Impact of training on change in practice for education assistants in a group of international private schools in Hong Kong

This paper reports research that evaluated the efficacy of training for education assistants and its impact upon changing practices in a group of private international schools in Hong Kong, China. Two cohorts of education assistants received training through an education institute. The focus was on supporting and fostering inclusive practices in schools. The expectations and perceptions of the education assistants regarding the training was recorded through survey and focus group interviews and discussed alongside international literature in the area of classroom support and inclusive schooling. The paper concludes that the provision of training was successful in meeting education assistants’ expectations and in increasing personal confidence and raising self‐esteem, but that they face many challenges if their learning is to be applied. The research further reveals that education assistants within Hong Kong schools lack clarity in their role and a narrow understanding of how they may be most appropriately utilised within schools has led to a limiting of their deployment. Implications for training providers and the teaching profession are discussed.     

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.     

A climate for self-efficacy: the relationship between school climate and teacher efficacy for inclusion

Teacher efficacy represents a key construct in exploring successful implementation of inclusive policy. Teachers’ impression of school climate is shown to relate to teacher efficacy; however, few studies pay due deference to its context/specific conceptualisation, with a particular lacuna in research noted in an Irish mainstream primary school context. This study aimed to investigate the relationship between school climate and efficacy for inclusion and whether this relationship impacts on perceptions of challenging behaviours, further identifying barriers to and supports for efficacious inclusive practice. Fifty-seven probated primary mainstream teachers in the Republic of Ireland responded to online questionnaires exploring perceptions of school climate, teacher efficacy for inclusion and challenging behaviours. Teachers’ perceptions of a supportive school climate related positively to their teaching efficacy for inclusion, in turn influencing their ratings of the severity of and their confidence in managing commonly experienced challenging behaviours in inclusive classrooms. Teachers looked within their school for support, few noting Educational Psychologists (EPs) as sources for support. These findings add weight to the importance of understanding the relationship between teachers’ perceptions of their school climate and their efficacy for inclusion, addressing the dearth of research in an Irish context. In particular, these findings underline the potential offered by an understanding of teachers’ beliefs to inform and enhance the role of EPs in supporting efficacious inclusive practice.     

Implementing the SENCo system in Hong Kong: an initial investigation

Monitoring mechanisms of support services for students with special needs can be broadly classified as external and internal. Resembling the UK model, Hong Kong has adopted an internal mechanism through the establishment of the SENCo post. This investigation, written by Dr Kim Fong Poon‐McBrayer, of the Hong Kong Institute of Education, explores how SENCos understand the policy intention of their roles, what the role entails in practice, and what work conditions are usual for participants. This qualitative study involved semi‐structured interviews to probe SENCos' experiences. Findings reveal that SENCos assume management but not leadership roles in special educational needs provision. Policy deviation, and the prevalent autocratic leadership style across schools in Hong Kong, are the key contributors to conditions seen as unsatisfactory, of overwork, of the inadequate planning of provision, and of the need for professional and clerical support. It is concluded that policymakers can make improvements through implementing practical training in participatory governance for headteachers, developing a training model for SENCos, and providing SENCos with additional personnel resources. Further studies to gain a fuller picture of the organisational contexts are recommended.     

Managing change in an integrated school--a Hong Kong hybrid experience

Following the world trend of inclusion in education, many schools in Hong Kong have started including students with special needs in the regular classrooms. Given the unique educational context of Hong Kong as 'East meets West', and given that inclusion is essentially a concept from the West, this paper argues that Hong Kong's integration has its unique hybrid features. This paper reports the experience of one primary school in the process of change in areas of stages of integration, leadership and whole school approach, during a two-year implementation period. Change processes at the school, classroom and individual levels are discussed. A case study methodology is used so that unique characteristics of the school in its naturalistic settings can be captured. Data were obtained from observation, documentary analysis, individual and group interviews of different school stakeholders: the principals, parents, teachers, resource teachers, and guidance personnel. Implications of findings to schools in Hong Kong and other countries facing similar issue in parallel and mixed cultural settings are discussed.     

Exploring organisational perspectives on implementing educational inclusion in mainstream schools

Achieving equality remains a major challenge in schools globally. In Hong Kong, the current education policy has a core value that all students have the right to learn. Policy-makers and school personnel are struggling to find ways of catering for diverse learning needs in schools. Early in 2006, a self-initiated inclusive educational project has linked one mainstream school and a special school. Their project can be seen as a pioneer in the field of education, for it provides concrete recommendations to other education practitioners on initiating whole-school participation and joint-school partnerships, integrating such collaborations into the culture of the school, and encouraging teachers committed to student voice and engagement. This article records the qualitative case study comprising the teachers' self reports to demonstrate how teachers re-shaped their perceptions, beliefs and behaviours as they developed and implemented a school-based inclusion project. It is expected that the findings of this study will assist educators to further understand present challenges in the school system regarding managing diversity and attaining inclusive education goals. In particular, local schools are now facing the challenge to implement inclusive education.     

Inclusive special education: development of a new theory for the education of children with special educational needs and disabilities

Inclusive education and special education are based on different philosophies and provide alternative views of education for children with special educational needs and disabilities. They are increasingly regarded as diametrically opposed in their approaches. This article presents a theory of inclusive special education that comprises a synthesis of the philosophy, values and practices of inclusive education with the interventions, strategies and procedures of special education. Development of inclusive special education aims to provide a vision and guidelines for policies, procedures and teaching strategies that will facilitate the provision of effective education for all children with special educational needs and disabilities.     

The Coproduction illusion: considering the relative success rates and efficiency rates of securing an Education,Health and Care plan when requested by families or education professionals

This comparative study examines success and efficiency rates for Education, Health and Care (EHC) needs assessments in England when requested by families or education professionals. England is the only nation in the UK with EHC needs assessments. These are requested from the Local Authority (LA) if the school’s ordinarily-available provision is insufficient for individuals to make expected progress. Policy states that needs assessments should include parents, pupils and professionals in all decision making (coproduction). After a needs assessment, the LA may issue an EHC plan. This study considers whether the outcome of a needs assessment (issuing an EHC plan) is independent of the source of the request. Statistical analysis compared outcomes of needs assessments requested by families and education professionals. Analysis of publicly-available datasets and policy provided further context. Findings included: (i) a need for further research to explore inconsistencies in outcomes of needs assessments across England; (ii) LAs efficient at issuing EHC plans were consistently efficient for requests from education professionals and families; (iii) a potential discrepancy between families’ perceived level of involvement and the reality: a ‘coproduction illusion’. It is proposed that policy and guidance in England requires revision to ensure consistent use of language, roles, and responsibilities.     

融合教育在香港的持续发展——兼论特殊学校的角色转变

融合教育的推行 ,静静地改变着香港学校教育的生态。融合教育是西方发达国家的教育产物 ,通过国际组织的策动而扩散。它是一个建基於人权和平等观念 ,强调尊重差异的教育发展方案 ,但也是一种知易行难的办学手段。本文试图理顺融合教育的基本观念 ,认识它的运作元素和讨论它的实践问题。藉着回顾一些国际和本地的研究发现和发展经验 ,作者还希望为融合教育的持续发展提供意见在天赋的“异”中求人的“同” ,是融合教育需要不断面对的挑战     

The Drama Teacher's Journey

Abstract

This article focuses on Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) and English as a Second Language (ESL) texts, that is texts produced in interactions between native and non‐native speakers of English. Such texts are hybrid in that they comprise a blending of ‘standard’ and ‘non‐standard'1 English forms. In these times of globalised English and the increasing prevalence of non‐native speaker models of English, research is increasingly likely to encounter ESL texts. The issue for the critical analysis of such ‘new’ texts is that CDA generally utilises ‘standard’ linguistic models for its analytical apparatus. Fairclough (2003), arguably the most widely‐recognised proponent of CDA, bases his analytical framework on Standard English. The question is whether and if so how CDA can accommodate hybrid texts, specifically those with a blend of linguistically ‘standard’ and ‘non‐standard’ forms of English. In this discussion, I consider the application of Fairclough's model of CDA to the analysis of an interview with a Thai ESL student beginning postgraduate studies in Australia. I argue that the analysis is made more effective by drawing on principles from Second Language Acquisition (SLA) research, in particular communication strategies.     

Perceptions of the barriers to effective inclusion in one primary school: voices of teachers and teaching assistants

This study examined the barriers to inclusion in one primary school in the north of England. Qualitative data were collected from teachers and teaching assistants through the use of a focus group. The evidence suggested that practices within the school were varied and ranged from highly inclusive to highly exclusive. Some teachers worked in good faith to develop effective inclusion for learners with special educational needs. Conversely, other teachers displayed negative attitudes towards these pupils and this impacted negatively on the school's commitment to inclusion. Lack of funding, resources and training were identified as key barriers to inclusion. Parental resistance to inclusion was also evident within the context of this school and there was a strong feeling that the inclusion agenda was problematic in the context of the standards agenda. Despite these issues there was a strong sense that practitioners should be willing to commit to the principles of inclusive education and the study considers some ways in which schools can advance their practice in this respect. Within this study the term ‘practitioner’ is used to represent teachers and teaching assistants.     

Truly included? A literature study focusing on the social dimension of inclusion in education

Social participation of students with special educational needs (SEN) is a key issue in the inclusion debate. However, the meaning of concepts like social integration, social inclusion and social participation used in current literature is often unclear. Recently, these concepts were clarified based on preschool and primary school literature. The current study assesses the meaning of these concepts for secondary school samples and possible differences with preschool and primary school. A literature review on secondary school literature, including 19 articles, revealed large parallels, i.e. the three concepts can be used as synonyms and include the same key themes: relationships, interactions, perception of the pupil with SEN and acceptance by classmates. Although the subthemes within the key themes largely concurred, one subtheme (i.e. self-perception of social interaction) was added and three subthemes, mentioned in the scheme based on preschool and primary school, were not found.     

A collaborative,collegial and more cohesive approach to supporting educational reform for inclusion in Hong Kong

Together with the many advantages incurred by educational reform there are concomitantly a number of challenges that have to be addressed. In the field of special education there have probably been more changes in the past decade than in any other area of education. In 2006, Hong Kong is undoubtedly at the cusp of major changes which continue to reflect the paradigm shifts occurring internationally. One area of concern for all is the issue of support for learners with special needs. It is clear that as more learners with disabilities are included in regular classes support services are moving relatively quickly from a withdrawal one-on-one intervention model that is no longer viable, to increasingly providing support in class by co-teaching, or even redesigning support so that it is aimed at the teacher rather than the child. Additionally, support services are becoming more sophisticated as parents demand greater attention to the specific needs of their child and as they expect educational systems to provide the most up to date practices. For every child with a special need there are many stakeholders who seek to provide some form of support. This can become quite overwhelming, staccato in its implementation, and demanding in the extreme, thus resulting in a disjointed unworkable approach. This paper will consider how support can be redesigned to provide a more collaborative, collegial and cohesive approach that is manageable within the current transformations that are occurring in Hong Kong.     

‘My success as a teacher amazes me each and every day’ – perspectives of teachers with learning disabilities

The purpose of the article is to study the development of educational policy in Norway in the field of the unitary school system and to analyse whether the development can be seen as a move towards increasing inclusion. The educational policy, when seen over a long time span, has progressively aimed towards the development of a common compulsory school that has embraced increasingly more groups, across social and geographical divides. At the same time, the development has been characterised by discord and tensions, e.g. between standardisation and differentiation, coordination and special arrangements and organisational and pedagogical differentiation. Gradually, it was stressed that as many pupils as possible should be allowed to live and grow up at home and that special education was to be coordinated with the ordinary school as much as possible. Later on, inclusive education has been clearly formulated as a principle of education. It did assume a broadening of responsibility for the ordinary schools in order to develop an educational programme that can accommodate the diverse learning needs of all pupils. It is pointed out that the policy of the unitary school has to deal with a lot of critical dilemmas for moving further towards inclusion.     

Thin versus thick democracy in education: Porto alegre and the creation of alternatives to neo-liberalism

In this article, the authors describe the ways in which a set of policies has had what seem to be extensive and long lasting effects precisely because these policies are coherently linked to larger dynamics of social transformation and to a coherent strategy that aims to change the mechanisms of the state and the rules of participation in the formation of state policies. They describe and analyze the policies of the 'Popular Administration' in Porto Alegre, Brasil but, more specifically, they focus on the 'Citizen School' and on proposals that are explicitly designed to radically change both the municipal schools and the relationship between communities, the state, and education. This set of polices and the accompanying processes of implementation are constitutive parts of a clear and explicit project aimed at constructing not only a better school for the excluded, but also a larger project of radical and thick democracy. The reforms being built in Porto Alegre are still in formation, but the authors argue that they have crucial implications for how we might think about the politics of education policy and its role in social transformation.     

Inclusive education in Sweden? A critical analysis

When it comes to pupils in need of special support and pupils with disabilities, Sweden’s compulsory school system is sometimes considered a one‐track system. This article analyses and critically discusses current policy and practices at various levels of Sweden’s compulsory school system for these pupils. The analysis traces three themes at the national and municipal levels: (1) values and goals; (2) organisation and placement of pupils; and (3) importance of categories in obtaining support. A rather complex picture emerges from this analysis. Several conclusions are made: (1) state policies leave a lot of room for interpretation at the municipal and school levels, and this results in an extensive variation; (2) Swedish state policy is not as inclusive as is often stated; (3) celebration of difference seems to be hard to achieve; (4) learning goals can be a double‐edged sword with regard to inclusion; and (5) most pupils appear to enjoy participation in school, and in an international perspective, Swedish classrooms seem to be largely democratic.     

Inclusive education in the Slovak Republic two decades after the dissolution of Czechoslovakia

The fall of Communist regime in 1989 and the dissolution of Czechoslovakia in 1993 significantly affected the educational system of today's Slovakia. As a sovereign state, Slovakia has ratified the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities obliging its signatories to practise ‘inclusive education’. This article explores the current educational policies of the Slovak Republic in light of this obligation. Using the official statistical data the article argues that the current state educational policies have not succeeded in meeting the objective of practising inclusive education, as the proportion of students educated in segregated special educational provisions has been consistently rising over the last decade. This article attempts to identify particular aspects of the current educational policies which might have contributed to this phenomenon.     

The attitudes of teachers towards inclusive education in Vojvodina

The aim of this study was to examine the attitudes of preschool, primary, secondary and high school teachers towards inclusive education of children with special educational needs. In addition, the study established the correlation between these attitudes and gender, education level, teaching experience, formal training in the special education field, and the duration and quality of work experience with children with special education needs. The sample comprised 322 teachers from the Serbian province of Vojvodina. The My Thinking about Inclusion Scale (Stoiber, K. C., M. Gettinger, and D. Goetz. 1998. “Exploring Factors Influencing Parents' and Early Childhood Practitioners Beliefs about Inclusion.” Early Childhood Research Quarterly 13 (1): 107–131) was used. The results show that, in general, the participants held neutral attitudes towards inclusive education and more positive expectations regarding the outcomes of inclusion. This study also emphasised teaching performance in an inclusive class as a subject of great concern. The high school and preschool teachers as well as the teachers with previous positive experience with working in an inclusive environment reported more positive attitudes towards inclusive education than those from primary and secondary schools and those with negative experiences with the implementation of inclusive practices.     

Ideology influencing action: special educational needs co‐ordinator and learning support assistant role conceptualisations and experiences of special needs education in England

One outcome of England's Code of Practice’ (DfE, 1994) was an increase, first, in the number of learning support assistants (LSAs) working in mainstream schools and, second, the establishment of the role of special educational needs co‐ordinator (SENCO). Semi‐structured interviews were conducted with SENCOs and LSAs to explore: (i) why they chose their occupation; (ii) how they conceptualise their role and (iii) the decisions they make when endeavouring (or not) to cultivate an inclusive culture in schools. Many SENCOs sought the role in order to increase the educational attainment and life chances of pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND). Inclusive concepts such as fairness, equality and social justice underpinned their rationales. LSA justification was more pragmatic and often related to how the role would help them to achieve a further career ambition, or because it was compatible with personal circumstances. Younger participants thought that they could strengthen their teacher training applications by using the role of LSA to gain more experience working in schools generally, and with pupils with SEND in particular. The role of both SENCO and LSA has been found to be extremely diverse in England, depending largely on the needs and resources of the schools in which these two groups find themselves.     

Strengthening the special educational needs element of initial teacher training and education

In the academic year 2006–2007, the Training and Development Agency (TDA) set up a development programme to enable Initial Teacher Training and Education (ITTE) placements in specialist special education provision. The goal of the programme was to enhance the knowledge, skills and understanding of inclusive practice for special educational needs and disability among those joining and those who are relatively new to the teaching workforce. This article, by Gill Golder, Nicky Jones and Erica Eaton Quinn, all Senior Lecturers at the College of St Mark and St John in Plymouth, outlines one project related to this TDA programme. The authors explore the outcomes of their work on a three‐year BEd (Honours) Secondary Physical Education course in the south‐west against the TDA's objectives for both trainee teachers and the special schools to which they were attached. Results confirm the importance of preparing trainee teachers for a future career in more inclusive schools.