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Globally, there is considerable investment in education technologies leading to increased attention from stakeholders (Trucano, 2017). For a deeper understanding about the implementation of various technologies, research is needed to examine how teachers are incorporating them in teaching and learning. This study focused on eight countries to examine how teachers used ICT in mathematics instruction and factors that contributed to ICT use. Results show that teachers' education levels and cooperation amongst educators are associated with ICT use in instruction. The paper includes recommendations and implications for practice and future research.

This meta-analysis examined the ecological and population validity of intervention research for students with low mathematics achievement (SWLMA). Forty-four studies published between 2005 and 2019 that met the inclusionary criterion were included in this analysis. Our findings suggest, to improve the external validity and generalizability of research, more detailed descriptions of participants and the socio-cultural contexts of the intervention studies are warranted.

Access to education for children with disabilities remains a significant challenge in many countries despite international agreement of its importance. This paper describes results from a comparative analysis of education for students with disabilities in Brazil, Canada, and South Africa with a focus on how differences in disability policies, pedagogy, professional development for teachers, and sociocultural factors shape access to schooling in these three countries. The paper also reviews relevant literature to discuss how structural and cultural barriers can exacerbate exclusionary practices. The analysis highlights ways that these countries and others can increase participation in society and enhance quality of life for individuals with disabilities.

There is an urgent need to understand how often teachers use information and communication technologies (ICT) in mathematics instruction. This information can provide vital links that can help stakeholders make connections about ICT use in mathematics instruction and student learning experiences with ICT. Scholars in the field have reported on the numerous challenges in schools facing ICT integration beyond availability of ICT. Understanding the frequency of ICT use can also shed light on areas that need continued research, such as examining the trends of ICT use in mathematics instruction among teachers and across countries. Additionally, in an effort to understand how teachers use ICT, there is a need to investigate the various factors that may impact ICT use in content areas such as mathematics. This study offers an international perspective that focuses on eight countries using the TALIS 2013 dataset to investigate frequency of ICT use, and examine factors that may have contributed to teachers' ICT use in mathematics instruction. This analysis shows limited ICT use in mathematics instruction and differences in ICT use among the countries. Teacher cooperation, mathematics self-efficacy, and professional development in ICT skills were significant predictors of ICT use. Implications for research and policy are discussed.

Classrooms are increasingly more diverse, and student success can be enhanced through family engagement, especially for culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) students with disabilities. Too often teachers are stymied by how to engage CLD families of children with disabilities. Common practices of parent involvement are ineffective and fail to appreciate families as members of the educational team. Family engagement seeks to establish and maintain authentic family-school partnerships based on mutual respect and shared agency for student academic and social success. This column provides specific family engagement strategies that teachers and schools can implement in an effort to provide reciprocal collaboration.

Access to basic education for all students is an essential goal for many countries around the world. Also, as worldwide calls for providing inclusive education continue to intensify, access to basic education for many students with disabilities in Kenya remains a pervasive challenge. Large class sizes, inadequate funding, limited teacher training, cultural perceptions, and lack of disability awareness exacerbate this challenge. In 2009, the Kenyan government put forth a national Special Needs Education policy framework that provides comprehensive strategies and policies to improve services for people with disabilities. Creating advocacy and awareness, revamping the curriculum, incorporating technology, providing teacher training, and improving data collection are some of the recommendations included in the policy framework to enhance special education services and facilitate inclusive practices.

General education teachers are challenged with meeting the unique instructional needs of every learner in their classrooms, which increasingly include English learners (ELs) and students with learning disabilities (LD). This article uses vignettes to demonstrate how a middle school content teacher uses five strategies: building prior knowledge, building vocabulary, explicit instruction, visual representation, and opportunities to respond to support his students. Each strategy is evidence based for ELs and for students who have an identified LD. Research supports that ELs and students with LD benefit from specific instructional strategies that enhance the accessibility of course content and potentially improve learning outcomes.

This is a review of Disability and Social Justice in Kenya: Scholars, Policymakers, and Activists in Conversation (Berman & Monteleone, 2022). The anthology includes 14 chapters by scholars, policymakers, and activists working in disability. It invites readers to develop a nuanced understanding of disability in Kenya, past to present, and provides recommendations to push current developments and progress forward. The anthology caters to readers with diverse interests, whether disability representation in media, infrastructural initiatives, parental engagement, early screening, legislation, advocacy, or education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Access to schooling and special education services remains a challenge for many children with disabilities around the world. In the United States, much attention has focused on disproportionality--the over- and underrepresentation of student groups within special education. In this study, to contextualize and better understand the scope and factors associated with disproportionality in the United States and abroad, we synthesized literature on special education disproportionality in international contexts and identified trends across student groups and countries, including the ways in which scholars have examined this topic. Results show that studies focused mainly on the overrepresentation of ethnic minority, immigrant, and Indigenous populations in European or English-speaking nations. Nearly all studies emphasized structural inequalities in society over cultural barriers as mechanisms contributing to disproportionality. Policy recommendations, however, were more likely to focus on improving the special education identification process. The review has implications for research, practice, and policy to improve education for children with disabilities in the United States and abroad.

With the increasing availability of technology and the emphasis on science, technology, engineering, and mathematics education, there is an urgent need to understand the impact of technology-mediated mathematics (TMM) interventions on student mathematics outcomes. The purpose of this study was to review studies on TMM interventions that target the mathematical outcomes of K-12 students with or at risk for mathematics learning disabilities (MLDs). A review of the literature revealed 19 studies (9 single-case and 10 group/quasi experimental designs) published between 2000 and 2016. Results suggest that TMM interventions had mainly positive results on the mathematics outcomes of students with or at risk for MLD. This study also examined the extent to which principles of explicit instruction were integrated in TMM interventions. While many of the interventions provided frequent practice opportunities with academic feedback, few complemented such practice opportunities with overt demonstrations and explanations of mathematical content. Implications for designing TMM interventions are discussed.

The 21st century continues to be defined by rapid changes in the economic, political, social, and cultural landscape. These changes have been fueled by the advancement of technology advancement, and the increased need for knowledge-based skills. Within this backdrop, educational reforms in the U.S. continue to place increased demands on educators to improve students' performance, especially in mathematics. With increasing technological innovations, changes in pedagogical approaches when integrating information and communication technologies (ICTs) are crucial. This paper highlights the effects of ICT on mathematics learning outcomes for students with mathematics difficulties, and proposes the application of critical pedagogy in conjunction with explicit instruction in inclusive mathematics classrooms with diverse students. Ideally, this approach would benefit students in their schooling life cycle as they develop their identities and beyond the classroom walls as they become lifelong learners. The development of positive learner identities for students with mathematics difficulties can be achieved through the application of evidence-based pedagogical approaches, critical teaching and systematic integration of ICT in classrooms to develop critical thinking skills. Future research is needed on pedagogies that when paired with ICT integration will foster higher level thinking skills and achievement outcomes for students with mathematics difficulties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]