery based on assessment?
- the examples of the social inclusion of the children are based on children with physical, visible disabilities. How does the social inclusion work with students with autism or cognitive impairments etc.? Are those children also socially included and have friends? Is there literature about this in India or other empirical studies?
- do children with SEN spend time outside of the regular classrooms in mainstream schools? Is there documentation about this? Or do SEN children spend all their time in regular ed classrooms?
- are there any studies of academic achievement of students educated in mainstream or special classrooms in India? If so it would be valuable to know – i.e. how many children with disabilities achieve a high school diploma for example
- Discussion/conclusion: this goes back to my first comment: what you describe is universal for the problems with inclusive education. The provisions provided by governments are usually not enough, this includes teacher training and questions whether children truly get what they need under those circumstances. Is there discussion in India about opening up the concept of ‘inclusive education’ as meaning ‘inclusion in education’ also with a continuum model such as least-restrictive-environment?
- A very interesting and well done article. It was a pleasure to read it and find out how similar inclusion developments and problems are in different parts of the word.
Author Response
Reviewer comments
“However, some observers of developments in this area have expressed concerns that the concept of inclusive education and the practicalities of its application has been subjected to a limited interpretation in India, a country that is diverse in terms of its culture, languages, socio-economic situations and geography (Singal 2006, 2019; Mukherjee 2017)”
Could you perhaps explain a bit more what the concerns and interpretations are? Is there a discussion in India about closing or maintaining special schools as in many other countries? What are the discussions about this?
Author response
Section added that identifies some of the concerns expressed by researchers about the vague definition of inclusive education. Also on the same page a clarification regarding the current system of special schools.
Reviewer comments
is this correct, that there is only 1 specialist teacher in each of the schools mentioned? If not it should be made more clear.
Author response
This has been clarified. See tables 2 and 3
Reviewer comments
it is a bit unclear how the services SEN children receive are determined. How much service exactly do they get from specialist teachers or are those specialist teachers only available for consultation? Is there a determination of service delivery based on assessment?
Author response
Amendments made to text to clarify this. Also more details in tables 2 and 3
Reviewer comment
the examples of the social inclusion of the children are based on children with physical, visible disabilities. How does the social inclusion work with students with autism or cognitive impairments etc.? Are those children also socially included and have friends? Is there literature about this in India or other empirical studies?
Author response
As indicated in table 1 the study did include children with ASD and with intellectual disabilities. As the research was considering general support provision it is not possible to enter into discussion regarding specific SENs in this context.
Reviewer comment
are there any studies of academic achievement of students educated in mainstream or special classrooms in India? If so it would be valuable to know – i.e. how many children with disabilities achieve a high school diploma for example
Author response
In common with much of the research into learning outcomes, there is little by the way of empirical evidence in this area. This is an area in need of investigation internationally where, with the exception of a large longitudinal study conducted in Ireland, and smaller state restricted studies in USA there is a dearth of data indicating academic outcomes over time. It was therefore not possible to discuss this specific issue in the context of this paper.
Reviewer comment
Discussion/conclusion: this goes back to my first comment: what you describe is universal for the problems with inclusive education. The provisions provided by governments are usually not enough, this includes teacher training and questions whether children truly get what they need under those circumstances. Is there discussion in India about opening up the concept of ‘inclusive education’ as meaning ‘inclusion in education’ also with a continuum model such as least-restrictive-environment?
Author response
As indicated in the literature review for this paper. Debates around the nature of both social and inclusive education are on-going within the country and the latest National Education Policy (2020) referenced in the text is attempting to clarify definitions and to be supportive of greater consistency. However, as this policy has only just been implemented and was unfortunate in being timed to coincide with the covid pandemic, it is as yet impossible to gauge its impact.
Reviewer 2 Report
Please refer to the appended file.
Comments for author File: 
Comments.pdf
Author Response
Reviewer comment
- The goal is NOT specified explicitly enough. Authors should explain why
the document was prepared, who should profit from the new knowledge acquired in their investigations.
Author response
Statements added to clarify that the purpose of the study was to provide information that may assist local policy makers and practitioners in planning for future developments in support of inclusive education.
Reviewer comment
In response to international agreements, recent Indian legislation has raised expectations that all children, regardless of need
or ability, should gain access to formal education that is inclusive and addresses their social and learning needs. In a country
of great geographical, social, linguistic and economic diversity, the provision of educational, social and health systems that
ensure equity presents many challenges.
Should be moved from the abstract to the introductory parts of the text
Author Response
Modifications to the abstract have been made to reflect this observation.
Reviewer comment
There is a lack of data description. Authors fail to describe the respondents,
demographic and socioeconomic characteristics is missing.
Generally speaking, authors should elaborate description of the data collection process and data set composition.
Author response
Addition of tables 1 - 4 has addressed this issue and clarified demographic issues.
Reviewer comment
Authors do not provide enough literature references concerning similar data
analysis. This fact, combined with vague, imprecise statements about the analytical techniques used in the study of the collected data, makes it not easy to assess whether the methods used for data analysis are appropriate. The lack of precision and literature references prevents any further development of the proposed approach in a situation where other authors would try to improve or even test applicability the described construction
Author Response
Additional methodological literature commensurate with interpretive research have been added. The qualitative approach has been justified and discussion of this strengthened in the text.
Reviewer comment
Authors provided an excellent, extensive, comprehensive review of the newest world literature on the topic.
It is not clear which inference results are from the literature query. Which recommendations for the current article come from the surveyed literature? It seems desirable that the analytical part of the text should have elements of generalising style. Authors may try and enrich recommendations.
Author response.
The concluding part of the paper has been amended to clarify the relationship between data gained and the extant literature. The issue of generalisation is discussed below.
Reviewer comments
The analytical part needs to be rewritten to introduce description and justification of Authors position along with Authors assessments’ of:
5.1. The theoretical and practical meaning of individual approaches’ that exist in the literature,
5.2. The authors’ position towards the importance of the individual, theoretical frameworks for the general (world, language group, etc.) and local policy and organisation (surveyed schools).
5.3. Authors should introduce an attempt to classify theoretical frameworks existing in the world literature.
It would enrich the analysis results message for the education policymakers and practitioners in the institutions of different types and levels along with potential users’ characterisation.
Author response
The researchers have a record of conducting studies of this nature within a framework informed by the theories of capability as espoused by Amartya Sen and Martha Nussbaum - this has now been stated in the text. By clarifying demographic details - as presented in the added tables, it is possible for users of this paper to equate the context and variables in relation to any other district in India where further studies may be possible.
Reviewer comment
Abstract and introduction should be modified.
6.1. The research problem and research goals were NOT identified in work.
6.2. The selection of the theoretical basis of the research was NOT appropriately described and justified.
6.3. The selection of statistical techniques was NOT appropriately justified and described.
The authors identify 5 themes for comparative analysis. I would encourage the authors to provide additional data about the five themes in connection with their findings. How often were the five themes identified within the interviews for each of the two locations and amongst the different people being interviewed? I would include a chart identifying the how often the codes appeared between the two research locations and the different participants. This additional data analysis and explanation is valuable information that strengthen the findings, discussion, and conclusion sections. I would also make sure to connect this additional data to the research questions presented at the beginning of the manuscript.
Author response
The work described within this paper is based upon a capability approach theory and has made use of interpretive research.
Interpretative researchers using qualitative methods challenge the notion that data obtained using these approaches should attempt to apply numerical indicators to this data. Studies of this nature, that are site specific and small scale aim to be democratic in enabling research respondents to express their opinions and report their experiences (as consistent with the social justice capability models of Sen and Nussbaum). This approach is well established (see for example the work of Mason (1996); O’Donoghue and Punch (2003); Webster and Mertova (2007); Willig (2012); Thomas and Pring (2004); Dadds and Hart (2001) and Yates (2004). The application of coding procedures as described in this paper is well established in interpretative research. The dangers of applying statistical procedures on small samples, such as that within this paper has been clearly articulated Rasinger (2008); Barrow and Foreman-Peck (2005).
Research adopting this approach has identified trustworthiness as a measure of the value of responses from respondents. Issues of validity and reliability are discussed in this manner where sample sizes are small and the focus is upon respect for the participants of interviews or other qualitative data collection approaches.
Amendments to the paper have been made in order to clarify this important philosophical point.
Reviewer 3 Report
Thank you for the opportunity to review your manuscript. I found the topic interesting and of value to the field. The literature review and connection with outside resources is strong.
Some areas of growth would be in the methods section and findings section. I recommend including the questions asked in an appendix. I would also include how the questions were "piloted" for the study.
The authors identify 5 themes for comparative analysis. I would encourage the authors to provide additional data about the five themes in connection with their findings. How often were the five themes identified within the interviews for each of the two locations and amongst the different people being interviewed? I would include a chart identifying the how often the codes appeared between the two research locations and the different participants. This additional data analysis and explanation is valuable information that strengthen the findings, discussion, and conclusion sections. I would also make sure to connect this additional data to the research questions presented at the beginning of the manuscript.
Author Response
Reviewer's comments
Some areas of growth would be in the methods section and findings section. I recommend including the questions asked in an appendix. I would also include how the questions were "piloted" for the study.
The authors identify 5 themes for comparative analysis. I would encourage the authors to provide additional data about the five themes in connection with their findings. How often were the five themes identified within the interviews for each of the two locations and amongst the different people being interviewed? I would include a chart identifying the how often the codes appeared between the two research locations and the different participants. This additional data analysis and explanation is valuable information that strengthen the findings, discussion, and conclusion sections. I would also make sure to connect this additional data to the research questions presented at the beginning of the manuscript.
Author response
Additional information regarding the sample and the piloting procedures have been added including tables that present more details. With regards to questions, these were constructed in Telugu language and personalised for each category of respondent (e,g teacher, parent, student etc) they run to many pages and would make the paper cumbersome. As author contact details are provided these could be made available on request.
As interpretive/qualitative research, numerical response to data is discouraged and has therefore been avoided.
Round 2
Reviewer 3 Report
Thank you for the opportunity to review your manuscript. The additional changes made to the manuscript and the addition of more tables supports the overall clarity of the article. I recommend doing some minor editing of grammar/spelling and reviewing the organization of information in your tables. The research is not generalizable outside of the context of the research. However, the research does have the potential to support future research and discussion in the country and regions described in the article in regards to inclusive education for children with disabilities.
Author Response
All changes to grammar and references made as requested
See attachment
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
