Action Research for Inclusive Education Changing Places, Changing Practices, Changing Minds

Written by a team of practitioner researchers drawn from a wide range of schools and services, this book provides a ground-breaking guide to action research in inclusive education.

This book presents and discusses an approach to action research to help reverse discriminatory and exclusionary practices in education. Insider accounts of action research will help challenge assumptions about the limits of inclusive education, and offer examples of how change can be realistically achieved through processes of collaboration and participation. Written by a team of practitioner researchers drawn from a wide range of schools and services, this book addresses a wide range of real-life situations by exploring ways in which teachers have tackled inequalities in the school environment through action research based on principles of equality and democracy. These include: * the co-ordination of services for minority ethnic groups, including refugee and asylum seeking children* young childrenwith autism working with peers in the literacy hour* action research and the inclusion of gay students* developing the role of learning support assistants in inclusion * reducing exclusion of children with challenging behaviour * listening to the voices of young peoplewith severe learning difficulties * developing links between special and mainstream schools * challenging marginalising practices in Further Education.

1. Action Research: Developing Inclusive Practice and Transforming Cultures F. Armstrong & M. Moore 2. Disability and Empowerment: Personal Integrity in Further Education Research V. Thompson 3. From Confusion to Collaboration: Can Special Schools Contribute to Developing Inclusive Practice in Mainstream Schools? P. Zelaieta 4. Forging and Strengthening Alliances: Learning Support Staff and the Challenge of Inclusion C. Sorsby 5. Students Who Challenge: Reducing Barriers to Inclusion L. Simpson 6. 'We like to talk and we like someone to listen' Cultural Differences and Minority Values as Agents of Change M. Clifton 7. Ordinary Teachers, Ordinary Struggles: Including Children with Social and Communication Difficulties in Everyday Classroom Life K. Charles 8. 'What about me? I live here too!' Raising Voices and Changing Minds Through Participatory Research J. Gwynn 9. Changing Places: Gay Students, Teachers and Research Action C. J. Slater 10. Challenging Behaviour: Ours, Not Theirs K. Dunn

Felicity Armstrong is Senior Lecturer in Inclusive Education at the Institute of Education, University of London. Michele Moore is Director of the Inclusive Education and Equality Research Centre, University of Sheffield.