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Catholic schools in the United States have grappled with how to serve students with disabilities without the funding sources available to public schools. This mixed methods case study examines the driving forces, restraining forces, and social justice issues that influenced the development of an inclusion program at one Catholic elementary school. The case analyzed is the inclusion program at “St. Ignatius” Elementary School. Fourteen interviews with individuals heavily involved in the program were triangulated with qualitative analyses of the content of artifacts from the inclusion program and quantitative data from a rating scale on ideal inclusive practices completed by ten teachers at the school site. Themes from the literature on Catholic inclusive education were also used to illuminate the findings. The study identified the driving forces of leadership, teacher buy-in, the partnership between the school and parents, and the concept of the parish as “one big family.” Restraining forces included negative parent perceptions and deficits in capacity and resources. Current practices included increased professional development and resources, honest assessment, and the concept that inclusion serves all students. Interview participants felt that Catholic beliefs and teachings provided the social justice framework. The school site and archdiocese can further examine the paradigm shift required to implement Catholic school inclusion, increasing teacher professional development, the role of charismatic leadership, and serving gifted students. Further studies could explore socioeconomic variables, how inclusion affects other students, and whether the Catholic school environment provides advantages in implementing inclusion.

Yes / Digital inclusion research has been critically important in drawing an understanding of how policies, society, organisations, and information technologies can all come together within a national environment that aspires to be a digital nation. This research aims to examine the factors influencing e-Inclusion in the UK within a digital-by-default policy for government services. This study is pursued through combining the Decomposed Theory of Planned Behaviour (DTPB) with Use and Gratification Theory (U&G) and conducting a self-administered survey targeting 510 Internet users to study the level of citizens engagement with e-government services in the UK. By incorporating gratification, trust, risk and external factors (i.e. self-efficacy, accessibility, availability, affordability) within DTPB, the proposed model of e-Inclusion used in the paper demonstrates a considerable explanatory and predictive power and offers a frame of reference to study the acceptance and usage of e-government within a national context where nearly all government transactions are digital-by-default. The findings revealed six dimensions as key inhibitors for e-Inclusion, namely: demographic, economic, social, cultural, political, and infrastructural.

Yes

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The expansion of workplace demographics in response to globalization and intersectionality has resulted in the workplace becoming increasingly diverse. Research indicates that there are both positive and negative consequences for having diverse workplaces, and the positively inclined studies emphasize how workplace diversity can provide a strategic advantage to organizations when managed effectively. Thus, scholars and organizational decision-makers have diverted their efforts towards understanding leadership and the ways that leaders manage diversity and inclusion to facilitate a climate for inclusion in the workplace. The present study aimed to identify the differences in expectations and perceptions of workplace fairness, effective leadership, and the management of diversity and inclusion between different sociocultural groups to see if they led to the applicability of various leadership behaviors in diversity-related situations. Using a multi-method design, this research assessed the perceptions and expectations of leadership and the management of diversity and inclusion in the workplace. Study One utilized an online survey design to measure the extent to which a leader was expected to be culturally responsive, a manager of diversity and inclusion, and effective. Study Two utilized a quasi-experimental design that exposed participants to DEI-related leadership scenarios where they assessed the leader’s behavior. Both studies collected the sociodemographic information of the participants. Results for Study One (N = 290) suggested that sociodemographic differences play a role in expectations of effectiveness and social justice and equity for managers, leadership effectiveness expectations for managers increase as social justice and equity expectations for managers increase, and culturally responsive leadership expectations for managers play a role in the extent that employees expect leaders to manage diversity and inclusion. Study Two (N = 448) results determined that cultural humility positively influences the relationship between leadership styles (i.e., transformational leadership, Daoist leadership, transactional leadership, and Machiavellian leadership) and the perception of leadership effectiveness. Machiavellian leadership was perceived as less socially just, culturally humble, and effective than the other leadership styles (i.e., transactional leadership, transformational leadership, and Daoist leadership); sociodemographic information was found to be mostly related to perceived leadership effectiveness; and perceived cultural humility and social justice are positively associated with leadership effectiveness. Ultimately, this study revealed the empirical significance of culturally responsive leadership behaviors in the workplace, provided evidence to show the distinct contributions of positive leadership in DEI-related situations, and emphasized the importance of considering the expectations and the demographic distribution of employees when leading to ensure organizational compliance among followers.

A case study approach was used to investigate how principals manage inclusive schools and how teachers and principals perceive inclusion. The study was conducted in two elementary schools known for successful inclusion practice. A total of five special education teachers, five regular education teachers and the two principals of the schools formally participated in the data gathering for the study while numerous other school personnel informally participated. Qualitative research methodologies (Patton, 1990; Miles & Huberman, 1994) were employed to determine the principals’ role in supporting inclusion practices. Data were gathered by interviewing teachers and principals, observing the school environment and reviewing inclusion related school documentation. This study demonstrated that principals have a pervasive effect on inclusion environments and program delivery. Several themes emerged which correlate with related literature on effective practices for principals. First, communication was identified as an essential tool for principals to practice. Through good communication, decisions can be made and problems solved that relate to inclusion. Effective communication practices also provide outlets for expressions of feelings about inclusion. The second theme, principal support, was identified as necessary to the practice of inclusion. Support was defined as providing materials and equipment, hiring additional personnel, training, solving problems, and providing emotional support to teachers. The third theme involved creating an atmosphere of caring throughout the schools. Caring focused on valuing students and promoting acceptance of diversity among the schools’ student population. How principals manage a school in the context of inclusion was the central question of this study, therefore, the thoughts, beliefs, and feelings of the teachers and principals about the practice of inclusion were essential to uncover. Participants identified hard work as a necessary part of inclusion practice. Hard work was defined as working longer hours, collaborating with other teachers, problem solving, defining roles and making decisions. In this regard, teachers believed that the appropriate scheduling of students into certain teachers’ classrooms was important to student success and teachers’ satisfaction, and they spent many hours solving scheduling issues. High expectations also emerged as a common central theme in both schools. Expectations that appeared most clearly were teachers expecting other teachers to share in certain responsibilities, teachers and principals holding all students to similar standards, and teachers and principals expecting certain kinds of supports and duties of one another. In this regard, positive relationships were viewed as critical to program success, and both teacher and principals worked hard to maintain this at all times. The two cases reported here provide a window into how inclusion can be made to work. The stories told here support existing knowledge about leadership, and show explicitly that each setting for inclusion must be actively created by the key participants. / Ed. D.