Initial report on the active inclusion programme

The Rangeville Active Inclusion Programme has now been running for a number of years with funding support from the Queensland Government. Due to the success of this programme many students are now involved in sports such as swimming, tennis, cricket, soccer, rugby, futsal, table tennis, little athletics, karate, AFL, basketball and PCYC. Community members lead and facilitate the service which seeks to support and engage students (and their families) who might otherwise be at risk of disengagement from learning for a number of reasons. The designer and key facilitator of the programme, Elizabeth Laverty (Liz), has worked in partnership with researchers from the University of Southern Queensland (USQ), Dr Lindy Abawi and Dr Karen Spence, to evaluate the programme from a number of perspectives including parents, students, and staf

Learning and inclusion for disadvantaged youth

More people are pursuing asylum than at any time since World War II (Gurria, 2016). Migration flow inevitably impacts schools with children enrolled in contexts where their home language is not the spoken language used at the school (Muller, 2015). In addition, many children are impoverished and have experienced trauma thereby requiring targeted support to cope with daily life (Armstrong, Armstrong & Spandagou, 2011). Schools require knowledge on how to support children to cope, and communities require knowledge on how to welcome and include families from diverse cultural backgrounds ensuring equitable learning opportunity (Ballard, 2016). In 2015, approximately 244 million people were residing in OECD countries beyond their country of birth (Gurria, 2016). In such circumstances, publicly funded schools are presumed to ensure equity of access and learning opportunities for all children (Ballard, 2016). In practice, this is far more complex, as there are differing ideas, opinions and beliefs on what this means, and how this could and should occur. Leaders, teachers, children, and parents have to be encouraged to embrace a shared philosophy of inclusion and engage in practices that promote equity. The inclusion of all students in regular schools is an international movement (Rouse & Florian, 2012; UNESCO, 2009). Creating an inclusive school that respects diversity (Menter & Hulme, 2012) and caters for the needs of all children is a complex challenge (UNESCO, 2005). The term inclusion originally focused on the inclusion of students with specific disabilities or learning difficulties (Gause, 2011) but now means catering for the needs of all children, including those who are refugees, live in poverty, have mental health issues or have experienced trauma (Cole, 2015). Inclusion and exclusion are interrelated processes apparent in every day practice and their interplay constantly creates new possibilities (Armstrong, Armstrong & Spandagou, 2011). Both terms have differing definitions and this paper seeks to capture some of tensions involved in the struggle that schools face regarding how to include or exclude and when, what, and how. So what does this mean for schools who strive to reduce the socio-educative exclusion affecting disadvantaged children? The main question this study sought to answer was: what do stakeholders see as the key strategies/processes within each school that support inclusion, especially for students from diverse cultural backgrounds? An answer to this question has been derived from the effective inclusive practices within six Australian school contexts where communities report that inclusion is more than words, and National Benchmarking Results show high or improving achievement standards. This project builds on both prior (Abawi, Carter, Andrews, & Conway, in print) and current research seeking to create a broader understanding of effective inclusion practices for all students. Data has been collected over a three year period from four public primary (elementary) schools and two large secondary schools in Queensland, Australia. While the context of the study is Australia, the relevance of the findings is international. In one school half of its 760 student enrolments have English as Another Language or Dialect (EALD), of which a large proportion are refugees. To add to the complexity, predominately half of this cohort changes every two years as families move on to establish new lives. The other schools have varying levels of migrant and refugee enrolments and all schools have significant Australia Indigenous populations, as well as students with disabilities or other special learning needs. A model/approach documented from earlier research is further developed and refined to detail shared support structures and ways of working proven to support inclusion. This paper illustrates the refined model in action with examples from these schools which actively reduce the socio-educative exclusion affecting disadvantaged children

Leadership, inclusion, and quality education for all

The purpose of this research was to investigate leadership facilitating effective inclusive school practices. Data were collected from leaders at a complex multicultural school perceived by the system and local community as an inclusive school with a focus on quality education. A qualitative case study was used and data were collected over a 6-month period of immersion at the research site. Data included semistructured interviews with the head of special education and the school principal, observations of dialogical and behavioural data described within the lead researcher's reflective journal, and the documented operational structure of the school. The findings include insights into what the principal and head of special education believed inclusion to be, and how these leaders worked with staff to embed inclusive practices. The conclusion drawn from the study is that school leadership for inclusion involves making hard decisions. It is a complex and multifaceted act requiring consciously targeted effort, advocacy, and particular ways of leading. Inclusive practices need reinforcing by frequently articulated expectations, support, and acknowledgement that for all stakeholders inclusion is a constant journey toward a shared vision

Building leadership capacity and enacting school improvement policy: voices from the field

Education contexts engaging in reform, operate in complex environments that require the coherent implementation of education policies. Research highlights that systems that support shared leadership, strong communication practices and a sharp focus on the articulation of shared beliefs, are positioned to support strong policy interpretation though the enactment of school improvement strategies. This paper explores the inter-connected roles of a system middle leader (regional Project Officer) and a school leader (Principal) in interpreting and enacting systemic policy and direction in a state primary school within a regional context in Queensland, Australia. The case study utilised the regional Project Officer and Principal participants as co-researchers and captured their experiences through recorded narratives and narrative inquiry conversations. The thematic data analysis provides useful information about how school leaders can work with system middle leaders and their own school’s teaching teams to proactively grow the capacity, credibility and strength of teachers to translate policy into enacted school improvement strategies

The rhetoric and reality of leading the inclusive school: socio-cultural reflections on lived experiences

This paper details a cross-cultural study of inclusive leadership practices within a basic education context in each of the following countries: Australia, Canada, and Colombia. Each school was selected after district educational leaders identified the school as being inclusive of students with diverse learning needs over an extended period of time. The researchers were particularly interested in the norms and assumptions that were evident within conversations because these were viewed as indicators of the nature of the embedded school culture within each context. School leaders and teachers were interviewed to determine the link between rhetoric and reality, and what inclusion ‘looked like’, ‘felt like’, and ‘sounded like’ at each site, and whether any discernible differences could be attributed to societal culture. A refractive phenomenological case study approach was used to capture the messages within each context and the lived experiences of the participants as they sought to cater for the needs of students. Data were collected from semi-structured interviews with school leaders and teaching staff. Each researcher conducted environmental observations, documenting the impressions and insights gained from the more implicit messages communicated verbally, non-verbally, and experientially from school structures, visuals, and school ground interactions. Themes were collated from the various narratives that were recounted. Both similarities and distinct socio-cultural differences emerged

Inclusion 'from the gate in': wrapping students with personalised learning support

Advocates of different approaches to inclusion are often adamant that there can be only one true form of inclusion – yet advocated forms differ. Ultimately, inclusion is about empowering students to succeed and wrapping them with the support necessary to do so. This article presents the story of Forrester Hill State School where varied approaches to inclusion are blended according to students’ need. Individual goal setting and personalised learning pathways are the norm. Schoolwide pedagogical principles designed to support the learner are actioned and enhanced through wide spread commitment to the collectively developed school vision. Towards the end of 2012, the steadily increasing number of students with special needs at Forrester Hill had been noted at a district level and intervention strategies were in place to encourage parents to access schools closer to home because, due to recommendations made by other parents, many families were moving well outside their catchment areas to enrol children at the school. This approach was only minimally successful and by 2013 numbers were managed by system staff concerned that the high percentage of students with special needs was placing strains on available resources at the school. Despite these measures, by March 2014, the numbers of enrolled students with diagnosed special needs had risen to 86 out of the 630 students enrolled at the school. Within this same time, internal and external achievement data were trending upwards. With these obvious signs of ‘success’ in mind, this phenomenological case study was conducted to discover the essence of inclusion at Forrester Hill. The harmonies of student, staff, parent voices and others are woven together indicating the principles underpinning and sustaining this inclusive school culture – a culture that empowers students to know both how they learn and why they learn, becoming independent learners capable of reaching the high expectations that guide their learning journeys

Introducing refractive phenomenology

All researchers are presented with the need to choose or design a research methodology suited to the research topic or problem to be investigated. Methodology provides the philosophical groundwork that underpins investigative frameworks and choice of methodology is therefore crucial as it will indeed 'colour' both research process and product. Research that aims to investigate how individuals experience a given phenomenon lends itself to qualitative research methods and in particular to a phenomenological approach. Refractive phenomenology builds on hermeneutic phenomenological foundations through the use of interpretive filters taking individual depictions of lived experience and viewing, reflecting, redirecting and channelling these through a series of filters and reductive lenses until the 'Essence' of the phenomenon has been brought into view

Entangled, emergent, emboldened: an indigenous youth arts group and non-indigenous arts and literacies facilitators talk back to the ‘Big House' (University)

Using digitized representations and spoken word performance, Queensland arts and literacies educators Janice Jones and Lindy Abawi present with Augmented Reality Partners from Whaddup Indigenous Youth Group the stages of an arts and multi-literacies project from inception to public display. The partners, young women of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander background, prepare to exhibit their art works in the regional art gallery, using Augmented Reality overlays of story, rap, and dance. This paper as performance uses a verbatim theatre approach, interweaving the young women’s digital stories of self-and community actualization with the voices of two arts facilitators and their sponsoring institution. By critically re-presenting the entanglement of values and expectations of the university as ‘The Big House’ with those of the arts practitioners and the community, the authors as performers unravel the complexities of language as an instrument of neo-colonialism, and articulate some of the ethical and cultural challenges for non-Indigenous facilitators engaging with Indigenous peoples

Connecting, catering for, and celebrating diverse student learners

Schools are populated by learners with a multi-hued array of complex personalities, capabilities and needs. Learners from mixed cultural backgrounds; students needing support or challenge; and, those needing social and emotional support are in every classroom. Data at the heart of this research into inclusive schoolwide practices were collected from three Primary schools in a regional city in the state of Queensland, Australia. Each school comes under the jurisdiction of the Queensland State Education system and appropriate permissions were gained to conduct this research. Each school is of a similar size: the first caters for large numbers of students with special needs and has a low socio-economic rating; the second caters for both students with special learning needs and growing numbers of students from refugee families with a relatively high socio-economic rating; and, with an average socio-economic rating, over half of the students in the third school come from 32 diverse cultures and many students have special learning needs. A Refractive Phenomenological Methodology was used to analyse the data collected from focus groups and individual interviews with the lenses of the Research Based Framework for School Alignment and Schein’s understanding of organisational culture used as a means of filtering the data into specific themes. Students, teachers, leaders and parents’ voices can all be heard in the findings from this research project. Their blended experiences form a picture of inclusive classroom practices, celebrations of achievement and schoolwide principles for inclusion that have implications for other contexts