Alison Kearney

Inclusive education policy in New Zealand: reality or ruse?

New Zealand, like many countries, is beginning the journey towards a more inclusive education system. This paper examines inclusive education in New Zealand, and in particular policy related to inclusive education. New Zealand has the chance to make inclusion a reality, but as Skrtic (1991) points out this will require a different way of thinking based on a different knowledge base than that of traditional special education paradigms. It is argued that this change must be based on recognition of exclusionary forces within schools and societies and the purposes these are serving.

Essential elements in a professional learning and development programme: a New Zealand case study of autism professional development to promote collaborative practices

Professional learning and development (PD) programmes play an important role in improving professionals’ ability to teach and provide for the children and young people they work with. This article reviews literature relating to components considered important to successful general and autism spectrum disorder (ASD)-focused PD. It then describes the methodology and findings from an evaluation of ‘tips for autism’ – a New Zealand PD programme developed for teams of people who work or live with five-year-old to 12-year-old children with ASD. The evaluation methodology involved an examination of seven data sources to identify 57 merit criteria that could be used to evaluate ASD-focused PD programmes. Applying these merit criteria, ‘tips’ was judged to be a high-quality, valuable, cost-effective PD programme. An examination of the evaluation findings and literature identified seven specific components as being pivotal to successful PD. These are: team interaction; cultural relevancy; expert facilitation; integration of PD with the child’s intervention; translation of theory into practice; provision of time for reflection, practice and action; and the application of learning to an authentic context. It is maintained that when a PD programme results in sustained benefits for children, the programme itself becomes part of the intervention.

How are Disabled Students Excluded from and Within School

This chapter addresses the second question in this research project, which was: Why are disabled students excluded from and within school? It draws on findings from the study, as well as national and international literature to formulate some propositions regarding the reasons why disabled students experience exclusion from and within school. However, while ‘why?’ seems a simple question, in reality, it is far from it.

School Discipline and Surveillance: Developments in Australia and Aotearoa/New Zealand

This chapter seeks to trace the early approaches to school discipline and social control following colonial settlement in Australia and Aotearoa/New Zealand, highlighting the importance of sociocultural and historical contexts. Demonstrating a continuance of policy importation from abroad, the chapter turns attention to contemporary approaches to school discipline such as ‘zero tolerance’ and technological surveillance practices in these two countries. It is argued that education in ‘settler societies’ has been, and continues to be, a site of considerable contestation.

Networked Teaching and Learning for Life-Long Professional Development

Our societies are in the midst of intense economic, social, and technological change, and around the world educators and policymakers are being challenged to ensure that education systems are cognizant of these changes and that education is relevant for the demands of twenty-first-century citizenship. In particular, the democratization and changing understandings of knowledge; the growing connectedness and diversity of societies; the need for life-long and life-wide learning; and the critical role that technology will play, have been shown to be some of the important considerations in the planning of twenty-first-century learning environments.

Parent-School Relationships and the Exclusion of Disabled Students from and within School

There is extensive and convincing research evidence to show the positive impact that successful parental involvement in education can have on students’ achievement (e.g., Alton-Lee, 2003; Bull, Brooking, & Campbell, 2008; Epstein, 1995; Jeynes, 2007; Mitchell, 2010). Advantages for students include improved learning and behavior outcomes, increased positive motivation, and more regular attendance at school (La Rocque, Kleiman, & Darling, 2011) Studies have also shown that these advantages carry over once students leave school in the form of higher rates of post secondary education enrolment (SRI International, 2005).

How Can Exclusion Be Reduced and Eliminated

This chapter addresses the third question that guided this study: How can disabled students’ exclusion from and within school be reduced and eliminated? While on the surface this seems a perfectly simple and reasonable question, the process of exclusion is not a perfectly simple and reasonable phenomenon – it is a complex and unreasonable one. Therefore, there are no straightforward answers.

What is Exclusion

The concept of exclusion is complex, contradictory and difficult to ‘pin down’. Not only is it used in a range of different disciplines, but also across disciplines, and even within each discipline, it can be used in different ways to mean different things. To add to the complexity, few writers using the term define their use of it. It is important therefore, to briefly explore some of these multiple discourses.

A Study of Exclusion

In 2005, I began a study that aimed to examine the complex construct of exclusion, specifically the exclusion of disabled students from and within schools. The rationale for the study was the growing number of reports of disabled students being excluded from and within school (Ballard, 2004b; MacArthur, Kelly, Higgins, Phillips & McDonald, 2005; Purdue, 2004) and the lack of research focusing on the complex phenomenon of exclusion.