John Yandell's "The Social Construction of Meaning: Reading Literature in Urban Classrooms" provides a powerful counterpoint to current policy discourse in education. By focusing on the social interactions that occur in the classrooms of two English teachers, Yandell shows how their pupils are able to explore dimensions of language and…

Over the past 150 years in New Zealand, education of deaf and hearing impaired children has undergone a series of transformations. These have included shifts in the underlying philosophies and pedagogies, as well as modifications to how schools and deaf and hearing-impaired students are funded and supported. This article provides an overview of…

The number of students with disabilities pursuing higher education has increased in the past decade. However, there is little information as to whether or not college basic instruction programs (CBIPs) are providing appropriate physical activity courses for individuals with disabilities. Those who teach CBIPs may have limited background or…

The Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) offer a vision of science teaching and learning that presents both learning opportunities and demands for all students, particularly student groups that have traditionally been underserved in science classrooms. The NGSS have addressed issues of diversity and equity from their inception, and the NGSS…

The history of schooling for students with disabilities in the United States is marked by exclusion and, until the passage of the "Education for All Children Act" in the 1970s, a substantial number of students with disabilities were denied free public education and many more were poorly served by public schools. The requirement that all…

Leadership is everyone's responsibility-even first graders. The most important contribution that any educator can make in an era of unrelenting change is identifying and developing aspiring leaders. Elementary school teachers can embed leadership development opportunities into the classroom to foster leadership dispositions and skills…

If parental involvement in a child's education is generally viewed in positive terms, then it is important to understand what sorts of barriers might hinder it. This article reviews literature on culturally and linguistically diverse parental involvement in special education in the United States and Canada. In analyzing 20 articles published in…

This study assessed the relationship between exposure to classmates with visible impairments in primary and secondary schools with later attitudes toward people with disabilities. Fifty college students (mean age = 20.28 years; 76% female) completed measures assessing the extent and quality of recalled exposure to classmates with disabilities in…

This paper reports on the significance of social capital in relation to education, exploring its relevance to teachers and other professionals as well as among young people. It draws on aspects of five case studies undertaken by the Schools and Social Capital Network, within the Applied Educational Research Scheme in Scotland. These case studies…

Over a decade ago, researchers in Roma studies shifted their approach, from an exclusionary stance to a more communicative one. Despite major positive changes since then, researchers still do not adequately reflect the voices of the majority of the world's Roma. In this article, we draw on a communicative mixed methods case study, conducted within…

Background: Access to quality child care is an important support for families with children with disabilities. The objectives of this study were to determine: (1) the current state of inclusion of children with special needs in child care programmes, and (2) the presence of child care staff practices and programme characteristics that support…

The purpose of this paper is twofold; first the paper explores and describes the complex ways in which social exclusion can (sometimes) be reconstituted within policy attempts at social inclusion: the quota policy in India. Second, the paper provides a grounded account of the connectedness of inclusion/exclusion and an illustration of how those…

Teaching about the history and culture of aboriginal peoples in schools of white settler societies can serve as a counter to the dominant story that serves as the national narrative. Even though the actual teaching may well be among the least political and least disruptive type of curricular knowledge on offer, the inclusion of counter stories can…

The purpose of this study is to develop the Inclusion Knowledge Test (IKT) for assessing preschool teachers' knowledge of inclusive practices and to examine its psychometric characteristics. To achieve this purpose, the researchers wrote short stories (vignettes) focusing on the various aspects of inclusive practices, such as assessing the…

Inclusion of students with disabilities (SwD) in Australian health and physical education (HPE) classes is on the rise. Reasonable adjustment to assist inclusive practice is often accomplished through the use of teaching assistants, or paraprofessionals. While this practice is commonly understood within the classroom, this approach remains obscure…