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This study investigates how three secondary subject teachers think about and take account of learner diversity in their lesson planning, enactment and reviewing, with a specific focus on pupils designated as having special educational needs (SEN). The study is significant in the context of international moves in contemporary school teaching towards greater personalisation and inclusion. Focussing on three different subject teachers whose lesson planning was nominated as high quality, the study uses a sequence of interviews and lesson observations alongside the analysis of lesson planning artefacts, to present three in-depth cases and, through cross-case analysis, to develop a provisional situated model of lesson planning for diversity. Different forms of planning are identified -- formal, personal, expanded and in-flight -- which differ with regard to dimensions of purpose, formality, whether recorded, and timing. The teachers understandings of diversity are broader than differences related to SEN, and this relates to different kinds of differentiation, connecting the concerns of special needs education with wider issues of lesson planning for diversity.

This article focuses on teachers' pedagogical decision-making and influences on this decision-making when teaching students with severe intellectual disabilities. The research reported and discussed forms part of an international collaborative research project in the south west of England and Florida, US. The study is set within the broader socio-political context of inclusion, contributing a pedagogical dimension to other aspects of inclusion, such as placement, curriculum and accountability. Houssaye's (2000) pedagogical interaction model is examined and adapted to situate and analyse teachers' pedagogical decision-making, and influences on this, when teaching students with severe intellectual disabilities. The study shows a prominence and privileging of pedagogical decisions and influences around teacher-student pedagogical interactions over curriculum-teacher or curriculum-student pedagogical interactions. The implications of this emphasis are considered in the historical context of teaching and learning models and approaches for this group of learners.

This article examines the purposes of education with a particular focus on young people with severe learning difficulties (SLD). The topic is explored with reference to a specific case, whereby some of the key findings of an evaluation of the first year of "The Greenside Studio", an English special school's vocational teaching resource for young people with SLD, are presented. A conceptualisation of different "sides" to the Studio is discussed in relation to the purposes of education for these learners in which the view of vocational learning as a stepping stone to paid employment and independence is presented as problematic. With a broader interpretation of vocational education this stepping stone is reconfigured as a bridge to life after school, whatever form that takes. It is argued, however, that the nature of this life must be viewed aspirationally.

This article examines teacher professional learning about pedagogy for teachers of students with severe intellectual disabilities within broader teacher education and pedagogical frameworks for this group of learners. The article presents and discusses findings from a USA-England research project, involving classroom observations and interviews with nine teachers of students with severe intellectual disabilities from four specialist public school settings, intended to explore teachers' pedagogical decision-making and learning. The theoretical lens of situated learning and the conceptual lens of evidence-based practice are used to contextualise and examine the teachers' views about the "what," "how" and "when" they learn about pedagogical approaches and strategies. Teachers emphasised the situated and interactional nature of their learning, particularly highlighting the personal responses of students and their relationship with these students. They use this knowledge and understanding to adapt evidence-based strategies and programmes and inform their pedagogical decisions. This affords the concepts of "situated generalization" and "practice based evidence" an influential role in how teachers engage in the process of pedagogical decision-making. An implication for teacher educators is the need to support teachers in making connections of new pedagogical understandings and skills with the individual learning profiles and responses of their students with severe intellectual disabilities.

The project reported in this paper addresses the issue of trainee teacher learning with regard to special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) during the school placement element of one-year postgraduate teacher training programmes in England. Through a focus on the university/school partnership, school organisational and classroom pedagogic processes, the project aimed to improve knowledge and understanding about teacher education relevant to the special educational needs and inclusive education fields. Specifically, the project examined and compared the school-based learning and outcomes of postgraduate teacher trainees in primary and secondary programmes that used different approaches to preparing teachers for the special needs aspects of their future teaching. Three kinds of school-based approaches are examined: one that involved a practical teaching task; a second which involved a pupil-focused task (but not practical teaching); and a third where there was no specific pupil-focused SEND task other than class teaching practice. (Contains 2 figures, 2 tables, and 1 note.)

The role of local government in addressing issues of social equity is undergoing significant reconstruction in current educational policy reforms in England. The current conceptualisation of social provision places individual rights at the centre of policy, and social responsibility is represented as the work of individuals. Drawing upon a partnership project in Plymouth, England, and the analytical lens of refraction, the authors suggest that the 'autonomy' of local authority workers is embedded within systems of governance, including both traditional forms of centralised control, albeit obscured, and the new modality of networked governance.

Policy and practice responses to diversity and difference in pupil populations continue to challenge education systems around the world. This paper considers how teachers' understandings of diversity and difference and their pedagogical responses at the local level are influenced by, and can be reconciled with, policy at the general level with its impulse for categorisation, normalcy and "ableness". Two frameworks around orientations to diversity and types of pedagogic need are combined in order to examine this tension and develop possible responses. This is illustrated through the example of special educational needs as a type of difference. The paper argues that for critical, ethical and socially just pedagogies, policy needs to support teachers in acknowledging and troubling difference at the classroom level.

Literacy is traditionally narrowly conceptualised as a set of skills related to accessing and generating written or printed text. For children designated as having severe learning difficulties (SLD), who are unlikely to develop these "conventional" literacy skills, such a conception implies their semi-literacy or nonliteracy. Although conceptions of multimodal literacy and multiliteracies have rarely been applied to this group, broader understandings of literacy that include a range of activities, modes and media provide greater opportunities for including these learners in literacy practices. Drawing upon our research with teachers of this group of children and young people, we illustrate these literacy practices. We note, however, that such practices are often haphazard, not coherently thought through, and that there is much confusion regarding any distinction between communication and literacy. We argue for literacy as a specific form of communication, but conclude that broader models of literacies should be utilised to guide and support practitioners in developing interactive practice and in making reasoned and principled approaches and decisions about literacy practices, routes and progression for children with SLD.

Many existing studies of diversity are concerned with social groups identified by externally determined factors, for example, ethnicity, gender, or educational attainment, and examine, either quantitatively or qualitatively, issues delineated by these. In evaluating methods used in previous research, we consider ways in which the adoption of "person-centred approaches" in our research might better explore subjective perceptions of difference as experienced in young people's schooling. We critically examine our initial findings in seeking to define the language and scope of difference expressed by young people aged 18-20 years with a variety of educational outcomes, including higher and further education, training, employment, and unemployment. We then propose some appropriate methodologies for further exploration of how difference is embodied and enacted during young people's schooling years. (Contains 1 figure.)

Our research examined understandings of individual student target setting processes through semi-structured interviews with staff and students from two schools in England: a special school for students with severe learning difficulties and a linked mainstream secondary school. This article details some of the tensions and issues arising from perceived ownership of targets and the communication and sharing of these between and within schools, specifically focusing on dimensions of power and agency.

According to some authors (Thomas & Loxley, 2001), "inclusion" has become something of a cliche, even being "evacuated of meaning" (Benjamin, 2002). In England, teachers and teachers' assistants are required to implement inclusion but, in the absence of any universal definition of what the term means, the way in which they enact it varies depending on their understanding of this concept. In this paper, which was originally given as a performance text, we will be re-presenting data collected in the course of narrative and autobiographical investigation of mainstream teachers and teaching assistants' experiences and understandings of inclusion. Through these re-presentations our aim is to illustrate and bring about an engagement with the range of perceptions and conceptualizations portrayed. These demonstrate the tensions and resistances between systemic and personal elements in their understanding of inclusion. Our focus is primarily methodological in that we explore what "narrative and the performance turn" (Denzin, 2003) have to offer to research which seeks to investigate practitioners' articulations and understandings of educational inclusion. (Contains 3 notes.)

This study investigates how three secondary subject teachers think about and take account of learner diversity in their lesson planning, enactment and reviewing, with a specific focus on pupils designated as having special educational needs (SEN). The study is significant in the context of international moves in contemporary school teaching towards greater personalisation and inclusion. Focussing on three different subject teachers whose lesson planning was nominated as high quality, the study uses a sequence of interviews and lesson observations alongside the analysis of lesson planning artefacts, to present three in‐depth cases and, through cross‐case analysis, to develop a provisional situated model of lesson planning for diversity. Different forms of planning are identified – formal, personal, expanded and in‐flight – which differ with regard to dimensions of purpose, formality, whether recorded, and timing. The teachers understandings of diversity are broader than differences related to SEN, and this relates to different kinds of differentiation, connecting the concerns of special needs education with wider issues of lesson planning for diversity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article focuses on teachers' pedagogical decision‐making and influences on this decision‐making when teaching students with severe intellectual disabilities. The research reported and discussed forms part of an international collaborative research project in the south west of England and Florida, US. The study is set within the broader socio‐political context of inclusion, contributing a pedagogical dimension to other aspects of inclusion, such as placement, curriculum and accountability. Houssaye's (2000) pedagogical interaction model is examined and adapted to situate and analyse teachers’ pedagogical decision‐making, and influences on this, when teaching students with severe intellectual disabilities. The study shows a prominence and privileging of pedagogical decisions and influences around teacher‐student pedagogical interactions over curriculum‐teacher or curriculum‐student pedagogical interactions. The implications of this emphasis are considered in the historical context of teaching and learning models and approaches for this group of learners. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the purposes of education with a particular focus on young people with severe learning difficulties (SLD). The topic is explored with reference to a specific case, whereby some of the key findings of an evaluation of the first year of ‘The Greenside Studio’, an English special school’s vocational teaching resource for young people with SLD, are presented. A conceptualisation of different ‘sides’ to the Studio is discussed in relation to the purposes of education for these learners in which the view of vocational learning as a stepping stone to paid employment and independence is presented as problematic. With a broader interpretation of vocational education this stepping stone is reconfigured as a bridge to life after school, whatever form that takes. It is argued, however, that the nature of this life must be viewed aspirationally. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses how students with learning disabilities at Greenside School in Hertfordshire, England are able to prepare themselves for life after school. It describes how the learning of functional skills developed during their time at school is transferred into the real world of work through the provision offered at the Greenside Studio.

Schools for Special Needs 2005–2006 – a complete guide Gabbitas Educational Consultants Leadership and SEN: Meeting the Challenge in Special and Mainstream Settings Nick Burnett Supporting Mathematical Thinking Anne Watson, Jenny Houssart and Caroline Roaf (eds) Assessing and Developing Communication and Thinking Skills in People with Autism and Communication Difficulties Kate Silver and Autism Initiatives Listen to Us! Citizenship Education for Young People with Special Educational Needs. A resource for staff working with young people aged 11+ Nottingham City PTC et al. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Girls and Exclusion: Rethinking the Agenda Audrey Osler and Kerry Vincent [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]