Principals' and teachers' attitudes and knowledge of inclusive education as predictors of effective teaching practices in Ghana

Surveys and observations were undertaken in selected primary schools in Ghana to determine whether principals' and teachers' attitudes towards and knowledge of inclusive education, as well as principals' expectations of teachers in implementing inclusion, were predictors of effective teaching practices in their classrooms. The sample of 128 educators (20 principals and 108 teachers) drawn from 20 primary schools in two districts, were required to respond to questionnaire measures of Attitude Towards Inclusive Education Scale (ATIES), Knowledge of Inclusive Education Scale (KIES) and Principals' Expectations Scale (PES). Of the total number of teachers ( N  = 108), 37 were observed during instructional delivery in their classrooms. The data were analysed by a variety of statistical procedures including Regression Analysis and Discriminant Function Analysis. In the context of the Theory of Planned Behaviour (Ajzen, 1985), the results showed that whilst attitudes towards inclusion (attitude element) and knowledge of inclusion (perceived behavioural control element) predicted effective teaching practices, principals' expectations (subjective norm) did not. Implications for the implementation of effective inclusive practices in Ghanaian schools and the need for future research are discussed.     

农村中小学教师职业认同调查研究

教师被称为是太阳下最光辉的职业,它关乎着国家发展的长远与未来。为了全方位的了解农村教师的职业认同现状,笔者选取伊通满族自治县的92名农村中小学教师进行了问卷调查。调查结果显示:农村中小学教师职业认同的水平较低,教师职业认同在性别、年龄、学历等方面存在显著差异。农村中小学教师职业认同有待进一步提升,应该采取相应措施来增强农村中小学教师的职业认同感,以便提高农村中小学教师队伍的整体素质。     

For Richer or Poorer: Building inclusive schools in poor urban and rural communities

Throughout the world, educators are struggling to shift their delivery of services to children with disabilities from a segregated to inclusive approach. This shift creates substantial opportunities and challenges. This is particularly true in poor urban and rural schools. Although our experience is based in rural and urban schools in the United States, we know that poor rural and urban schools throughout the world face similar issues as inclusive education takes hold. This article describes a framework for building more effective and successful schools in poor rural and urban communities called “Whole Schooling.” In addition, we identify the multiple barriers to inclusive schools, articulate the commonalties and differences between poor rural and urban schools, and describe specific strategies for utilising available resources to build more effective and successful rural and urban schools in which inclusive education is a central component.     

Father/Male Involvement in Early Childhood Programs: Issues and Challenges

Currently there is tremendous support in the U.S. for increased parental involvement in early childhood settings. In addition, societal attitudes have changed recently, so that men are now expected to be much more involved in childrearing activities than in the past. Taken together, these two shifts in societal attitudes suggest the time is right to encourage greater father/male involvement in early childhood programs. However, such outreach efforts will face challenges. Based on the Men & Kids project in Urbana, Illinois, this paper identifies several specific challenges early childhood educators face as they explore ways to encourage greater levels of father/male involvement in their programs, along with preliminary suggestions for overcoming them.     

Teaching practices and strategies to involve inner-city parents at home and in the school

Few studies have observed what teachers actually do in the classroom to encourage parental involvement in their children’s education. Over the school year, the various teaching practices and strategies of two teachers in an inner-city elementary school that has had public recognition in its efforts to involve parents were gathered through interviews and observations. The five main teaching practices and strategies to engage parents are practicing parent outreach, establishing relationships with the parents, creating a positive classroom climate, teaching to involve parents, and making the community-school connection. This study offers insights into teachers’ classroom practices that are connected to various specific strategies to involve parents.     

The devil is in the details: issues of exclusion in an inclusive educational environment

In response to federal legislation and societal views that seek to provide free and appropriate education for each child. Public schools are now opening their doors to a wide variety of learners. General-education teachers are challenged to make their classrooms more inclusive. This year-long-ethnographic study explores the experiences of 20 non-deaf and two deaf fifth-grade students, a general-education and a Resource Room teacher, and support personnel. Results highlight explicit messages of equality and inclusion that belied behaviours which marginalised and excluded the deaf students. Suggestions are made for those committed to providing all students with a fair and equitable educational experience.     

Communities of practice in inclusive education

The data in this paper represent the experiences and perspectives of parents and teachers who worked as communities of practice, designing support plans for the inclusion of three students with intellectual disabilities in general education classrooms. Their reflections, obtained through interviews and questionnaires, show how they constructed relevant knowledge to support these children with special educational needs in their class. The findings show the potential benefits of partnerships and local knowledge in addressing the educational challenge of inclusion.     

Opening the black box of field experiences: How cooperating teachers' beliefs and practices shape student teachers' beliefs and practices

This study employed ethnographic methods to describe and explain changes to beginning science teachers' (n = 6) practices and beliefs during a year long internship. Teaching practices were strongly influenced by the cooperating teachers. Initially, all six interns attempted to re-enact lessons they witnessed their cooperating teachers teach, including following lesson structures and borrowing representations, anecdotes, and jokes. Later, they independently implemented instruction that emphasized similar strategies as their mentors, regardless of whether or not they were experiencing success. Interns who were successful also shifted their beliefs to match their mentors.     

Student differences and environment perceptions: How they contribute to student motivation in rural high schools

This research investigated relationships among characteristics of students and learning environments influencing variables related to motivation for learning and achievement in rural high schools. Participants were 625 students in all four grades, in 19 rural, public high schools. Questionnaires assessed two environmental factors, three self-perceptual characteristics, two motivational outcomes and three achievement-related outcomes. Regression analyses were utilized to identify differential predictive relationships. Overall, teacher characteristics appeared to more strongly predict students' positive self-perceptions and motivation than did peer characteristics. Perceived ability and valuing most strongly predicted learning and future goals, which, in turn, most strongly predicted motivation. Motivational outcomes strongly predicted grade in class, but not intention to complete high school or postsecondary aspirations. Important differences emerged by subject area. Implications for research and classroom practice are discussed.     

论中小学管理中教师的职能

教师职能既是研究的弱点,又是实践的难点。中小学管理中教师职能研究可以完善教育管理理论和教师理论,改进教师教育,提升学校管理效能。教师的基本职能是由常规工作规定的,特别职能是由非常规工作规定的。就教师职能的一般分析,包括基于道德层面的为人师表、法律层面的教书育人、系统层面的承上启下和过程层面的责其始终等四种职能。就实践看,我国中小学教师职能在指导思想上必须强化示范、指导和自治职能,弱化规范、指令和监督职能。     

高职文化创意相关专业师资队伍的实践能力研究

高职文化创意产业人才培养工作与师资队伍的实践能力有密切关系。具有实践能力的师资队伍,善于把行业企业要求,引入课堂教学和其他实践教学过程中,学生获得的不仅仅是知识,更多的是行业、企业、岗位和项目的要求及标准。提高师资队伍的实践能力对于培养人才至关重要。     

The challenges of geographical inclusive education in rural Bangladesh

ABSTRACT

This paper considers the challenges of promoting inclusive education in geographically isolated rural communities in Bangladesh. Inclusion is explored from both government and non-government (NGO) providers, and identifies challenges and opportunities for implementing inclusive practices. Challenges for implementing inclusion are linked to poverty, gender inequality, ethnicity, remoteness, language barriers, issues for children with disabilities, and the negative impact of climate (e.g. monsoonal flooding, landslides, and other natural calamities that beset Bangladesh on a regular basis) as well as the current humanitarian crisis with the Rohingya children now in Bangladesh. While there is sometimes a mismatch between government policy and the literature on inclusion in relation to practical implementation at the local level, opportunities for inclusion come with the dedication and passion of educators who provide teacher training about inclusive education, assistive technologies (Braille materials, hearing aids, etc.), multi-lingual education (MLE) materials, and advocacy by reaching out to parents and community members. Findings indicate that characteristics such as culture, the development of local resources, and the climate of the local context need to be considered in developing relevant inclusive policy to enact effective geographical inclusive practices in rural Bangladeshi communities.     

Parent involvement in early childhood: a comparison of English language learners and English first language families

This study evaluated parents’ communication, involvement and knowledge of their children’s abilities in reading and mathematics among parents who spoke English as a first language (EL1) and those who were English language learners (ELL). Forty‐two kindergarten‐aged children, their parents and their teachers participated in the study. Results indicated that EL1 parents communicated more frequently with the teacher than ELL parents. However, there were no language group differences in parents’ involvement in their children’s education (as rated by the teacher). For both groups of parents (EL1 and ELL), parents’ ratings of their children’s abilities in reading did not predict children’s reading scores. However, parents’ ratings of their children’s abilities in mathematics did predict their children’s mathematics scores. Further analyses indicated that this relationship was not mediated by parents’ communication or involvement. It is concluded that parents’ accurate knowledge of their children’s abilities in mathematics may be the result of their involvement at home and particularly for ELL parents, their greater understanding of and emphasis on mathematics learning.     

Dismay and Disappointment: Parental Involvement of Latino Immigrant Parents

Parental involvement in schools has become more popular over the past decade due to Goals 2000 and research suggesting that student academic success increases when parents are included in the education of their children. Although researchers have examined the issue of parents and schools, limited research on parental involvement has been conducted within immigrant communities. Latino immigrant parents within a predominantly Latino community in California were interviewed. Although the community has strong Latino roots, these immigrant parents believed the schools do not listen or care to listen to their needs as parents. The parents in this study desired to be a part of their children's education, but forces within their children's school prevented them from doing so. The parents wished that teachers would be available to speak about grades, be able to find interpreters during open house and at other times throughout the school day, and communicate with the parents when their child is in need of assistance. Due to the apparent walls that had been established within the school's structure, the parents in this study felt abandoned and helpless while trying to gain information regarding their children's education. Parents in this study were so passionate about their stories that they pleaded with the researcher to let their story be heard in the researchers' teacher education courses so future teachers would know how immigrant parents felt.     

To perceive and to be perceived: challenges of ethnography in elite schools

Drawing on a larger study on “Gender practices and violence between peers: the stakes of mixed-sex education”, this paper examines the methodological challenges specific to carrying out ethnography in an elite high school. The researcher’s subjective experience in the field reveals the power dynamics at play in the elite setting. We also examine how interdisciplinary collective analysis of the observation journals unveils less-examined challenges to conceptualization in the research process. We call for the heuristic value when contradiction and subjectivity are acknowledged and implicated both in the field and data analysis, which leads us to articulate different social identities in the elite school environment.     

儿童青少年发展中的父母教育卷入

父母卷入子女教育,无论对子女的成长,还是对整个社会的发展都具有重要的意义,一直备受重视。20世纪60年代以来,研究者开始对父母卷入孩子教育进行实证研究,父母卷入教育逐渐成为心理学、教育学、社会学等多学科交叉研究中的一个重要领域。40多年来,研究者从学业、认知能力和社会性发展等角度揭示了儿童发展与父母卷入教育之间的关系,并从教师、强调父母监控、儿童主动性等多个角度提出了不同的父母教育卷入的结构。为描述父母教育卷入的产生和作用机制,Hoover-Dempsey和Seginer分别提出了突出微观过程的父母教育卷入多水平模型和从宏观、静态层面认识各种影响因素的生态系统模型。此外,研究者还从学校和家庭两个角度提出了促进父母教育卷入的有效途径。本文对这些研究进展进行综述,并从加强纵向追踪研究、重视比较研究和更多开展中国化研究三个方面,指出了父母教育卷入研究未来应该努力的方向。     

Promoting the implementation of inclusive education in primary schools in South Africa

The British Index for Inclusion was selected to be used in three primary schools in the Western Cape Province in South Africa in order to develop a South African model to assist in the development of inclusive schools. The Index for Inclusion process entails progression through a series of five developmental phases and this paper, written by Petra Engelbrecht, professor in educational psychology and special education and senior research director at Stellenbosch University, Marietjie Oswald, lecturer in special education at Stellenbosch University, and Chris Forlin, associate professor in special education at the Hong Kong Institute of Special Education, is a reflection of the first two phases. Qualitative data were generated from the consultative process followed in the schools during the first phase and both qualitative and quantitative data from questionnaires regarding the perceptions of all school community members on the inclusive practices or lack thereof in their schools during the second phase. The authors drew out the following five themes from the three sets of data: an inclusive school philosophy; democratic leadership, structures, processes and values; collaboration; addressing learner diversity; and resources. Petra Engelbrecht, Marietjie Oswald and Chris Forlin, all of whom were working on a UNESCO-funded project to trial the use of the Index for Inclusion in South Africa, suggest that these themes provided invaluable insights into both the common and unique complexities, the problems and the assets of the different school communities. The themes are discussed in detail in this article, raising fascinating issues for the development of inclusion in different contexts around the world, and will be used to inform the three remaining phases of the Index for Inclusion process.     

Understanding similarities and differences between parents' and teachers' construal of children's behaviour

This study compares and contrasts teachers' and parents' construal of children's behaviour, drawn from the general population rather than clinical extremes. Questionnaire data were obtained from parents and teachers on the same 3–7 year old children via nurseries and mainstream schools. Item reduction followed standard psychometric approaches. Varimax‐rotated principal components analysis was undertaken on dichotomised teacher and parent responses, giving a four‐factor solution as most appropriate both for teachers and parents (aggression; anxiety; context‐directed behaviour; social maturity/communicativeness). The low correlation found between parents and teachers on corresponding factors suggests strong divergence of perspectives and/or situation‐dependence of behaviours. Reliability was high enough to not provide the explanation – i.e., serial correlations over three months within each respondent type were relatively strong. However, slight changes also took place over time: teacher ratings of anxiety differentiated out into anxiety proper and social maturity, while ratings of aggression and non‐context‐directed (‘inappropriate’) behaviour integrated towards a single factor which may reflect “threat to classroom order”. Implications for parent–teacher communication are discussed.     

中小学创造心理教育的策略

结合当前创新教育的要求,阐述了中小学开展创造心理教育需要注意的几个重要问题。