Background: Social inclusion focussed on belonging is increasingly emphasised by disability advocates and policymakers, yet belonging often remains absent for adults labelled with intellectual disabilities. People labelled with intellectual disabilities often rely on service providers to support their belonging. Methods: In this critically…

Background: Australian disability services must comply with quality standards defined by federal government. Standards are abstract, focus on paperwork and rarely describe what good service quality looks like in practice. This research explored frontline day service staff's perceptions of good service quality to identify ways that it may be better…

Discovery awareness (DA) is an approach to using video within structured meetings to help staff become more mindful, aware and interested in a client they are supporting who has intellectual disabilities and challenging behaviour. The objective was to evaluate whether, and how, DA is helpful for staff in both inpatient and community settings, and…

Nursing Assistants (NAs) are the largest workforce in nursing homes, but often lack adequate preparation for their role. The Living Classroom (LC) is an integrated learning approach, whereby a NA program is delivered in a nursing home (NH) in collaboration with a community college. This paper describes the implementation and evaluation of the LC.…

Background: Research indicates the value of active support in achieving good outcomes across a number of quality of life domains for people with intellectual disabilities. However, implementation is not easy, and little research has explored why. We aimed to identify some of the factors that impact on implementation of active support in supported…

Children's social and emotional well-being can be supported through their experiences of early years education to promote positive life-long outcomes. This study explored the views of 10 early years practitioners in relation to supporting children's social and emotional well-being. Data was gathered using semi-structured interviews and analysed…

This paper raises questions about schools as positive models of caring societies. Against a background of growing concern for the mental health of children it addresses the centrality of "nurture" and its close cousin "care" as a whole school value, theorised as both a means and an end of schooling. How might school leaders…

This narrative review of the research literature presents a summary about the key issues facing people with intellectual disability (ID) who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex or questioning (LGBTIQ). The aim of this review was to consolidate research of the topic; to identify whether any pilot studies reporting…

One prerequisite for effective institutional care is that staff agree on how to deliver treatment and have a unified view of how to achieve change--in other words, to have staff group unanimity (SGU). This study used the Correctional Program Assessment Inventory (CPAI) 2000, interviews with key staff, and observations of daily activities to…

This paper describes a pilot study investigating Teacher Aides (TAs) in primary mathematics classrooms. Three teacher/TA teams were investigated. The teachers were asked about the role of TAs in their classrooms, and the TAs were asked about their confidence in mathematics and in the desirability of professional learning. The TAs indicated a need…

This mixed-methods study inquired about characteristics of districts which influence changes in student achievement and how those characteristics are developed. Staff in 49 Ontario districts were surveyed to estimate the status of nine district characteristics on changes in provincial tests of math and language achievement over five years. A…

This paper presents findings from a larger, qualitative study that explored the potential of a school-based teacher community of practice as a model for a transformative form of teacher professional development. This paper reports on initial findings from a grounded theory exploration of the factors that facilitated and constrained the evolution…

Nestled in the Himalayan Mountains, Bhutan, a Buddhist country, is one of the most isolated nations in the world. After spending a month there, the authors all agreed it deserved its title of "The Last Shangri-La." Their team of professional development specialists spent the summer of 2010 providing professional development in the basic…

This paper describes and discusses an action research collaboration between a multi-disciplinary team of practice educators, a practice development nurse and a university lecturer in order to explore, evaluate and improve a dementia care training package developed for a range of staff providing care for people with dementia. Whilst it is…

This study examined the influence of attachment styles and mentoring experiences on willingness to mentor in the future in a formal mentoring program in China. For both mentors and proteges, avoidance and anxiety dimensions of attachment styles and their interaction had a significant influence on willingness to mentor in the future. Mentoring…