This study focuses on companionship, intimacy, and support of reciprocated friendships of students with autism spectrum disorders (ASD), students with motor and/or sensory disabilities, and typically developing students with their classmates at the start of mainstream secondary school. The study included 1379 typically developing students, 65…

This paper analyses how middle managers perform and experience their role in enacting policy in Scottish higher education institutions. The policy focus is the quality enhancement framework (QEF) for learning and teaching in higher education, which was launched in 2003. The data-set was collected between 2008 and 2010, during the evaluation of the…

This article offers an analysis of four Norwegian policy documents on inclusion of minority language pupils. The main concepts of this policy will be reconstructed and re-described, applying Niklas Luhmann's systems theory at different levels of the analysis. Luhmann's theory about society as a conglomerate of self-referential social systems…

This study explores the school experiences of children with physical (dis)abilities. Based on 39 interviews with 15 Norwegian children, participation in everyday school life is introduced as a central theme and divided into three sub-themes: community and independence; adequate help and influence in the classroom; and influence in planning and…

This article offers insights on how students experienced and made sense of their learning in a trimester-long high school Gay and Lesbian Literature course. Drawing on questionnaires and interviews that the students completed as part of a larger ethnographic study of this class, the author shows how a queer-themed literature curriculum is relevant…

The Schoolwide Integrated Framework for Transformation (SWIFT) Center identified six schools, nominated and screened by leaders in the field of inclusive education and school reform using a systematic process, and conducted in-depth analyses of these schools to build knowledge and inform implementation of inclusive schoolwide reform. The present…

Partnerships between school staff, families, and community members are vital for ensuring the success of all students in inclusive schools. This article reports the results of a synthesis of two original studies: one study that examined the perspectives of family members and another study that examined the perspectives of community partners in…

Taking as its vantage point a citation from the critical educationalist Thomas Popkewitz, "double gestures of inclusion and exclusion," the aim of this article is to describe and contextualize the project of inclusion in Swedish educational and vocational guidance, and to identify and to analyze the potentially excluding discourses that…

Recent inclusive policy directives and advice offered to schools strongly recommend special/support teachers to expand their role and extend their duties. In light of this, we investigated how Greek secondary special/support teachers perceive and experience their role, work profile and the challenges they encounter. Qualitative analysis revealed…

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of adapted peer tutoring (APT) on social interactions and early language and literacy skills of pre-school-age children who were English language learners (ELLs). APT was the treatment for this study. Quasi-experimental group comparison design was applied. Two inclusive pre-school classrooms…

Empathy is a trait and skill necessary for teachers working with children and for partnering with families. This qualitative study focused on how teachers expressed empathy in the context of early childhood education. Diversity has increased in the United States and as diversity increases, the need for teachers to be able to empathize with…

As interest in establishing and maintaining high-quality inclusive early childhood environments continues to grow, the population of children and families being served by these programs is becoming increasingly diverse. In response to these demographic and social trends, this study was conducted to explore how diversity is perceived within an…

This paper reports on a survey of views of inclusive education expressed by nearly 300 Malaysian primary school teachers involved in remedial literacy and numeracy education under the country's Literacy and Numeracy Strategy. Overall, the views expressed were positive towards the principle of inclusion. However, despite common professional…

Based on empirical research carried out in public secondary schools in the western part of Nepal, this article examines how Dalit children experience secondary-level education. Their experiences are explored using in-depth interviews with Dalit children, their parents and teachers. The findings reveal that Dalit children's inclusion is affected by…

The focus in this paper is on a student voice initiative at an English secondary school designed to improve the quality of teaching and learning. The initiative invites Year 8 students to train and work as "lesson observers" who provide feedback to teachers about their practice. The possibilities of this initiative to reflect a rich and…