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The purpose of this paper is to explore how vulnerable refugee children's education can be supported in the first asylum country during a long-term, complex crisis. More specifically, the authors examine the impact of a remedial education (RE) program on academically challenged Syrian refugees' sustained learning and well-being in Jordan during a protracted emergency.

Using the 2012 United Nations human security framework, the authors analyze the quantitative results of program evaluation, supplemented by qualitative surveys and stakeholder interviews that asked about the aspirations of refugee children and their guardians, their school experience and the refugee–host community relationship.

The authors' data suggest that the program enhanced targeted Syrians' protection and empowerment. Their increased sense of safety and improved academic performance and learning motivation were likely owing to child-friendly classroom management and pedagogies that facilitated interactive and differentiated learning. Their human security was further strengthened when they learned with Jordanian children who experienced similar academic challenges and with teachers sympathetic to their plight. Meanwhile, a human security framework calls for humanitarian agencies' strategic engagement with local partners to ensure refugees' learning continuity.

Refugee education studies in first asylum countries are rare. Even rarer are studies focusing on academically low-achieving refugees with full consideration of the protracted and complex nature of a crisis. This study suggests effective measures to increase their human security while calling for humanitarian aid organizations to use long-term thinking.

Facilitating inclusive supports and services for learners with low-incidence disabilities involves collaborative teaming, understanding the benefits and challenges involved in delivering inclusive supports, and appreciating the diverse and unique needs of this population. In this chapter, we provide families, educators, researchers, academics, related service personnel, and other professionals with examples of models of service and support delivery. Emphasis will be on school-age learners with low-incidence disabilities. Additionally, an insider perspective of the opportunities for, as well as benefits and barriers to, successful implementation of supports and services for learners with low-incidence disabilities is presented. The chapter concludes with future directions for research.

Institutional skill training—training in institutions organised for that purpose rather than on‐the‐job—was the first of the manpower programmes of the 1960s to be mandated by Congress and applied on a nationwide basis. Its overall goal has been to improve the skills, employability and income of the unemployed and under‐employed through the provision of vocational and related instruction in a formal classroom or laboratory setting. A corollary purpose of the programme has been to meet the needs of employers for workers in demand and/or “skills shortage” occupations. It differs from traditional vocational education in that its objective is to train workers for immediate employment in occupations which are currently in demand. Traditional vocational education, on the other hand, has a much broader objective: to prepare the student for a lifetime of work in a dynamic labour market. Institutional skill training, as it evolved in the sixties, is short‐term and intensive; traditional vocational education is longer in length and adapted to the less immediate needs of secondary and post‐secondary level students.

This chapter describes the influences that are fundamental to facilitating a system of support for inclusive education for students with low-incidence disabilities. Some of the major factors are values and beliefs, rights, relationships and a sense of belonging, policy, and effective practices (Smith, 2006; Walther-Thomas, Korinek, McLaughlin, & Williams, 2000). Within each of the features, collaboration is inherent and essential. A summary of literature on each feature is provided with examples to support the importance for students with low-incidence disabilities. The effective practices of Universal Design for Learning (UDL), co-teaching, peer supports, and school-based teams are highlighted. In order to move forward, educators and administrators need to take responsibility for all children. Effective leadership models are characterized by collaborative efforts that foster a shared responsibility of the team, emphasize thoughtful planning, and identify and allocate the necessary resources and supports.

This chapter provides a framework for ethical decision making related to inclusive educational opportunities for secondary students with intellectual and developmental disabilities (I/DD) based on policies and practices in the United States. Relevant research findings are utilized to explore ethical principles involved in educational decision making for secondary students with I/DD, with discussions on how these are intertwined with U.S. policy. I/DD and inclusion, as described in the research literature and U.S. policy, are defined and the current status of inclusive practices are described. Next, an exploration of the rationale, as supported by empirical evidence, for educating students at the secondary level with I/DD, primarily with their peers who do not have identified disabilities, is shared along with the counter-narrative. Connections of inclusion to post-school outcomes and the lived educational experiences of students with and without disabilities and educators are considered, including ethical dilemmas and conflicts. Finally, factors influencing the application of inclusionary practices are provided.

This chapter provides “viewpoints” on the education of learners with extensive and pervasive support needs. That is, students who require the most support to learn, often categorized as having intellectual disability, multiple disabilities, autism spectrum disorder, or related disabilities. The lenses through which we provide these viewpoints are historical and future-oriented; we begin with historic perspectives on the education of students with extensive and pervasive support needs, and then provide 21st century viewpoints for these learners. We interpret the notion of viewpoints in two ways: first, consistent with a viewpoint as indicating an examination of objects (in this case, practices and interventions) from a distance so as to be able to compare and judge; and, second, viewpoint as indicating our perspective on said interventions and practice.

This volume of the International Perspectives on Education and Society series investigates the spread and development of two-year and community college institutions worldwide. While these institutions may be called by different names and may not all be structured the same in all international contexts, their core mission remains surprisingly consistent: to respond to the needs of their local community. Following the example of the German Volkshochschule, this model has spread to the United States, Canada, Australia, the United Kingdom, India, South Africa, Thailand, and other nations worldwide. While the community college “label” is debatable and possibly controversial in and of itself, what these institutions all have in common is that they seek to serve the needs of their local communities by bridging the gap between academia and technical training with learning that is open and accessible. The students that these institutions serve come from various socioeconomic backgrounds, ages, races, cultures, and genders. Whether they provide these students with technical training, the ability to transfer to four-year higher education institutions, remedial education, or lifelong learning opportunities, these models adapt and institutionalize themselves differently around the world to meet these various community needs. This volume seeks to analyze the different ways this model has served communities in different international contexts, but for similar purposes.

Since the passage of Public Law 94-142, federal law has prioritized the education of students with disabilities with their non-disabled peers in the context of the general education classroom. This chapter examines the progress, and often lack thereof, with regard to educating students with extensive and pervasive support needs in inclusive settings. We examine current trends in placement, factors that contribute to those placement practices, and what IDEA says about the education of students with extensive and pervasive support needs. We examine what the research suggests happens in substantially segregated settings and then, in contrast, examine impacts and outcomes for students with extensive and pervasive support needs who are educated in inclusive settings. We also examine trends resulting from changing paradigms of disability that provide new opportunities for re-invigorating efforts to educate students with extensive and pervasive support needs in inclusive classrooms.

This chapter focuses upon high school preparation and transition planning activities as they apply to students with disabilities. The reader will find a review of needs for reform of high school standards-based curricula, the development of inclusive general education curriculum content, and strategies for integrating functional and daily living skill training and meaningful transition planning activities, which include collaboration with adult agencies. The authors further present a number of evidence-based practices to address these needs and make recommendations for moving forward in ways to improve post-school outcomes for youth with disabilities.

There are few challenges as daunting as achieving positive outcomes for students with emotional disabilities. A major obstacle is the generally poor quality of classroom instruction. Too few general education teachers or special education teachers possess the knowledge and skills to adequately serve this population of learners. Various factors account for the inadequate level of teacher preparation, including licensure requirements that emphasize quantity over quality, the research-to-practice gap, a train-and-hope rather than a train-and-coach approach to teacher preparation, and the absence of an infrastructure to support sustained use of evidence-based practices. I discuss each of these factors and offer some recommendations for improving the quality of teacher preparation and, in turn, the potential for more positive student outcomes.