Inclusive education of students with disabilities in general education contexts has been a global movement for at least 30 years. We completed a systematic review of articles published in English- ...and Spanish-language peer-reviewed journals to obtain an international perspective on the status of inclusive education research and practice regarding students with disabilities, as reflected in the literature from 2002 through 2016. Our literature search, which involved two parallel searches to compare and contrast articles published in the English and Spanish professional literature, yielded 2380 articles which were categorised into seven categories: theory, descriptive, attitudinal, literature review, intervention, and non-inclusive. For both the English and Spanish literature, the most two common article types were theory and descriptive. The number of intervention articles, with findings on the efficacy of interventions to promote inclusive practices, was drastically lower in the Spanish literature. Implications for advancing future research and practice are discussed.
Meeting the basic education needs of students with special needs, which are the legal rights of students with special needs, requires the implementation of successful inclusion practices within an ...effective education process. In the process of successful inclusion practices for students with special educational needs, academic and non-academic skills can be taught. Foreign language is also included in the teaching of academic skills. While it is possible to realize effective English language teaching for students with special needs with the necessary arrangements, problems are experienced due to various reasons. Hence, in the process of successful inclusion practices, students with special needs either cannot learn a foreign language at all or have limited foreign language knowledge. The aim of the study is to determine the adaptations made by teachers in effective foreign language teaching for students with special needs in order to ensure successful inclusion practices, the problems they encounter in this process and their solution suggestions. The study is a qualitative study, employing a narrative approach as the research design. The data is collected via narrative interviews with eight teachers of English. The thematic analysis of the findings is presented four main categories: insufficient theoretical knowledge about inclusive practices; problems encountered in the classroom; instructional adaptations, and suggestions from the practitioners. The findings illustrate that the participants received either no or little training on special education and inclusion at undergraduate level or as a professional development opportunity. Moreover, the training they received was only at the theoretical level and partially or completely forgotten due to the fact that it could not be transferred to the application level. Moreover, participants underline that they face problems regarding the diagnosis of students with special needs, as well as their needs to have cooperation between experts, teachers, families and students. Yet, participant teachers found novel ways to overcome their problems and have a more successful inclusive practice for students with special needs. Their offers of solutions to these problems are listed at the end of the study.
El uso de la tecnología de apoyo (T.A.) en el aprendizaje de idiomas ha experimentado un gran auge en las últimas décadas gracias a los nuevos avances tecnológicos y al desarrollo de numerosas ...herramientas digitales (Huang et al., 2016; Khan et al., 2020). En esta investigación se analizan los conocimientos y la competencia del profesorado en el uso de la T.A. para el alumnado con necesidades específicas de apoyo educativo (NEAE) en general, y específicamente en el aprendizaje del inglés como lengua extranjera, así como su experiencia durante la pandemia por Covid-19. Los datos cuantitativos y cualitativos se obtuvieron a través de herramientas de medición, como encuestas realizadas a un total de 110 docentes y un debate semi-estructurado con un grupo foco de 10 docentes de lengua inglesa de varios centros escolares preuniversitarios. Los resultados evidencian carencias entre el profesorado en conocimientos y competencias en el empleo de la T.A. para el alumnado con NEAE, así como la necesidad de mejorar tanto el acceso a recursos tecnológicos como la formación de los docentes en este ámbito.
The reformed Finnish vocational education and training (VET) system is a competence-based, customer-oriented educational programme with two overarching aims: to develop a skilled labour force and to ...promote social inclusion. Support and guidance have become increasingly important in Finnish VET in recent decades. This study focuses on how linguistic constructions of support and guidance for VET students with special educational needs are constructed in the dynamics between institutional ideas and the language use of VET staff. Data were collected through focus group discussions among different categories of staff. Through a psychological discourse analysis, three different linguistic constructions emerged: a package of support measures, a structure falling apart and dialogue as a bridge builder. Tensions and contradictions were identified between the different constructions. The results point to the need for balance between institutional structures and the possibilities of staff that daily interact with the student to provide holistic support measures.
The Irregular School Slee, Roger
2011, 20110419, 2010, 2014-05-14, 2011-04-19
eBook
Should disabled students be in regular classrooms all of the time or some of the time? Is the regular school or the special school or both the solution for educating students with a wide range of ...differences?
Inclusive education has been incorporated in government education policy around the world. Key international organisations such as UNESCO and OECD declare their commitment to Education for All and the principles and practice of inclusive education. There is no doubt that despite this respectability inclusive education is hotly contested and generates intense debate amongst teachers, parents, researchers and policy-makers. People continue to argue over the nature and extent of inclusion.
The Irregular School explores the foundations of the current controversies and argues that continuing to think in terms of the regular school or the special school obstructs progress towards inclusive education. The book contends that we need to build a better understanding of exclusion, of the foundations of the division between special and regular education, and of school reform as a precondition for more inclusive schooling in the future. Schooling ought to be an apprenticeship in democracy and inclusion is a prerequisite of a democratic education.
The Irregular School builds on existing research and literature to argue for a comprehensive understanding of exclusion, a more innovative and aggressive conception of inclusive education and a genuine commitment to school reform that steps aside from the troubled and troubling notions of regular schools and special schools. It will be of interest to all those working and researching in the field of inclusive education.
The article presents the opinion of teachers and parents concerning the educational situation of students with special educational needs at general education schools. The qualitative research, which ...was carried out by means of a semi-structured interview with teachers and parents, helped to determine that students with special educational needs are included in the general education school on a theoretical rather than practical basis. Despite the fact that the school advocates the inclusion of students with special educational needs and provides various special support services, informants observe a number of weaknesses in the system that do not provide an opportunity for the subject to receive the support one requires. It is alleged that teachers working at general education schools are not trained to work with such students and there is a lack of means and facilities for individual work. There are too many students in classes. Due to the following reasons, education that the subject receives is not always efficient. It was also revealed that specialists working with the subject have difficulties in communicating with each other and working as a team in order to set and achieve a common goal. All interviewees work as they think is best. Poor parent-subject work at home was also emphasized. For the given reasons, there is a lack of continuation in the education of the subject, which is one of the most important factors influencing the educational success of students with special educational needs.
The paper highlights the ongoing challenges and barriers of training teachers to implement inclusive education in various types of schools. The study has identified theoretical aspects and the ...importance of professional training of future elementary school teachers to organize an inclusive educational environment. It has produced an analysis of the international and national legislative and normative documents that regulate and support inclusion in educational institutions of Ukraine. The author has performed a substantial analysis of scholarly texts and publications on the researched topic and defined the present challenges in psychological and pedagogical theory in historical and pedagogical context. Considerable attention is paid to the study of research of Ukrainian scholars on organization of education activities and use of innovative pedagogical technologies in the context of including persons with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND). Various aspects of training pre-service teachers for effective implementation of inclusive education have been outlined: individualization of instructing in an inclusive classroom, use of information and communication technologies, application of art and music therapy tools for special needs services and speech therapy activities for development of language and speech skills in preschoolers and elementary school students, organizational and methodological foundations of special education and rehabilitation settings of universities, teacher training institutes and colleges. It has been proved that the prerequisite for effective socialization and inclusion of students with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) is the development and sustainability of a proper nurturing inclusive environment, and hence the multidisciplinary psychological and pedagogical support for students with SEND is vital. The emphasis is placed on the use of effective innovation strategies and practices, the development of a coordinated program of pre-service and in-service teacher training, mutual interaction and cooperation (local and international) in an inclusive educational community. It has been found that the creation of an effective inclusive educational environment in modern elementary schools is determined by the level of professional capacity and motivation of teachers to implement relevant tasks in practice.
Students with special educational needs face challenges in developing second language writing skills. These students lack specialised instruction and support, especially in mainstream classrooms, due ...to a lack of expertise and understanding of inclusive education. This article explores two teachers' conceptualisations of inclusive education and special educational needs, as well as investigating the application of a multiliteracies pedagogy in the context of fostering inclusivity within a second language writing classroom. Through duoethnography, the teachers share their experiences of tailoring lessons for students with special educational needs. The study highlights the complexities of inclusivity in second language writing classrooms with multiliteracies pedagogy and promotes professional learning through duoethnography. The analysis illustrates the challenges and opportunities for teachers catering to students with special educational needs. The article discusses whether using multiliteracies pedagogy for inclusive classrooms is a possible reality or an ideological pipedream.
Previous research suggests that the perception of available resources has a major influence on teachers' attitudes towards inclusive education (Avramidis, E., and B. Norwich. 2002. "Teacher's ...Attitudes Towards Integration/Inclusion: A Review of the Literature." European Journal of Special Needs Education 17 (2): 129-47; Schwab, S. 2018 (in press). Attitudes Towards Inclusive Schooling. A Study on Students', Teachers' and Parents' Attitudes. Münster: Waxmann). On the side of the students, no similar studies exist that examine the impact of insufficiently perceived resources on inclusive education. To assess the extent to which students - and their teachers - perceive that the resources at their school are adequate or meet their needs, the 'Perception of Resources Questionnaire' (PRQ) was developed.
To analyse the psychometric quality (factor structure, reliability, validity) of the instrument, data were collected from 42 inclusive classes (n = 701 students, n = 27 teachers) of lower secondary level in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. The main component analysis showed a single factor structure. The reliability of the scale (cronbach's alpha .67) can nevertheless be considered acceptable, since it is a short scale which comprises heterogeneous items in terms of content. For the purpose of validation, multilevel regression analyses were conducted. The findings show that only the teachers' perception of resources - and not the resources actually available - is a significant predictor for students' perception. Finally, the findings are discussed.
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