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Neoliberal critiques of university-based teacher education programmes have led to policy changes such as the rise of alternative certification programmes, bringing in to question the role of the university in teacher education. Concomitantly, such changes problematise the place of knowledge and evidence in teacher education. This issue is of particular importance given extant debates about the place of propositional knowledge about children with special educational needs in inclusive education. This paper explores these debates in terms of recent international trends in policy and practice in teacher education for inclusion and argues for an explicit role for universities as custodians and curators of propositional knowledge in pre and in service teacher education.

While studies on refugee-background students in school contexts have been prolific, research of this population in higher education or post-tertiary education is still emergent. The paper attends to this gap by drawing on the narratives of five refugee-background young adults who are undertaking Australian higher education or have completed university studies. An interpretive analysis of their life-story interviews is drawn from Appadurai's concept of 'voice' as a tool to understand the intergenerational nature of 'aspiration'. We illustrate the heterogeneous ways their resourcefulness is activated in pursuit of their aspirations, and the enabling role parental aspirations play in realising their pathways. It offers new insights on the enabling role refugee parents play to support their children's pathway into higher education. It also highlights the significance of individual refugee youth agency in navigating on-going challenges to attain their personal aspirations through education. We argue that the concept of inclusive education should contain a strength-based view of refugee students that positions them as aspirational individuals who are actively engaging in complex forms of negotiation, adaptability and resistance. Further research into inclusive education for increased social inclusion, incorporating the intergenerational aspirations of both refugee youth and their parents is clearly warranted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An inclusive education goes beyond the acquisition of discipline knowledge or skills. Inclusion is concerned with the participation and integration of all students (regardless of their intrinsic characteristics), helping them to develop civic competences. Civic and democratic values, equality and social justice became critical dimensions in this broader concept of education. This paper argues that the incorporation of civic dimensions, such as civic knowledge, civic skills or civic values in academic curricula could be an effective step towards more inclusive education. Specifically, this work intends to explore what civic dimensions are emphasised as a learning outcome in Portuguese higher education programmes. Adopting a qualitative methodology, typologies and incidence of civic learning outcomes were analysed and compared across three academic levels (first, second and third study cycles). The results provide a better understanding of what civic dimensions are stressed by institutions. All types of civic learning outcomes have been reinforced, defining civic values, civic skills and civic knowledge as expectable learning results. Both civic values and skills are well represented while civic knowledge is the less mentioned category. The enforcement of such civic dimensions is a valuable approach to enhancing education as a collective societal endeavour and as a common good. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]