1,721,009 research outputs found
Reimagining the role of children and young people's voices within the design of inclusive education
No full textThis chapter details an ongoing project that has been designed to involve children and young people in creating visual and tactile materials for a school resource toolkit which can be utilised to express how they feel about key issues within their education. The aim of developing the toolkit is so teachers and other education professionals can elicit and respond appropriately to the views and experiences of the children and young people they work with and support.This chapter provides a case study describing the work of the ‘Visualising Opportunities: Inclusion for Children, Education, and Society’ (@VOICES_Ed) project. In this project, children and young people created ‘artified’, annotated photographs, scenarios, and other materials to facilitate the sharing of their views and experiences regarding inclusion and/or marginalisation. These materials have now been used as prompts for discussing issues relating to inclusive education with other children and young people, and with teachers, teaching assistants, and other professionals working with them.In this chapter, we describe the range of multisensory strategies which have been developed and used and provide examples of the materials created by children and young people. We discuss what we have learnt from the project and offer suggestions on revisiting how children and young people can be central to developing more inclusive approaches, policies, and environments. In doing so, we offer alternative ways to facilitate listening to children and young people’s voices to enhance reflections on inclusion and marginalisation within education and society
Conclusion
No full textThe examples and case studies shared within the chapters of this book offer suggestions for how innovative research and practice can be conducted with children and the communities they are in. What emerged are three key themes that appear to effectively alter the potential for developing learning opportunities that are experienced as inclusive, which we briefly revisit in what follows
Introduction
No full textFor several decades, inclusion has been a priority for many professionals working with children and young people, but this is usually written about from a leadership or policy standpoint and, almost always, from the perspective of adults – school leaders, teachers, and academics. This book seeks to address two gaps: that which exists between adult-centric views of inclusion and those of learners and young people, and the contrast between the academic notions of inclusion and what this means in practice for children’s real-life learning experiences (Allan, 2022). Both these identified gaps will be explored in different ways across the chapters of this book, with a focus on how children and young people’s voices can be more effectively championed in practice. At this point, it is important to note that as a starting point for this book, inclusion is interpreted as widely as possible to cover a range of experiences and situations beyond special educational needs (SEN), whereas in the past it had been a narrower definition
Practices of Freedom:Seeking the social justice aims of peer mentoring within a professional development context for Teaching Assistants
Get PDFThe social and economic opportunities offered by education and the role that mentoring can play in this have been documented for a range of professions, including teaching (Furrer, Skinner, & Pitzer, 2014; Gardiner, 2011; Kaunisto, Estola, & Leiman, 2013). Much of the work around the role of peer mentoring within education has centred on how it supports teachers’ professional development (Buzbee Little, 2005; Cordingley, 2005; Furrer et al., 2014; Gardiner, 2011; Rhodes & Beneicke, 2002). What has been less well documented is the extent to which peer mentoring within higher education programmes of study can be utilized for other professionals working within schools (Nicholson, Rodriguez-Cuadrado, & Woolhouse, 2019). Often those overlooked within the research in this field are those who would potentially benefit the most, and this would seem particularly applicable to school teaching assistants, who may belong to a different economic group, have less formal education, and be lower paid than the teachers they work alongside (Chambers, 2015; Dunne, Goddard, & Woolhouse, 2008b; Kerry, 2005; Mansaray, 2006; Sorsby, 2004). To expand understanding in this area, in this chapter we study the reported experiences of over 300 teaching assistants who were studying at a university in North West England, training to use a mathematics intervention that they would deliver to underachieving primary aged pupils within mainstream schools. We construct a dialogue using the work of Lave and Wenger (1991) and Freire’s philosophy to explore peer mentoring as a “practice of freedom” (2000, p. 41). We study the experiences of the teaching assistants to consider the benefits and challenges of peer mentoring within a higher education context when utilized in their professional development. We locate a political approach to education within three key themes: shaping experiences, safe spaces for developing pedagogy, and increasing confidence. Thus, we reflect upon the social justice aims of developing a supportive community of practice for a group of educational professionals who are often undervalued and overlooked (Blatchford, Russell, Bassett, Brown, & Martin, 2007; Chambers, 2015; Dunne et al., 2008b)
Creating neuro-mixed learning environments in higher education
No full textThis chapter will discuss issues arising within the context of a higher education population which is increasingly neurodivergent, and seeks to address a gap in the research regarding their experiences, their specific support needs, and the challenges they have in navigating their way through university life.In this chapter, we draw on our experiences of engendering and facilitating neuro-mixed spaces in higher education through a master’s degree in critical autism studies at a university in the North West of England. Drawing on a neurodiversity perspective, which rejects deficit models and instead sees neurodivergences as naturally occurring cognitive differences, it will argue that we must move beyond the minimum statutory requirements for inclusion towards a practice committed to recognising and celebrating difference. We also reflect on the lessons we learnt through working with neuro-mixed classes with a high proportion of neurodivergent students, including the benefits of offering multi-modal methods of accessing learning, providing accessible and inclusive material for ALL students, and considering the significance of the built environment on student learning.We seek to offer guidance and suggest strategies for developing a deeper understanding of some of the challenges faced to improve the university experience for all students. In line with community-preferred considerations, including one of the authors’, this chapter will use identity-first language.<br/
Mentoring as a Model of Resistance in Times of Austerity
No full textTeacher mentoring training offered by higher education institutions has the potential to expose critical spaces within which mentors can learn to play significant roles as advocates for social justice. Through taking on such roles mentors can empower their students to also become social justice advocates who in turn empower their own communities. Drawing on a review of literature this chapter explores the empowering flow of transformational models of mentoring for challenging inequity. This affirmative model of mentoring supports individuals and challenges the inter-generational impact of austerities by reaching into and across communities with socially just models based on values of respect, inclusion, healing, equity, care and social justice. We argue that the dominant neo-liberal discourse marginalises education for social justice. Symbolic meanings of neo-liberalism expose the discriminatory landscape of capitalism, which focuses on individual responsibility and morality and fails to address structural inequalities, for example, gender, class and ethnicity. Against this reductive landscape Bourdieu’s (The forms of capital. In J. G. Richardson (Ed.), Handbook of theory and research for the sociology of education (pp. 241-258). New York: Greenwood Press, 1986) theoretical model offers the means to explore mentors’ (and learners’) practices in the education field and demonstrates how the flow of different forms of capital (described by Bourdieu as economic, social, cultural and symbolic) can lead to social justice.</p
East meets West: Exploring the challenges of cross-cultural collaboration in pedagogical development
No full textThis chapter presents findings from an international project of capacity building between Europe and south-east Asia, where mentoring is used as a tool for the pedagogical development of tutors in higher education. Higher education institutions from five European countries partnered with eight universities from Vietnam and Laos to devise a bespoke curriculum for developing vocational teaching. The curriculum combined teaching methodologies of the West with cultural considerations of the East. The European partners were asked to deliver pedagogical training, to provide advice on module development, and to oversee the development of the Asian partners; thus, an international mentor-mentee relationship was established. Building on the traditional definition of mentors as “people who use their knowledge, power and status to assist others to develop their careers” (Tonna, Bjerkholt, & Holland, 2017, p. 211), we explore the relationships between tutors in so-called “developed” countries in the West and those identified as “developing” countries in the East. We outline a mentoring model that is complex and multi-layered, one which comprises “traditional,” “group” (Huizing, 2012; Mitchell, 1999) and “cross-cultural” (Johnson‐Bailey & Cervero, 2004; Kim & Egan, 2011) forms. The model utilises multiple approaches to supporting the development of tutors’ pedagogical knowledge and explores the difficulties of mentoring across conflicting cultural contexts. Within the hierarchical structure, roles are seen to shift, whereupon the mentor-mentee relationship grows hazy and cultural experience becomes a prominent force. Pedagogical development is thus a process of mentoring and being mentored, wherein existing practices are challenged, and knowledge is shared and co-constructed through collaborative inter-workings. This chapter, then, explores the subsequent cross-cultural tensions experienced in international mentoring and the resultant paradigmatic shift in pedagogical thinking
Cinderella academics: Teacher educators in the academy
No full textTeacher educators are a diverse and essential part of the university workforce particularly in post-1992 universities in England. The majority of teacher educators have enjoyed successful careers as teachers and senior leaders in schools. However, their transition from school to university is fraught with difficulties. Inadequate induction to academia, particularly to academic research, coupled with their lack of experience of conducting research, renders them vulnerable within the performative culture of universities (Ellis, McNicholl, Blake, & McNally, 2014). The research landscape within higher education in England is competitive between and within universities. Research is a key element of teacher education (e.g., Burn & Mutton, 2013) and so it is vital that teacher educators engage with and become research active to advance knowledge of all aspects of education. However, new teacher educators are insufficiently supported to start their research journeys within higher education, leaving them on the margins of academe. This chapter reveals the findings of in-depth qualitative semi-structured interviews conducted in one university in North-West England illustrating the dilemma of teacher educators in higher education. The participants in the study explicate the ways in which their presence could be legitimated, for example, through the support of a mentor to lift their status to become research active academics and gain recognition and legitimation in academe
“Nothing about us without us” : Developing inclusive and meaningful research collaborations with autistic young people and peers
No full textDeveloping Positive Personal Tutor Relationships
No full textThis chapter explores one form of mentoring in higher education, namely the mentoring of students by their personal tutor. The role of personal tutor is taken on by members of academic staff and is typically focused on providing both pastoral and academic individualised support. Through a series of qualitative studies at a post-92 university, using focus sessions and interviews, I explore the relationship first-year students have with their personal tutors and how, in a competitive context, higher education institutions might seek to develop more positive student–personal tutor relationships
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