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The few existing studies in international literature about students with learning disabilities' postsecondary persistence and academic performances show varied outcomes. Rigorous research has been limited. Moreover, in Italy there is a dearth of public data on students' careers and clearly a deficiency regarding literature on this topic. To tackle this situation, propensity score matching techniques were used in this paper to compare data about persistence and academic success of students who reported a learning disability with those who did not, all enrolled in a large University in Northern Italy. Once potential confounders were taken into account, our findings indicated that students with an attested learning disability were as likely to persist in academic context as peers without any LD. However, for what concerns academic performances, the outcomes varied according to the measures being used. Although there were no significant differences between the two groups in terms of the number of course credits (ECTS) earned, students with learning disabilities continued to lag behind their counterparts without disabilities concerning first-year grade point average achieved. This paper includes final recommendations for future research, in order to fill existing gaps in methodology and area of study.

To increase the prosperity of nation states and the availability of skilled labour for the global economy, many countries have encouraged students with low socio-economic status (SES) and minorities to enrol in colleges and universities. In Israel, a significant effort was made starting in 1995 to create more colleges and to provide more access to higher education for students within the mentioned groups. Yet the question arises concerning what was achieved by this effort. This paper analyses the relationship between (i) wealth and higher education in population clusters, (ii) higher education and geographical areas, and (iii) higher education and ethnic subsets in Israel. The evidence indicates a strong correlation between the SES of a locality and the number of students per residents in that locality. This correlation, however, is affected by the existence of an affordable local college. After the correlations are presented and explained, recommendations for enabling low-SES students to be successful in higher education are explored, including developing a new curriculum for middle and secondary students, creating transitional 'discourse communities' for first-year college students from low-SES, and investing in local colleges in Israel.

Access to educational opportunities is instrumental for social integration of refugee youth. This paper reports on a qualitative case study of educational aspirations and experiences of refugee-background African youth (RAY) in Melbourne, Australia. Guided by a capability approach to social justice, in-depth interviews were conducted with two groups of RAY: those who have transitioned to higher education (HE), and those who have not transitioned to HE after completing high school. The findings show that: (a) RAY share a firm belief in the value of HE; (b) but they are differently positioned to convert opportunities into achievements -- e.g. only the refugee youth with high levels of navigational capacity take advantage of the available flexible pathways to HE; (c) the stress of racism pervades the educational experiences of both groups; and (d) some African refugee youth have shown a considerable level of resilience in that, despite the challenges of racism, a history of disrupted educational trajectories and a lack of scholarly resources at home, they have transitioned to and thrived in HE. In light of these findings, the paper draws some implications for equity policies and practices.

This paper evaluates a Hungarian gifted education programme aimed at providing equal opportunities for students with social and economic disadvantages. In the context of a retrospective study, the differences in academic success and learning pathways were examined in a cohort comprising a group that participated in the programme and a group that did not. The analysis used the data of grade 6 and grade 10 students in the Hungarian National Competence Assessment. The analysis found that the scholastic achievement of the students participating in the programme was higher than that of the control group. By grade 6, participants presented higher scholastic achievement, better results in the competence tests and better school grades, and the difference between the two groups increased again by grade 10. The programme contributed to compensating for the participants' educational inequalities and promoted their integrational social mobility. However, it was found that inclusion in the programme was greatly influenced by teachers' perception, which was not always consistent with the aptitude of students.

This paper examines identity construction for young people with dyslexia, based on their educational experiences during and after their transition to mainstream secondary education. The study is based on interviews with 20 English individuals who contributed their perceptions of how their identity was shaped by their experiences. Some of the most important experiences for dyslexic young people and the main themes discussed here are: experiences of support (or the lack of it), their perceptions around literacy and academic achievement and important others. Symbolic interactionism is used as a theoretical to further understand academic performance in a western society, where this is a highly significant aspect of life for many learners and their parents. In a society where literacy and academic achievement are highly privileged over any other form of achievement, academic identities are 'fractured' a notion explored here, alongside other factors that contribute to that academic identity development process.

Identity construction for individuals with dyslexia is significantly moulded by their transition to and experiences within secondary education. This is an interview-based study with 20 participants living in England. Support-related school experiences, relationships with teachers, societal perceptions about the importance of literacy and academic achievement and the reactions of others around them are the core focus. The findings are theorised using symbolic interactionism, and this paper aims to extend Goffman's notion of 'spoiled identity' into a more specialised term for children with Special Educational Needs, resulting in the alternative term 'fractured academic identity', the elements of which are developed throughout this paper from the experiences of learners with dyslexia. The findings revolve around identity development as result of academic experiences, and are mainly aimed at teachers, to inform their knowledge around identity issues and to also inform their practice.

In this paper, I examine how performative practices of care that are primarily focused on academic achievement and learning outcomes have contributed to the creation of geographies of exclusion within mainstream schools for students with disability. Through a study of a 12-year-old student diagnosed with autism in a secondary school in Melbourne, Australia, I maintain that performative care makes certain groups of students 'intelligible' by responding to their needs while rendering others as unrecognisable care subjects in schools. The cognitive ableist bias underpinning performative care provides students with academic abilities with the necessary permissions to develop a sense of belonging to the mainstream school while creating boundaries of exclusion against those who do not embody the qualities of performative student subjects. I maintain that an approach to care as a public good and a relational ethics can help create more inclusive social geographies within mainstream schools for students with disability.

In this paper, I reflect on three questions arising from my recent research on student equity in higher education and gender in education. These questions relate to the goals, focus and politics of student equity research in the context of a changing higher education landscape in Australia. The paper concludes with an argument for student equity scholarship cognisant of, yet independent from prevailing policy imperatives and discourses.

This systematic review explores the experiences and learning outcomes of students without special educational needs (SEN) in inclusive settings. Based on a literature search, 450 records were screened, and 37 qualitative and quantitative studies were included. According to the main findings, peers show good attitudes towards students with SEN, especially when they are female or had prior contacts with disability. Peers express a certain level of social acceptance and empathy towards students with SEN, together with worries regarding consequences of inclusion on their individual learning outcomes. Findings on peers' academic achievement and noncognitive outcomes are contradictory. The paper addresses barriers and backlashes deriving from the lack of a common definition of inclusion and a low methodological quality of the research available in the field. On the one hand, the results underline that the selected studies tend to overlook relevant variables, both contextual and individual. On the other hand, limitations are related to the non-availability of high-quality and rigorous experimental studies. The review highlights the urgent need to establish common criteria for the definition, implementation, and research in inclusive education in order to give more reliable information to stakeholders and policymakers.

Rural Aboriginal Australians experience disadvantage across a number of significant social and economic outcomes, including educational engagement and achievement. Current debate postulates that educational environments and systems perpetuate this disadvantage. This qualitative study aimed to contribute to the debate by taking a broader ecological view to consider the aspects of the learning environment that may promote engagement with learning. This paper reports on research conducted in a community-based programme designed to support the engagement of young rural Aboriginal students. A total of 32 participants (including children, parents/carers, tutors, managers, and local teachers) were interviewed to explicate their perspectives on the key aspects of the learning environment that fostered student engagement. An analysis of the interview data identified core characteristics that could be employed to foster engagement and thus contribute to developing equity and self-determination for young rural Aboriginal Australians. Core characteristics that were valued included: a focus on learning and individualised pace; a flexible and relaxed atmosphere; individualised assistance; having an adult who showed interest in the child and their learning; providing a culturally secure learning environment; provision of food; supplying transportation; and staff being part of the same community. This paper contends that these characteristics are valued by the community and thus should inform the practices within the community-based programme as well as mainstream education to facilitate future engagement in learning.

The few existing studies in international literature about students with learning disabilities' postsecondary persistence and academic performances show varied outcomes. Rigorous research has been limited. Moreover, in Italy there is a dearth of public data on students' careers and clearly a deficiency regarding literature on this topic. To tackle this situation, propensity score matching techniques were used in this paper to compare data about persistence and academic success of students who reported a learning disability with those who did not, all enrolled in a large University in Northern Italy. Once potential confounders were taken into account, our findings indicated that students with an attested learning disability were as likely to persist in academic context as peers without any LD. However, for what concerns academic performances, the outcomes varied according to the measures being used. Although there were no significant differences between the two groups in terms of the number of course credits (ECTS) earned, students with learning disabilities continued to lag behind their counterparts without disabilities concerning first-year grade point average achieved. This paper includes final recommendations for future research, in order to fill existing gaps in methodology and area of study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The inclusion of language learners and the imperative to meet the needs of English language learners in the mainstream classroom call upon teachers of English for speakers of other languages (ESOL teachers) and mainstream teachers to work together; however, little research has been done in US contexts to understand collaborative efforts between ESOL and mainstream teachers. Research thus far has focused on the inclusion of English language learners (ELLs), but this paper argues that we need to look more closely at the inclusion of teachers of ELLs, by examining how three ESOL teachers and three of their mainstream counterparts envision their work as collaborative. We found that when pairs envisioned their work as collaborative, they created a synergy that constructed a broader network of resources for ELLs by bringing together more people, materials, ideas and abilities than either teacher was able to generate alone. This network allowed both teachers in the pair to become part of a larger conversation, and connected both teachers to others who were working to foster the academic success of ELLs. (Contains 2 notes.)

This paper draws on the concept of the "Renaissance Child" to illustrate the ways in which gender influences the opportunities and possibilities of high-achieving pupils. Using data from a study of 12-13-year high-achieving boys and girls based in schools in England, the paper considers the ways in which a group of popular boys was able to show an interest and success in literacy and English without posing threats to their masculine subjectivities. In contrast, a group of high-achieving girls experienced greater constraints in their attempts to balance an interest and success in physical education and sports whilst also performing acceptable constructions of femininity. The paper concludes that the concept of "Renaissance Child" is fruitful for research in education that is concerned with the production of neoliberal subjectivities. However, whilst boys can access and perform "Renaissance Masculinity", constructions of femininity impede even the highest-achieving girls from equivalent subject positions. (Contains 7 notes, 3 tables, and 2 figures.)

Schools in New Zealand (NZ) have a range of disciplinary options when dealing with challenging behaviours, one of which is excluding students by way of stand-downs, suspensions, exclusions or expulsions. Following marginal downward trend from 2006 to 2015, the numbers of stand-downs and suspensions have been on the rise again since 2016 despite well-established evidence of strong links between poor academic achievement, educational exclusions and youth justice encounters. One of the key reasons cited by schools for excluding students in New Zealand is for continual disobedience (CD). According to the NZ Ministry of Education Guidelines to schools, behaviours must be persistent and set a harmful or dangerous example to other students to meet the criteria for CD, and it is up to schools to interpret these guidelines. This paper reports the findings from a national study in New Zealand, that sought to understand how the category of CD was interpreted in high schools and the type of behaviours they associated with this category. The findings highlighted the need to question the existence of this category (CD) in the guidelines, as it provides a carte blanche to schools to exclude students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research confirms that when students disengage from learning, there is a greatly increased risk of them dropping out of school and not completing secondary education (Year 12). In an Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD) report on Equity in Education [OECD. 2012. "Investing in Equity in Education Pays off", in "Equity and Quality in Education: Supporting Disadvantaged Students and Schools". Paris, France: OECD. doi:10.1787/9789264130852-3-en], school dropout rates in developed countries averaged 20% and, in some countries, was as high as 25%. Lyche [2010. "Taking on the Completion Challenge. A Literature Review on Policies to Prevent Dropout and Early School Leaving". OECD Education Working Papers, No. 53. OECD. doi:10.1787/5km4m2t59cmr-en] noted that school dropout does not "just happen" but rather is a long process of disengagement from school. Students entering early adolescence are experiencing rapid and complex changes to their social, emotional, physical, and cognitive development that can positively or negatively affect their experience in education environments. During this time, there is also an increased expectation, both at school and at home, that young adolescents should accept greater responsibility for themselves and their learning. However, when individual students fail to regulate their behaviour or manage the increasing difficulty of the academic work, they can begin to disengage from learning and become entrenched in a downward cycle of poor academic achievement and poor social competence. With an increasing trend in young adolescents to disengage from learning, identifying how to reengage students is critical to their social and academic success. This study reports on the key features of an early intervention programme that targets young adolescent students who are already showing early signs of disengaging from school. Data show that the programme aligns with evidence-based practice and has had a positive effect in promoting and building students' social and emotional efficacy and re-engaging them in learning.

By placing emphasis on equity and social mobility, the current UK education policy for England focuses on narrowing the educational attainment gap between more and less advantaged groups of young people--an approach that has strong parallels in many other Anglophone countries around the world. We argue that these policy and associated practice proscriptions tend to privilege an individualised narrative of agency for young people, teachers and schools more generally. Our paper argues that this individualised approach is highly problematic in that it decontextualises the complex and real agentic work of young people in schooling, making it difficult to empirically and theoretically account for differences in educational outcome between and within groups of young people. Informed by a social realist perspective, and in particular the work of Margaret Archer, we propose a theoretical model that we suggest provides greater explanatory and predictive power. The model focuses on the way ecologies of development emerge for young people. We suggest that such ecologies reflect different structural and cultural factors and processes, combining in ways that enable and/or constrain young people's educational reflexivity and agency and their ensuing educational engagement and attainments. We believe that building a typology of such ecologies of educational reflexivity and agency provides improved ways of developing equitable educational policies and practice--ones that relate clearly to the compositional mix of young people in schools and enable the development of interventions that better relate to such ecologies.

This paper examines identity construction for young people with dyslexia, based on their educational experiences during and after their transition to mainstream secondary education. The study is based on interviews with 20 English individuals who contributed their perceptions of how their identity was shaped by their experiences. Some of the most important experiences for dyslexic young people and the main themes discussed here are: experiences of support (or the lack of it), their perceptions around literacy and academic achievement and important others. Symbolic interactionism is used as a theoretical to further understand academic performance in a western society, where this is a highly significant aspect of life for many learners and their parents. In a society where literacy and academic achievement are highly privileged over any other form of achievement, academic identities are 'fractured' a notion explored here, alongside other factors that contribute to that academic identity development process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study details the results of a review of the academic and public sector literature on measuring inclusive education in large systems. It highlights some outcomes drawn from the international literature on inclusion that might be indicative of the presence and quality of inclusive education in an effort to develop a set of outcomes for Alberta, Canada. The international relevance of this study may be found in the process used, the themes identified, and the resources located. While the purpose of this review is to identify outcomes relevant to the Alberta context, much the same can be done for other international contexts using the findings of this paper as a basis.

Standards-based accountability approaches in education are increasingly being adopted in many industrialised countries. This tends to involve the scrutiny of student performance in national academic tests and then holding schools accountable for subsequent progress. International assessments such as Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) are not accountability measures in themselves, but are often utilised in a similar way and national policies are judged against performance in these tests. Drawing upon the examples of PISA and national assessments in the USA, this paper explores how students with special educational needs and disability (SEND) are included in, and served by, these assessment policies. The analysis suggests that while these approaches are inclusive in their intent (most obviously through efforts to include students with SEND in testing) they may poorly represent the progress of these students. It is argued that more equitable inclusion of students with SEND must find a balance between accountability measures which measure performance in traditional attainment-focused tests and other relevant assessments which are meaningful to the given student and/or SEND sub-group.

Australian Government policy initiatives to increase young peoples' participation in higher education are pursued in this paper. It argues that pedagogy and curriculum have a direct influence on student engagement. The interrelationships between pedagogical practices, curriculum based on a well-being framework, and the shaping of subjectivities and aspirations of young people in a region characterised by socio-economic challenge are explored. This 2-year case study used action research by university academics, school-based teachers and school students in an R-12 school in the northern suburbs of Adelaide, South Australia. Findings drawn from narratives, field notes, student work samples and professional conversations, situate well-being as central to young people's self-awareness of their aspirations. The themes of: Pedagogies and learning activities; Relationships, caring and connections, and; Places, spaces and belonging help to arrange the argument that concludes that young people living in low socio-economic areas do have aspirations for the future. Furthermore, the educational implications highlight the significance of the role of the teacher within the social and emotional domains which connect student life-worlds within their particular contexts, building cultural capital and broadening capabilities, self-awareness, aspirations and achievement.

This paper challenges post-feminist discourses and recuperative masculinity politics in education that have evoked mythical constructions of the successful "achieving" girl in ways that flatten out social and cultural difference and render invisible ongoing gendered and sexualised inequalities and violence in the social worlds of schools and beyond. We map how girls negotiate contradictory neo-liberal discourses of girlhood that dominate in popular culture; what McRobbie calls the new "post-feminist masquerade", which portends that girls can be/come anything they want, so long as they simultaneously perform "hyper-sexy", the new aspirational feminine ideal. Drawing on individual case studies from four qualitative research projects with teen girls in urban and rural working class communities across England and Wales, we explore how specific "working-class" girls struggle to negotiate this contradictory terrain of girlhood through imaginary "lines of flight" in their narratives. Specifically, we are interested in applying Deleuze and Guatarri's writings on immanence and the productive, social status of desire and fantasy through an analysis of girls' (violent, aggressive or utopian) fantasies in ways that move beyond the binary of "real/not real", and thus reject a reading of fantasy as futile, "escapist" or "pathological solutions to working class life". We suggest fantasy might operate as a space of survivability, political subjectivity and resistance to girls' subordination within Butler's "heterosexual matrix". (Contains 12 notes.)

The effort to make schools more inclusive, together with the pressure to retain students until the end of secondary school, has greatly increased both the number and educational requirements of students enrolling in their local school. Of critical concern, despite years of research and improvements in policy, pedagogy and educational knowledge, is the enduring categorisation and marginalisation of students with diverse abilities. Research has shown that it can be difficult for schools to negotiate away from the pressure to categorise or diagnose such students, particularly those with challenging behaviour. In this paper, we highlight instances where some schools have responded to increasing diversity by developing new cultural practices to engage both staff and students; in some cases, they have responded to decreasing suspension while improving retention, behaviour and performance. (Contains 10 notes.)

This paper challenges some of the assumptions about our understanding of and approaches to literacy. Crucially, it provides evidence hitherto missing from the body of research knowledge: children's own perspectives on literacy opportunities accessed by children themselves. Reading proficiency is pivotal in education, providing a platform on which much other curricular endeavour is built. Two groups of six children (aged 11 years) in two UK primary schools--one in an area of socio-economic advantage and one in an area of socio-economic disadvantage--underwent a programme of research training and were supported to undertake their own research projects about aspects of literacy that interested or concerned them. The extent to which poverty could be identified as an inhibiting factor was carried out as an adult abstraction from the children's studies (with the children's informed consent). This was done to avoid any possible poverty self-labelling or stigmatisation being occasioned to children through association. Findings revealed that children from affluent backgrounds exuded literacy confidence derived from a variety of opportunities: routine support for homework, parental oracy role models, favourable environments for reading and writing, absence of distractions and opportunities to talk about literacy. By contrast children from poorer backgrounds had few, if any, of these opportunities. For them homework clubs were a lifeline. An important self-development strategy uncovered in the children's reports was the need to "practise private confidence" before developing "public confidence". Children identified reading aloud and writing as activities requiring "public confidence" and activities which needed a lot of "private" practice. A striking characteristic of children from affluent backgrounds was how easy it was for them to access opportunities for "private confidence" building whereas children from low-income backgrounds had the opposite experience. Implications for policy and practice are discussed in the light of these findings.

Study careers of minority students in Dutch higher education are still less successful compared with the careers of majority students. Minority students still seem to experience more difficulties than majority students. Vincent Tinto's twin concepts of academic and social integration are used here to explore the experiences of minority and majority students in Dutch higher engineering education. Based on a small-scale interview study, it is shown that ethnic background does not seem to be a decisive, unequivocal factor in the extent to which students are integrated in institutions of higher education. Student answers show differences according to ethnic background in both social and academic integration, and these differences vary according to the year in which the students are found. The paper ends with some suggestions for further exploration. (Contains 3 tables and 4 notes.)

This paper reports on a multi-method study that examined the effects of including higher and lower proportions of students designated as having special educational needs on student achievement in secondary schools. It explores some of the issues involved in conducting such research and considers the extent to which newly available national data in England can be helpful in answering questions about inclusion and achievement. Questions pertaining to the effects of provision on achievement are discussed within a school reform agenda that emphasizes high academic standards, competition between schools and the identification of pupils with special educational needs. (Contains 10 notes and 5 tables.)

The recent high profile of the underachievement debate in the media, through research initiatives, and in resulting remediation programmes within the classroom, has focused almost exclusively upon boys, such that the identity and needs of the underachieving girl have been rendered invisible. Underachievement has become so closely associated with the gender identity of boys that the idea of girls underachieving has become virtually inconceivable. This paper is concerned with teachers' perceptions of the underachieving girl in the light of the overwhelming attention on the underachieving boy. It is argued that the focus of attention should be underachievement as a complex phenomenon rather than focusing exclusively on the underachievement of boys. (Contains 3 tables.)

Although many Australian children change schools during the course of a school year, the children of itinerant seasonal farm workers can move residences as well as schools on a regular basis, often two or three times annually. Surprisingly, however, educational itinerancy has not been widely researched, particularly in Australian contexts. The paper uses a case study approach to discuss some of the issues that affect the literacy learning of the children from one family, the members of which follow summer and winter harvesting seasons across state borders. Through this approach, the voices of the children and their families are heard alongside those of their teachers and other school personnel. (Contains 1 figure.)

This paper evaluates a Hungarian gifted education programme aimed at providing equal opportunities for students with social and economic disadvantages. In the context of a retrospective study, the differences in academic success and learning pathways were examined in a cohort comprising a group that participated in the programme and a group that did not. The analysis used the data of grade 6 and grade 10 students in the Hungarian National Competence Assessment. The analysis found that the scholastic achievement of the students participating in the programme was higher than that of the control group. By grade 6, participants presented higher scholastic achievement, better results in the competence tests and better school grades, and the difference between the two groups increased again by grade 10. The programme contributed to compensating for the participants' educational inequalities and promoted their integrational social mobility. However, it was found that inclusion in the programme was greatly influenced by teachers' perception, which was not always consistent with the aptitude of students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

White Paper 5's aim is to provide South Africa's children with a solid foundation for lifelong learning and development. Children need to be nurtured and developed holistically for them to participate efficiently in their democratic society. However, South African students continue to perform poorly in Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study compared to other African countries. Contributing factors highlighted by research on this poor performance include students' lack of foundational knowledge. Hence, mathematics stimulation for young children has been suggested as a prompt intervention towards improving mathematics performance. This paper therefore evaluates the preparedness of practitioners who work with 3–4-year-olds as resources for facilitating mathematics stimulation, availability of mathematics stimulating resources and daily planning for mathematics stimulation. The findings of this paper indicate that mathematics development of children younger than five years is loaded with many inequity factors and continue to exclude the majority of black children. This paper recommends professionalisation of the early childhood education with emphasis on quality provisioning that can be achieved through norms and standards that are monitored continuously in all formal and informal settings that provide early childhood education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports on the views of key members of the educational community about student engagement and retention in rural, regional and disadvantaged areas of the Australian state of Tasmania. It provides insights into the attributed reasons for the longstanding low levels of student retention in Tasmania, and the possible ways to militate against the widely censured problem of students leaving school too soon. The paper draws from principles of Bronfenbrenner's model of ecology to situate the 25 participants who formed the sample of the study in the exosystem of the environment of the young people whose educational attainment and retention in schools is the focus of this work. Data analysis generated three major themes: families and the socio-cultural environment; teachers and teaching; and the school system. The study's findings play an important role in prompting us to question when, and if, the dire situation of student dropout in the state and in similar contexts worldwide will begin to be reversed. Implications of the work include the need to develop and sustain a strong policy environment in which high-quality education and schooling success are contextualised as key features to which members across the systems and sections of society can contribute. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An increasing number of English schools are embracing an extreme approach to student behaviour dubbed ‘no excuses’ discipline, inspired by charter school chains in the United States. Proponents argue the approach is necessary to allow all teachers to teach and that it places responsibility where it should be: on the student. However, this rationale ignores the interactional nature of classroom disruption and discounts the role played by teachers and teaching. In this paper, I explain the concept of ‘cumulative continuity’ and then use this concept as a lens to make sense of classroom behaviour using observational data from a current longitudinal research project investigating the development of disruptive school behaviour. The aim of this paper is to highlight the importance of pedagogical contexts, the responsibility that adults have, and the fallacy of the notion that students must be forced to comply in a one-size-fits-all system because we cannot rely on all members of the teaching profession to do the same. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The discourse around students from low socio-economic backgrounds often adopts a deficit conception in which these students are seen as a ‘problem’ in higher education. In light of recent figures pointing to an increase in the number and proportion of these students participating in higher education [Pitman, T. 2014. “More Students in Higher ed, But it's no more Representative.”The Conversation28: 1–4] and an absence of evidence to support deficit thinking, this deficit discourse requires re-examination. Qualitative data from 115 interviews carried out across 6 Australian universities as part of a national study reveal that, contrary to the conception of these students as a ‘problem’, students from low SES backgrounds demonstrate high levels of determination and academic skills and that they actively seek high standards in their studies. This paper critically examines deficit conceptions of these students, drawing on findings from qualitative interviews with 89 successful students from low SES backgrounds and 26 staff members recognised as exemplary in their provision of teaching and support of students from low SES backgrounds. Drawing on these findings, this paper challenges the deficit discourse and argues for a more affirmative and nuanced conception of students from low SES backgrounds. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper focuses on some of the life histories and presents experiences of two Black, professional women: one, a university, academic researcher (Doreen), and the other, a state nursery head teacher and research gate-keeper (Syble). We united with a mutual purpose, that is to embark on research into the success of Black children, now adults, of a 1970s Black-led, inner-city community nursery. Although sharing a research stage/agenda, the same gender, racial and social class grouping and thus seemingly having much in common, this paper will show that our stories sometimes vary substantially due to distinctive social, geographical, time-frame, career-choice factors, and personal and professional values. Issues such as identity, culture, citizenship, and race and racism will feature strongly here among some matters arising with regards to femininity and social class. The paper will conclude by emphasizing that among a homogeneous, gender and racial grouping of apparent generalities, individuals exist—a frequent oversight, especially with regards to African-Caribbean people. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In an increasingly complex landscape of diversification and massification, universities are grappling with challenges of student attrition. This paper presents findings from a project investigating how students from low socio-economic backgrounds at a regional Australian university perceive challenges and supports associated with retention and success. Twenty-seven students received intensive one-to-one support from a Faculty-embedded 'academic advisor', and reflected on this support, their overall student experience, and strategies to enhance student success. Students identified a range of challenges that they experienced across an academic year (personal circumstances, lack of preparedness for university study, timely access to support, course/programme difficulties) and what worked well for them (academic advisor, University support services, growing confidence in self as competent student, peer support). A range of strategies for enhancing student success were identified by students, namely consistency across teaching design and delivery, transparency of delivery modes, mandatory orientation, access to a dedicated academic advisor, and increased peer connectedness. The applicability and viability of the proposed strategies within current higher education settings are explored. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Israeli students ranked in the bottom third of the countries surveyed by PISA 2012 in mathematical literacy, while the gap between the highest and lowest scores was the second largest in the OECD. This paper explores which variables led to disparities in mathematical literacy between different socioeconomic levels and between Israeli Arabs and Jews as well as in comparison with Australian students. Different instructional approaches that are known in the literature to have a positive impact on students' achievement are not observed in the relationship between teachers and students in Israel. In Israel, schools contribute to the perpetuation of socioeconomically driven educational inequality by using tracks that are characterised by different teaching pedagogies and different content, with little or no upward mobility between tracks, leading to structural exclusion. By comparison, in Australia, ability tracking is less rigid and mathematical literacy far higher than in Israel. The policy implication is that either teachers must work differently in a track-based system to overcome the process of exclusion dictated by the structure itself or the system must reduce the use of tracking. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Immigration in Europe has increased rapidly over the last years. As a result, schools are accepting students arriving from other countries at various stages of the school year. This can be a challenging process both for students and for schools. This paper describes the introduction of a peer-mentoring scheme to support immigrant students in three English schools, which took part in a European Union funded project that involved five countries. Data from semi-structured interviews with mentors, mentees and facilitators were analysed and highlighted a number of positive impacts, such as getting support from mentors, making new friends and increased confidence both for mentors and mentees. However, it seems that the way that the programme was implemented in the English schools, focused only on the individual students, rather than having an impact on the whole school. The implications of such an approach in relation to inclusion are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, I critically examine the discourse surrounding response to intervention (RTI), a US-based education reform that has garnered a considerable amount of attention (as well as controversy) in a very short amount of time. A multi-pronged reform effort, RTI is a tiered approach to delivering instructional intervention to students at risk, an on-going and systematic model of monitoring student performance, as well as an alternative to the ability/achievement discrepancy model for identifying learning disabilities. In this paper, I argue, however, that RTI is not so much a reform but a tactic, aimed at returning to the status quo of segregated special education and reinvigorating many of the foundational assumptions of traditional special education practice. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Disabled students' entry to the (compulsory) education system in New Zealand is often conditional upon the presence of untrained teacher aides, who are frequently regarded as the ‘solution to inclusion’. This widespread practice has occurred within a research and policy void, despite the growing body of international research literature that contests its efficacy and equity. Drawing from the findings of a qualitative study, the purpose of this paper is to develop an understanding of the school experiences of disabled students, from their and teacher aides' perspectives. Interpreted within a framework of current disability, social justice and sociology of childhood theorising, the findings are presented as a continuum of educational contexts, in which students (and aides) were (1) fully included in all aspects of school, (2) partly included/assimilated in aspects of school life, and (3) excluded from regular school. The findings are consistent with those of international research in illuminating the pivotal, complex and ambiguous role that aides play in both helping and hindering disabled students' educational presence, participation and achievement. The paper concludes with an outline of changes that may be instrumental in bringing about a more inclusive education system for all students. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Inclusive education is now established as part of a global agenda and as such national governments, and their agencies, strive to produce and implement policies to promote inclusion. Scotland is no exception and in 2002 Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Education (HMIe) published a review of 'good practice' in the field of inclusion in Scottish schools. This paper is an analysis of the HMIe policy document in terms of research 'of ' policy, with analysis focused on context, text and consequences. The paper begins by arguing that to base policy on good practice is potentially flawed in a number of areas, especially given the heterogeneity of inclusive practice and the loss in translation of practice from the global to the vernacular level. However, it concludes that by the use of 'backward mapping' good practice may indeed be able to inform future policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Shares an author's observations on access, inclusion, and achievement, the major themes for the 15th Conference for the Commonwealth Education Ministers held in Edinburgh, England. Significance of the concerns of Ministers and their advisors, conference delegates, and youth representatives for the "International Journal of Inclusive Education"; Regard for the 'closing gap' as a multidimensional reference to the gaps between and within the Commonwealth countries; Need for an assessment of the differential impacts of schooling upon students.

This study aimed to evaluate the impact of a social service project for disadvantaged students through pretest–posttest study design and qualitative interviews. All students joining the service project were invited to participate in this study. Data on personal growth and academic performance (exam scores and class ranks) before and after joining the project were collected. Two focus group interviews were conducted to explore the strengths and limitations of the project. Paired t-test and generalized estimating equation model and content analysis were conducted to analyse quantitative and qualitative data, respectively. Results showed significant improvements in personal growth including self-esteem, academic performance, interpersonal relationship and personal goal setting (all p < 0.05); while exam scores and class ranks were not improved. 'Being empathic', 'self-awareness' and 'interpersonal relationship' emerged from the qualitative interviews as the strength of the project; short duration, lack of follow up and practical strategies in the service contents were concerned as limitations of the project. To conclude, this social service project was proven effective in empowering the personal growth of disadvantaged youth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social justice matters in education and it matters most when students struggle to complete and succeed at school. The central role of teachers' pedagogical practice in this process is well established, but what is less clear is how to support the kind of professional learning that contributes to students' success at school - the pedagogy of disrupting the default modes of schooling. This paper describes some existing structures in four schools working under challenging circumstances and how these structures function in ways to support different kinds of learning. Initiating and sustaining change requires fundamental disruptions to these modes of operation. In order for teachers to do new things, they need to be able to learn new things, but the difficulty is ensuring that teachers learn the kinds of practices and develop the kinds of beliefs that support students' success at school. We draw insights from our research into how this may be understood and achieved, and relate our findings to attempts to bridge the gap between the literature on learning organization and that of organizational learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports on a multi‐method study that examined the effects of including higher and lower proportions of students designated as having special educational needs on student achievement in secondary schools. It explores some of the issues involved in conducting such research and considers the extent to which newly available national data in England can be helpful in answering questions about inclusion and achievement. Questions pertaining to the effects of provision on achievement are discussed within a school reform agenda that emphasizes high academic standards, competition between schools and the identification of pupils with special educational needs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, I discuss how making Qallunaat teacher voices inclusive within the policy‐making process of Inuit education in Nunavik can significantly help Inuit youth to be more successful in their education and to adapt better to modern Northern community living. The study being discussed is a year‐long Participatory Action Research (PAR) project that I have been engaging in with Qallunaat teachers working in Inuit communities of Nunavik. Through this project, the aim has been to explore the perceptions of Qallunaat teachers to see how one might better prepare and support them in their efforts to teach their Inuit students. This study has direct implications for policy regarding pre‐service and in‐service training of Qallunaat teachers both at the School Board, Quebec Ministry of Education and the McGill Faculty of Education. While this study is still in progress, implementation of certain pre‐service and in‐service support practices are already underway. Drawing from Battiste, Friedman and Bakhtin, I prioritize a dialogical post‐colonial framework to situate Qallunaat teacher voices in the educational contexts of Nunavik. I use PhotoVoice to illustrate teachers’ perceptions and their social distancing with members of the Inuit community. The photographs and comments from teachers demonstrate how there is a place for Qallunaat teachers to continue their work in Nunavik as partners towards Inuit self‐determination. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Academic underachievement, as measured on standardised assessments, is commonly reported among students on the autism spectrum. However, little is known about the factors that predict academic (under)achievement, limiting the development of effective and targeted interventions. This study explored teacher ratings of academic skills and enabling behaviours of a community sample of students on the autism spectrum in Grades K-2 (5–8 years, n = 54) and 6–8 (9–12 years, n = 59) attending inclusive or special education settings. Teachers completed the Academic Competence Evaluation Scale (ACES). Results showed that children on the spectrum were rated by teachers to perform below expected levels in both academic skill areas and academic enabling behaviours. Teacher ratings of academic skills and enablers for students were higher for those in inclusive than those in special education settings. Receptive language emerged as an important predictor of teacher-reported performance alongside child motivation and interpersonal skills. Targeting academic enabling behaviours may help to improve academic achievement and lead to better educational outcomes for these students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The academic achievement of diverse kindergarten to grade 12 students in inclusive classrooms implementing the Three-Block Model (TBM) of universal design for learning was investigated. Fifty-one teachers and 684 of their students, including students with disabilities, students who were English language learners (ELL), and Indigenous students, participated in treatment and control groups. Results indicated significant differences between the two groups on measures of academic achievement, as reflected in a rubric that assessed levels of critical thinking. This was the case for typically developing students as well as those in the three subgroups, with large effect sizes in all cases. These findings suggest that the combination of social and emotional programming with universally designed instruction holds promise for improving the academic achievement of a broad spectrum of learners. Results are discussed in regards to implementation and training needs, and recommendations are made for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the social and historical formation of 'successful' refugee students' learning practices utilising in-depth, critical incident interviews with primary school aged, refugee-background students in Australia. Employing a practice lens, this article firstly explores the informal learning practices the students identify from their past; secondly, examines the arrangements which hold these learning practices in place, and thirdly, explicates the ways in which these practices may enable students' educational achievement in their current host country. We conclude that despite difficult starting points and educational gaps, many refugee students find ways to learn and succeed in school, but such achievement should not be a matter of serendipity. Inclusive schools must acknowledge not only the challenges in refugee students' learning, but also the resources they bring into their education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of home-based 'educational multi-correlates', an inter-related group of factors relating to a child's home environment, on academic achievement in a primary school in Rwanda. The specific educational multi-correlates considered in this study were parental education level, parental involvement in the child's education, and family socio-economic status. The students enrolled in the study were 334 children – 167 boys and 167 girls – at a private primary school in post-genocide Rwanda. The primary instrument used to gather data was a Likert scale survey. This, along with the students' academic records and test scores, was used to answer the following research question: To what extent do specific home-based educational multi-correlates impact academic achievement based on gender within a Rwandan primary school context? The relationships between the independent home-based variables and the dependent variable of academic achievement were measured using descriptive statistics, correlations, multiple regressions, and t-tests. The results confirmed the hypothesis that gender was a relevant factor in explaining differences in the educational correlates and the students' test scores. Student gender was also found to have a significant effect on parental involvement and family socio-economic status as measured against test scores. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]