Social Justice Principles, the Law and Research, as Bases for Inclusion

2008 ◽  
Vol 32 (1) ◽  
pp. 109-124 ◽  
Author(s):  
Phil Foreman ◽  
Michael Arthur‐Kelly

Educational policies for students with a disability in Australia, the USA, the UK and in most western countries stipulate that inclusive placement should be an option available to parents. This article examines three principal drivers of inclusion: social justice principles, legislation, and research findings, and considers the extent to which each of these has impacted on inclusive policy and practice. The article considers the research base for inclusion, and examines the extent to which the policy and practice of inclusion is supported by evidence. It concludes with some suggestions for a research agenda that focuses on the particular contextual challenges and complexities faced in Australasian school settings, whilst recognising international directions in the identification of evidence‐based practices.

In this first edition book, editors Jolly and Jarvis have compiled a range of important, contemporary gifted education topics. Key areas of concern focus on evidence-based practices and research findings from Australia and New Zealand. Other contributors include 14 gifted education experts from leading Australian and New Zealand Universities and organisations. Exploring Gifted Education: Australian and New Zealand Perspectives, introduced by the editors, is well organised. Jolly and Jarvis’s central thesis in their introduction is to acknowledge the disparity between policy, funding and practice in Australia and New Zealand. Specifically, in relation to Australia, they note that a coordinated, national research agenda is absent, despite recommendations published by the Australian Senate Inquiry almost 20 years ago.


2013 ◽  
Vol 79 (2) ◽  
pp. 195-211 ◽  
Author(s):  
Janette K. Klingner ◽  
Alison G. Boardman ◽  
Kristen L. Mcmaster

This article discusses the strategic scaling up of evidence-based practices. The authors draw from the scholarly work of fellow special education researchers and from the field of learning sciences. The article defines scaling up as the process by which researchers or educators initially implement interventions on a small scale, validate them, and then implement them more widely in real-world conditions. Examples of scale-up research are included. The authors discuss challenges to scaling up and sustaining evidence-based practices, followed by factors that can potentially support scaling up, including professional development and district leadership. A case example describes how these issues can play out by highlighting experiences with a Collaborative Strategic Reading (CSR) scale-up research project in a large urban school district. The article concludes by offering recommendations for research, policy, and practice.


2013 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 20-36
Author(s):  
Mike Fisher

This paper concerns the impact of social work research, particularly on practice and practitioners. It explores the politics of research and how this affects practice, the way that university-based research understands practice, and some recent developments in establishing practice research as an integral and permanent part of the research landscape. While focusing on implications for the UK, it draws on developments in research across Europe, North America and Australasia to explore how we can improve the relationship between research and practice.


2013 ◽  
Vol 79 (2) ◽  
pp. 163-180
Author(s):  
Bryan G. Cook ◽  
Lysandra Cook ◽  
Timothy J. Landrum

Although researchers in special education have made significant advances in defining and identifying evidence-based practices, scholars often constitute an insular group that disseminates research findings primarily through outlets and venues targeting like-minded researchers using traditional approaches. Thus, despite tangible results in determining what works, using dissemination approaches that fail to resonate with or influence practitioners represents an important but often overlooked contributor to the ongoing research-to-practice gap in special education. The authors argue that empirical and theoretical literature outside of special education may offer insight into how ideas take hold, which may be especially relevant to the effective dissemination of evidence-based practices. Drawing on Heath and Heath's (2008) model, the authors describe 6 characteristics of messages that are likely to “stick”: (a) simple, (b) unexpected, (c) concrete, (d) credible, (e) emotional, and (f) stories. The authors consider each in terms of implications for dissemination of special education research findings, and urge special education researchers to consider researching, refining, and applying dissemination strategies that can make special education research matter on a broader scale.


2019 ◽  
Vol 34 (6) ◽  
pp. 618-624
Author(s):  
Christa Breum Amhøj ◽  
John Diamond ◽  
Flemming Olsen

This Viewpoint outlines the context within which papers published in this and recent issues of Local Economy were initially presented, developed and then submitted. We suggest in the commentary below that from the outset (at an initial workshop), we were seeking to model an iterative and collaborative process. The policy context is described in more detail but the impetus came from looking at ways in which a policy and practice alliance focussed on the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals could be mobilized to promote original thinking in the way in which municipal authorities could work with and learn from NGOs in the development of an alternative approach to sustainable development from that which currently shaped local social and economic policy in Copenhagen. This Viewpoint provides a summary of the papers published in Local Economy over two issues. It concludes by proposing that the approach adopted is in line with current initiatives in the USA and the UK.


2012 ◽  
Vol 219 ◽  
pp. R41-R52 ◽  
Author(s):  
Philip Davies

This paper argues that evidence-based policy has clearly made a worldwide impact, at least at the rhetorical and institutional levels, and in terms of analytical activity. The paper then addresses whether or not evidence-based policy evaluation has had an impact on policy formation and public service delivery. The paper uses a model of research-use that suggests that evidence can be used in instrumental, conceptual and symbolic ways. Taking four examples of the use of evidence in the UK over the past decade, this paper argues that evidence can be used instrumentally, conceptually and symbolically in complementary ways at different stages of the policy cycle and under different policy and political circumstances. The fact that evidence is not always used instrumentally, in the sense of “acting on research results in specific, direct ways” (Lavis et al., 2003, p. 228), does not mean that it has little or no influence. The paper ends by considering some of the obstacles to getting research evidence into policy and practice, and how these obstacles might be overcome.


2015 ◽  
Vol 129 (1) ◽  
pp. 63-67 ◽  
Author(s):  
R Harris ◽  
E Ofo ◽  
D Cope ◽  
I Nixon ◽  
R Oakley ◽  
...  

AbstractBackground:With the increasing use of chemoradiotherapy protocols, total laryngectomy carries increasing risks such as pharyngocutaneous fistula. There is little reference to the use of antibiotic prophylaxis in salvage surgery. This study aimed to determine the current practice in antibiotic prophylaxis for total laryngectomy in the UK.Method:A questionnaire was designed using SurveyMonkey software, and distributed to all ENT-UK registered head and neck surgeons.Results:The survey revealed that 19 surgeons (51 per cent) follow a protocol for antibiotic prophylaxis in primary total laryngectomy and 17 (46 per cent) follow a protocol in salvage total laryngectomy. Only 11 (30 per cent) use anti-methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus agents in their antibiotic prophylaxis. The duration of prophylaxis varies considerably. Nineteen surgeons (51 per cent) revealed that their choice of antibiotic prophylaxis reflected non-evidence-based practices.Conclusion:There appears to be little evidence-based guidance on antibiotic prophylaxis in primary and salvage total laryngectomy. The survey highlights the need for more research in order to inform national guidance on antibiotic prophylaxis in primary and salvage total laryngectomy.


Youth Justice ◽  
2011 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 266-281 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nigel Stone

Adolescent embrace of electronic communication with peers often involves sharing indecent images of each other, sometimes with abusive consequences. How should the criminal justice system respond? Use of conventional child pornography legislation can be inappropriately heavy-handed and draconian. This article considers recent developments in the United States and considers how this mode of juvenile indiscretion fits with law, policy and practice in England and Wales.


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