This article outlines the views of the Australian Special Education Principals' Association (ASEPA) on inclusion and the impact this is having on Australian Government Schools from a school based perspective. ASEPA is a relatively young association and was formed in 1997 out of the need to put forward the case to support students with special needs and disabilities nationally, due to the inability of the other peak educational bodies to adequately cover the special education area, while covering so many other areas relevant to the day to day operations of schools. Meeting the needs of special needs and disability students is the core business of ASEPA. Fiona Forbes, ASEPA's Vice President, covers areas such as parental choice, schools and their ability to meet the needs of students with special needs and disabilities, teacher training and the type of schools needed in the future to further develop effective programmes for ‘all’ students.
The number of students who are 'at risk' including those with special education needs and or disabilities is increasing rapidly worldwide in all schools. This has prompted widespread debate regarding the impact of initiatives in Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting for this group of students. Teachers, parents and administrators need to have further information to enable them to contribute to the development of content, assessment and reporting processes in the curriculum that are inclusive, relevant, reliable and valid. This paper explores some of the issues and dilemmas raised by recent policy discussions regarding the inception of a first national Australian Curriculum. It draws purposively on literature relating to developments in England and Wales, where national curriculum provision has existed for over 25 years, as well as the responses of a group of stakeholders (teachers and leaders) from both England/Wales and Australian schools and settings. These data highlight both tension and opportunity in this area of work.ª 2013 NASEN
This article examines the personal and professional attributes of school leaders in relation to special educational needs and disability (SEND) and assesses the extent to which these might be sufficient to give such professionals the confidence necessary to be role models for their staff. Data were collected via a survey of a randomly selected set of Australian school leaders, in both special and mainstream schools. This included principals from all sectors of the Australian school system. The study was based on the premise that school principals place as much importance on the need to be instructional leaders as they do on being managers. The study was informed by an assumption that in order to be successful as a school leader in respect of SEND, a school principal requires a deep pedagogical knowledge and a clear understanding of children's developmental milestones. The study found that school leaders expressed a need to develop further understanding of how to differentiate the taught curriculum in order to identify and support school‐wide quality teaching and learning processes for students with SEND.
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