Knowledge and expertise about safeguarding children and child protection are both essential skills for schoolteachers. Since 2004, specific learning about these topics has been included in the curricula for undergraduate and postgraduate trainee teachers. This article explores the development of child protection education and learning for trainee teachers at the University of the West of England, and reflects on some of our experiences, learning to date and student feedback. Child protection education is a feature of all undergraduate and postgraduate trainee teacher courses at this university. Our model differs from others as it is embedded in face-to-face learning which is led by four professionals from relevant disciplines: education, health, police and social work. Evaluations have been mostly positive, and it is intended that such reflections might be helpful to other higher education institutions, local authorities and schools in informing the development of their curricula.
KEY PRACTITIONER MESSAGES• Safeguarding and child protection training is a vital aspect of education for trainee teachers.• An interprofessional team including a teacher, children's nurse, police officer and social worker is able to model respectful collaboration and communication required for professional practice in this area.• Trainee teachers appreciated meeting the range of professionals in the training context as it enabled them to discuss issues of concern in a safe environment.
This study seeks to present data and discussion arising from a case study of a school in Finland renowned for its practice in the inclusion of learners with additional support requirements due to cognitive and physical disabilities. It aims to establish how the school staff understand their practice with inclusion through day-to-day professional experiences. The process of reflexive dialogue has enabled authors to reconceptualise our understanding of inclusive education through gaining deep contextual insight. The case study emerges as an inspiring effort to reduce exclusion and isolation through skilful manipulation of physical, institutional and communicative contexts, from which we may draw valuable lessons. The case study demonstrated high levels of personal motivation in teachers and assistants, used as a force for participation in inclusive education – bottom-up, via dialogue, consultation, voluntary involvement and transformation by exposure. This democratic approach was evident in and supported through leadership and management, teaching and learning, and the involvement of the wider community
Our differences with Croll and Moses centre on their interpretation of the term 'inclusion', the way in which they theorise their findings, and their use of the terms 'pragmatism' and 'ideology' as instruments of analysis in trying to understand a patchy move to inclusion. In particular, a taken-as-given use of the term 'ideological' to describe the views of others is troublesome, carrying as it does intimations of partisanship in others, but only rationality in the user. We suggest that if informants and commentators employ the term 'ideological', the use of this descriptor by these informants and commentators should form a principal focus of scholarly analysis.Keywords: inclusion, special educational needs, ideology Croll and Moses (1998) present an interesting and an important contribution to recent debates on inclusion. They find from their research that there has been some movement toward inclusion but that this has been slow and uneven. To account for this unevenness, a dichotomy is drawn between pragmatism and ideology as a means of explaining competing pressures on the placement system: pragmatism, it is suggested, motivates LEA decision-makers, while ideology generates pressure for inclusion. A central theme concerning the 'ideological' adoption of inclusion runs through the paper, and a number of points tangential to this theme are made. These include: functional integration has come to be called 'inclusion' and there's really not much difference (if any) between functional integration and inclusion; those who propose inclusion on the basis of a value position and who also seek evidence of its success labour under a 'tension' in their reasoning.We divide this response to the paper into three parts . . .
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