Skip to main content
Glite Dictionary
🌍 Becoming accepted 🏫 Including everyone
mainstreaming

mainstreaming

1 4.4
The practice of including people with disabilities in regular groups or activities
  • noun
  • /ˈmeɪnˌstrimɪŋ/
translation icon : inclusión
  • Many educators advocate for mainstreaming because it promotes inclusion and interaction among all students.
  • inclusion and mainstreaming
  • successful mainstreaming
  • mainstreaming efforts

Examples

  • Among the goals of mainstreaming is increased interaction between special and regular students.

    Academic text (1993)

  • The concept of mainstreaming encourages children with disabilities to learn alongside their peers in regular classrooms.

  • A complete generation of students has passed through schools in which mainstreaming has been a reality.

    Academic text (1991)

  • Many music teachers have never taught in schools where mainstreaming was not an accepted practice.

    Academic text (1991)

  • There are, of course, other areas in which strong administrative support is needed if mainstreaming is to be effective.

    Academic text (1991)

  • Everyone will ultimately benefit from the extra care taken in preparation for mainstreaming.

    Academic text (1991)

  • What supplementary aids and services should be available to support mainstreaming efforts?

    Academic text (1991)

  • In an age of mainstreaming, instruction is adapted to the needs and capacities of the learner.

    Academic text (1990)

  • Teaching today embraces inclusion or mainstreaming and maintains a tremendous variation of skills, abilities, and attitudes among students.

    Academic text (1996)

  • Peer tutoring and cooperative grouping have proven to be very effective mainstreaming strategies.

    Academic text (1991)

Synonyms

inclusion
vsmainstreaming
65 3.7

Being part of a group, activity, or process

is focused on placing people with disabilities into regular groups rather than separating them
integration
vsmainstreaming
55 4.1

To bring people from different races or religions into a community as equals

is about including people with disabilities into regular settings, not about race or religion
integrating
vsmainstreaming
4.4

Bringing people from different races or religions into the same community

is focused on placing people with disabilities into ordinary groups rather than separating them

Antonyms

segregation
  • Offensive
18 5.3

The act of separating people or things into different groups, often by law

How Inclusive

inclusion
65 3.7
mainstreaming
1 4.4
exclusion
64 4.2
segregation
  • Offensive
18 5.3

Surface Forms

mainstreaming singular
mainstreamings plural

Morphology

mainstreaming = mainstream (transparent) = main + stream + ing

Formed by adding '-ing' to 'mainstream' to indicate the action or process of making something part of the mainstream, so the meaning is directly derived from the base.

Etymology

The word mainstreaming comes from main 'most important' and stream 'flow of water', like a river's main channel. So, mainstreaming is putting people into the 'main flow' of school or work instead of keeping them apart, which is why it means including people with disabilities in regular groups.