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.     

Some Effects of the National Dispute on the Relationships between Head Teachers and School Staffs in Primary Schools

This paper reports part of a research project on the appraisal of the managerial performance of primary school head teachers. One aspect of the interviews conducted with the head teachers concerned their perceptions of their roles. A number of them expressed the view that the national dispute had affected the nature of their relationships with their staffs. There appeared to be evidence of the development of ‘us and them’ attitudes in primary schools where the heads were increasingly seen as management figures by their staffs rather than as fellow members of the teaching team. Some heads were attempting to resist this trend and some felt uncomfortable at the pressures they perceived to be upon them to move to a different managerial style. Some analysis is attempted of existing methods of management employed by heads in their relations with their staffs in primary schools and an attempt is made to predict ways in which these managerial patterns might now develop.     

Inside–out: analysis of the insider–outsider concept as a heuristic device to develop reflexivity in students doing qualitative research

This paper focuses on one approach to making research students more reflexive in their writing. It is argued that the development of the ability to be reflexive in regard to their own qualitative research does not come easily to a significant number of students. A range of possibilities which supervisors might present to their research students as questions to be considered in these respects is outlined. Four relevant case study vignettes are presented of the work of doctoral students (with the full cooperation and written permission of all involved) who have been supervised by the author of this paper. It is argued that these demonstrate that the students concerned have found consideration of their own, sometimes shifting, positions on the insider–outsider continuum of considerable value in developing their reflexivity in relation to their own research.     

BEYOND ORION: A EUROPEAN DISTANCE MASTER'S DEGREE IN COMMUNITY LEADERSHIP

Because of the crisis in the western European welfare state, government by itself can no longer provide the full range of social services that populations have come to take for granted. The shortfall must be complemented by an increasing variety of voluntary organizations. In order to be effective, however, such organizations as well as the more traditional service‐providing government organizations must have good leadership. As good leaders are as much trained to be good leaders as born, an efficient means must be developed for training leaders. Given the rapidity of social change, training must be provided on a permanent basis. The authors therefore propose the setting up of a European Master's Degree programme in leadership training. It would be modelled upon a distance Master's Degree programme in Educational Administration (Northern Interior Master's Programme ‐NIMB) that the University of Victoria in Canada offered in a large area of northwest Canada. Much of the course work for such a programme would be provided by distance means using new communication technologies. Universities in seven countries: England, Belgium, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands, Norway, and Finland, that formed a consortium, would administer and offer this programme in which employed administrators could enroll.     

‘There is Still a Long Way to Go to be Solidly Marvellous’: Professional Identities,Performativity and Responsibilisation Arising From the Send Code of Practice 2015

Special educational needs and disability (SEND) professionalism can be seen as a microcosm of the wider policy arena where traditional policy frameworks of professionalism and bureaucracy are challenged by frameworks of managerialism, consumerism and individual rights and where the neoliberal policy technologies of performativity and responsibilisation challenge and change collaborative working practices and professional identities. The recent introduction of the statutory SEND Code of Practice 2015 in England brings this transformation into relief. An exploratory qualitative interview study highlights how individual professionals respond to, are changed by and sometimes resist these demands.     

Reconceptualising dyslexia provision in a primary school by applying the five ‘special educational needs in mainstream school’ EEF recommendations: meeting identified need in order to thrive

This article reports on an action-research improvement project undertaken in a primary school setting in London in collaboration with local authority advisors and a reference school. It describes the journey towards the goal of becoming a dyslexia-friendly school framed by the five key recommendations of the Education Endowment Fund recently published guidance report Special Educational Needs in Mainstream School. I argue that this framing supports the thriving of individuals, rather than perpetuating a reliance on outdated diagnosis-led support. I conclude that the EEF recommendations can support practitioners to embed inclusive practices that take individual needs seriously but reject deficit models of disability.     

‘What was required above all else was collaboration’: keeping the momentum for SEND partnership working in the wake of Covid-19

This article considers implications for partnership working across the Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) system in England, at a time when a long-overdue SEND Review is imminent and the SEND Code of Practice 2015 is awaiting a significant overhaul. It highlights the role local policy actors occupy within this system, as the progression of the Covid-19 pandemic moves SEND partnerships towards a ‘new normal’ and there is heightened concern about missed opportunities for reform and renewal. Previously published findings from an online questionnaire (n = 100) undertaken by the Special Educational Needs Policy Research Forum provided insight into how school staff had been supported in the teaching of pupils with SEND during periods of school closures and what lessons had been learned. The present article offers a thematic analysis of the narrative responses provided in addition to the closed survey questions. The analysis generated six statements that can be understood as lessons learned from the pandemic for partnership working, drawing on the experiences of parents, school staff, and advising professionals working in local authorities.