A history of learning difficulties Australia: Part four‐managing change

Abstract

As the Australian Remedial Educational Association (AREA) approached its silver jubilee in 1990, significant changes were occurring in education. The principle, if not the practice, of integration into mainstream schools for students with disabilities had been widely adopted by education authorities, one outcome being an expectation that class teachers would provide for much greater diversity within the mainstream. Broader changes in education, including in end‐of‐school assessment, posed further challenges. During the decade from the mid‐1980s to the mid‐1990s, AREA was occupied in much internal discussion as Council searched for a framework that would encompass new ideas about special education while maintaining its service for remedial consultants as a priority. The association overcame financial and other difficulties, surviving with a new name, the Australian Resource Educators Association, to reflect an expansion of membership beyond the traditional concept of remedial teacher.