Bridging the gap between policy and practice: adopting a strategic vision for partnership working in special education

The desirability of parents and professionals in special education working in partnership continues to be expressed through Government policy and legislation and through voluntary sector initiatives. Moreover, partnership working attracts significant financial investment. Yet effective, working parent - professional partnerships often remain elusive in practice. In this article, Susanna Pinkus, a teacher, consultant and teaching practice supervisor who recently completed her PhD, describes her research into partnerships between parents and professionals. She bases her assertions on the daily experiences of 14 parents based in four London education authorities and attributes an absence of effective collaboration to lack of understanding about how partnerships between parents and professionals do, and should, function in the special educational context. In order to bridge this gap between the rhetoric of policy and the difficulties that are frequently reported in developing parent-professional relationships in practice, Susanna Pinkus identifies and discusses four principles as being central to forming effective partnerships.     

A review of parent–professional partnerships and some new obligations and concerns arising from the introduction of the SEND Code of Practice 2015

This article contributes a current thematic review of literature about the challenges of productive parent–professional partnership working relating to children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND). It also reports on an empirical project which explored early experiences of professionals working under the newly statutory SEND Code of Practice 2015 and asks what new challenges have emerged for SEND parent‐partnerships. Particular consideration is given to the language of choice and preference in the Code, the new focus on outcomes in the place of specified provision, and the problematic construction of compliant partners.     

Professional learning in community: teachers and academic partners focused on disadvantaged students in schooling and higher education

This paper reports on the work of a small group of Education academics to build a professional learning community in a regional university in the north of England. Their efforts form part of a ‘Leading Learning’ school–university partnership serving schools in disadvantaged communities in inner city Leeds. This is designed to support teachers’ professional learning and development and reclaim their sense of collaborative professionalism in a new era of austerity Britain. The account given here is about the new partnerships being created between and among academic colleagues, who are learning to work effectively with each other and their schooling colleagues on their collective professional learning and to build their collaborative sense of professionalism. The complexities of this task—of working in a professional learning community within Faculty in order to model and support a city-wide professional learning community with teacher partners, school communities, and civil servants in the local Authority—are framed in terms of knowledge-building for the improvement of educational provision for disadvantaged students in local schools and the university.     

Professional learning during a schools–university partnership Master of Education course: teachers’ perspectives of their learning experiences

An extensive body of research has indicated the benefits of collaborative, contextualised and enquiry-based learning for teachers’ professional development and school improvement. Yet professional learning is also known to be constrained by a number of factors, including the organisational limitations of schools, conflicting cultural practices and wider political demands. Schools–university partnerships have been developed to overcome some of these difficulties by transcending particular school contexts and offering alternative theoretical and practical perspectives. The complex combination of motivations, backgrounds and working contexts in such partnership work calls for attention to the individual and collective learning experiences of those involved, including the ways in which school and university contexts are, or could be, effectively bridged. This paper focuses on understanding the learning experienced by a cohort of teachers and school leaders involved in a two-year schools–university partnership Master of Education (M.Ed.) course in England. A mixed group of 15 experienced primary and secondary teachers and school leaders reflected on their learning at five points of time during and shortly after completing their M.Ed. course. Qualitative analysis of the group’s interview responses and reflective writing led to the identification of six related aspects of personal and professional learning experience: being a learner; learning as part of professional practice; widening repertoire; changing as a learner; personal growth; and critically adaptive practice. The identification and visual representation of these aspects of experience emerging within the group offers useful insight into teachers’ perspectives on learning in school and university contexts and their experiences of progression over time. We conclude that more explicit and central attention to the professional and personal learning elements of schools–university partnerships can help to resolve some of the binary ‘theory–practice’ tensions that have been extensively discussed in relation to partnership programmes and teacher professional development. There is a need to acknowledge variation in teachers’ learning experiences within schools–university partnerships, bearing in mind the ongoing nature of this reflective process with each new group of school and university colleagues. Analysis of participants’ learning experiences in school and university contexts also draws attention to the wider structures, values and cultures that influence, and are influenced by, schools–university partnership work.     

Enacting educational partnership: collective identity,decision-making (and the importance of muffin chat)

The rhetoric of partnership is ubiquitous in the current policy context. In education, partnerships take a number of forms among which is ‘interorganisational collaboration’ (IOC), defined as a partnership between institutions/organisations aimed at developing synergistic solutions to complex problems. But policy has a tendency to veneer, obscuring its enactment. The purpose of this paper is therefore to examine what such partnerships look like on the ground. Here we present an empirical analysis which aims to produce knowledge about the working of such collaborative groups and to provide insights into leadership within such partnerships. Drawing on communicative constitution of organisations operationalised within a schema for understanding the emergence of collective identity in IOC, we undertake an analysis of meetings held by a working group comprising academics and local authority staff set up to develop masters-level work-based professional learning for teachers. We ask, how do professionals working within different contexts create a collective identity that supports decision-making, and what are the implications for leadership?     

Working as partners for classroom reform

This paper discusses a partnership involving teachers and a teacher educator working together to develop teaching and learning practices in Pakistan. The partnership was established in response to the teachers’ need for support in developing their professional practices within the actual contexts and realities of their schools, after they had attended an in-service training course at a university. Providing case studies, the paper analyses the processes and outcomes of this co-learning partnership. The findings suggest that the collaborative process advances the understanding of teachers’ problems, resolves them on the spot, and provides teachers with the confidence and courage to transcend the constraints of their workplaces while developing professionally.     

Teacher contact with parents of children with special educational needs: a comparison over two decades

The paper addresses aspects of teacher contacts with the parents of children with special educational needs in the broader context of parent–teacher relations. Data are presented from a large-scale survey of teachers of Key Stage 2 children (7–11-year-olds) in England in 1998 and are compared with data from a similar survey in 1981. Levels of consultation with parents have increased across the two surveys and it is very unusual for a teacher not to have had a meeting with a parent of a child with SEN during the current school year. There is a tendency for levels of contact with the parents of ethnic minority pupils to be lower than that for other pupils. There is also a markedly higher level of non-contact in schools serving areas of poverty compared with more affluent schools. A tension is identified between an agenda of home–school partnership and a set of attributions for the causes of children's difficulties which locates these in deficiencies in the home. However, teachers in the later survey were less likely to identify the home as the source of problems than were teachers in 1981. The paper suggests that considerable progress has been made towards fulfilling the conditions for home–school partnership, but that there remain areas of concern.     

Developing partnership with parents in special schools: parental perspectives from Northern Ireland

From the 1960s, the development of home–school relationships in special schools has become increasingly important, culminating in the current official understanding of parents as partners. This paper traces the development of the relationship, setting out the challenges to partnership development from professional perspectives within education. A professionally located investigation was undertaken into parental experiences and perspectives to identify factors inhibiting and promoting effective partnerships. Using a mixed-methods approach, the views were explored of parents with children attending a special school in Northern Ireland. Findings strongly indicated the need for educators to pursue and engage with the views of parents, and to recognise the emotional context of these relationships at an interpersonal and organisational level, so that home–school relations can be realigned to support partnership. Implications are set out that will be instrumental in achieving this reconfiguration between the current official understanding of parents as equal partners and actual practice in some schools.     

论特殊需要儿童家庭与专业人员合作的几个核心问题

融合教育的教育理念,对特殊需要儿童的家庭教育产生了深远影响。随着融合教育实践的逐步深入,如今很多特殊教育专业人员都已经意识到能否建立和保持与家庭整体积极的合作伙伴关系是特殊需要儿童发展社会适应能力、获得学业成功以及教师实施个别化教育计划的关键。本文对家庭与特殊教育专业人员的合作做了历史回顾,阐述了在合作模式下家庭各成员和特殊教育专业人员的角色转变,为我国特殊教育者与家庭建立积极、平等的合作关系提出了三项策略。     

浅析冷战后的中欧伙伴关系及中国今后的对策

冷战后的中欧伙伴关系表现为从1998年以来,双方在经济、政治和其他领域的交往与合作增多,并在这些领域取得了巨大成果.经济上的互补、政治上分歧的减少、经济利益对政治关系的制约和战略上利益的一致及相互尊重是推动中欧关系发展的动力,也是中欧关系取得巨大成就的原因.但是,制约中欧关系发展的政治、军事、经济和其他方面的负面因素仍存.因此,今后中国应采取更多措施加强和深化与欧盟在经济、政治、文化等领域的交流与合作,以推动中欧关系的继续向前发展.     

Language,Experience and Professional Learning (What Walter Benjamin Can Teach Us)

This essay raises questions about how language educators might construct and further develop their epistemology of practice in and through the situations in which they work from day to day. The occasion for this paper is our work as guest editors of a special issue of L-1: Educational Studies in Language and Literature, when we invited L1 teachers to reflect on the role that language plays in their professional learning, whether it be in the form of conversations with peers, reflective writing, or by other means. We begin this essay by locating our reflections within our current policy context, namely the standards-based reforms that have come to dominate educational thinking around the world, offering a brief critique of the values and attitudes embedded within them. We then outline a philosophical framework as an alternative to the world-view reflected by such reforms, focusing specifically on the work of Walter Benjamin. In the final sections, we review our work as guest editors of the special issue of L-1, reflecting on what we have learned from the papers we have assembled for this issue, and locating our learning within the philosophical framework that we have drawn from Benjamin. We argue that it is timely for language educators to articulate the assumptions that inhere within their work, in contradistinction to the common sense embedded in standards. Thus we might begin to reconceptualise the relation between language, experience and professional learning in opposition to the hegemony of standards.     

Collaboration and self-regulation in teachers’ professional development

This paper describes a professional development model with promise for supporting meaningful shifts in practice. We begin by introducing the theoretical principles underlying our professional development model, with a focus on explicating the interface between collaborative inquiry in a learning community (Lave, 1991, In L.B. Resnick, J.M. Levine, S.D. Teasley (Eds.), Perspectives on Socially Shared Cognition, American Psychological Association, Washington, DC; Lave, & Wenger, 1991, Situated Learning: Legitimate Peripheral Participation, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge) and teachers’ self-regulated learning. Next, we report on successes and challenges within a 2-year collaborative research partnership. We recount how participating teachers reflected on practice, constructed conceptual knowledge about teaching, and made important instructional shifts. We also detail features of our model that teachers found most effective. We close by discussing our implications for theory and in-service professional development.     

‘I understood the complexity within diversity’: preparation for partnership with families in early childhood settings

‘Partnership between parents and teachers’ is a taken-for-granted feature of the philosophy and practice of early childhood education. Yet, the literature suggests this rhetoric belies a more complex and problematic reality for teachers. Making connections with the families and communities they will serve may help teacher education students confront understandings of the realities of family lives and assist them to prepare for their professional responsibilities. Teacher education literature suggests that supported field experiences may assist student teachers to examine their beliefs and reflect on their practices with families. This paper reports on the experiences of student teachers who undertook a community placement in order to interact with children and families outside their normal range of teaching practice experience. Three themes of changes in student learning are discussed: (1) beliefs about partnerships; (2) notions of complexities within diversity; and (3) developing relationships with diverse families. The paper argues that the change in placement setting prompted student reflection in relation to these themes and shifts in beliefs, towards more authentic and complex understandings of partnership.     

Applying a family systems perspective for understanding parent—professional relationships: a study of families located in the Anglo‐Jewish community

Under current government directives, parents, along with professionals, are ascribed a central role in contributing to the processes associated with meeting their children's special needs. Yet many obstacles continue to hinder the achievement of good working relationships between parents and professionals. For parents located within minority ethnic communities, however, it is known that the challenges to attaining partnership working are often further heightened. Drawing on the day‐to‐day experiences of six families located in one minority ethnic context ‐ the Anglo‐Jewish community ‐ the author uses family systems theory as a useful lens through which parents' understandings of, and responses to professionals can be further interpreted and understood. All the names used in this article are pseudonyms.     

INCLUSION: Special or inclusive education: future trends

In this article, Lani Florian, Professor of Social and Educational Inclusion at the University of Aberdeen, examines the relationships between ‘special’ and ‘inclusive’ education. She looks at the notion of specialist knowledge among teachers and at the roles adopted by staff working with pupils with ‘additional’ or ‘special’ needs in mainstream settings. She explores the implications of the use of the concept of ‘special needs’– especially in relation to attempts to implement inclusion in practice – and she notes the tensions that arise from these relationships. She goes on to ask a series of questions: How do teachers respond to differences among their pupils? What knowledge do teachers need in order to respond more effectively to diversity in their classrooms? What are the roles of teacher education and ongoing professional development? How can teachers be better prepared to work in mixed groupings of pupils? In seeking answers to these questions, Lani Florian concludes that we should look at educational practices and undertake a thorough examination of how teachers work in their classrooms. She suggests that it is through an examination of ‘the things that teachers can do’ that we will begin to bring meaning to the concept of inclusion.     

Working in Creative Partnership with Students to Co-Produce Neuroanatomy e-Learning Resources in a New Era of Blended Learning

Anatomists are well placed to tackle the transition from face-to-face to blended learning approaches as a result of the rapidly forced changes brought about by Covid-19. The subject is extremely visual and has, therefore, previously been a target for the development of technology-enhanced learning initiatives over the last ten years. Today's students have come to expect the integration of technology in the classroom and remotely. They adjust quickly to the innovative use of new applications and software and have begun to integrate it within their own workflow for note taking and study aids. Given the intense drive toward blended deliveries of anatomy as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, it is easy to picture how the benefits of working in partnership with students (in order to achieve many of these aims) would be possible, particularly in difficult subjects like neuroanatomy. In doing so, it provides anatomists with new opportunities to engage students in a way that aligns well with best practice frameworks for engaging students through partnership. The current United Kingdom guidelines set out by Advance HE (a professional membership organization for promoting excellence in higher education) strongly encourages the higher education community to seek out appropriate academic contexts where a balance of power can be struck between staff and student to create a community of practice. If such an approach can be fully embraced by anatomists, a strong argument can be made for seizing the opportunity to optimize the benefits of student partnership work in this discipline.     

From External Regulation to Self-Regulation: Early Parenting Precursors of Young Children's Executive Functioning

In keeping with proposals emphasizing the role of early experience in infant brain development, this study investigated the prospective links between quality of parent–infant interactions and subsequent child executive functioning (EF), including working memory, impulse control, and set shifting. Maternal sensitivity, mind-mindedness and autonomy support were assessed when children were 12 to 15 months old ( N  =   80). Child EF was assessed at 18 and 26 months. All three parenting dimensions were found to relate to child EF. Autonomy support was the strongest predictor of EF at each age, independent of general cognitive ability and maternal education. These findings add to previous results on child stress-response systems in suggesting that parent–child relationships may play an important role in children's developing self-regulatory capacities.     

Disability and the restructuring of welfare: the problem of partnership with parents

Parent Partnership Services are now required in every local education authority (LEA) in England and Wales. Research has documented parents' experience of dissatisfaction when engaging with services responsible for providing for children's special educational needs, and differences in priorities and assumptions between parents and professionals. Analysis suggests that Parent Partnership Services have the potential to make the system work in a more understandable, friendly, respecting and involving way for parents. Evidence is drawn from interviews in Newby LEA with 24 parents and both LEA and voluntary agency Parent Partnership Officers. However, tensions and assumptions were identified that suggest a limit to authentic partnership possibilities. The political nature of the discourse of partnership continues to be ignored. There remains little awareness of the need to negotiate the meaning of partnership. Partnership was assumed to be ‘good’, with little understanding of the need to work in ways that avoided its potentially disempowering effects. Parent Partnership Officers represent a further tier of ‘professionals’, which for some parents remove them from those who are the decision-makers. Parent Partnership Services remove from schools the arena of parent partnership when a child is undergoing statutory special needs assessment. Such services move this area of partnership into a space between schools and the LEA—which may distance responsibility of schools to take seriously the need to engage with parents as partners.     

职业自我管理、国家控制抑或其它--试论英国教师教育的改革措施

在英国,自上个世纪中后期以来,教师教育渐趋成为“官方规定设计领域”,教师教育界日渐丧失职业自主性。本文通过深入论述英国教师教育政策发展,得出结论:专业自我管理和国家控制两种模式都存在着不足。并基于此提出建议:停止有关教师职业专业化的讨论,着手联合所有合法社会力量构建“民主化的教师职业”。而在这一社会性变革过程中,教师以及教师教育者需要成为“变化的推动力”,高校、特别是跨学科的综合性大学更适合探索并传播一个新型的、符合公正社会要求的教师职业基本能力体系。     

Collaborative Partnership: Developing Pre-service Teachers as Inclusive Practitioners to Support Students with Disabilities

Since the introduction of anti-discrimination legislation including Australian Disability Discrimination Act, 1992 and the Disability Standards of Education, 2005, there is an increasing demand on all schools to cater effectively for more students with disabilities within an inclusive school community context. This investigation explored a proactive partnership model designed to equip pre-service teachers with deeper role understandings in teaching students with disabilities. This collaborative model involved sustained professional experiences in schools on four mornings each week over 38 weeks, offered in conjunction with their final-year teacher education studies in Diversity and Inclusive Education. A unique emphasis of this qualitative study was a focus on identifying conducive real-life experiences and ideal teacher qualities for undertaking challenging inclusive practitioner roles. Findings highlighted the perspectives of school leaders, special education mentors and pre-service teachers in improving inclusive learning outcomes for all students while developing an effective collaborative partnership model for teacher education.