Panayiotis Angelides

The development of an efficient technique for collecting and analyzing qualitative data: The analysis of critical incidents

Traditionally, methods for collecting qualitative data have created practical difficulties in that they often require long-term engagement and, as a result, produce a great volume of data. This paper proposes and demonstrates a speedy technique for gathering and analyzing such data. It is argued that an analysis of critical incidents can be used by researchers interested in collecting qualitative data quickly as a method for doing a case study, but also, at the same time, in a participatory way that contributes to understandings that can be useful for the purpose of school improvement.

Making Sense of the Role of Culture in School Improvement.

Addressing the need to find new ways for examining workplace cultures quickly and effectively in order to facilitate school improvement efforts, this article proposes a technique for carrying out such enquiries. By exploring the nature of school cultures and how they impact upon day-to-day encounters in classrooms, it illustrates how critical incidents can be analysed so as to help those in schools to understand themselves better in terms of those factors that shape their practice. It is argued that the proposed method has the potential to go beyond systems of external monitoring in such a way as to enable schools to develop procedures for self-review.

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.

Preliminary thoughts on a praxis of higher education teaching

This article considers the notion of a praxis of higher education teaching. Our arguments are drawn from the existential literature and the particular contribution made by Heidegger. They point to a learning community where the community practises the scholastic processes of conversation, involvement and engagement as modes of revealing knowledge. In the search for authenticity the practice of learning is as important as the acquisition of the practical skills of scholarship, but it needs to be contextualized within a form of learning community currently shunned by the demands of an economically effective model of higher education.

Moving towards inclusive education in Cyprus

Within the last decade, the government of Cyprus has encouraged and supported the education of children assessed as having special needs into the mainstream educational system. With the existing arrangements, however, many pupils who experience difficulties within schools (and many of those are pupils who have been integrated from special schools) are marginalized or even excluded from teaching. This paper looks at the existing arrangements of special education in Cyprus by analysing local practice to identify barriers to inclusion, to consider ways of improving schools and classrooms in relation to policy‐making, and to see how to go forward towards inclusive education. Using four stories from the author’s involvement with one school, and reflecting on them, the author presents what was seen as barriers to providing more inclusive education.

the deafening silence discussing children's drawings for understanding and addressing marginalization

Researchers who deal with inclusive education have made great efforts to listen to the voices of children in order to understand marginalization. Despite the fact that these efforts take place, the voices of many children fail to be heard and hence many children continue to be marginalized. In this article we will develop and implement a technique in order to understand and address marginalization. We will develop a technique that uses childrens drawings and a simultaneous talk with children to reveal voices of marginalization. We first define the technique by presenting its theoretical background and then illustrate how the method has been used. Using evidence from a school in Cyprus, we demonstrate how childrens drawings and simultaneous discussion with the creator of the drawing can help us develop a richer understanding of marginalization.

Patterns of Inclusive Education through the Practice of Student Teachers.

For the purpose of moving towards more inclusive practices, the research literature argues that we have to investigate in greater depth the way in which universities respond to inclusive education. This paper investigates the nature of inclusive education through the practice of student teachers and sees how so‐called inclusive education manifests itself in Cyprus. In particular, it tries to answer the question. ‘How does inclusive education feature in the practices, activities and behaviours of student teachers?’ This qualitative study uses open‐ended initial interviews, observations, follow‐up interviews and field notes. The data from these sources were analysed following a qualitative analysis. The results suggest that student teachers had positive attitudes towards children that tend to be marginalized, they encouraged participation of all children in classroom activities, they made efforts to overcome factors that acted as barriers to inclusion, and they developed collaboration with the purpose of pushing inclusion forward.

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.

Beyond the difference: from the margins to inclusion

In recent years mounting evidence reveals that many children, for different reasons, do not receive equal opportunities for learning, and therefore are marginalised. However, despite the fact that many education systems have attempted to solve this problem and respond to the contemporary needs of all children by deploying a variety of policies for inclusive education, and despite the improvements already achieved, the phenomenon of marginalisation still persists as a difficult problem still awaiting a solution. The paper attempts to deconstruct the term ‘difference’ from a post‐modern point of view, and also considers it genealogically from a philosophical perspective. The purpose is to improve teaching practice in order for teachers to provide equal opportunities in learning for all students. Naturally, the acceptance of ‘difference’ stimulates thinking and expands the parameters of free will. It will therefore be considered that while broad margins (or the marginal) persist, the possibility of difference will also continue to prevail and thus require sustained liberalism in education.

The implementation of a collaborative action research programme for developing inclusive practices: social learning in small internal networks

The idea of inclusive education has featured very highly in the educational priorities of many educational systems. However, the same educational systems are very often criticised because of the difficulties of their teachers to respond to inclusive environments of learning, where all children, despite their abilities, receive equal opportunities in teaching and learning. In this study, we implement a programme of collaborative action research with the purpose of investigating the degree to which it could contribute to the development of inclusive practices. The research reported here took place in a primary school classroom in Cyprus. Our findings from this research shed further light on the nature of differentiation in the preparation and teaching of teachers in relation to inclusive education as well as on the role of teachers as leaders in this process. The collaborative process was successful because it supported experimentation and reflection and provided to all involved opportunities to consider new possibilities. Our experience from this process suggests that if we are interested in developing such practices we cannot follow simple formulas. Rather what we need is a system of social learning within the workplace that builds on existing conditions. Inclusive practices in Cyprus schools, then, should not be approached as simplistic recipes or trite formulas but as social learning that will be developed in small networks and communities of practice.