This article explores notions of support and collaboration between teachers and teaching assistants (TAs) in two secondary schools in England. In particular it reviews how team members created opportunities and established collaborative practices aimed at including each other in the task of providing support for children who are described as…

Meeting the needs of children with disabilities requires strategies for engaging each and every child as an individual and facilitating their participation as a member of a group. The use of the project approach meets the needs of individual children by building on an awareness of children's interests and high expectations. All early childhood…

"Inclusion" is not a mechanism for relocating educationally disadvantaged youngsters in mainstream rather than in special schools. Rather, inclusion implies a whole school approach to social relations and production of meaning reached through processes of negotiation between parents, teachers and children. Such an approach places equal value upon…

The paper discusses the idea and purpose of Child-Friendly Schools (CFSs) initiated by the UNICEF. It analyses the implications of CFSs in terms of improving children's health and nutrition, promoting gender equality, protecting children's rights, re-defining education quality and creating positive psycho-emotional environment at schools.…

Purpose: To compile and then validate a set of evidence-based best practices related to augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) and its role in fostering the inclusion of students with severe disabilities in general education classrooms and other inclusive settings. Method: A comprehensive review of the literature pertaining to AAC and…

The authors share the results of an ongoing study of the changing roles that paraeducators may face when they work in inclusive classrooms. The results of the study may fill an identified research gap regarding what para-educators in inclusive classrooms actually do (given that only 7 studies published between 1999-2006). The results of the pilot…

This system aims to improve the communication, collaboration, critical thinking, and creativity in schools that serve students with disabilities, especially those in urban and/or high-poverty settings. The STAR system outlines five practices that build a more adaptive and inclusive education environment while utilizing modes of communication and…

This article begins with a vignette about Carla, a 4-year-old girl with a diagnosis of developmental delays. It then describes a model to facilitate inclusion of young children in early childhood settings. The authors developed this model as they worked with practicing early childhood professionals. The model places emphasis on the following…

Project ChiLD (Children Learn Differently) was designed to integrate children who display serious disabilities into the Head Start program in which they were enrolled and to increase their full participation in all classroom activities. The 8-month project created a strategic plan to improve interagency collaboration between one Head Start center…

National education policy in England under New Labour Governments has encompassed both a "standards agenda" and an "inclusion agenda", with schools required to respond to both simultaneously. Some previous studies have seen these agendas as contradictory and have seen schools' efforts to develop inclusive practices as being…

Coteaching benefits both students and teachers, and the benefits grow as coteaching relationships mature. Effective coteaching relationships often evolve in stages (Gately & Gately, 2000), and coteachers can take steps to help their relationships flourish (Cramer, 2006). Drawing on the practices of successful coteaching teams, this article offers…

Using a reflective case-study methodology, I conducted an innovative method in my inclusive/special education course, informed by the Communities of Practice literature and interprofessional collaboration. The student participants, in groups, accomplished an assignment designed to support a learner with a disability/exceptionality by including in…

This article offers strategies teachers can use throughout the year to help families of children with and without disabilities, and by extension the broader community, understand and appreciate inclusive education and their roles in ensuring its success. (Contains 3 tables.)

This paper argues that a common sense of purpose around inclusive education, together with a consistent use of language, is essential if Education for All (EFA) strategies are to become more inclusive. This does not require the introduction of new techniques; rather it involves: collaboration within and between schools, closer links between…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to propose a framework for integrating social responsibility within the accountability context now prevalent across the regular and special education contexts of Canadian and American schools while exposing readers to many of the different theories that exist concerning transdisciplinary forms of inclusive…