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This study is a radical interactionist analysis of family conflict. Drawing on both a negotiated order perspective and Athen's theory of complex dominative encounters, this study analyzes the role that domination plays in conflicts among intimates. As the family engages in repeated conflicts over roles, the family also engages in negotiations over the family order, what role each party should play, interpretations of past events, and plans for the future. These conflicts take place against a backdrop of patriarchy that asymmetrically distributes power in the family to determine the family order. The data from this study come from a content analysis of mothers with substance use problems as depicted in the reality television show Intervention. The conflicts in these families reveal that these families develop a grinding family order in which families engaged in repeated conflict but also continued to operate as and identify as a family. These conflicts are shaped by and reinforce patriarchal expectations that mothers are central to family operation. The intervention at the end of each episode offered an opportunity for the family to engage in a concerted campaign to try to force the mother into treatment and reestablish the family order.

This chapter uses narrative inquiry to tell the stories of two female neophyte educators experiencing the oppositional misalignment between their idealized perception of female teachers in American society and their personal realities by providing alternate images of women in education. American teachers, especially women, are perceived as a homogeneous group that lives to serve the children of others and inhabit a monochrome, two-dimensional, existence inside the educational landscape of schools (Clandinin & Connelly, 1996). However, the prevailing notions and outdated imagery of teachers is flawed in its lack of acknowledgment of the richly diverse and textured lived experiences of women both inside and outside of the educational field. Furthermore, female teachers face tremendous pressure to imitate these unrealistic ideals and expectations at the expense of the authentic self, which can lead to a myriad of internal dissonances, such as burnout, serving as an umbrella over PTSD, anxiety, compassion fatigue, decreased confidence, and lower job satisfaction. The researchers in this chapter come from nontraditional backgrounds to capture the negative effects of subtle, persistent, and unrealistic expectations of females that contribute to feelings of burnout at the onset of our teaching careers.

The focus of this chapter lies with women middle-level leaders. It reports on themes from women in leadership programmes designed and delivered by Barbara Watterston, through the lens of a programme especially developed for the Association of Independent Schools of South Australia (AISSA). This chapter begins by profiling a description of the programme. The main aim was providing women leaders with an opportunity to take stock of their careers, consider ongoing challenges impeding their work as school leaders, and identify options for the future. After the programme finished, volunteers were invited to write a narrative encapsulating their career journey. Three women leaders volunteered, and their insightful reflections regarding their career trajectories constitute a significant portion of this chapter. The final part of this chapter identifies three common themes that emerged from their stories, resonating with ideas which are frequently illuminated in similar programmes and research. These include the importance of ongoing professional learning to be a successful leader, gender-based barriers that caused the women to doubt their abilities and readiness for leadership, and the deep appreciation the women expressed from learning with and from like-minded other women leaders.

This chapter provides an overview of the inclusive education policies in Ghana and how these policies were developed toward fulfilling the 2030 Sustainable Development Goal Number 4. We start the chapter by introducing Ghana's demographics and awareness in disability, as well as the historical background in inclusive education. Next, we address the current state of Ghana's inclusive education by sharing the current policies and infrastructure that transforms special education schools into resource centers, promotes a learner-friendly environment, and serves as the legal foundation for private and public schools to implement inclusive education for all children. We further discuss the challenges imposed by the recent wave of the COVID pandemic on inclusive education, and the initiatives Ghana leadership enacted to provide a continuum of inclusive services for all children. We then conclude the chapter with implications and recommendations to stakeholders.

Globally, the COVID-19 pandemic has been in effect since 2019. It has impacted people's lives differently, and education is one of the biggest challenges. In Myanmar, apart from the pandemic, the Coup d’état in 2021 crippled development across many sectors, including education. Consequently, they interfered with Myanmar's progress toward inclusive education in line with Sustainable Development Goal Four (SDG 4). A brief overview of Myanmar's progress and challenges in implementing inclusive education is provided in this chapter. Furthermore, it aims to bring ideas on how inclusive education in Myanmar could improve in the aftermath of the pandemic and coup.

Sustainable Development Goal 4 (SDG 4), based on the principle of leaving no one behind, ensures that equitable and quality education, as well as inclusion, are available to all, promoting opportunities for those who are disadvantaged and vulnerable including persons with disabilities (PWDs). The Indonesian government has demonstrated a commitment to the rights of PWDs in education. In this chapter, the history, the present, and the future of inclusive education will be presented following the master plan for the development of inclusive education. Strategies including accessibility, reasonable accommodation, and collaboration will be discussed as well as the challenges in implementing inclusive education.

First-generation college students in the United States are a unique demographic that is often characterized by the institutions that serve them with a risk-laden and deficit-based model. However, our analysis of the transcripts of open-ended, semi-structured interviews with 22 “first-gen” respondents suggests they are actively deft, agentic, self-determining parties to processes of identity construction that are both externally imposed and potentially stigmatizing, as well as exemplars of survivance and determination. We deploy a grounded theory approach to an open-coding process, modeled after the extended case method, while viewing our data through a novel synthesis of the dual theoretical lenses of structural and radical/structural symbolic interactionism and intersectional/standpoint feminist traditions, in order to reveal the complex, unfolding, active strategies students used to make sense of their obstacles, successes, co-created identities, and distinctive institutional encounters. We find that contrary to the dictates of prevailing paradigms, identity-building among first-gens is an incremental and bidirectional process through which students actively perceive and engage existing power structures to persist and even thrive amid incredibly trying, challenging, distressing, and even traumatic circumstances. Our findings suggest that successful institutional interventional strategies designed to serve this functionally unique student population (and particularly those tailored to the COVID-moment) would do well to listen deeply to their voices, consider the secondary consequences of “protectionary” policies as potentially more harmful than helpful, and fundamentally, to reexamine the presumption that such students present just institutional risk and vulnerability, but also present a valuable addition to university environments, due to the unique perspective and broader scale of vision their experiences afford them.

Canada is a member state in the United Nations. In 2015, Canada adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. It is a global initiative that envisions a world where member states will improve economically, socially, and environmentally by attaining 17 Sustainable Development Goals set by the United Nations. This chapter focuses on Sustainable Development Goal 4: Quality Education. A review of Canada's national strategy for mechanizing realization of Goal 4, a snapshot of Canada's midpoint progress, and recommendations for next steps and future considerations are presented.