Improving inclusive practices in Australian schools: Creating conditions for university-school collaboration in inquiry

This paper describes a model of professional development that guided a two-year university-school partnership in Melbourne, Australia. The project was aimed at enhancing teachers’ capacity to respond to diversity through collaboration and active involvement in evidence-based inquiry in their schools. The project involved eight schools and approximately 45 teachers in two years of university accredited post-graduate study. Conditions that fostered collaborative inquiry and supported teacher and student learning are presented from the view of the leaders and teachers as well as from the perspective of the university facilitators. Findings suggest that CI partnerships will be of higher quality if they are sustained over time and build conditions that demonstrate a value for both collaboration and inquiry as part of teachers’ routine work. The process is highly complex and the relative importance of conditions that appeared to support the change process is not fully understood.     

Stigma,self-perception and social comparisons in young people with an intellectual disability

Whether individuals who have a diagnosis of intellectual disability (ID) perceive and experience stigma has been a matter of some debate. In this paper, we consider the role of the level of ID and gender on perception of stigma in individuals with ID who attend a segregated special secondary school and whether reports of stigma impact self-perception and social comparison with others. Each participant (N?=?54) completed self-report measures in a cross-sectional survey design. The degree of ID and gender were found to influence experience of stigma and respondents’ social comparison with others. Category of ID (borderline, mild, moderate) was also associated with differences in self-perception of physical appearance and perception of global self-worth. Social comparisons were also negatively related to experience of stigma. Discussion focuses on the heterogeneity of those affected by ID and how this impacts on their experience of stigma.     

Social relationships and friendships among young people with Down's syndrome in secondary schools

More young people with Down's syndrome are being taught in mainstream schools and interest in the educational aspect of inclusion has grown over the last few years.
In this article Pat Cuckle, Senior Research Fellow at the University of Leeds, and June Wilson, a support teacher working for Education Leeds, explore patterns of friendship and social relationships among teenagers with Down's syndrome. The young people who took part in the study either attend mainstream schools or resourced provision in mainstream schools. The enquiry provides fascinating insights into the participants' views of friendship and into the range of their social experiences. Pat Cuckle and June Wilson conclude their report with a set of recommendations focusing on the need to create more opportunity for social interaction for young people with special needs.     

Acculturation and religion in schools: the views of young people from minority belief backgrounds

This paper aims to explore the relationship between religious identity, acculturation strategies and perceptions of acculturation orientation in the school context amongst young people from minority belief backgrounds. Based on a qualitative study including interviews with 26 young people from religious minority belief backgrounds in Northern Ireland, it is argued that acculturation theory provides a useful lens for understanding how young people from religious minority belief backgrounds navigate majority religious school contexts. Using a qualitative approach to explore acculturation theory enables an in‐depth understanding of the inter‐relationship between minority belief youth's acculturation strategies and their respective school contexts. Similar to previous research, integrationist attitudes generally prevailed amongst minority belief young people in this study. The findings highlight how young people negotiate their religious identities in a complex web of inter‐relationships between their minority religious belief community and the mainstream school culture as represented through peer and staff attitudes, school ethos and practices and religious education. Young people demonstrated differentiated understandings of acculturation orientations within the school context, which they evaluated on the basis of complex perceptions of educational policy, interpersonal relationships and individuals' motivations. Findings are discussed in view of acculturation tensions, which arose particularly in relation to the religious education curriculum and their implications for opt‐out provision as stipulated by human rights law.     

Promoting inclusivity in Western Australian schools

This paper discusses an inclusion initiative and action research project involving the special schools and services of an education administration (Local Education Authority) in the UK. The project is concerned with the classroom contexts and dynamics that create difficulty. It is not intended to produce incremental change along a developmental path, but rather to stimulate transformation of thinking within the schools. The focus is on pupils who provide the greatest challenge to the routine confidence and competence of teachers. The local education administration aims to avoid placement of these pupils out of the locality in specialist provision elsewhere in the country by developing appropriate curricula, pedagogy and support locally. The part of the project reported here makes use of Intensive Interaction, an interactive approach that emphasizes the quality of teacher-learner interaction, as a vehicle for reviewing and transforming practice. The emphasis is on intuitive teaching combined with critical reflection and collaborative problem-solving, rather than on the notion of specialist ‘experts’. The planning, action and developments of the initial year of the project are reported and themes related to the challenge of inclusion are discussed.     

Changes in domain specific self-perception amongst young people with intellectual disability: a longitudinal study

This study examines the changes that occur in multidimensional self-concept of adolescents with a diagnosis of intellectual disabilities, across gender and category of intellectual disability (borderline, mild, moderate) groups. A sample of 54 young people completed the Harter Self-Perception Profile. Using a three-wave longitudinal study conducted during their first year in a segregated special second-level school, stability and change in multiple domains of self-perception were examined. Findings indicate that gender and level of cognitive function are important variables in changes in self-perception across time, highlighting the heterogeneous nature of the special school population.     

Student absence in South Australian schools

Students who are frequently absent from school (‘non-attenders’) are considered to be ‘at risk’. State education departments have recently begun to improve their collection of student absence data, often to contribute to the development of performance standards for schools. This paper presents a summary of data from the Term 2 collection in South Australian government schools. The data were combined with student information, which allowed examination and comparison of attendance patterns for different groups of students. The author provides details about which students were absent in those years, the frequency of students’ absences, which students had no absences, and the stated reasons for students’ absences. The author recommends that no single attendance standard can be set for schools, based on the differential targets shown for different groups of students.     

Exploring the social inclusion of deaf young people in mainstream schools,using their lived experience

Research suggests that children with hearing loss face a number of difficulties in the education system, including socially. Although there has been much research with the severe to profound deaf population there has been little research into the life experiences of children with moderate hearing loss who attend mainstream secondary schools. This research sought to examine the experiences of social inclusion for five young people with moderate hearing loss. Data were gathered through semi-structured interviews in the young person’s school setting and were analysed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA). Although each participant had distinctive experiences, there were a number of common themes that emerged indicating the factors that support social inclusion and those which create barriers for deaf children in schools. Implications for educational psychologists are considered and the limitations of the research are outlined.     

小学良好课堂气氛的营造

课堂教学气氛是教学过程中的"软环境",这种环境与学生的学习以及教师的教学有直接地联系,良好的课堂氛围给学生学习老师的教学带来有利的影响。深入研究影响小学生课堂气氛的积极因素,并充分综合这些因素的作用为学生和教师营造具有和谐而美好气氛的小学课堂。     

Key workers and schools: meeting the needs of children and young people with disabilities

Across the world countries are advocating the education of children and young people with disabilities in mainstream schools. There is also increasing interest in developing effective coordination of the specialist services pupils with disabilities receive from different agencies. This is accompanied by growing recognition that such care coordination can positively influence the experience of inclusion for children and their families. However, while the literature of care coordination generally includes education as a core provider, there is little evidence on involvement of education professionals and the outcomes for children and schools. These issues are addressed by the findings reported here on the role of key workers in care coordination and their relationship with schools. The findings draw on interviews with professionals from seven key worker services across England and Wales, parents and carers who were recipients of these services and teachers in schools serving children supported by key workers. These interviews are part of a wider multi‐method study exploring the effectiveness and costs of different models of key worker services for disabled children. The data reveal the range of education and school issues addressed by key workers and the factors influencing their work with teachers. The benefits for children, families and schools of key worker involvement are identified and the implications for schools explored. Consideration is also given to the advantages and disadvantages of teachers themselves taking on the role of key workers. It is argued that key workers can improve home–school relationships, facilitate the contribution of teachers in inter‐agency working, enable mainstream schools to better meet the individual needs of pupils with disabilities and improve their inclusive practice.     

Vocational education and training in Australian schools

While vocational subjects have always been part of the school curriculum, formal vocational ducation and training (VET) in the last two years of secondary education has been a policy focus for the last decade. In the Australian context,VET in schools is defined as courses that lead to industry recognised qualifications under the Australian Qualifications Framework while at the same time contributing to the standard Year 12 certificate. The number of students doing such courses has increased dramatically and is now close to one in two. The article looks at some history, the characteristics of the courses, the success of the policy in terms of school retention and labour market outcomes, and remaining challenges.     

Sexuality education in South African schools: deconstructing the dominant response to young people’s sexualities in contemporary schooling contexts

ABSTRACT

South African schools are tasked with providing sexuality education through the Life Orientation curriculum as a means of challenging continued high rates of HIV, unwanted pregnancy and gender-based violence. While in theory schools are well positioned to provide appropriate knowledge for reproductive health and navigating sexual challenges within a gender justice framework, research on sexuality education in South African schools indicates that this is not the reality in practice. This paper draws on a growing body of qualitative studies, with both educators and learners in South African schools, to understand the issues undermining the goal of a critical and social justice pedagogy of sexuality in Life Orientation classrooms. We argue that sexuality education has been deployed to regulate and discipline young sexualities, reinforce and perpetuate gender binarisms and heteronormativity, re-establish global northern family values of the nuclear family within a pro-family discourse, and represent continued assumptions of adult authority in a civilising mission over young people. We suggest that the failure to make critical use of Life Orientation is linked to the dominance of ‘expert’-based didactic pedagogy, and argue the possibilities of sexuality education as a productive space for young people’s active participation and agency in making meaning of gender and sexualities.     

Violence in schools and representations of young people: a critique of government policies in France and England

This paper examines media discourses in France and in Britain relating to young people, violence and disaffection in schools, setting these within the framework of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, which emphasises young people’s participation rights. It analyses policy initiatives developed since 1997 in each country to address concerns about young people, disaffection and violence, examining these in the light of research evidence. It considers how public policies are variously shaped by research findings and by media representations. In France, attempts to reduce violence in schools have been accompanied by recognition that schools structurally produce disaffection and violence. In England there has been a shift in policy discourses. In 1997 the primary emphasis was social inclusion, but greater weight has since been given to the need to combat crime. (Male) youth disaffection is linked to crime. Policies addressing standards and achievement have been prioritised over policies to combat social exclusion. In both countries researchers and the media give particular attention to urban communities where minority ethnic communities live. Individual schools are labelled as failing and large numbers of young people are excluded or marginalised. In both countries minority ethnic students are over‐represented among those formally excluded from mainstream education and in the least popular, most stigmatised, schools and classes. Violence and disadvantage are effectively institutionalised. Discourses in each country are racialised and disaffection is associated with minorities. Yet both countries offer universalist rather than targeted policy responses. Opportunities for student participation in school decision‐making are limited.     

How disability and school-related variables influence social security dependence among vulnerable young people in their late twenties

The objective of this article is to investigate how psychosocial difficulties, functional level and school factors affect social security dependence among former students with special needs (N = 373). These individuals have been followed prospectively from their teens and into their late twenties. The study is theoretically inspired by life-course perspectives, with emphases on transitions, linked lives, geographical and historical location and human agency. More than one-third of the study participants are dependent on social security. The logistic regression analyses show how each of the seven independent variables – while simultaneously controlling for the other covariates – impacts adult adaptation to social security. Women have almost a threefold higher risk of social security dependence than men. The covariates affect males and females differently. For men, the risk is especially high if they have psychosocial problems, are supported by teaching assistants in class or experienced delayed educational transitions. For women, the risk is elevated if their functional level is low or school results are poor.     

The role that schools hold in supporting young people with selective mutism: a systematic literature review

Schools are expected to hold an increasingly central role in co-ordinating support for children with mental health needs. However, the role that schools hold in supporting pupils with selective mutism (SM) is complex. Through a Critical Interpretive Synthesis (CIS), this review explores the multidimensional role which educational settings hold in supporting children with SM. Key databases were searched (PsycInfo, British Education Index, Education Resources Information Center, British Library EThOS and Google Scholar) and a conceptual map, informed by experienced practitioners, guided additional purposive searching with a focus on conceptual saturation. A total of twenty-four papers were identified following a further process of appraisal. Reciprocal Translational Analysis (RTA) found that schools hold a tripartite role in supporting children with SM: this incorporated developing a shared understanding of the disorder, engaging in effective (and often multi-professional) planning, and offering direct support through adapting provision and facilitating individual intervention. Through realising this role, schools and educational settings might transform the support currently available for children and young people with SM. Implications for practice, policy and future research also emerged. This included a clear need for enhanced teacher understanding of SM, arguably at the level of initial teacher training (ITT).     

Creating Futures: lessons from the development of a livelihood-strengthening curriculum for young people in eThekwini's informal settlements

Comprehending praxis is a critical step in developing interventions that can have a real-world impact on people's lives. In this paper, we reflect on the lessons learned in the development of a curriculum for young people living in informal settlements in eThekwini, who are exposed to numerous vulnerabilities, including HIV-related risks associated with precarious urban livelihoods. Behavioural interventions have not led to commensurate reductions in HIV incidence, and the impact of these approaches remains regulated by numerous contextual conditions affecting those participating. Our collaborative project tested the impact of implementing a combination of the well-tested gender transformation intervention, Stepping Stones, with a new livelihood transformation curriculum, Creating Futures, among young people in eThekwini's informal settlements. Creating Futures was grounded in the theory and practice of sustainable livelihoods, but equally in the experience of the multi-disciplinary project team members who have conducted both research and development work among youth in the eThekwini area. Our approach was founded on the work of Doug Kirby, and we are indebted to him for his inputs. His logical model approach ensured that the team remained orientated to specific curriculum outcomes. Analysis of the results at 12 months post-baseline indicates positive livelihood outcomes.     

Staying engaged: the role of teachers and schools in keeping young people with health conditions engaged in education

It is well known that having a chronic or traumatic health condition can seriously impact on a young person’s educational trajectory, as well as placing the young person at higher risk of experiencing mental health conditions such as depression and anxiety, and increasing their likelihood of participation in risky behaviours. This paper reports on research examining best practice by schools in mitigating the impact of having a health condition by keeping students engaged with education in the post-compulsory years of schooling. The research project was designed to examine the strategies, both formal and informal, which are enacted by schools, individual teachers, families and students in ensuring an ongoing connection with educational pathways in the senior years. We describe an interconnected set of critical success factors for retaining these vulnerable young people in education, and reflect on the implications of these for educational policymakers and school administrators.     

Supporting young people with dyslexia in international schools: a case study example of current provision in Southeast Asia

This small‐scale qualitative study examines professional and parental perspectives of dyslexia within international schools located in Bangkok. The views of participants indicated that there is a need for a greater awareness of ‘dyslexia‐friendly’ approaches in these settings and a lack of resources to support the identification and teaching of individuals having specific needs. The findings also indicated that the collaboration between parents and professionals was central to what could be identified as ‘good practice’ and that the identification of difficulties alone, without the acknowledgement of an individual's strengths, could be detrimental. Opportunities for continuing professional development are highlighted as central to the needs of professionals working within this region.