Young people with long-term conditions (LTCs) often experience prolonged school absences. School absenteeism can adversely affect home or hospital-bound (HHB) young people's wellbeing and subsequent re-entry to school. Social connectedness through technology, especially for young people, is a burgeoning area of international research. However,…

Young people in physical isolation because of significant illness experience disconnection from social and educational contexts. A ground-breaking intervention in New Zealand aimed to foster social inclusion for young people who are hospital-or-home-bound due to cancer treatment. A formative assessment of five young people aged 13-18, their…

Inclusive education communities and systems are based on how teachers can use their knowledge, skills, and social awareness to meet the increasingly diverse needs of the learners within their classrooms. International research suggests that teachers often feel underprepared to meet the needs of all learners and are largely ill-prepared to know how…

Schools in Australia are required to promote equitable access to education and provide support services to students with chronic health conditions (CHCs). This qualitative study was conducted to explore stakeholders' experiences and perceptions regarding school-based support. In-depth interviews were conducted with 38 parents of upper secondary…

This article investigates why young people with significant and continuing health conditions can easily be overlooked in education. The Keeping Connected study from Australia revealed much about the complicated lives of young people with chronic illness, and several unanticipated ways that health conditions impacted on education are reported here.…

Australia's legal and policy frameworks serve to exclude from education those children and young people who live with challenging and chronic health conditions. The Australian experience is detailed here because it offers insight for education systems of other nations into the consequences of systemic oversight and complicated legal requirements…

This article revisits debates about inclusive education from the perspective of the "Keeping Connected" project, a qualitative longitudinal research project focusing on young people with health-related disrupted experiences of schooling. Drawing on findings from this project, three main arguments are advanced and illustrated in relation…

In this paper, some key findings of the Keeping Connected project are discussed in light of the methodological challenges of developing an analytical approach in a large-scale study, particularly in starting with open-ended, participant-selected, digital still visual images as part of 31 longitudinal case studies. The paper works to clarify the…

How do health professionals and teachers make decisions about supporting young people whose lives are disrupted by chronic health conditions to stay in touch with schooling? Analysis of the interview and focus group data from health and education professionals who participated in the "Keeping Connected" project reflected common…

This paper shows the ways in which "resilience" operates with adolescents whose lives have been marked by a significant health condition. It is based on a qualitative study that followed 31 adolescents, dealing with chronic illness, across 3 years of their lives. The study placed the adolescents at the centre of the research process,…

This article draws on data from an ethnographic study that begins with the experiences of educational professionals doing the "work" of educationally supporting students with long-term health conditions in a paediatric health-care setting in Victoria, Australia. The study was conducted over the same period of time but separately from the…

As noted in other papers in this volume, a group of health and education researchers and practitioners came together to further develop their understanding of the situation of young people, who were clients of The Royal Children's Hospital Education Institute in 2007 in Melbourne, Australia. The resultant research project, funded by the Australian…

The special issue "Keeping Connected: Identity, Social Connection and Education for Young People" opens with a paper that discusses the research design and overview of a three-year project by a Melbourne (Australia)-based multi-disciplinary team. Over 2007-2009, the Keeping Connected team of 10 researchers investigated the lives of…

Rates of chronic illness are increasing around the world and, accordingly, numbers of adolescent students living with chronic illness are also increasing. The challenges faced by these students and their teachers are complex. One of these challenges is the need of the adolescent with chronic illness to achieve some level of social conformity.…

Chronic illness often goes hand-in-hand with absence from school, and students miss out on learning opportunities at school for extended or accumulative periods of time. Many young people seek to continue their school studies nonetheless. The need to consider viable ways to support them academically arose in the context of a project called…