Are teachers ready for inclusion? What is appropriate teacher education?

Traditional approaches to inclusive education focused on learners with disabilities. Modern approaches, however, conceptualise inclusion in terms of providing educational equity and equality of access for all students within the same regular school system.

Future Directions for Inclusive Teacher Education provides a wealth of ideas about how to support teachers to become inclusive through the application of positive training approaches. Written by some of the most influential internationally acknowledged experts in teacher education for inclusion and highly experienced researchers, together the authors provide a plethora of ideas for teacher educators to ensure that their training is pertinent, accessible, and futures-orientated.

This up to date and accessible book combines three key areas related to teacher education for inclusion, which provide:

• A review of what is happening across the globe by offering examples from different regions;
• Preparation for teachers to support learners with a range of diverse needs including disability, poverty, ethnicity, gender, cultural diversity, learning disabilities, Autism Spectrum Disorder, sensory impairments and those who are considered gifted and talented;
• A consideration of systemic approaches, policy, and partnerships, and how these can be better employed in the future.

This highly topical text will support all teaching professionals, educational systems, and schools in their transformation of inclusive teacher education.

The volume will provide an examination of issues around how policy for inclusive education can be implemented in practice. In relation to different thematic policy areas considered in each chapter these questions will be considered: * What are the main policy issues for inclusive education? * What recommendations are there for addressing these issues? * What are the difficulties in implementing these recommendations? * How can these difficulties be overcome? Overall conclusions will focus on lessons learnt for supporting the implementation of policy for inclusive education and bridging the policy-practice gap.

At the midway point towards the United Nations (UN) Agenda 2030, this critical volume focuses on how a range of contextually diverse countries are progressing towards inclusive education. Contributors critically consider the current state of inclusive education in their own countries in relation to meeting the UN’s Agenda 2030 initiative and Sustainable Development Goal 4. The foundation is set in chapter one by the editors, with a historical overview of inclusion and inclusive policies globally. Key international scholars critique the history and status of inclusion in their respective contexts. In reference to local research, they explore the history of inclusion, the current policies and state of inclusion, barriers and levers for inclusion, and look towards the future of inclusive education. Chapters demonstrate how the continued call for a shift towards inclusive education in different countries is extremely complex and varies greatly within each international context. Attention is given to levers promoting inclusion through contextually appropriate international initiatives and the importance of the realignment of policies and practices if all countries are to achieve the 2030 UN’s education goal. Progress Toward Agenda 2030 serves to challenge all educational stakeholders to critically consider, analyze, and innovate policies and practices for inclusive education for all by 2030.

How teachers might best be prepared to work in schools with an increasingly diverse pupil population is of concern to educational academics, professionals and governments around the world. Changes that have taken place in legislation and practice often fail to taken into account how practitioners can ensure that all children and young people are able to achieve.

The focus of this international text is on innovative practices for preparing teachers to work in inclusive classrooms and schools. Drawing on both pre and in-service training methods, the expert contributors to this book follow three major themes:

• social and political challenges regarding teacher education ? providing an historical perspective on the training of teachers, tensions in preparing teachers for inclusion, cultural issues, the relationship between educational funding and practices and collaborative measures to support a whole school approach
• innovative approaches in pre-service teacher preparation ? discussing a range of innovative models and approaches used in pre-service teacher education courses
• engaging professional development for inservice teachers ? reviewing a range of approaches employed to engage working teachers and help them establish curricula and pedagogy that meets the needs of all students in their classes.

Each chapter will include a list of proposed learning outcomes, a theoretical or conceptual framework to help readers develop the proposed innovation, an overview of recent research, discussion of the research data available and a discussion of the international implications and challenges, summarising in suggestions for a positive way forward.

Teacher Education for Inclusion: Changing Paradigms and Innovative Approaches is essential reading for practising teacher educators, school leaders, university lecturers in education and post graduate students.

This volume offers a critical orientation to inclusive education by centering the learnings that emerge from regional struggles in the world to actualize global ideals and commitments. Grounded in assumptions that challenge medicalized notions of disability and difference, the inquiries within this book register a range of theoretical frameworks. Such frames compel us to both interrogate the foundational premises within global discourses of inclusion and to inquire into the complexities wrought by entrenched systems of schooling. Collectively, they articulate the inseparability of inclusive education from historical processes that include conditions in post-colonial/post-war contexts as well as "developed" regions. The book therefore acknowledges and values the fluidity of inclusive processes that cannot be neatly pre-defined. This conscious awareness of the contingent nature of inclusive practice suggests new modes of coming to know inclusion for the authors in this book. Their chapters explore methodological practices that can re-direct inquiries to hold such complexity while retaining commitments to inclusion.

Drawing upon research and practice in a number of countries, the contributors to this volume describe advances in meeting the needs of children and young people with emotional and behavioural difficulties. Following the Salamanca agreement and other international treaties, sovereign states are pursuing, at different rates, a more inclusive educational agenda. There is concern for those pupils who are excluded and in danger of becoming increasingly marginalized in their societies as their engagement in education decreases. Foremost amongst these pupils are those with emotional and behavioural difficulties. The issues surrounding their inclusion in education, particularly mainstream education, are explored, along with the factors that contribute to successful interventions. Contributors from Spain, Norway, Australia, Canada, Finland and the United Kingdom describe ways of meeting their emotional and behavioural needs within education. The authors raise factors, which could contribute towards greater inclusive practice.

Volume 18 of International Perspectives on Inclusive Education offers multiple international perspectives on transitions for children and youth with diverse backgrounds and special needs. Transition approaches are viewed from early childhood through to post-secondary and into workplace settings using a unique convergence of integrating research and practice in schools, workplaces, organizations, and communities. Effective evidence-based programs, interventions, and strategies are also incorporated throughout, with a strong emphasis on collaborative partnerships underpinning all aspects of transition. This research is predicated on the assumption that inclusion in academic, social, vocational, and other contexts incorporates all stakeholders. Providing a focus on meaningful involvement and participation in communities and activities of choice, that secure benefits for all, the chapter authors examine both innovative evidence-based practices that facilitate transition, and potential barriers, supplemented by informative case studies. In addition to providing knowledge and skill training for establishing effective transitions, this volume views programs, attitudes, expectations, and perceptions, in relation to what it means to be accorded welcome into a particular setting.

The journey towards inclusive education and collaborative practices in different countries is complex and interdependent within each unique geopolitical landscape. Instructional Collaboration in International Inclusive Education Contexts looks at the instructional collaboration between special education and general education in international educational contexts and the role this plays in enabling inclusive education. This book provides insights into how collaborative practices are enacted in support of inclusive education in different countries around the world. Presenting a theoretical framework of instructional collaboration to provide an understanding of the commonalities, differences, and challenges of collaboration internationally. Scholars from thirteen nations each contribute towards the implementation of instructional collaborative practices and highlight how instructional collaboration is developed from teacher preparation programs, describing how this is implemented in schools to provide insight of the social and political considerations that impact on the promotion of inclusive education in the context of their country. Instructional Collaboration in International Inclusive Education Contexts is essential reading for researchers and professionals with a focus on inclusive and special education.

While the issue of advancing equity occupies the pages of many education journals across the world and pursuing it in schools and classrooms is a common instructional goal, there is an obvious absence of established school policies combined with pedagogies on how to achieve educational equity. Therefore, equity solution driven by inclusion, justice, and hope is needed to transform the current systemic educational inequities. To ensure and sustain the notion that all children have the opportunities they need to develop, succeed, and meet their potential, it is imperative that we move the discussion about the impact of education from celebrating the academic gain of a few, to the needs of the many marginalized students who are often discounted and dehumanized.

In this edited collection, experienced practitioners discuss how a range of existing and emerging assistive technology devices and services are used across a variety of international settings to support the inclusion of students with disabilities. This book details authentic examples of best practice, including identification and implementation of appropriate tools, the use of aided communication devices, modified seating equipment, computers and tablets, robotics, costs, outcomes, and services among others. It showcases a spectrum of promising and positive results in reducing exclusion, thereby supporting teachers to improve learning outcomes for students with disabilities. By providing an excellent and current overview of assistive technology and the use of the technology in the classroom, this book is an insightful read for those who work with technology and the inclusion of students with disabilities. The authors demonstrate how specialists, teachers, parents and students can work together using technology to ensure inclusive education is a realistic goal for all.

This book investigates the role of Service Learning in supporting inclusive practice. Specifically, it explores the process of Service Learning and the intersection with inclusion in classroom and community. Special consideration is given to issues of equity, students with disability, those from disadvantaged backgrounds, and students of different cultural and language groups. Service Learning involves students at primary, secondary and tertiary levels actively engaging with schools and the community in service projects, where both students and community benefit. It involves reciprocity between those providing the service and those receiving the service. Students connect with their academic discipline through intentional academic and personal learning goals as a result of structured reflection. The first section of the book embeds Service Learning and inclusive education within a theoretical perspective. Discussions focus on research, practical considerations for developing a Service Learning program, ethics and social capacity of those who are marginalised. The second section reviews Service Learning within a primary/elementary context. Chapter authors discuss how service learning can be embedded into the school environment and how participating student's experiences have shaped classroom and community interactions. The third section describes methods of incorporating Service Learning within a secondary school context. A variety of experiences are examined, along with procedures for successful program development. The fourth and final section focuses on the impact of Service Learning on pre-service teachers' appreciation of inclusivity and social justice issues within inclusive classrooms. Preparation for the practical and professional components of becoming an effective inclusive teacher are described.

This book explores personal, family and theoretical constructions of inclusion and offers evidence-based strategies and resources to foster parent-professional, home-school collaborative partnerships. It explores working with families to secure identity, opportunity and belonging within school settings and beyond. It does so by means of a rich international blend of scholarly articles and personal reflections. The first section examines personal, family, and theoretical perspectives on ways in which existing systems and structures define and influence inclusion of persons with disability and their families in school and workplace settings. It invites reflection on how we might come together to create more inclusive communities through mutual understanding and valuing. Section two presents a number of evidence-based practices, strategies, and resources that can serve to guide family members and professionals as they work together to build collaborative partnerships and inclusive school communities from preschool through transition to post-secondary and vocational settings. This book invites us to deeper understandings of collaboration, to engage reflection from diverse perspectives. It reminds us that at some level we are all navigating identity, opportunity and belonging; that each of us needs those who challenge us to see beyond our assumptions, whose ideas shape and sharpen our own.

This volume focuses on professional ethics and the moral dimensions of inclusive education. The significance of ethics in inclusive education has been noted by numerous scholars, however, to date, a comprehensive review does not exist in the field. Grounded in an examination of international conceptualizations of ethics and inclusion, this book provides a comprehensive analysis of current understandings of professional ethics in the context of inclusive education and the many issues associated with its practice. The first chapters provide an overview of ethics and inclusive education, including; discussions on inclusion as ethical in nature based on an argument of inclusion as a human right; an examination of ethics and epistemology as it relates to inclusion; and the role of administrators in ethical practice. The second section focuses on practical issues related to ethical challenges, issues, and dilemmas in inclusive classrooms and teaching practice. The roles of the teacher, the co-teacher, and colleagues, which include administrators, specialists, and staff, are examined. Moreover, practice related problems are discussed including assessment, emergent curriculum, and meeting the needs of gifted learners in inclusive settings.

This volume draws together research and practice from the fields of literacy education and inclusion. As such it provides an insight into current theory, research and issues associated with teaching literacy to all students in inclusive classrooms. Literacy remains a critical success factor for students, as the basis for concurrent and future learning throughout the curriculum. As such, we take a broadened view of inclusive education and include not only students with disabilities and learning difficulties, but also those whose linguistic, cultural or social backgrounds act to marginalise or inhibit their learning. Numerous books publish research on inclusive education but this volume is dedicated to the critical aspect of literacy and inclusive practices in a range of countries. The changes to literacy in today's technological world are considered along with the impact on teaching and learning. Examples of good practice are provided, as are models of effective inclusion and differentiation in literacy teaching at different year levels, for different groups of students and the application in important subjects such as mathematics and science. Chapter authors have expertise in the fields of pre-school and early literacy, mathematical, technology and science literacy, English as an additional language, literacy difficulties in primary and secondary schools, inclusion and special education. They provide highly relevant research and useful information for researchers, teacher educators and those engaged at all levels of the implementation of inclusive literacy education in schools.

This volume focuses on an inclusive pedagogical approach for enhancing teaching and learning in key areas of curriculum including: literacy, mathematics, science, social studies, and the arts. In the introductory chapters, the concept of inclusive pedagogy is framed in relation to the actions of teachers in providing quality teaching and learning experiences for everyone in inclusive classrooms. Unlike much of what has previously occurred in inclusive practice the approach does not differentiate by providing alternative teaching and learning for students who are different. Focusing on what is to be learned in a particular subject area, the intention is to avoid the issues associated with defining some learners as different.

Support staff in schools are increasingly recognised as playing an important, though often undefined, role in inclusive education. While there has been some research on how best to work with support staff, this book provides readers with a comprehensive examination of roles and responsibilities within the classroom. Issues in determining appropriate ways to work effectively with support staff are raised, along with strategies teachers can use to enhance the collaborative and reflective nature of working with others.

This volume focuses on inquiry into inclusive education from the perspective of scholarly influences in the field of practice and research. A group of key international researchers in the field of inclusive education have each contributed a chapter about a piece of scholarship they believe has influenced inquiry in the field, as a whole.

In the first section, broad issues associated with assessment for, of, and in learning in inclusive classrooms; measuring the implementation of inclusive policy; identifying and removing barriers to inclusion; resourcing and financing; and, evaluating effective teacher preparation for inclusion provide the structure for discussion. The second section commences with a current and in-depth review of the literature on the development of international indicators for measuring inclusive education. Examples of some of the models presently employed to frame an evaluation of inclusive practice are studied. These provide illustrations of effective measurement strategies to evaluate inclusive educational practice at all levels of administration, from governments to classrooms, and ways to recognize the positive outcomes attained by all involved.

This Volume focuses on inclusive education for the less than 1 % of school-age population who have been diagnosed with Low-Incidence Disabilities and continue to be marginalized in many ways. This unique contribution provides a wide-range of perspectives on what works to facilitate inclusion in a variety of contexts. In many countries teachers are being asked to ensure that all of their students achieve, regardless of background or disability leaving many grappling with how to facilitate inclusion for learners with low-incidence disabilities. The first section of this text presents strategies and supports for inclusion. It offers the reader examples of good practices that practitioners can employ to improve teaching and learning in their school or classroom for these students and their families. The second section offers a range of international perspectives that illuminate the work being done related to inclusion for learners with low-incidence disabilities within those contexts. This important book highlights the need to include learners with low-incidence disabilities and provides information related to supports and services to achieve that goal across a variety of contexts.

As inclusive practice becomes more embedded in the policy and practice of schools around the globe, there remains groups of children and young people for whom education is a problem because of the behaviours, poor emotional development and lack of social skills. These pupils often display disaffection towards education and are to be found on the margins of mainstream schools - too often they dropout of schooling altogether. Drawing on papers and discussions at the third International Conference of SEBDA in 2010 at Keble College, Oxford, UK, the papers in this volume both describe and critically examine strategies and interventions in meeting the educational and well being needs of these children and young people. The contributions provide insights into the ways in which these pupils can remain engaged, or even be persuaded to re-engage, in education provided in both mainstream and specialist schools.

Are teachers ready for inclusion? What is appropriate teacher education?

Traditional approaches to inclusive education focused on learners with disabilities. Modern approaches, however, conceptualise inclusion in terms of providing educational equity and equality of access for all students within the same regular school system.

Future Directions for Inclusive Teacher Education provides a wealth of ideas about how to support teachers to become inclusive through the application of positive training approaches. Written by some of the most influential internationally acknowledged experts in teacher education for inclusion and highly experienced researchers, together the authors provide a plethora of ideas for teacher educators to ensure that their training is pertinent, accessible, and futures-orientated.

This up to date and accessible book combines three key areas related to teacher education for inclusion, which provide:

• A review of what is happening across the globe by offering examples from different regions;
• Preparation for teachers to support learners with a range of diverse needs including disability, poverty, ethnicity, gender, cultural diversity, learning disabilities, Autism Spectrum Disorder, sensory impairments and those who are considered gifted and talented;
• A consideration of systemic approaches, policy, and partnerships, and how these can be better employed in the future.

This highly topical text will support all teaching professionals, educational systems, and schools in their transformation of inclusive teacher education.

Race does not only resonate with the dichotomy of blackness and whiteness but also on its impact on non-physical attributes, this includes factors such as indigenous status, social class, religion, language, ethnicity, class, gender, sexuality and immigration. The intersection of these factors are key considerations on inclusive education. Contextualizing Critical Race Theory on Inclusive Education from A Scholar-Practitioner Perspective highlights what race means across social, cultural, political, and historical categories of diverse identities. The scholar-practitioner approach employed here captures the theories, tenets, perspectives, and misconceptions of this based on its particular critical expansion in describing other related social identities that is consistent with the attributes of inclusive education. More importantly, it emphasizes the theoretical and practical use of critical race theory as an analytical tool in addressing the influence of race on inequities in school policy, curriculum, instruction, and educational programs and the impact of these on inclusive education. This volume features scholar–practitioners who research and engage in best practices using critical race theory as a lens to analyse and address the manifestations of race, racism, diversity, and inclusion in schooling.

How teachers might best be prepared to work in schools with an increasingly diverse pupil population is of concern to educational academics, professionals and governments around the world. Changes that have taken place in legislation and practice often fail to taken into account how practitioners can ensure that all children and young people are able to achieve.

The focus of this international text is on innovative practices for preparing teachers to work in inclusive classrooms and schools. Drawing on both pre and in-service training methods, the expert contributors to this book follow three major themes:

• social and political challenges regarding teacher education providing an historical perspective on the training of teachers, tensions in preparing teachers for inclusion, cultural issues, the relationship between educational funding and practices and collaborative measures to support a whole school approach
• innovative approaches in pre-service teacher preparation discussing a range of innovative models and approaches used in pre-service teacher education courses
• engaging professional development for inservice teachers reviewing a range of approaches employed to engage working teachers and help them establish curricula and pedagogy that meets the needs of all students in their classes.

Each chapter will include a list of proposed learning outcomes, a theoretical or conceptual framework to help readers develop the proposed innovation, an overview of recent research, discussion of the research data available and a discussion of the international implications and challenges, summarising in suggestions for a positive way forward.

Teacher Education for Inclusion: Changing Paradigms and Innovative Approaches is essential reading for practising teacher educators, school leaders, university lecturers in education and post graduate students.

This volume in the International Perspectives on Inclusive Education Series explores innovative perspectives and practices regarding social inclusion of potentially marginalized individuals from multiple perspectives.This book blends theoretical and evidence-based research about social inclusion and belonging, while simultaneously giving voice to families and individuals who have sought to obtain an inclusive education when experiencing a disability. Section 1, Social Inclusion: Affirming value, rights and choice, explores social inclusion from various frameworks including psychology, philosophy, human rights, social justice, hope and equity. The second section, Social Inclusion and Schools: Programs, perspectives, and practices, reviews a number of evidence-based curricula and interventions to promote social inclusion within educational contexts. Section 3, Securing presence: Dignity, agency and voice, highlights the importance of attending to and learning directly from children with disabilities. Finally, Section 4, Transition to higher education and employment, describes the continuing importance of social inclusion in transition to young adulthood and the workplace. Each chapter offers strategies, guidelines and examples of how professionals, family members and individuals can collaborate to make affirming and co-creating communities that foster equity and belonging for all.