The place of imagination in inclusive pedagogy: thinking with Maxine Greene and Hannah Arendt

Conceptualising difference is a key task for inclusive pedagogy, and vital to the politics of inclusion. My purpose in this paper is to consider the place that imagination has in helping us to conceptualise difference, and to argue that imagination has a key part to play in inclusive pedagogy. To do this I draw closely on the work of Maxine Greene and Hannah Arendt. Arendt’s work provides a means to conceptualise difference whereby difference is itself at the very heart of what constitutes our humanity. Greene’s work on the arts has outlined the value of the imagination, and has argued for the place of the arts in education and pedagogy. What is needed, however, is a careful account of how the imagination is connected to politics. In this paper I take up Greene’s call to ‘release the imagination’ and, drawing on Arendt, develop an account of the relationship between the imagination, thinking, and politics and how this can be used to argue the place of imagination in inclusive pedagogy.     

The CEC Professional Standards: a Foucauldian genealogy of the re/construction of special education

If teachers are to play a positive educative role in addressing societal gender-related issues that impact on social justice and inclusiveness, teacher education institutions have to ensure that their graduating teachers are well equipped with the necessary understandings and skills to enact this role. This research draws on interviews with men primary school teachers in New Zealand, Sweden and the UK. It investigates their remembered experiences during teacher education relating to gender discourse and whether the education they received, if any, has influenced their classroom practices. Across the three countries, the men had varying levels of recall, ranging from comprehensive gender-related education to none whatsoever. In Sweden, a governmental emphasis on gender equality in society appeared to have influenced the teachers' attitudes and practices regardless of the amount of teacher education relating to gender that they remembered. The teachers' comments suggest that those of us engaged in teacher education need to address any apparent gaps in gender studies at pre-service level. Both men and women teacher education students require comprehensive gender studies if they are to recognise and realise their potential to deconstruct traditional stereotypes and contribute to social justice and inclusiveness.     

网络化生存及其思考

随着数字化时代的到来。网络化生存成为人们在现实生存之外最为重要的一种生存方式。无论生产方式、生活方式、社会结构还是思维方式、价值理念等,网络化生存都具有自己鲜明的个性,并且呈现出虚拟与现实的交错、主体性与主体间性的兼容、科技与人文的对话等多种二重性表现。探讨这些问题,将有助于我们在网络化生存中重新思考人生的意义与价值。     

Beyond the far too incessant schism: special education and the social model of disability

Special education critics' vigorous appraisals of the social model of disability, along with their analysis of its implications for special education, provide a valuable forum for meaningful dialogue about how educators are to understand the nature of disability. In this article, we offer our response to their recent articles. As advocates of the social model, we find their critiques intriguing, at moments a bit provocative, but more importantly we find in their work an opportunity to advance beyond the far too incessant schism between those who support the medical model of disability and those who endorse its alternatives.     

Redefining disability in the context of ‘masyarakat madani’, an Indonesian model of inclusive society

The Indonesian model of inclusive society ‘masyarakat madani’ is arguably based on a one‐view perspective of Islamic intellectuals. Although it was intended to embrace the whole of society in general, its implications might not reach and permeate the entire society. The unique features of Indonesian society have, to a certain degree, made the understanding of inclusive society rather complicated and ambiguous. Nevertheless, the aspiration of creating a more inclusive Indonesian society will perpetually be heralded as one way of tackling the multidimensional challenges faced by Indonesia.     

Masculinity,inequality and post-school opportunities: disrupting oppositional politics about boys' education

Popular discourses about ‘boys' education’—both in Australia and internationally—have often been drawn from oppositional storylines that construct ‘boys’ at school as a new disadvantaged group. This paper rejects such a construction, arguing that it fails to take account of the economic and social advantages that boys, as a single group, still experience in the post-schooling years; that it fails to differentiate within the category of ‘boy’, to examine how particular groups of boys fare far less well than do other groups of boys; and that it neglects the impact of constructs of masculinity upon boys' lives at school. The paper considers four issues of significance for boys at school: narrow and stereotypical subject choice; unruly and risk-taking behaviours; poor literacy achievement; and low school retention rates. However, it demonstrates that these issues predominantly affect boys who are unprotected by economic and social privilege.     

An analysis of the different patterns of 1:1 interactions between educational professionals and their students with varying abilities in inclusive classrooms

The purpose of this study was to examine the different types and patterns of 1:1 interactions provided by general educators, special educators and paraprofessionals to children with mild disabilities (n?=?13), severe disabilities (n?=?13), and children without disabilities (n?=?13) in inclusive classrooms. General educators, special educators, and paraprofessionals' 1:1 interactions with students in three comparison groups were recorded in 17 elementary and middle school classrooms using a partial interval observation system. We found significant differences with respect to interaction frequency and content. Teachers and paraprofessionals had consistently more 1:1 interactions with students with severe disabilities, followed by children with mild disabilities, and then students without disabilities. In comparison to special education teachers and paraprofessionals, general educators interacted significantly more frequently with children without disabilities and children with mild disabilities. In contrast, paraprofessionals interacted significantly more often with students with severe disabilities and less frequently with children with mild disabilities and students without disabilities. Instructional interactions in social, behavioural, and functional domains were infrequent in these classrooms. We conclude with a brief discussion of the implications of these findings for future research and practice.     

Transforming for inclusive practice: professional development to support the inclusion of students labelled as emotionally disturbed

Few models of professional development (PD) are designed to bring about the fundamental shifts in thinking about student behaviour that can support the inclusion of students labelled as having emotional/behavioural disabilities within general education classrooms. In this paper, we seek to accomplish two goals: (1) we briefly delineate the features of a model of PD to build the capacity of teachers to create hospitable classrooms for students with labels of emotional disabilities, and (2) we use the context of this PD model to describe the transformative process that occurred within the specialists who implemented it within an urban school district. In narrating their process of change, we illuminate the conditions for learning supported by this model and its potential for promoting inclusive practices within urban schools.     

A review of thinking and research about inclusive education policy,with suggestions for a new kind of inclusive thinking

A range of changes, in politics and economics internationally as well as in thought about learning and society, now make the time right for a re‐think of inclusive education, a re‐think that ceases to employ the constructs and clichés of the past in explaining students' difficulties at school. There exists new discourse on difference, which throws fresh light on the ways that students at school are disadvantaged—there is a new psychology of difference emerging from work in varied social scientific fields that gives insights into the mechanisms by which inequality, relative poverty and contrastive judgment construct difficulty and closure on learning. In this review, both a history and a hope, I argue that no time has been better for such understandings to make themselves realized in policy and practice.     

Creating conversations: an inclusive approach to the international networking of knowledge about education

Networking has been central to human communication and social engagement for centuries, but has changed dramatically with the advent of new technology. However, the practice of networking has received little academic attention and tends to be undertheorised. This paper considers the impact of the global digital and communication divide, and the contested nature of inclusive education, on the task of promoting information sharing internationally. A summative case study is presented of a network, established to support the documentation of promising practice on inclusive education in countries with limited access to information and material resources. The case study uses autoethnographic methods to identify key principles for the development of an inclusive network. The significance of this paper is in its proposition of a working model of inclusive networking, which has potential to be developed into a theory.     

Seeking transparency: the production of an inclusive classroom community

The successful participation of students with disabilities in a general education classroom is generally presumed to be contingent on the creation of classroom communities that can nurture the qualities of equity and care and where different forms of diversity are valued. However, there has been less scholarship that documents the production of such communities. This paper reports on an ethnographic study that was conducted in an urban first-grade classroom which included several students with disabilities, including one student with significant multiple disabilities. Situated within the disability studies in education tradition, the study adopts a sociocultural perspective to understand the expressed commitment of the teachers within this classroom to transparency. The paper describes the sites of tensions and possibilities that emanated from the confluence of such commitment with other teacher priorities for students. Data from this study showed that overall transparency in the classroom was weakened by proceduralised notions of caring that left teacher practice highly susceptible to the influence of norms. The paper concludes by discussing the implications of this for the project of developing inclusive classrooms.     

走出人文教育的思维困境

由于受到一种客观主义的科学观和知识观的影响 ,人文教育陷入了惟概念的惟理性主义思维洞穴之中。立足于“人文”与“科学”的比较视野 ,从明确知识与默会知识、语言与真理、概念思维与非概念思维等多维角度 ,从人与不同知识的相互关系 ,可以揭示出人文知识的某些特征。人文教育必须尊重、继承和回归中华人文的优秀传统 ,发挥“象思维”的教育智慧 ,走出片面强调概念思维的教育“泥潭”。     

Trapped in our past: the price we have to pay for our cultural disability inheritance

This paper opens with an introduction to the current Scottish legislation and policy context relating to the integration of children’s services. It offers the view that integrated service policy is framed by the concept of social capital and the notion of social capital building and goes on to introduce the concepts of types of social capital as tools with which to examine professional networks and identities. The article sets policy documentation concerning the specific teacher and speech and language therapist working relation within wider Scottish policy that seeks better integrated children’s services through the roll‐out of the Integrated Community Schools (ICS) programme. Finally, the paper identifies some of the difficulties inherent in ICS transformations, and suggests that practitioners and their leaders and managers need new conceptual tools such as types of social capital with which to examine professional connections if they are to change children’s services and achieve the policy goals of social justice and inclusion.     

Interrogating disability epistemologies: towards collective dis/ability intersectional emotional,affective and spiritual autoethnographies for healing

Special education labeling ignores historical, emotional, spiritual, sociocultural effects of labeling Black and Brown students with disabilities. Utilizing critical disability studies, critical race theory and spiritual paradigm, we interrogate construction and expression of differences of Learning Disability and Speech and Language Impairment. We asked: How does being labeled with a special education disability category, as Black and Brown people impact emotional, affective, and spiritual development in and around schools? Reminded about our disability labels relationship to (re)production of racism and ableism, our counter-narratives deconstruct the normativity of racism and ableism in and around schools. Our findings illuminated how emotion, affect and spirituality played a role in our intersectional oppressions and non-normative construction of our differences. We call for collective emotional, affective and spiritual autoethnographies for change at the nexus of special education labeling and intersectionalities.     

Rethinking the role of Indigenous knowledges in the academy

This paper is an invitation critically to engage in the discussion of ‘Indigenous knowledges’ and the implication for academic decolonization. Among the issues raised are questions of the definition and operationalization of Indigenous knowledges and the challenges of pursuing such knowledge in the Western academy. The paper draws attention to some of the nuances, contradictions and contestations in affirming the place of Indigenous knowledges in the academy. It is pointed out that Indigenous knowledges do not ‘sit in pristine fashion’ outside of the effects of other knowledges. In particular, the paper brings new and complex readings to the term ‘Indigenous’, maintaining that different bodies of knowledge continually influence each other to show the dynamism of all knowledge systems. It is argued that when located in the Euro-American educational contexts, Indigenous knowledges can be fundamentally experientially based, non-universal, holistic and relational knowledges of ‘resistance’. In the discussion, the paper interrogates the notions of tradition, authenticity, orality and the assertion of Indigenous identity as crucial to the educational and political project of affirming Indigenous knowledges.     

Factors contributing to the implementation of inclusive education in Pacific Island countries

This study reports the outcomes of focus group discussions reflected in presentations of concept maps relating to the implementation of inclusive education in the Pacific based on the views of 39 stakeholders from four countries (Fiji, Samoa, Solomon Islands, and Vanuatu). Five themes emerged, with one of the strongest being that of culture, community, and religion. This, amongst other ideas, is central to Pacific Islanders’ understandings of inclusive education implementation, and results in some tensions between western educational ideas and the local context. The implications of this paper clearly show that local culture and context must be accounted for, if inclusive education is to be successfully implemented in the region.     

Teacher discourse,peer relations,significant disability: unraveling one friendship story

Mainstream research in the education of students with significant disabilities, which seeks to improve the ways these students can participate successfully in general education settings, has established the importance of teachers and classroom contexts in mediating relations between students with significant disabilities and their peers in the classroom. However, there is still a gap in the literature regarding the ways in which teacher practice, particularly teacher discourse, shapes the identities of these students. Drawing on the data from a study that examined the participation of students with significant disabilities in inclusive settings, this paper presents a case study of the relations between Harry, a first‐grade student with significant disabilities, and a peer student, Andrea. The paper weaves several theoretical frameworks – disability studies, narrative theory, and sociocultural theory – to offer an interpretation that directs attention to the forms of teacher mediation available to peer students in engaging with their classmates with significant disabilities.     

人类社会教育发展三形态论

在评析三种有代表性的教育发展阶段理论的基础上,根据马克思的社会发展理论,认为 人类社会教育发展可分为群体社会教育、物化社会教育、自主社会教育三个阶段或形态,并对各个教育 发展形态的特点及相互内在关系进行了系统的分析,认为目前我们正处于物化社会的教育形态阶段,教 育以智育为主,教育的发展必将步入自主化社会教育形态阶段。     

人权教育:奠定现代公民社会的和谐基础——联合国《人权教学入门——中小学校的实践活动》述评

以联合国人权事务高级专员办事处编撰的《人权教学入门——中小学校的实践活动》为述评对象,提炼其理念、内容、话题和实施方式,特别讨论其中教师自身人权素养对学校人权教育具体实施所具有的直接影响;文章最后论述实施和创新人权教育中所特具的中国问题,认为:看好中国人权理论和实践的发展前景——这是实施人权教育的基本前提;教育行政部门主导研制相应政策、法规条文和教学读物——这是实施人权教育的制度保障;学校努力营造校园人权文化氛围——这是实施人权教育的基础条件;教师对当前世界人权理念和现实的自觉体认——这是实施人权教育的本体要素。