What is Mainstreaming in Special Education

In the context of education, mainstreaming refers to the process of educating children with special needs during designated periods in regular courses depending on their abilities. This implies that general education classes and special education classes are merged.

Schools that use mainstreaming hold the opinion that special education children belong there since they can’t fully participate in a regular classroom.

A student with a handicap benefits from having access to a special education classroom, often known as a “self-contained classroom or resource room.” During the school day, students can work one-on-one with special education teachers to address any remediation needs. Despite political settings that support their destruction, several scholars, educators, and parents have argued for the value of these classrooms.

Education that includes both handicapped and non-disabled students encourages understanding and tolerance, according to proponents of both educational inclusion philosophies, and better prepares students of all abilities to thrive in the world outside of the classroom. Being mainstreamed may result in social stigma for children with exceptional needs, but it may also help them grow socially.

We are providing the meanings of the word mainstreaming offered by several well-known philosophers and writers below as unmistakable proof of this expanding tendency.

Kauffman: Mainstreaming is the incorporation of qualified exceptional children into the social, educational, and temporal contexts of typically developing peers.

Wang: The word mainstreaming refers to the full-time sharing of the same resources and learning opportunities among all students in a school context, including both normal and exceptional students.

The terms mainstreaming and integration, whether used singly or together, are both intimately related to conventional strategies for providing special education. Students with skills or exceptionalities were seen in both of them as newcomers to the school or class who needed to be accommodated.