This thesis uses the accounts of teachers and senior leaders from two case study schools to explore issues impacting upon the development of inclusive practices within schools. The notion of inclusion is a complex and problematic one, and this study illuminates that complexity through the accounts and experiences of two ‘ordinary’ schools mediating the challenges of developing inclusive practices within the current educational system. The study purposefully focuses upon the perspectives of the teachers and senior leaders. Other voices, including those of the pupils, parents and support staff within the school, have not been included, in order to retain the focus upon gaining greater depth of understanding of the complex issue of inclusion through the eyes and voices of the professionals (teachers and senior leaders) engaging in the decision making and day to day planning for meeting the needs of all pupils. The study uses an ethnographic case study approach to gather data through semi-structured interviews, observation (including classroom visits), learning conversations and strategic focus group discussions. A three phase research approach has been developed to reflect ongoing engagement with the complex issue of researching perspectives towards developing inclusive practices within schools. A non-judgemental and non-evaluative research approach has been utilized, which moves away from the researchers’ usual role working with schools in a collaborative or advisory capacity, and models the need to create interruptions in thinking and practice to be able to fully understand the complex factors impacting upon the development of inclusive practices within schools. The perspectives and accounts of the teachers and senior leaders enable tensions existing within policy, literature, research and practice to be identified. The study argues that attention needs to be paid more to the emotional aspects of the experience of developing inclusive practices, and the impact that that has upon staff groups, rather than a narrow focus upon specific actions and outcomes. The centrality of values and principles which are shared and continually discussed and re-negotiated to produce an embedded inclusive school culture is acknowledged, as well as the impact of positive, supportive and inclusive staff relationships within this process.

The evolution of cooperative behaviours has received a large amount of attention in the literature. A recurrent result is that a spatial population structure often aids the evolution of cooperation. One such possible structure is a graph. Members of the population reside on vertices and interact with those connected by edges. The population changes over time via births and deaths and these changes are manifest in changing gene frequencies. I am interested in the change in frequency of a cooperative allele and one way to calculate this is with the inclusive fitness effect. The inclusive fitness effect is the sum of the effects of a behaviour on the members of a population, each effect weighted by a measure of genetic relatedness. In this thesis, I derive inclusive fitness theory in the context of evolutionary graphs. I provide new ways of calculating components of the inclusive fitness effect and high- light remaining challenges posed by graph-structured population models. / Thesis (Ph.D, Mathematics & Statistics) -- Queen's University, 2012-10-02 17:55:12.267

The purpose of this qualitative research study is to examine the evolution of inclusive special education policies and practices within an amalgamated urban school division between the years of 2002 and 2015. An historical case study (Bogdan & Biklen, 2007; Gillham, 2000; Lapan & Quartaroli, 2009; and Yin, 1997, 2004) is used as a methodology. Conceptually, the study is informed by a great wealth of local and international research on inclusive special education. Moreover, a two-dimensional theoretical framework is used to illuminate the concepts of inclusive special education/appropriate educational programming and divisional leadership to examine how these concepts may have contributed to the evolution of the policies and practices of inclusive special education in this amalgamated school division. Eight key themes were established from the findings and are related to both inclusive special education leadership research and the three basic tenets of successful leadership practice espoused by Leithwood, Seashore Lewis, Anderson & Wahlstrom (2004). Five key recommendations are suggested for school-based administrators to consider as they envision a model of student support services that aligns with the concepts of inclusive special education and appropriate educational programming. / May 2017

M.Ed. / Educationalists the world over have recognized the need for different levels of school in and support to meet the educational needs of learners. In some countries, like the United Kingdom and Australia, these types of educational services are specified by legislation (Porter, 2002, p.3). The rationale behind this is that society has a responsibility to provide all learners with an education that meets their unique learning needs (ibid., 2002, p,3). South Africa is no different, with national and departmental policies providing guidelines for the provision of specialized education and the placement of learners within such contexts. While much research has been conducted in the field of transitions from school to the workplace and from special needs education to mainstream environments, little is known about the experiences of learners undergoing the transition from mainstream education to more specialized environments. The researcher became interested in understanding this experience of learning and chose to consider the case study of 1Mike Munch, a primary school learner, who underwent the transition from a mainstream school environment to a school environment for learners with special educational needs. In order to understand Mike‟s experiences during the transition, data was collected using individual and focus group interviews, a sandtray session with the learner and projective techniques. This data was coded and analysed using content analysis and presented against a backdrop of literature, including the policy and development of inclusive education in South Africa, whole school development, systems theory and an ecosystemic perspective, as well as developmental theories of childhood and transition theory. The researcher found that Mike Munch had become more independent and motivated, gained confidence and felt more accepted in the new environment, which was more structured than the previous one. He also benefited from more intensive support and while he had to adjust to different expectations and changes he became more motivated in his learning. From these findings the researcher developed guidelines for schools to support learners 1 Pseudonym used to protect the identity of the participant iii undergoing the transition from a mainstream school environment to a school for learners with special educational needs. These included involving parents in the process, facilitating small social skills groups for learners, maintaining regular communication between team members and the home environment, positively reinforcing learners, progressing at the learner‟s pace, tailoring tasks to learner abilities, allowing learners‟ special responsibilities in the classroom, using cooperative learning strategies to increase socialization, establishing a sense of community in the classroom and providing a structured environment for learning.

M.Ed.

The purposes of this study were¡G¡]1¡^to explore regular teachers¡¦ attitudes toward inclusion,¡]2¡^to investigate the desired of administrative supports, and¡]3¡^to obtain regular teachers¡¦ classroom adaptations for students with disabilities. The research method depended on questionnaires. Subjects of this study were 286 junior high school regular teachers in Kaohsiung County. Data were analyzed and discussed by mean, standard deviation, t-test, and One-Way ANOVA. According to study results, the following conclusions were reached¡G 1.Regular teachers had nearly neutral attitudes toward inclusive education. Results of the data revealed that gender, years of teaching, administrative position, and teaching subject were significantly related to cognition of inclusion. 2.Most of the regular teachers expressed the desired of administrative supports. Views toward the need of administrative supports were different according to teachers¡¦ genders, teaching experiences, and teaching subjects. 3.Regular teachers seldom made classroom adaptations to accommodate students¡¦ special needs. These adaptations were made significantly different depended on teachers¡¦ different years of teaching, different special educational backgrounds, and different class types.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2003. / Supervisor: Audrey McCray Sorrells. Vita. Includes bibliographical references. Available also from UMI Company.

Thesis (Ed. S.)--Marshall University, 2003. / Title from document title page. Document formatted into pages; contains 48 p. Includes vita. Includes bibliographical references (p. 32-40).

Thesis (M.A. Ed.)--Georgia State University, 2009. / Title from file title page. Melody Milbrandt, committee chair; Melanie Davenport, Kevin Hsieh, committee members. Description based on contents viewed Feb. 22, 2010. Includes bibliographical references (p. 73-78).

The purpose of the study is to examine the effectiveness of the social cognition training on the peer acceptance (as playmates and working partners) of SEN students in the inclusive classrooms. 4 classes of Form 1 students were randomly assigned to either control groups (n=65) or experimental groups (n=58). The social cognition training on perspective-taking skills and empathy can help to initiate working relationship but failed to enhance the social interaction of the students in play. The results did not demonstrate any changes obtained on other measures of perceptions or behaviors. On the other hand, the study results revealed that there were no significant differences on peer acceptance between SEN and non SEN students in the pre-intervention and post-intervention stages. These findings were consistent with the previous studies when the non SEN students in these studies could not identify who are their SEN classmates, which may suggest that they could not hold stereotypical views on their SEN counterparts. Results also showed that empathy mediated the effects of perspective-taking ability on peer acceptance on play-with criterion. The implication of understanding on the peer acceptance of SEN students in an inclusive classroom and suggestions for appropriate intervention were discussed. / published_or_final_version / Educational Psychology / Master / Master of Social Sciences