Navigating plurilingual learning: An inclusive education approach

Language experiences and linguistic knowledge of teenage migrants can be valuable resources for their continued language learning. Yet, home languages and existing plurilingual skills are often framed as obstacles to learning that tag young migrants as at risk of school failure in the context of monolingual education systems. This article draws on a comparative education study carried out in Aotearoa New Zealand and France in 2017–2019, observing young migrants' use of their languages in classroom learning. A total of 42 secondary students from a mix of asylum-seeker, refugee, and migrant backgrounds participated, originating from 22 different countries and speaking 24 different languages. All of the students were in their first year of schooling in New Zealand or France at the time of the study. Findings draw on observations of how students made use of their existing knowledge of languages to (1) access learning in the language-of-schooling, (2) learn interactively through their home languages, and (3) navigate unfamiliar styles of teaching and learning, thus engaging with the unknown and developing behaviours for successful learning. Patterns across the cohort show that young migrants are adept at drawing on their existing language resources in learning. This suggests a re-framing of success at school as not only outcomes, but also as defined by effective learning processes that young migrants put in place. As a result, this study suggests ways that teachers can work inclusively with young migrants through their languages, to support processes of learning that could lead to better educational outcomes.     

A critical and contextual approach to inclusive education: perspectives from an Indian context

Post Salamanca, inclusive education was incorporated in government policies in countries of the North and South. Since then there have been numerous books, articles, and academic debates on the topic but with little representation from the South. This article examines how inclusive education is conceptualised in India, within four recent government policies and in practice. It draws on interview data from a larger study conducted in the metropolitan city of Kolkata and document data. The findings suggest the term inclusive education is well established in government policies and amongst school heads, special educators, and counsellors. While there is consensus on the ‘goodness' of inclusive education and it being synonymous with children with disabilities, there are multiple meanings assigned to inclusive education, inclusive schools, and the includable child. Variations and discrepancies were visible not only between school staff and policy documents but even within policies and schools, respectively. A visible change is schools emerging but varying ‘consciousness of responsibility' towards children with disabilities. Based on the persisting ambiguities surrounding inclusive education, the article argues for developing contextual understanding of how education of children with disabilities can take place in India and adopting a critical stance towards inclusive education.     

The rationale for a wider concept of inclusive education for teacher education: A case study of Serbia

Teacher education for inclusive education (IE) is recognized as vital for improving quality and equity in education globally. In the Western Balkan countries it is also part of the transition process towards joining the European Union and has attracted international funding for IE-related projects. A key finding from research funded by the European Training Foundation, carried out by the authors as members of a seven-country research team in 2009?C2010, was that the prevailing local understanding of IE was very narrow. In this article we hypothesize the reasons for this finding. We use a case study of school and teacher education systems in Serbia to explore how this understanding has constrained the development of IE and associated teacher education and limited the efficacy of some recent internationally supported developments. We identify both challenges and possible ways forward for teacher education for IE based on promoting a concept of IE that is both collaboratively agreed and comprehensive.     

Towards inclusive education: the case of Finland

The article examines the Finnish system of basic education and the means it employs to support good learning and healthy growth and development for all students. The excellent learning outcomes of the Finnish comprehensive school indicate that it is possible to develop a system with both quality teaching and learning, and equity and equality for students. Throughout the article, special needs education is seen as an important, but not dominant, aspect of Finland’s inclusive policies. The article concludes with five theses central to a working model of inclusive education.     

Insights into inclusive education through a small Finnish case study of an inclusive school context

This study seeks to present data and discussion arising from a case study of a school in Finland renowned for its practice in the inclusion of learners with additional support requirements due to cognitive and physical disabilities. It aims to establish how the school staff understand their practice with inclusion through day-to-day professional experiences. The process of reflexive dialogue has enabled authors to reconceptualise our understanding of inclusive education through gaining deep contextual insight. The case study emerges as an inspiring effort to reduce exclusion and isolation through skilful manipulation of physical, institutional and communicative contexts, from which we may draw valuable lessons. The case study demonstrated high levels of personal motivation in teachers and assistants, used as a force for participation in inclusive education – bottom-up, via dialogue, consultation, voluntary involvement and transformation by exposure. This democratic approach was evident in and supported through leadership and management, teaching and learning, and the involvement of the wider community.     

An assessment framework for inclusive education: integrating assessment approaches

Teachers committed to inclusive education have the potential to revolutionise pedagogical and assessment practices within regular classrooms simply because students with high needs challenge traditional assumptions about what it means ‘to learn’ and ‘to assess’. This creates opportunities for teachers to find creative ways to ascertain what and how a child learns, and how these assessment results can be communicated to the child, parents, the school and funding bodies to enable further learning. This paper explores diverse assessment practices including criterion-based, normative, ipsative and self-assessment, with both formative and summative functions, reported as being used by teachers in New Zealand who teach students with high needs. These multiple approaches can be integrated into learning stories to ‘narrate’ student learning. An assessment framework is introduced to support teachers to appreciate the functionality of an integrated assessment approach to document student learning and outcomes, arguably a framework applicable for all learners.     

The inclusive practice project in Scotland: Teacher education for inclusive education

While differences in national contexts are associated with variations in how teachers are trained and school systems are organised, the conceptual and philosophical problems of equity and inclusion in schooling are shared concerns. This paper describes how the structure and content of an initial teacher education programme for primary and secondary teachers has been revised to ensure that social and educational inclusion is addressed within the core programme. A rationale is presented for the development of ‘inclusive practice’, followed by a discussion of the reforms and an outline of the effects that are expected in the classroom practices of teachers in schools.     

Teacher education for inclusive education in the Arab world: The case of Jordan

This article examines teacher education programmes in the Arab region and the extent to which teachers are prepared to work in inclusive education settings. In the Arab world, the emerging area of inclusive education faces various challenges, among them a teaching force that is not adequately prepared to teach all children. This challenge arises partly because, without content on inclusive education, current pre-service and in-service programmes produce teachers who lack the skills to work with children with special needs in mainstream classrooms. This article focuses on teacher education in Jordan, where the problems and challenges surrounding teacher education programmes for inclusive education mirror those in other Arab countries. In Jordan, training for inclusive education is very limited at both pre-service and in-service levels, both because the idea has only recently been introduced and because of limited financial resources in the country. Still, the growing interest in adopting an inclusive education system has raised awareness about the importance of providing teachers with education that enables them to work with children with special needs in inclusive settings.     

Local special education administrators’ understanding of inclusive education in China

China's inclusive education initiative began in mid-1980s under the name of “Learning in Regular Classrooms”. The purpose of this research is to examine how Chinese Local Special Education Administrators understand the ideology of inclusive education and LRC model by using a qualitative investigation. The results indicate that the Chinese inclusion is driven by pragmatic needs to enroll more children with disabilities who were denied education into schools, and LRC has been practiced in a different social and cultural context from inclusive education initiative in the West. The authors conclude that China should make generalised changes in the whole education system and society to bring greater opportunities to those with disabilities.     

Educational justice for all: the capability approach and inclusive education leadership

Leaders within education must weigh a number of fundamentals as they engage the needs of the stakeholders they represent within the political, social and economic context they operate within. Leaders must consider the unique needs and capabilities of individuals who might not possess similar abilities or talents to those of the majority. In this paper, we explore the capability approach as a frame to consider such contextual fundamentals in inclusive education leadership. In order to examine how educational leaders address the diverse needs of the groups they serve, we interviewed five central office educational administrators in the USA with the responsibility for leading programming for students with special needs. Using a human capabilities frame, we developed targeted questions to determine whether school leaders uphold the tenets of this theoretical foundation within their district's practices in an era of tight fiscal management and accountability. Findings indicate that those leaders whose districts had the highest level of inclusion for most students, including students with significant disabilities, most closely align with the capability approach. Recommendations for continued research and implications for both practice and policy are included.     

An inclusive pedagogy in mathematics education

In this article, the author discusses characteristics in feminist pedagogy literature and situates them with respect to four dialectical aspects. These characteristics are then combined with non-discriminatory classroom practices to develop a frame of reference for an inclusive pedagogy in mathematics education.     

School-level facilitators of inclusive education: the case of Serbia

Relying on Bronfenbrenner’s ecological model, this paper attempts to identify school-level factors that contribute to effective implementation of inclusive education. We also explored how government policy, with emphasis on individual education plans, school teams, Roma assistants and inter-sectorial committees, is implemented at the school level. Qualitative data were collected from various informants (students, parents, teachers, school associates, Roma assistants and local community representatives) in five schools selected on the basis of regional distribution and success in supporting diverse student needs. Two core categories of school-level facilitators were generated: inclusive practices and inclusive culture. Within the first category, which refers to concrete actions and relationships in the school and local community, five themes emerged: individualisation and use of individual education plans; cooperation between teachers and school inclusive education expert team; cooperation with internal and external specialists; cooperation with parents, and cooperation with the local community. The second category, which reflects beliefs, values and implicit school norms, was further divided into five subcategories: willingness for life-long learning; proactive stance; sense of teamwork; sophisticated personal philosophies of development and learning; and acceptance of difference. We concluded that successful schools have developed into professional learning communities. Finally, recommendations for improving relevant practices were provided.     

Developing policies for inclusive education: a study of the role of local education authorities

In many parts of the world there is evidence of initiatives aimed at finding ways of creating forms of mainstream schooling that can respond to pupils with disabilities and others seen as having special educational needs (UNESCO 1995). There is also a growing research literature that throws light on how schools and classrooms can be developed in relation to this idea (e.g. Rouse and Florian 1996, Sebba and Sachdev 1997, Thomas et al. 1998, Ainscow 1999, Clark et al. 1999). However, few studies have considered the contributions and roles of local administrative arrangements to such developments, even though there is evidence that these can be highly influential in relation to policy implementation in general (Spillane 1998). Drawing on the evidence of a recent study carried out in England, this paper starts to fill this gap. Specifically, it addresses the question: in what ways do local administrative arrangements bear on attempts to develop more inclusive ways of working in schools? In considering the evidence and arguments presented it is important to recognize that the peculiarities of each national context mean that district level arrangements for the management of education in one country cannot be assumed to be similar to that in other countries. Consequently, transporting conclusions from one situation to another is impossible. Nevertheless, a detailed engagement with the experiences of particular countries can provide a useful basis for reflection on what happens elsewhere. Before considering this specific agenda, however, we summarize certain relevant international trends.     

Stimulating tensions in special education teachers' figured world: an approach toward inclusive education

I examine special educators’ professional identity emergence and tensions within a researcher-facilitated teacher learning community. I introduced tools to evoke and challenge inequities in educational systems and via which participants examined and planned general education instruction for students with dis/abilities. Initially, professional identity, or figured world, emerged as performance of pathologising and relatedly, remediating students. Over time, participants expressed tensions as they engaged tools to examine structural limitations and design more universally accessible instruction; figured worlds shifted to critical sense-making about their positioning by general education colleagues and school structural barriers, and procedural identity performance tied to investigating student assets. Findings suggest potential for purposefully designed artefacts to mediate special educators’ development as (more) inclusive educators.     

Early childhood teachers' understanding of inclusive education and associated practices: reflections from Greece

This paper focuses on Greek regular and special preschool teachers' understanding of inclusion; their views about the engagement of children with disabilities in typical day routines/activities; and their preferred strategies for facilitating children's engagement in classroom activities. Data were gathered through semi-structured interviews with 77 teachers (45 regular and 32 special educators) drawn from 47 preschool mainstream settings in Greece. The analysis revealed that teachers hold conflicting and restrictive beliefs about inclusive education. Further, the teachers' accounts indicated that most of the children with disabilities were experiencing significant difficulties in their engagement during free-play as well as structured/semi-structured activities. Lastly, teachers identified a range of strategies that they deployed for promoting children's involvement in classroom activities. The paper concludes by highlighting the need to shift away from a narrow individualistic-deficit assumption of disability towards a socio-constructivist conceptualisation of ‘diversity’ and the establishment of genuinely inclusive school cultures.     

A case for rethinking inclusive education policy creation in developing countries

This article presents a critical analysis of the development and implementation of the 2014 inclusive educational policy in Samoa. While Samoan culture is traditionally founded on inclusive social practices, rather than reflecting these practices in their policy, Samoan policy developers have been under pressure to adopt or borrow policy from other countries. The findings of this intrinsic case study highlight the complexity of formulating inclusive education policies for small developing countries and why policy developers borrow from other developed countries. The theoretical framework used to analyse observation data in this study is based on the notion that national process of development is a powerful influence in educational policy. The authors argue and advocate for the existing but overlooked strengths of the local knowledge community capacity when policy is borrowed from other countries, and how the findings of the case study contribute to future attempts at policy development. We found that the draft policy needs to and does reflect Samoan culture, values and vision. However, adopting foreign practices such as the individual education plan and placement rules is not relevant to the Samoan context. The identification and development of inclusive education beliefs, skills and practices in schools is a priority.     

Groundhog day for inclusive education

Those who work in education strive to create more inclusive environments in school but are often stymied in their efforts by challenges coming from many and varied directions. Politicians, for example, exhort us to be more inclusive but create conditions that encourage separation and exclusion, and inclusive education's history in special education means that the default response of the system around special education is to diagnose, treat and manage separately. That legacy continues to have its effects. Looking both at the history of the management of ‘special needs’ and at the continuing rise in numbers of marginalised, separated and excluded youngsters, we suggest that some fundamental shifts are necessary in the way that we think about and research into difficulty at school if we are to move beyond Groundhog Day.     

Collaborating with children in exploring marginalisation: an approach to inclusive education

This article focuses on the importance of engaging with children's voices in school settings in order to understand and deal with marginalisation. Engaging with the views of children and young people is an essential part of the process of developing inclusion. It can be viewed as an approach to inclusive education, which predominantly places emphasis on the views of the learners rather than on other organisational aspects within a school context. The study reported here is from a collaborative piece of research in one primary school classroom where practitioners, children and the researcher worked together in order to identify areas of concern within the particular context, in order to address marginalisation. The benefits, as well as the complexities of engaging in such processes are discussed. Furthermore, the study has led to the development of a framework for promoting inclusion that is presented here. The framework can be used to guide a systematic way of collecting evidence that will facilitate the process of understanding and dealing with marginalisation, and promoting inclusion, that can be incorporated into the daily work of practitioners.