Prelims

Half Title Page

PROMOTING SOCIAL INCLUSION

Series Page

INTERNATIONAL PERSPECTIVES ON INCLUSIVE EDUCATION

Series Editor: Chris Forlin

Recent Volumes:

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INTERNATIONAL PERSPECTIVES ON INCLUSIVE EDUCATION VOLUME 13

PROMOTING SOCIAL INCLUSION: CO-CREATING ENVIRONMENTS THAT FOSTER EQUITY AND BELONGING

EDITED BY

KATE SCORGIE

San Diego, CA, US

CHRIS FORLIN

Private Inclusive Education Consultant, Australia

United Kingdom – North America – Japan – India – Malaysia – China

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Emerald Publishing Limited

Howard House, Wagon Lane, Bingley BD16 1WA, UK

First edition 2019

Copyright © 2019 Emerald Publishing Limited

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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN: 978-1-78769-524-5 (Print)

ISBN: 978-1-78769-523-8 (Online)

ISBN: 978-1-78769-525-2 (Epub)

ISSN: 1479-3636 (Series)

List of Tables and Figures

List of Contributors

Stacey Andrews works for Inclusion Lloydminster and Inclusion Alberta and currently is a Co-Director, Family Initiatives and Advocacy. She is deeply committed to supporting children, youth and adults with developmental disabilities and their families to have good, inclusive lives in community. She works extensively in community development and community capacity building to maximize on creating communities that welcome and include all. Stacey and her husband, Quentin, live in Lloydminster, Alberta, Canada, and have two children one of whom has developmental disabilities. Both she and Quentin are committed to creating a good inclusive life for their son with developmental disabilities and ensuring his life is full of rich opportunities and of equal value to his older sister’s.

Christine Ashby is an Associate Professor of Inclusive Special Education in the Teaching and Leadership Department of the School of Education at Syracuse University. She teaches across all levels of the programme from undergraduate to doctoral and co-ordinates the undergraduate Inclusive Elementary and Special Education Programme and the 1–6 and 7–12 Inclusive Special Education Masters’ Programmes. She is also the Director of the Institute on Communication and Inclusion, which conducts research, training and dissemination of information on communication strategies for individuals with disabilities who are non-speaking or who have limited speech. Professor Ashby’s teaching and research focus on inclusive education broadly, with specific emphasis on supports for students with labels of autism and other developmental disabilities, communicative diversity, disability studies and clinically rich teacher preparation. Her work seeks to disrupt dominant notions of disability as deficiency and underscores the importance of considering the lived experiences of individuals with disabilities and creating contexts for competence in inclusive schools and communities.

Shawn Chandler Bingham is an Associate Professor of Sociology and the Director of the Honors College at the University of North Carolina Wilmington. His books include Thoreau and the Sociological Imagination, The Art of Social Critique, The Bohemian South and Seriously Funny: Disability and the Paradoxical Power of Humor (co-authored with Sara Green). His current research project explores tiny housing, from the history of the movement to the ways in which it is being commercialized.

L. Alejandra Botia is a Graduate from the University of British Columbia where she obtained both her bachelor’s degree in Psychology and master’s degree in Counselling Psychology. Throughout her time there, she was involved in numerous initiatives that have strengthened her passion for research and its practical application to help others flourish. From a positive psychological lens, her research interests include vocational psychology, body image, sports psychology and peace and reconciliation. Additionally, she has a strong motivation to collaborate on projects that enhance the teaching and learning of post-secondary students. This interest strengthened from having been involved with the Institute for Teaching and Learning scholarly initiative at the University of British Columbia and worked on a project that supported the Cmolik Foundation Scholarship initiative in Vancouver, BC.

Robert Campain is a Research Fellow at Deakin University (Australia). The focus of his research has been on social inclusion for people with disability involving participatory research methods. His most recent work focuses on personal choice and control for people with psychosocial disability relating to individualized funding models in Australia and research into social inclusion for people with spinal cord injury.

Richard A. Chapman is a PhD Student at the University of South Florida in the Department of counselling education and supervision. He is a licensed Mental Health Counsellor in the state of Florida. He is a Disability Studies Scholar who is passionate about self-advocacy and self-determination of individuals with developmental disabilities. He is interested in guardianship and alternatives to guardianship as a way to promote self-advocacy and self-determination of individuals with disabilities. He is a member of a Florida Supreme Court working group on guardianship and alternatives to guardianship. He lives in beautiful Tampa, Florida, with a roommate and two cats.

Brian Charest is an Assistant Professor at the University of Redlands. He is a former public High-school Teacher who has taught in both Chicago and Seattle. He has worked in a variety of educational settings with students of diverse backgrounds and identities. Much of Brian’s university teaching has involved community-based work of some kind, where students in his courses worked closely with local community-based organizations, schools, practicing teachers and residents in ‘real-world’ settings. Brian draws on the traditions of community organizers and activists to help teachers learn the skills and strategies to be strong advocates for themselves, their students and the communities in which they live and work.

Matthew Clarke is the Head of the School of Humanities and Social Sciences at Deakin University. His research focuses on international development, including aid effectiveness, the nexus between religion and development and children with disability in developing countries. Much of Mathew’s research takes place in the Pacific. Matthew has written a number of books and over 100 journal articles and book chapters. He regularly undertakes evaluations for international aid agencies.

Evan E. Dean, PhD, OTR/L, is an Assistant Professor in the Occupational Therapy programme at the University of Kansas Medical Center and an OT Discipline Supervisor for the Leadership Education in Neurodevelopmental Disabilities (LEND). His focus is on supporting adults with intellectual disability living in the community. His clinical work focuses on supporting people with disabilities to enhance self-determination in order to design their career trajectories and obtain integrated employment. Furthermore, his research focuses on exploring contextual influences on participation and self-determination for people with disabilities and examining the efficacy of employment-related interventions for adults with intellectual disability.

Ilaria Di Maggio is a Research Fellow at Padua University. She is member of the SIO (Italian Society of Vocational Guidance). Since 2013, she has been collaborating with the Larios Laboratory and the University Center for Inclusion and Disability at University of Padua. She carries out activities of supervision and support in the e-learning bachelor course ‘Life Design e Career Counselling’ and integrative lessons in bachelor course ‘Psychology of disability and integration’. Her research activities are regarding the fields of career counselling and disability. More specifically, her research activities are related to the study of career construction according to the latest approaches of Life Design in diverse groups of people: children, adolescents, young people and adults with vulnerability (disability, substance use disorder, immigrants, etc.). In her research, special attention is given to the social and work inclusion process.

José F. Domene is a Professor in Educational Studies in Counselling Psychology, Werklund School of Education, at the University of Calgary. His programme of research has been funded by the Canada Institutes of Health Research and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada and includes a focus on the couple and family contexts of career development, developmental transitions in adolescence and emerging adulthood, the implications of technological change for counselling practice and professional issues in Canadian counselling and counselling psychology. Dr Domene has also worked as a licensed psychologist, whose practice has focused on assisting adolescents and emerging adults presenting with a range of complex academic, career and mental health difficulties, as well as on providing clinical supervision to trainees working with this population.

Nikos Drosos (PhD) is an Expert in career counselling and guidance of socially vulnerable groups. He was the Co-ordinator of several projects for the development of methodology and tools for career counselling for people with severe mental health illness, and for long-term unemployed people. These methodologies are implemented in career counselling centres under his supervision with impressive results. He is a Member of the Board of Directors of the Panhellenic Association for Psychosocial Rehabilitation & Work Integration (PEPSAEE) and of the Hellenic Association for Supported Employment (ELETYPE), a Founding Member of the NICE Foundation for innovation in career counselling and guidance and a Member of the Scientific Committee of the European Doctoral Programme in Career Guidance and Counselling (ECADOC). He is an Instructor in several universities. He is the (co-)author of six books (in Greek), six book chapters and more than 25 peer-reviewed journal articles (in English or Greek).

Lani Florian is Bell Chair of Education at the University of Edinburgh and Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences (FAcSS). Her influential research in the field of inclusive education has led to numerous projects providing technical assistance and support to inclusive education initiatives in many countries and international agencies including the British Council, Open Society Foundations and the Council of Europe. She is frequently invited to give keynote addresses and lead seminars on inclusive pedagogy and teacher education for inclusive education. She is currently visiting Adjunct Professor at Teachers College Columbia University, New York. She is editor of the Sage Handbook of Special Education, now in its second edition, and co-author of Achievement and Inclusion in Schools, also in its second edition.

Chris Forlin is an International Education Consultant, Series Editor for Emerald Publishing for ‘International Perspectives on Inclusive Education’, Researcher and Independent Public School Reviewer, based in Perth, Australia. Her research and publications focus on equity and diversity; change paradigms in education; education policy and practice, along with curricula and pedagogy for teacher education, with innovative research in working with systems, governments and schools to establish sustainable inclusive education and best practices for supporting all learners. Professor Forlin provides leadership in research in education reform for special and inclusive education in the Asia-Pacific region and has widespread extensive international experience in education working in the field for more than 45 years, providing regular international workshops and keynote addresses.

Elizabeth Froman, an RN with a BSE degree and a credential in adult education, has lived with the hearing loss of her family members daily for over 30 years. A passionate advocate for children and families experiencing hearing loss, she has actively volunteered in the classroom, with special education and gifted and talented programmes, on general education committees and as a parent liaison. She strives to support and assist families of children with hearing loss through multiple events, avenues and locations. She also engages in volunteer opportunities with local and national organizations for hearing loss. Liz and her husband, David, live in San Diego, California, USA, near their two adult children. Committed to raising awareness through education and advocacy, both Liz and daughter Michelle find greatest satisfaction in direct support of children with hearing loss and their families.

Michelle Froman, a Teacher of the deaf, earned her masters in the Education of the Deaf (MED) from Smith College and Clarke School for the Deaf. Over the past 11 years, she has worked at a site-based Deaf and Hard of Hearing (DHH) programme. She assists DHH children and families both personally and professionally. In addition, Michelle actively volunteers with local and national organizations for hearing loss awareness and support. She enjoys living near her family, also in San Diego, including a rich, active life due to amazing access to sound from her bilateral cochlear implants. Michelle and mother Liz strive to provide limitless opportunities for DHH children so that they may reach their fullest potential.

Maria Cristina Ginevra is a Research Fellow at the Department of Psychology, University of Milan–Bicocca. She is also an Adjunct Professor at the Department of Philosophy, Sociology, Pedagogy and Applied Psychology, University of Padova, where she teaches Educational Psychology. She collaborates with the Larios Laboratory (Laboratory for Research and Intervention in Vocational Designing and Career Counselling) and with University Centre for Inclusion and Disability at the University of Padova. She is a Member of the Italian Society for Vocational Guidance, of AIP (Italian Association of Psychology) and of the European Society for Vocational Designing and Career Counselling. Her research activities concern the fields of career counselling and psychology of disability. As regards psychology of disability, research activities involve the analysis of the factors associated with the social and work inclusion, with special attention to career development, sexuality and school context.

Sara Eleanor Green is Director of the Interdisciplinary Social Sciences Programme and Professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of South Florida. She has interdisciplinary research and teaching interests that centre on the global experience of health, illness and disability across the life course including identity, community participation, humour and the arts, stigma, health beliefs, organizational membership and satisfaction and caregiving and receiving. She is past Chair and Career Award Recipient of the American Sociological Association (ASA) Section on Disability & Society and past co-chair of the ASA Committee on the Status of Persons with Disabilities in Sociology. In addition to numerous journal articles and book chapters, she is the co-editor, with Sharon Barnartt, of Sociology Looking at Disability: What Did We Know and When Did We Know It (Emerald); and co-author, with Shawn Bingham, of Seriously Funny: Disability and the Paradoxical Power of Humor (Lynne Rienner).

Mayumi Hagiwara, MS, is a PhD Candidate in the Department of Special Education at the University of Kansas as well as a UCEDD Trainee at the Kansas University Center on Developmental Disabilities. Previously, she has taught as a Special Education Teacher for students with disabilities at K–12 school settings. Her research interests focus on how to promote self-determination across the lifespan among people with disabilities in order to further facilitate inclusive education, integrated employment and inclusive community participation. She is also interested in understanding how the expression and development of self-determination are influenced by contextual factors, including personal factors (e.g. age, disability, culture, family) and environmental factors (e.g. school, work, living environments).

Elena Jenkin has worked with children and adults with disabilities, their families and communities in the Pacific and Asia, with a focus on understanding the experiences of inclusion in order to further advance contextually relevant inclusive practice within community and international development. Elena is completing her PhD to further develop inclusive methods to understand the human rights priorities of Pacific children with disability, as reported by them. She has a diverse disability-focused background, ranging from technical support, policy, teaching and research.

Norman Kunc, although being a well-known speaker and advocate within the disability rights community, prefers to think of himself as a modern-day storyteller, continuing the long-held tradition of using humour and narrative to initiate self-reflection and social change. Born with cerebral palsy, Norman attended a segregated school for children with physical disabilities; then, at the age 13, he was integrated into a regular school. From there, he went on to complete a bachelor’s degree in humanities and a master’s in family therapy. Norman travels extensively throughout North America and abroad providing in-service and training in the areas of inclusive education, employment equity, conflict resolution and other disability rights issues. When not working, he enjoys cycling, good food and chess.

Emma Van der Klift, although being a well-known speaker and advocate within the disability rights community, prefers to think of herself as a modern-day storyteller, continuing the long-held tradition of using humour and narrative to initiate self-reflection and social change. She is a neurodivergent speaker, author and activist. She travels extensively throughout North America and abroad providing in-service and training in the areas of inclusive education, employment equity, conflict resolution and other disability rights issues. Recently diagnosed as autistic, she has embraced the diagnosis with a sense of relief, recognition and confirmation. Emma holds a master’s degree in Conflict Analysis and Management from Royal Roads University and was certified as a mediator and negotiator through the Justice Institute in Vancouver. She sometimes wonders if she might be the only autistic mediator! When not working, she enjoys cycling, good food and chess. Emma is currently working on a book, based on her master’s thesis, about what teachers and support workers can learn from hostage negotiators about de-escalation.

Jose W. Lalas has been involved as a faculty in both public and private universities for 30 years. He has been a Junior High-school Teacher and has served as an Associate Dean and Director of Teacher Education. Currently, he is a Professor of literacy, social justice and critical theory in education and directs the University of Redlands’ Center for Educational Justice. He co-authored books on the topics of social justice, equity and engagement. His research agenda includes engagement, social and cultural capital, critical theory, pedagogy, and literacy, achievement gap, second-language acquisition and mentoring of diverse faculty. His most current co-authored book chapters talk about social justice and ethical decision-making and nurturing engagement, sense of belonging and hope through equity. Jose Lalas has been serving Corona-Norco Unified School District as a Member of the Board of Education for 22 years. He focuses on employer–employee collaboration in the District, equity policy and addressing the achievement gap.

Melinda Leigh Maconi is a Doctoral Student in the Sociology Department at the University of South Florida. Her areas of research include disability, health and illness, education, the arts and identity. Her master’s thesis, ‘I’m Not Broken: Perspectives of Students With Disabilities on Identity-making and Social Inclusion on a College Campus’, focused on the ways in which university students with contested disabilities, that are not easily visible or recognized, construct identities as both people with disabilities who need accommodations in the classroom and competent adults and competent students. Her current work examines the ways in which inclusion, exclusion and accessibility are present in the lives of people with disabilities pursuing artistic identities in art-based spaces.

Anne-Marie Mcilroy is a Lecturer at the University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand. She was one of the Teacher-writers on the Narrative Assessment project. Anne-Marie’s research focus is recognizing and responding to capability to support the belonging and learning of every child in their school community.

Laura Nota is a Full Professor at the Department of Philosophy, Sociology, Education and Applied Psychology, University of Padova. She is the Delegate of the Rector for Disability. She is the Director of the Larios Laboratory at University of Padova. She is Associate Editor of the International Journal for Educational and Vocational Guidance and of Journal of Police and Practice in intellectual disabilities, Member of the Editorial Board of the Journal of Vocational Behaviour and of the Journal of Career Development. She is also the President of the European Society for Vocational Designing and Career Counselling (ESVDC) and of Italian Association for Vocational Guidance (SIO). She is the Scientific Co-ordinator of the European Doctoral Programme in Career Guidance & Counselling (ECADOC) funded by European Commission and Member of the Steering Committee in the Nice project. Research activities concern the fields of career counselling and psychology of disability and inclusion. As regards psychology of disability and inclusion, research efforts are directed towards analyzing the social abilities and inclusion processes of individuals with disability at school and in the work context. She is also interested in devising procedures and instruments for the career counselling and work inclusion of individuals with disability.

Maria Ordaz is currently an Elementary School Teacher at San Bernardino City Unified School District, a school located in a low-socioeconomic area with a high achievement gap between White and Asians on one side and Blacks and Latinos on the other. Maria is an English Language Facilitator, provides professional development on English language development, oversees the intervention programme at her site, participates in committees for English learners and represents all English language arts and English language development efforts for the district. She works with a small focus group of educators for the State of California on how to implement the new English Language Roadmap curriculum that covers dual language and biliteracy. María Ordaz is a third-year Doctoral Student at the University of Redlands, with Dr Lalas as her dissertation chair, and doing research on the connection between teacher’s literacy ideology and student engagement in order to close the achievement gap for long-term English learners.

Kesha Pradhan is a PhD Student in the Counselling Psychology Programme at the University of British Columbia. Kesha’s research interests include developmental transitions, interpersonal relationships and cross-cultural counselling. She is interested in making mental health care accessible for youth and minority clients.

Rosalynn Record-Lemon is a PhD Candidate in Counselling Psychology at the University of British Columbia. Her research interests concern investigating effective counselling practices with children and youth. She is involved in Dr Young’s research studies investigating an action-project counselling intervention aimed at supporting the transition projects of immigrant youth and young adults. Her dissertation research investigates school counsellors’ experiences of implementing a school-based trauma-informed counselling intervention.

Sara Santilli is a Research Fellow at the Center of Disability and Inclusion at the University of Padova. She is a Psychologist with a postgraduate degree in Career Counselling at the University of Padova. She collaborates also with La.R.I.O.S. (Laboratory of Research and Intervention in Vocational Guidance). Her research interest concerns the fields of career counselling and disability. As regards career counselling, research efforts are directed towards the analysis of relationships between career adaptability, time perspective and quality of life in younger and university students. As regards disability, research activities, in collaboration with Centre of Disability and Inclusion at University of Padova, Italy, regard the analysis of factors associated with the social and work inclusion. She is Vice-president of the Italian Society for Vocational Guidance (SIO), and a member of European Society for Vocational Designing and Career Counselling and the Italian Society of behaviour analysis and modification and cognitive behavioural therapy – AIAMC.

Kate Scorgie is a retired Professor, School of Education, Azusa Pacific University. Her research interests have included families of children with disabilities, home–school collaboration with parents of children in military families, disclosure and equity accommodation for persons with disability transitioning to post-secondary settings and transformative learning for educator preparation.

Karrie A. Shogren, PhD, is a Professor in the Department of Special Education and Director of the Kansas University Center on Developmental Disabilities. Her research interests include self-determination and systems for supports for people with disabilities. She has published over 140 articles in peer-reviewed journals, is the author or co-author of 10 books and has received grant funding from multiple sources. She is the Lead Author of the Self-determination Inventory, an assessment of self-determination, and developer of the Self-determined Learning Model of Instruction and Self-determined Career Design Model.

Heidi Strikwerda is currently a middle-school English Teacher at San Bernardino City Unified School District, a school located in a low-socioeconomic area with a high achievement gap between White and Asians on one side and Blacks and Latinos on the other. Heidi is an English Language Facilitator, designs curricular units, creates benchmarks, participates in committees for English Learners and represents all English language arts and English language development efforts for the district. She works with a small focus group of educators for the State of California on how to implement the new English Language Roadmap curriculum that covers dual language and biliteracy. Heidi Strikwerda is a third-year Doctoral Student at the University of Redlands, with Dr Lalas as her dissertation chair, conducting research on the connection between increasing hope, motivation and student engagement in order to close the achievement gap for impoverished students.

Mary Taiwo is a Researcher within the education system in Australia. Her PhD research focused on understanding the development of inclusive practice in Nigerian classrooms. Mary has worked as a Teacher Educator in Africa and as a Researcher, all within the higher education system. She has presented and participated in various national and international conferences including being a UNESCO-invited and -sponsored presenter at the Second Biennial International Inclusive Education Symposium in West and Central Africa in April 2015.

Menelaos Theodoroulakis (PhD) is an Expert in social policy and works as a Researcher and Social Policy Consultant in various projects. He is also a Social Entrepreneurship and Employment Consultant in mental health organizations. He is the President of the Board of Directors of the PanHellenic Federation of Mental Health Organizations ‘ARGO’ and of the Panhellenic Association for Psychosocial Rehabilitation & Work Integration (PEPSAEE). Additionally, he is a Member of the Board of Directors of the Social Cooperative for people with mental health problems ‘Ef zin’, Scientific Consultant of the General Secretariat for Social Insurance of the Ministry of Labour and the National Expert of Greece in the European Social Policy Network in the field of Social Protection. He is an Instructor in several training programmes regarding mental health services users and employment.

Yuchen Wang is a Research Associate at the Moray House School of Education, University of Edinburgh. Her research interests include student voice, inclusive practice, disability rights, technology and international development. Her PhD research explored the experiences of children with disabilities and teachers’ practices in Chinese mainstream schools, following which she was awarded the UK Economic and Social Research Council Global Challenges Research Fund Postdoctoral Fellowship to build capacity of disability communities, practitioners and policymakers in the country. She is currently involved in projects that critically examine the relationships between technology and educational inclusion. She also provides consultancy support for NGOs to promote inclusive and quality provision for children with disabilities in China.

Erin Wilson is an Associate Professor of Disability and Inclusion at Deakin University. She holds a doctoral degree in Social Work and Social Policy in the field of community development. Erin is an active researcher in the area of inclusive community, disability and disadvantaged groups. Erin is also active in supporting the capacity of the sector to undertake research and use the evidence base to influence practice and policy. Recent research also includes a focus on the experience of people with psychosocial disability in terms of choice making in individualized funding contexts. She also researches in the area of outcome measurement, inclusive practice and human rights in both Australian and developing country contexts. Erin has a special interest in research methods that enable the participation of people with disability as researchers, respondents and in advocating change based on research findings.

Casey Woodfield is Assistant Professor of Special Education in the Interdisciplinary and Inclusive Education Department at Rowan University. She earned her PhD in Special Education at Syracuse University as well as a master’s in Cultural Foundations of Education and Certificate of Advanced Study in Disability Studies. She is an Affiliated Researcher at the Institute on Communication and Inclusion at Syracuse, where she has collaborated on research, training and support around communication access for individuals with disabilities who do not use speech. Casey’s research and teaching are grounded in commitments to communication and inclusion as interrelated imperatives. Her work explores communication support partnerships, inclusive education and relational qualitative methods by telling stories of/through lived experiences at the intersections of education, communicative diversity, interdependence and neurodiverse ways of being. She focuses on establishing sustainable inclusive practices, and countering social constructions of competence and voice, guided by perspectives of individuals with disabilities as critical agents of change.

Richard A. Young is a Professor of Counselling Psychology at the University of British Columbia. He is a Fellow of both the Canadian Psychological Association and the American Psychological Association and a Registered Psychologist in British Columbia. His research interests include the application of action theory and the qualitative action-project method to a variety of research topics, including the transition to adulthood, families, career development, counselling, health and suicide. Prof Young’s current research is focused on an intervention for young immigrants and refugees as they transition to a new country based on the joint projects in which they are engaged with others. His most recent co-edited book, addressing the application of action theory to counselling practice, is Counseling and action: Toward life-enhancing work, relationships, and identity (R. A. Young, J. F. Domene, & L. Valach, Eds., Springer-Science, 2015).

Foreword

The adoption internationally of inclusive practice as the most equitable and all-encompassing approach to education and its relation to compliance with various international declarations and conventions underpins the importance of this series for people working at all levels of education and schooling in both developed and less-developed countries. There is little doubt that inclusive education is complex and diverse and that there are enormous disparities in understanding and application at both inter- and intra-country levels. A broad perspective on inclusive education throughout this series is taken, encompassing a wide range of contemporary viewpoints, ideas and research for enabling the development of more inclusive schools, education systems and communities.

Volumes in this series on International Perspectives on Inclusive Education contribute to the academic and professional discourse by providing a collection of philosophies and practices that can be reviewed considering local contextual and cultural situations in order to assist governments, educators, peripatetic staffs and other professionals to provide the best education for all children. Each volume in the series focuses on a key aspect of inclusive education and provides critical chapters by contributing leaders in the field who discuss theoretical positions, quality research and impacts on school and classroom practice. Different volumes address issues relating to the diversity of student need within heterogeneous classrooms and the preparation of teachers and other staffs to work in inclusive schools. Systemic changes and practice in schools encompass a wide perspective of learners to provide ideas on reframing education to ensure that it is inclusive of all. Evidence-based research practices underpin a plethora of suggestions for decision-makers and practitioners, incorporating current ways of thinking about and implementing inclusive education.

While many barriers have been identified that may potentially inhibit the implementation of effective inclusive practices, this series aims to identify such key concerns and offer practical and best practice approaches to overcome them. Adopting a thematic approach for each volume, readers will be able to quickly locate a collection of research and practice related to a topic of interest. By transforming schools into inclusive communities of practice, all children can have the opportunity to access and participate in quality and equitable education to enable them to obtain the skills to become contributory global citizens. This series, therefore, is highly recommended to support education decision-makers, practitioners, researchers and academics who have a professional interest in the inclusion of children and youth who are marginalized in inclusive schools and classrooms.

Volume 13 in this series focuses on the key importance of social inclusion. While substantial research has underpinned the need for modifications or differentiation of the curriculum and pedagogy to enable all learners to be included, there has been considerably less emphasis on the necessity to ensure all children and their families are socially included. As affirmed throughout this book, social inclusion does not simply happen by placing students with diverse needs into regular classes. Indeed, this integrated approach to inclusion has been proven to be ineffective and unsustainable. Yet, in many schools, teachers are uncertain as to the best approach to take to ensure all students are fully included socially and have a strong sense of belonging within a caring and accepting community. This is highlighted in the book as particularly problematic when students present with social, emotional or behavioural issues that teachers find challenging to deal with, and many best practice approaches are provided for supporting them. It is evident from the stories that are told by parents throughout the book that aligned with this is the challenge to work with families to support them and their children to be accepted, valued members of a school community where no one is alienated or marginalized because of their difference.

This latest volume is, therefore, a critical addition to the series. The volume is divided into four sections to provide an emphasis for the reader on different aspects of social inclusion. The first section provides a strong foundation for the need for structured social inclusion based upon a rights and choice background. A variety of social inclusion programmes and practices across the age groups are proffered in the next section. Good practices to promote dignity and to give voice to people with disabilities are then included. Finally, the importance of social inclusion within the school years is reviewed as essential for preparing students for transition into higher education and the workforce. Preparing students for work and careers and to live harmoniously within an inclusive social community is explored through a series of authentic case studies. Throughout the volume, the authors take the opportunity to give voice to teachers, families and self-advocates, which provides a very deep and meaningful approach where social inclusion and belonging are viewed through an authentic lens. This book is an essential reference guide for all involved with ensuring that inclusive education is grounded upon opportunities to establish a strong sense of identity and belonging within a well-structured socially supportive environment. I strongly recommend it to you.

Chris Forlin

Series Editor