Education Commons^™

Issues Of Inclusive Education: Some Aspects To Be Considered, Farid Suleymanov

Electronic Journal for Inclusive Education

The purpose of this article is to shed light on the aspects of inclusion which have proved to be essential for further development of newly founded inclusive education. The practice of inclusive education gets increasingly obvious in gains more support and interest in education system in almost all countries in the world. There is a distinctly declared agreement in the world that all children have the right to education regardless of their race, gender, nationality, disability and etc. And these agreements have been indicated in universally important documents. Over several decades the concept of inclusion has contributed a lot to …

Eportfolio Using The Power Of Nonlinear Space To Create And Interlink A Repertoire Of Skills Essential For Teaching, J. Evans Ochola, John Achrazoglou, Rebecca Anthony

Electronic Journal for Inclusive Education

The ePortfolio is a web-based innovation that allows teacher education students to demonstrate their competency and share their work on websites. While the original impetus for this work was in professional placement. A platform where students could represent their strengths to potential employers was developed. It has since become the means by which to address state and national mandates for standards performance assessment. The three-part developmental structure of the ePortfolio, in fact, offers a mechanism for demonstrating to faculty, assessors, and to students themselves a mastery of complex learning systems and strategies. The framework for professional development begins with an …

Feelings: Actions, Methods, And Strategies To Prepare Students For Learning By Creating An Environment Considerate Of Affective Needs, Virginia Heslinga

Electronic Journal for Inclusive Education

This article examines two critical questions for building trust to provide learners in communities that have experienced violence with the ability to participate with hope in classroom settings: (1) After the many recent alarming and violent events that have occurred in our society, how can educators best meet the affective needs of students to create a positive environment for learning? (2) Are there strategies and methods that any educator can use to help students feel interested in learning and ready to learn in spite of the repeated upsetting events in the news and in their communities? The answer is yes. …

Welcome, Patricia R. Renick

Electronic Journal for Inclusive Education

Welcome to the Winter Spring edition of The Electronic Journal for Inclusive Education. The conversations concerning inclusion continue with research from international perspectives.

Characters On The Autism Spectrum In Young Adult Inclusion Literature, Courtney A. Tsumoto, Rhonda S. Black

Electronic Journal for Inclusive Education

The purpose of this study was to analyze disability portrayals in 14 young adult literature (YAL) novels featuring characters with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) according to the elements of characterization, plot, and theme. Results revealed that characters were frequently portrayed as competent, multidimensional, and neither as a hero nor a victim. Characters with ASD commonly spoke for themselves through a first-person perspective and were generally portrayed in an accurate manner facing conflicts similar to same-age peers. Plots focused on what the character could do, however, some plot events seemed contrived rather than realistic, with the climax and resolution often focusing …

Resilience: A Framework For Inclusive Pedagogy In A South African Context, T. M. Makoelle, M. Malindi

Electronic Journal for Inclusive Education

The social ecology of resilience perspective sees resilience as the capacity of individuals to negotiate and navigate their pathways towards the resources that sustain well-being, the capacity of the individual’s physical and social ecologies to provide resilience resources, and the capacity of individuals, families and communities to negotiate culturally meaningful ways to share health-promoting resources. This means that resilience is a process that involves an individual’s own assets or strengths as well as those found in his or her physical social and ecology. Inclusive education, on the other hand, is a discipline that allows learners whose socio-economic circumstances, physical disability …

Welcome, Patricia R. Renick

Electronic Journal for Inclusive Education

Welcome to the Summer/Fall edition of The Electronic Journal for Inclusive Education.

Nontraditional Pre-Service Teachers: What They Learn From Inclusion Literature, Kimberly Sutton

Electronic Journal for Inclusive Education

Characterized by work, financial, and family demands, nontraditional students are an increasing population in university teacher education programs. Typical teacher education programs include at least one course on the education of students with special needs, and faculty may address perceived weaknesses of the course textbook by supplementing it with "inclusion literature," narratives written by or about individuals with disabilities. Although inclusion literature has been documented to be of value, to date there has been no research that specifically examined the use of inclusion literature with nontraditional pre-service teachers. This qualitative study examined the impact of inclusion literature on a population …

When Job Skills Are Not Enough: Transitioning Young Adults With Autism Spectrum Disorder, Francis Dematteo, Patricia S. Arter

Electronic Journal for Inclusive Education

The purpose of this paper is to describe transition outcomes of school-aged young adults with ASD enrolled in a university-based program that emphasizes vocational training and socialization with neuro-typical peers and adults. Although this program appears to integrate best practices for successful transition to employment, reports from parents and program alumni indicate that few graduates continue to work despite their acquired vocational and social skill repertoire. This trend supports the need for adopting a resource-based transition model to better utilize employment related resources in the family network and community.

Addressing Barriers To Effective Rti Through School Counselor Consultation: A Social Justice Approach, Jeffrey M. Warren, Gretchen Robinson

Electronic Journal for Inclusive Education

Response to Intervention (RTI) is a culturally responsive framework developed to provide targeted, evidence-based instruction to all students in regular education settings. A goal of RTI is to reduce the disproportionate number of students of color referred for special education services. However, numerous barriers often prevent teachers from effectively engaging in the RTI process and serve to impede the delivery of instruction. School counselors can provide rational emotive-social behavior (RE-SB) consultation for teachers to address psychosocial barriers and promote social justice. This article outlines RTI, barriers to implementation, and how school counselors can advocate for all students through RE-SB consultation.

Indian Higher Education System: Challenges And Suggestions, Sahil Sharma, Purnendu Sharma

Electronic Journal for Inclusive Education

Higher education system plays an important role for the country’s overall development which includes industrial, social, economic etc. Indian higher education system is third largest in the world. The role of Indian higher educational institutes such as colleges and universities in the present time is to provide quality based education in the field of education, research etc to empower youth for self sustainability. This paper includes the key challenges that India is currently facing in higher education and also includes some initiatives taken by the government to meet those challenges.

Exploring The Effects Of Reading Young Adult Literature That Portrays People With Disabilities In The Inclusion Classroom, Janine J. Darragh

Electronic Journal for Inclusive Education

This intervention study examined the impact of reading young adult novels that portray people with disabilities on the attitudes of 229 eighth grade students. Students’ beliefs and intentions to interact with peers with disabilities were measured on three occasions utilizing the Shared Activities Questionnaire (Morgan, Walker, Bieberich & Bell, 1996, Unpublished manuscript) and the Adjective Checklist (Siperstein, 1980; Siperstein & Bak, 1977). First, all students took the attitudinal surveys. Half of the students then read and responded to a book that portrays a character with a disability, while the other students read a novel without disability portrayals. All students then …

Chile’S Educational Reform: The Struggle Between Nationalization And Privatization, Vannia J. Zelaya

Pepperdine Policy Review

This paper looks into Chile's educational system and the recent policy reforms that President Michelle Bachelet seeks to establish. More specifically, this paper explores the "Proyecto de Ley de Fin al Lucro, la Selección y el Copago," which aims to eliminate private for-profit institutions within the public system, admission selectivity, and mandatory copay fees. With this, Bachelet's administration along with Chile's Ministry of Education intend to end the inequality of access to education, which is part of Chile's broader problem of great socioeconomic inequality. This particular policy is part of Bachelet's comprehensive educational system reform, and it brings Chile's voucher …

Front Matter

The Journal of the Assembly for Expanded Perspectives on Learning

Front Matter

Praisesong: One (Worn) Path Through Aepl, Libby F. Jones

The Journal of the Assembly for Expanded Perspectives on Learning

A longtime member takes a poetic look at AEPL's history, philosophy, activities, and her ongoing participatory role in the organization.

Twenty Years: Reflections And Questions, Alice Brand

The Journal of the Assembly for Expanded Perspectives on Learning

Recalling her lifelong research into the connection between emotions and writing, the first editor of JAEPL critiques scholarly contexts that limit the exploration of knowledge about writing.

Jaepl, Vol. 20, Winter 2014-2015, Joonna Smitherman Trapp, Bradley T. Peters

The Journal of the Assembly for Expanded Perspectives on Learning

Essays

Libby Falk Jones - Praisesong: One (Worn) Path through AEPL

Alice Brand - Twenty Years: Reflections and Questions

Tom Gage - Hitchhiking the Labyrinth

Susan Schiller - The Dance of Spirit in AEPL

Kristie S. Fleckenstein - Stepping Beyond, In, and With JAEPL: Twenty Years of Hope

Paul Heilker - Coming to Nonviolence

Beth Daniell - To the Contrary

John Creger - The Personal Creed Project: Portal to Deepened Learning

Jessica Jones - "Put Your Ear Close to the Whispering Branch..." Deep Listening in the English Classroom

Out of the Box

Laurence Musgrove & Myra Musgrove - Drawing is …

The Dance Of Spirit In Aepl, Susan Schiller

The Journal of the Assembly for Expanded Perspectives on Learning

Co-editor of The Spiritual Side of Writing examines AEPL’s role in the global pedagogical movement it has participated in for over 20 years.

Hitchhiking The Labyrinth, Tom Gage

The Journal of the Assembly for Expanded Perspectives on Learning

James Moffett’s best friend recalls Moffett’s enduring influence on his own extraordinary career, as well as Moffett’s substantial contributions to AEPL.

Stepping Beyond, In, And With Jaepl: Twenty Years Of Hope, Kristie S. Fleckenstein

The Journal of the Assembly for Expanded Perspectives on Learning

Treating readers to a detailed tour through JAEPL’s pages, the journal’s coeditor of 10 years touches on high points, also remembering the conference that initiated her relationship with its authors and readers.

Coming To Nonviolence, Paul Heilker

The Journal of the Assembly for Expanded Perspectives on Learning

A contributor to the second book that marked AEPL’s influence on scholarship traces the growth of his personal commitment to one of the organization’s foundational principles.

To The Contrary, Beth Daniell

The Journal of the Assembly for Expanded Perspectives on Learning

Author of one of the most important volumes on literacy and spiritual practice finds that four key insights have guided her work, all of them consonant with AEPL members’ practices.

Connecting, Helen Walker, Wanda Njoya, Ann Wachira, David Bedsole, W. Keith Duffy

The Journal of the Assembly for Expanded Perspectives on Learning

Helen Walker - Widening Circles

Wanda Njoya - Miracles Happen

Ann Wachira - Using a Model

David Bedsole - To the Dog Next Door Who Barks All Day

W. Keith Duffy - Aisle Four: Ice Cream, TV Dinners, Humility

Back Matter

The Journal of the Assembly for Expanded Perspectives on Learning

Back Matter

Investigating First Year Education Students’ Stress Level, Gretchen Geng, Richard Midford

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

This paper investigated the stress levels of first-year education students who undertake teaching practicum and theory units during their first year of teacher education program. First, 139 first-year and 143 other years’ education students completed the PSS-10 scale, which measures perceived level of stress. Then, 147 first-year education students completed an online questionnaire to identify the particular stressors in their learning experience. The first-year education students had significantly higher stress levels than other years’ education students, (p < .01). Contributing stressors included academic work commitment; completing placement and related performance assessments in schools and at university; having a good understanding of the requirements of professional teaching, such as classroom management, and working with mentor teachers; and conflicting work and family commitments. These findings provide greater understanding about the stressors experienced by first-year education students and usefully inform ways to help this group achieve their study and career goals.

Book Reviews, Judy Halden-Sullivan, Elizabeth French, Brad Lucas, Candace Walworth, Caleb Corkery

The Journal of the Assembly for Expanded Perspectives on Learning

Judy Halden-Sullivan - Embracing the "Beginner's Mind"

Elizabeth French - Richardson, Scott. eleMENtary School—(Hyper) Masculinity in a Feminized Context. Rotterdam: Sense Publishers, 2012. Print.

Brad Lucas - Ryden, Wendy and Ian Marshall. Reading, Writing, and the Rhetorics of Whiteness. NY: Routledge, 2012. Print.

Candace Walworth - Kroll, Barry. The Open Hand: Arguing as an Art of Peace. Logan, UT: Utah State UP, 2013. Print.

Caleb Corkery - Conway, Jeremiah. The Alchemy of Teaching: The Transformation of Lives. Boulder, CO: Sentient Publications, 2013. Print.

The Personal Creed Project: Portal To Deepened Learning, John Creger

The Journal of the Assembly for Expanded Perspectives on Learning

The founder of an influential and transformative writing project reflects on its grounding in Moffett’s philosophy and presents the model of learning that grew out of it.

"Put Your Ear Close To The Whispering Branch..." Deep Listening In The English Classroom, Jessica Jones

The Journal of the Assembly for Expanded Perspectives on Learning

Taking her cue from Guy Murchie’s Song of the Sky, the author discovers a method for reaching at-risk children, whose ventures into poetry engage them deeply in the natural world and make them part of it.

Drawing Is Learning, Laurence Musgrove, Myra Musgrove

The Journal of the Assembly for Expanded Perspectives on Learning

JAEPL’s guru of visual pedagogy visits the origins of his strategy for teaching through “handmade thinking,” which gives students the freedom to re-conceptualize how they read and write.

Transforming Thai Preschool Teachers' Knowledge On Inclusive Practice: A Collaborative Inquiry, Joseph Seyram Agbenyega, Sunanta Klibthong

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

Educating children with disabilities alongside their peers in mainstream preschools has increased intensely over the past few years, affecting all aspects of early childhood education. Many children who previously would have been educated in segregated special centres are now being included in inclusive preschools. This research paper discusses how Thai preschool teachers’ professional knowledge in inclusive education influence the ways they practice within preschool classrooms. Qualitative data obtained through observations and collaborative inquiry with teachers drawn from four preschool in Bangkok, Thailand showed that the lack of adequate teacher preparation for inclusive practice rendered the teachers helpless and unable to …