James Leigh

The role of paraprofessionals in developing inclusive education in Cyprus

A presupposition of inclusive education is that all children have the right to attend the school of their neighbourhood. The implication of this is that schools begin to be organised in ways to provide equal opportunities for teaching and learning of all children. However, to achieve this, it is implied that schools need more teachers or at least personnel. Thus, many educational systems around the world require the involvement of more teachers and this brings a significant additional financial cost. In order to defray some of the additional costs for additional teachers, many school systems opt to involve paraprofessionals in the educational process, especially for supporting children who experience difficulties in learning. The purpose of this paper is to study the role of paraprofessionals in the educational environment of Cyprus, and how they assist in the provision of more inclusive education. We employed qualitative research methods to collect data from two schools. Our findings show that paraprofessionals had a contradictory contribution to inclusive education: both inclusion and exclusion were two parallel processes in their practices. In addition, their roles were confused. They appeared to have double roles both as pedagogues and as social monitors. This confused status influenced the paraprofessionals’ contribution towards the provision of fully effective inclusive education.

Forging a Multicultural Education Ethos in Cyprus: Reflections on policy and practice

Contemporary Cypriotic society is no longer homogeneous. Increasingly, Cypriots are coming into contact with people from different cultures. We also see this in Cypriotic schools. In this paper, we investigate educational reality as it effects foreign and repatriated pupils in Cyprus. We do this by means of an ethnographic study in which we focus on one particular primary school classroom. It is hoped that this research will serve as a stimulus for possible changes and reforms in the Cypriotic educational system. In this manner, the Cypriot system will be able to keep pace with international developments in this area of education.

Understanding teacher–parent relationships for improving pre‐primary schools in Cyprus

In recent years we have seen significant changes in the attitudes of teachers and parents towards their relationships with each other, as well as changes in their perceptions for certain practices, and the degree of involvement and participation of parents in schooling. In this paper, we investigate, in depth, the relationships of pre‐primary school teachers with parents in two pre‐primary schools in Cyprus. Using qualitative data, we try to understand the relationships of schools with families, attempting to draw conclusions that might be helpful for schools to develop better practices for including parents in their processes. To conclude we present suggestions for improving the current practices of teachers, regarding their relationships with parents, to encourage schools to include parents in their activities.

Implementing a collaborative model of action research for teacher development

Abstract In this article the authors develop and implement a collaborative model of action research. An academic and a teacher collaborate with the purpose of improving the teaching practice and the teaching abilities of the teacher in mixed ability classes, and the collaborative ability of both academic and teacher. After a year of collaboration certain themes, related to the improvement of the teachers practice arose. Specifically, the teacher developed a larger repertoire of teaching techniques and began to develop collaborations with other teachers and ‘outsiders’. She also developed techniques for investigating her practice, and was better prepared for her lessons. Generally, in her classroom, more authentic relationships were developed.

Analyzing Practice for Improving Schools: The Study of Vignettes.

This article suggests a method for analyzing patterns of school practice for improvement purposes. In particular it describes outcomes of a study that point to some promising possibilities, in terms of encouraging teachers to reflect on their practice, for the purpose of improvement. It argues that by discussing and analyzing vignettes, teachers can improve their practice, not only individually, but also as a team. In addition, this analysis can help schools to develop as organizations. At the end, this suggestion is supported with an example which illustrates the potential of using vignettes for improving schools, whilst, at the same time, demonstrating how the procedure might be used.