The impact of inclusive education reforms on students with disability: an international comparison

ABSTRACT

When the Salamanca Statement called upon States to recognise the ‘necessity and urgency’ of providing students with a disability access to the regular education system (UNESCO 1994, viii), both Australia and the United States of America had existing legislative and policy documents articulating the rights of students with a disability to access regular education. Since that time both countries have clarified and amended their respective laws and policies, and signed the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UN 2006) which urges States to reallocate resourcing to inclusive education, and to reduce segregation. In this article, I examine the policy reforms in each country and analyse aggregated and disaggregated student placement data within each context to consider the impact of these reforms for different groups of students. Results show that the different reform journeys in each context produced different outcomes for students in each country, with segregation increasing in Australia and decreasing in the USA. The results also suggest that the impact of these policies has not been proportionate across categories as students on the Autism Spectrum are more likely to experience educational segregation or exclusion in both countries.     

Hemispheric asymmetry in a face discrimination task in infants

A right-hemisphere advantage in a mother's face recognition task in infants aged between 4 and 10 months was found to exist by de Schonen, Gil de Diaz, and Mathivet. The present study was designed to test (a) whether the right-hemisphere advantage would still prevail if the task requirements were different from those in the previous study, and (b) whether any information was communicated from one hemisphere to the other. 18-42-week-old infants were presented with an operant conditioning situation where they had to discriminate between their mother's and a stranger's face within one visual hemifield. Transfer of learning from one visual hemifield to the other was also measured. The results confirm the existence of a right-hemisphere advantage in discriminating between face stimuli. This advantage was weaker in the female than in the male population. No hemispheric transfer of learning was observed to occur.     

Disability and transition from state education to community life: next steps for parents

In this paper we explore the experiences of mothers of young adults with Down syndrome as their daughters and sons transition from schooling to adult life. These transitions occurred in a society shaped by neo-liberal political reform that commenced in the mid-1980s. The hallmarks of education are now expressed in terms of national achievement standards, aligned with the goals of economic gain, and efficiency in government services. In this climate being called disabled is a bad thing. For the mothers participating in this research, the roles and tasks associated with disability created a map of expectation for themselves and their children. Speaking with authority and reclaiming control so as to undertake their role in the longer term was to be as much a part of the transition from school as were the changes experienced by their daughters and sons. The shortcomings identified through the mothers' narratives signal a need for clarity and cohesion in professional and support processes for their disabled family members. The position is offered that the potential of the secondary school as a place for school-linked service integration and support warrants consideration. Understanding the value and impact of outcomes this model brings for a wide range of vulnerable school leavers would enhance the efforts around individuals such as those whose transition is discussed in this article.     

The Hermeneutics of Learner-Centered Approaches and Initiatives in the Philippine Basic Education Sector

This paper highlights how a developing country like the Philippines incarnates a learner-centered approach in its overall education framework. Specifically, key policies and strategies relative to curriculum development, pedagogical issues, educational innovation and evaluation, professional development of teachers and school-community dynamics are discussed on the basis of the platform of hermeneutics of retrieval, the hermeneutics of the actual and the hermeneutics of the potential.

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