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The present study focuses on the relationships between principal support, school-wide inclusive practices, teacher agency, and teachers' professional skills in the Chinese context of inclusive education – Learning in Regular Classroom. Data were collected from 1,676 primary and junior high school teachers in China. Results of structural equation modelling demonstrated that principal support had a significant effect on teachers' professional skills; the chain mediating role of school-wide inclusive practices and teacher agency on the relationship between principal support and teachers' professional skills was also significant. These results suggest the direct and indirect roles of school principal in promoting inclusive education teachers' professional skills. The results also highlight the significant effects of school environment on inclusive education teachers' professional development. We consider implications for practice at the end of the paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Decades of developments in inclusive education have seen the waning of deficit discourse towards children with special needs, but exclusion has not yet left the scene. In response to this persistent problem, the Special Issue 'Destroying the Trojan Horse of "lazy inclusivism"' collects the wit of Chinese children, parents, and educators to promote inclusion. In this concluding paper, I engage with some sociological analyses of exclusion and inclusion followed by some sociological rethinkings of the notions of agency and resilience. My intention here is not to portray a panorama of the Special Issue or provide a summary of the knowledge built and lessons learnt throughout the articles included in the Special Issue. As these articles are empirically complex and contextually rich, it would be presumptuous to reduce those profound ideas to this concluding article. The concluding article therefore aims to question the perennial, conservative reproduction of structural problems that have long perturbed inclusive education; propose some sociological reworkings to force structural problems to retreat; and spark some debates and critiques among sociologists of education and colleagues of inclusive education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the publication of the Salamanca Statement, inclusive education has gained prominence at a global range. In China, this has seen the implementation of 'Learning in Regular Classroom' – a nationwide program initiated by the Chinese government in the 1980s to make regular schools accessible to children with disabilities. The developments of 'Learning in Regular Classroom' over a nearly four-decade time are laudable. Yet structural problems abound and persist. One has been 'lazy inclusivism' that insidiously conceals the unequal social order by strategically labelling certain populations as disadvantaged and diligently providing support to them through a mainstream framework that de facto silences their epistemologies and practices. 'Lazy inclusivism' sustains an astute system that tailors a cloak of laborious business to shroud its own laziness in achieving inclusion. Such labourious business is paradoxically lazy owing to its reductionist approach to inclusion that shows little interest in deconstructing the conservative understanding of disability, which itself is constructed and sustained within current schooling. This Special Issue collects wisdom of Chinese children, parents, and educators to force 'lazy inclusivism' to retreat. At the core of the collective wisdom is agency and resilience, both demonstrating autonomy and power in precarious conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent decades have witnessed the development of inclusive education in China. Yet, the national program of 'Learning in Regular Classroom' – a form of inclusive education with Chinese characteristics – has been criticised for lacking sufficient system support. Under these circumstances, parents play a key role in support for their children with disabilities in regular schools in China. This study investigates the relationship between inclusive school quality and the well-being of parents of children with disabilities and the mediating effect of resilience on such a relationship. A sample of 310 Chinese parents of children with disabilities completed the Perception of Inclusive School Quality Scale, the Diener Well-being Scale, and the Davidson Resilience Inventory in the study. The results indicated that parents' perceptions of inclusive school quality had a positive relationship with their subjective well-being, and resilience showed a partial mediating effect on that relationship. Implications are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In China, many special education schools are or have been rebuilt into resource centres. To support the national program of 'Learning in Regular Classroom' (LRC), these centres often recruit teachers in special education schools to serve as special education itinerant teachers (SEITs), who travel across regular schools to provide specialised professional support. However, most studies of professional qualities of SEITs have been conducted in western countries and the analysis was based on SEITs for students with visual or hearing impairment. Little is known about the professional qualities of SEITs in the Chinese LRC context. This study aims to make a contribution in this regard. Semi-structured interviews were carried out with seven SEITs. It was found that beliefs, knowledge, skills, professional identity and motivation, and self-awareness of professional development were recognised as the core professional competencies necessary for the implementation of itinerant service. Implications for practice and future research in SEITs' professional development are presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Adjustments are considered necessary for students with disabilities to be fully included in classroom instruction, classroom assessment and external accountability tests. The 67 item Checklist of Learning and Assessment Adjustments for Students (CLAAS), translated for the Chinese community, was used by 74 teachers from Macau and Mainland China to document their application of adjustments for 319 students with special educational needs across these three settings. Results indicated consistently large gaps between adjustment use in classrooms compared with national tests, with the allowable adjustments for public testing reportedly used very little. Findings also provided evidence for the content validity of the checklist for teachers of students with disabilities in China and its utility in documenting applied adjustments. This study also indicates the potential for CLAAS to provide teachers across China with a comprehensive list of adjustments, to reflect on and review adjustment decision-making and assessment protocols for all students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research highlights the importance of early childhood intervention (ECI) for children with disabilities, and there is an increasing interest in China with respect to research on ECI. However, little research exists exploring the experience of families of young children with disabilities receiving ECI services and supports in China. The purpose of this study was to understand the ECI experiences of families of such children. A qualitative research design was used, and data were collected through interviews with six families in southwest China. This study indicated that, although China has made some progress in ECI for young children with disabilities, progress in this area is still at an early stage of development. Many issues still need to be addressed, including knowledge about typical and atypical development, early identification, professional development, increased government investment, and better implementation of existing laws. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This study investigated the impact of cognitive strategy instruction (CSI) on mathematical word problem solving of students with mathematics disabilities. A sample of fourth-grade students in a Chinese primary school was divided into a treatment group (75 students) and a comparison group (75 students). The sample consisted of students with mathematics disabilities only, students with both mathematics and reading disabilities, as well as average- and high-achieving students. Results showed that students at all ability levels (except high-achieving students) in the treatment group outperformed significantly their counterparts in the comparison group; the intervention effect was stronger for students with mathematics disabilities only than for those with both mathematics and reading disabilities. The present study indicates that CSI is a contextually and pedagogically appropriate model that has a strong potential to improve mathematical word problem solving. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Classroom support plays a salient role in successful inclusive education, hence it has been widely debated in the literature. Much extant work has only focused on a particular aspect of classroom support. A comprehensive, systematic discussion of classroom support is sporadic in the literature. Relevant research concerning the Chinese context is even more limited. To address this gap, our study developed and validated a multidimensional classroom support model conducive to teachers’ inclusive education practices. Data were drawn from our large-scale survey with inclusive education teachers in Beijing. Further analyses were conducted to compare different dimensions within the classroom support model. Drawing insights from the results, we provide some recommendations for practice and research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examined the applicability of the four-factor structure of the short form of the Community Living Attitudes Scale-Intellectual Disability11 We chose to use the term “intellectual disability” to replace the term “mental retardation” in the original CLAS-MR scale to conform with the terminology in current usage.(CLAS-ID) in China, using a sample of 325 Chinese community members. Confirmatory factor analysis revealed that the original structure of the short form of the CLAS-ID did not adequately fit the data from the current sample. Most items of the Exclusion and Similarity subscales were retained while items on the Empowerment and Sheltering subscales were removed. Chinese community members held generally positive attitudes towards people with intellectual disability. However, a measurement tool originating from the Chinese context is needed to provide a better understanding of attitudes towards individuals with intellectual disability in mainland China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Attitudes, knowledge, and skills are widely recognised as the three pillars of professional competence of inclusive education teachers. Studies emerging from the Chinese context consider these three pillars important for the practice of Learning in Regular Classrooms—an idiosyncratic Chinese form of inclusive education. Our mixed methods study reveals that agency is the fourth pillar of the professional competence for inclusive education teachers in Beijing, China. Results from comparative analysis indicate that the level of teachers’ agency is significantly lower than that of their attitudes, knowledge, and skills. We offer some implications for policy and practice in inclusive education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Inclusive education focuses on addressing marginalisation, segregation and exclusion within policy and practice. The purpose of this article is to use critical discourse analysis to examine how inclusion is represented in the education policy and professional documents of two countries, Australia and China. In particular, teacher professional standards from each country are examined to determine how an expectation of inclusive educational practice is promoted to teachers. The strengthening of international partnerships to further support the implementation of inclusive practices within both countries is also justified. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China has a massive population of children with disabilities. To address the special needs of these children, special/inclusive education in China has developed dramatically since the early 1980s onwards. This Special Issue puts together seven empirical studies emerging from the Chinese societies. These studies analyse inclusive discourses embedded in the education policy documents; scrutinise professional competence of inclusive education teachers; evaluate inclusive education practices in physical education, mathematics education, and job-related social skills education provided to students with disabilities; debate the required in-class support for inclusive education teachers; and discuss the social attitudes towards people with disabilities. The foci, methods and theories vary across the seven studies, while their aims converge. These studies are seeking best possible approaches and best available resources that facilitate inclusion. Knowledge built and lessons learned from these studies will provide implications for future inclusive education practices in China and beyond. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The preparation, recruitment, work, and career of teachers are important in education. This is no exemption for special education. However, the shortage of qualified teachers serving students with disabilities has long been an international problem. In China, both the quantity and the quality of special education teachers are of concern. This places unrelenting pressure on special teacher education. Given its growing size and challenges, special teacher education has received increasing attention from research, policy, and practice. However, there is a dearth of scholarship published in English to address these issues. To the best of our belief and knowledge, there is no systematic, comprehensive, and contextualised examination of special teacher education in China to date. This article aims to make a contribution in this regard. First, we present the complexities of the Chinese context in which special teacher education is situated. Second, we synthesise recent literature on special teacher education in China through an extensive review of the relevant studies scattered in English publications. Third, we provide insights into special teacher education in China, regarding its trajectory of policy-making, its history of development, and its strategies and challenges. Finally, we conclude our article with some practical recommendations to aid the future development of special teacher education. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]