Inclusive education reform in Queensland: implications for policy and practice

In Queensland, Australia, the school system is being reformed to be more ‘inclusive’. However, the enthusiasm for ‘inclusive education’ in Queensland seems to be waning amongst practitioners, and the ‘confusion, frustration, guilt and exhaustion’ that has emerged with teachers and support practitioners in the UK is emerging amongst support practitioners and teachers in Queensland. This paper argues that this is happening because inclusive education reforms that intend to provide an equitable education for all students regardless of cultural, physical, social/emotional and behavioural differences are being introduced, but these policies, procedures and structures continue to label, isolate and segregate students within schools in the way in which segregated special education facilities did in the past. Also, new policies and structures are being introduced without practitioners having the time and support to examine critically the underlying assumptions about disability, difference and inclusion that underpin their practices. These reforms need to be reviewed in terms of their effectiveness in achieving their ‘inclusive’ goals, i.e. in terms of the impacts that these reforms are having on the students themselves, and on the educational practitioners who support the students.     

Inclusive and exclusive knowledge practices in interdisciplinary,international education

This study provides a critical engagement with the principle of inclusion, as manifest in three international, interdisciplinary master programmes in Denmark. Initially, it is proposed that one focuses on the knowledge practices found in international, interdisciplinary education, asking to what extent these suggest inclusion in the sense that all students are treated as equals. The alternative is an exclusive learning environment where certain groups are singled out for special treatment, which will often request from them assimilation into the dominant practice. A conceptual point of departure is provided by the educational sociology of Pierre Bourdieu, which motivates the identification of ‘normative centres’ (Graham, L., and R. Slee. 2008. “An Illusory Interiority: Interrogating the Discourse/s of Inclusion.” Educational Philosophy and Theory 40 (2): 277–293. doi:10.1111/j.1469-5812.2007.00331.x, 283) related to the two themes of interdisciplinarity and international-ness. The topics are subsequently pursued in an empirical analysis, drawing on 19 qualitative research interviews with lecturers involved in the three master courses. This leads to the conclusion that exclusive knowledge practices can be found in all programmes. At the same time, the interviews reveal a reality that is multi-centred, suggesting that interdisciplinarity is as ‘troublesome’ (Land, R. 2012. “Crossing Tribal Boundaries: Interdisciplinarity as a Threshold Concept.” In Tribes and Territories in the 21st Century, edited by P. Trowler, M. Saunders, & V. Bamber, 175–185. Abingdon: Routledge) in higher education as the question of internationalisation.     

Language choice for science education: policy and practice

The Maltese National Minimum Curriculum published in 1999 sought to strengthen bilingualism by reinforcing the practice of teaching and assessing some subjects in English and others in Maltese. It also pointed out that code-switching should only be used in cases of severe pedagogical difficulties. As a new National Curriculum Framework was being prepared some educators suggested language as a possible barrier to student progress and argued that the traditional practice of teaching subjects such as science in English should be reconsidered. This study investigated language choices, function and code-switching in science lessons. Classroom observations, interviews and focus groups showed that in state schools 12-13 year old students were being taught science predominantly in Maltese while reading, writing and formal assessment were in English. Students who were more exposed to English, irrespective of class stream, used this language more frequently than those who were less exposed to the language. The findings seem to suggest that teachers may be overcautious. While code-switching may initially provide technical terms and serve as a bridge between the two languages, eventually it can give way to a more precise and formal use of English thus ensuring both learning of science and development of bilingualism.     

Coming to matter in practice: enacting education policy

This article is offered as a counterpoint and complement to the symposium on policy enactment in a previous issue of Discourse by Stephen Ball, Meg Maguire and colleagues. Although their focus was largely on the discursive, and policy actors and policy subjects, this article is concerned with researching the emergent materiality of policy and draws on an Australian Vocational Education and Training policy study. It focuses on one particular object (a mini-warehouse) and one policy (Productivity Places Program) and develops an approach to researching a topology of policy enactment along three intersecting axes. In this topology, the material is given an ontological status, which is ‘in-here’ as opposed to ‘else-where’; where reality is emergent in practice. The research focus therefore is on policy processes and the assumption is that these processes are not benign as the world continues to be (re)articulated unequally; the point of policy research being to investigate the ways in which policy processes contribute to or work against this inequality.     

From the Washington to the Post-Washington Consensus: The influence of international agendas on education policy and practice in Malawi

Education is receiving ever-increasing priority in the post-Washington consensus era, which views education as both a means to and end of development. However, justification for the attention given to education continues to be centrally focused on the notion of human capital. By consequence, marketisation and privatisation of education are becoming increasingly significant. With the World Bank and WTO joining forces to create a vision for a 'global education industry', emphasis is placed on free trade in educational goods and services. The paper examines critically the implications of this international education agenda for developing countries, focusing on the experience of Malawi.     

教育输出政策的国际比较

20世纪90年代以来,教育输出政策在专门性法规、机构设置、战略制定、质量保障以及区域合作方面有诸多进展.近年调整重点是在继续加强质量保障同时更多关注学习者权益保障问题.教育输出政策与教育输出增长有一定相关性,增长形成有2-3年短期效益,也有5-10年较好的中期增长预期.     

Inclusive education and best practice for children with autism spectrum disorder: an integrated approach

Many parents of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) have reported general discontent with the services offered by the education system and have advocated for increased ASD‐specific services to better meet their children’s educational needs. The elements of best practice offer an ideal model for educational support. There are, however, limitations to advocating ASD‐specific services. This paper describes how best practice for ASD as an educational model fits within what is described as authentic inclusion. Further, it is suggested that the ASD community align with the greater inclusive education reform movement. With the use of this unified model of education, all children will receive the educational support they require.     

Adult education and indigenous people: Addressing gender in policy and practice

Adult education programmes developed for or by indigenous communities rarely seem to have addressed gender inequalities. Yet, compared to mainstream adult educational interventions promoting instrumental approaches to ‘functional literacy’, such programmes often appear highly politicised, starting from a standpoint of promoting indigenous peoples’ rights. We look at the reasons for the absence of gender analysis from policy and research on indigenous adult education and highlight key issues within indigenous adult education, when viewed from a gendered perspective, particularly language, assessment, learning structures and programme objectives. Drawing on case studies of indigenous adult education programmes in South and South-East Asia, we emphasise the need for participatory, non-hierarchical processes in adult education that can provide legitimate space for multiple voices within indigenous groups, without enhancing the sense of marginalisation. The principles underlying indigenous adult education programmes can help planners to challenge and respond to gender inequalities.     

高等教育收费政策:国际比较、模式及趋向

面对大众化高等教育,政府无力承担全部经费,收费成为教育财政改革的必然。高等教育作为非完全市场,收费政策受到多种因素影响,公益与私益、市场需求与承受力、国际或国内比较、经济或社会指标范式是四种主要原型。高等教育作为复杂系统,收费主体与原则多样、涉及问题繁多,任何收费政策的背后都需要更为完善的辅助政策,以寻求政治与市场的制衡点。     

Balancing basic and post-basic education in Kenya: National versus international policy agendas

The article traces the policy history of Kenya over more than 40 years (1963–2006) in order to tease out the tensions between the key themes of its own national agenda and the priorities of its principal development partners. The national concerns with the education-and-employment connection and with the orientation of schooling towards skills for work in the formal and informal economies can be contrasted with the aid agency priorities on quality and on education-for-poverty reduction. Equally, national preoccupations have been with the whole of the education and training system—from early childhood, to technical, to university. By contrast, external donors have frequently prioritised a particular sub-sector such as primary schooling. In the most recent period, 2002–2006, the paper identifies the emergence of common ground between the national and external agendas. Thus the international education agenda, as marked out by the UN Millennium Project, the Commission for Africa, and the World Bank's most recent education policy paper, is not dissimilar in its priorities to the latest Kenyan education agenda, as expressed in the Kenya Education Sector Support Programme. There is also an agreement that the education sector, on its own, cannot deliver the many benefits so often associated with schooling; rather, there needs to be an enabling environment in other sectors of the economy, if the investment in education is to be most productive. The one area where there is serious divergence, between the Government of Kenya, and, at least, its principal Western donors is on the treatment of corruption. At the point of writing, the extent of corruption remains a major threat to the external funding so necessary to Kenya's large educational ambitions.