Massey Documents by Type

Permanent URI for this communityhttps://mro.massey.ac.nz/handle/10179/294

Browse

Subject: search.filters.subject.Mainstreaming in education

Search Results

Now showing 1 - 5 of 5
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Un-strangering 'the stranger' in a strange land : a multi-perspective, participant-led, exploration of in/ex-clusion in NZ mainstream high schools - privileging the voices of senior 'high-functioning' autistic students : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Psychology at Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2021) Crooks, Sharon
    New Zealand’s (NZ) ‘inclusive’ school policies enable autistic students to attend a mainstream school of their choice, with the expectation they will belong, feel accepted, contribute, and participate in ‘school life’. Research has typically focused on biogenetic origins and diagnostic specificity, providing medicalised and stereotypical ways of understanding autistic people. Few qualitative studies have explored autistic students’ understandings and everyday lived experiences of ‘being autistic’ and ‘being in an inclusive mainstream high school’. Excluding their voice from research, necessarily constrains development of policy, pedagogy, and praxis, which might facilitate more inclusive experiences for this population of students. This study was the first in NZ to focus on the lived experiences of autistic adolescents in their senior years (Levels 1-3 NCEA). A multi-perspective, qualitative phenomenological design enabled three tertiary students, three parents, and seven advocates, to augment contributions from five high-functioning autistic adolescents. This research was underpinned by a feminist standpoint epistemology and Bronfenbrenner’s bioecological model, privileging first person experiences and contextual influences. Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis enabled participants’ understandings and experiences to be explored. Tertiary students illumined how medical model understandings of disability constrained and enabled identity formation in high school and implicated being understood. Most of the autistic participants drew on neoliberal ‘governmentality’ to problematise barriers to inclusion, namely ‘governance’ (dominant culture, school rules, and regulation of ‘space’), teacher performativity, and curriculum management. Salient interpersonal barriers included authoritative teachers, social cliques, ‘invisible’ bullying, and ‘one-off’ grievances. ‘Being excluded’ was painful and resulted in feeling ‘de-valued’, impacting motivation and opportunities for success. Facilitators to inclusion were embedded within meaningful interactions, demonstrative care, and common interests, aiding a sense of acceptance, and belonging, but not always resulting in ‘contributing’ and ‘participating’. High school was experienced by autistic participants as a political site where in/ex-clusion ‘gets done’ through ordinary technologies that ‘sift and shift’ students, according to sameness and difference, or ontological ‘otherness’. This study addresses prominent diagnostic and identity issues, academic and social achievement, and support, all of which are primary concerns for educationalists (including educational psychologists) striving to understand inclusion and improve outcomes for autistic students.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Special Education 2000 : the implementation experience : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Social Policy at Massey University
    (Massey University, 2003) Wills, Roderick Malcolm Campbell
    Since 1877 the state has provided free, secular and compulsory education for most of the children of school age in New Zealand. In 1989 legislation was passed that gave the right to enrol and attend at the local school to all children. For more than one hundred years children with disabilities and special educational needs were supported in a piecemeal fashion. The influences and practices from the medical discourse often dominated their education and services when they were available. With the passage into law of a right to an education in the mainstream for all children the state accepted the responsibility for the full range of students with special educational needs. At the same time as passing into law the opportunities for these children the Fourth Labour Government was initiating major reforms in education administration. The Education Act 1989 made provision for the governance of schools by locally elected Boards of Trustees. In 1995 after a hiatus with no special education policy for an interval of almost six years the policy Special Education 2000 was announced. This policy programme was to complete the work of education reform commenced under Tomorrow's Schools. The feature of this was to be the shift in responsibility for the education of students with special educational needs from the Ministry of Education to local school Boards of Trustees. This study examines the experiences of a small group of stakeholders as they implement the policies of Special Education 2000. Four secondary school principals participated in interviews that complemented policy analysis as part of this study .The outcomes of implementation varied for the participants. For two of them the policies appeared to offer continuity and opportunity to extend school services for students with high and very high special educational needs. For the other two this was not the case and a redirection or cessation of services appeared to be the outcome of the new policies. The findings of this study pinpoint the issues arising from the selection of policy instruments to implement and achieve policy goals, difficulties are identified due to a mismatch between the two.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Interaction with text : a study of teachers' mediation of materials in mainstream and ESOL secondary school classrooms : a thesis presented in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Second Language Teaching at Massey University
    (Massey University, 2001) Davey, Sarah Elizabeth
    The increasingly multi-cultural nature of New Zealand society is accompanied by burgeoning school enrolments of students whose first language is not English (called ESOL students in this study). Immigration, refugee movements, and the recruitment of international students for largely economic purposes, all contribute to this. Whilst many of these students are competent English speakers when they enrol at our schools, large numbers are not. In secondary schools, regardless of English language competence, most ESOL students are placed in mainstream classes for the majority of their timetable, with the addition of a relatively small amount of specialist English language tuition. How do both these mainstream and ESOL teachers address the language learning needs of these students? Because texts remain central to classroom teaching and learning, this study considers how teachers mediate texts with students. It has a particular focus on how this mediation contributes to the language learning environment for ESOL students in both mainstream and ESOL classes, using classroom observation as its primary source of data. This study reveals both predictable and unexpected results. It is not surprising that it finds extensive use of questioning by teachers in their mediation of texts. However, the value of copious recall or display questions for senior secondary school students is challenged by this study, and the importance is asserted of referential questioning to develop critical thinking skills in relation to text. The preponderance of teacher-dominated classrooms and classroom language is a disappointing finding of this study, especially because the study reveals that students say very little in such an environment. More collaborative and interactive teaching methods would help ESOL students use, and therefore learn, English more effectively. Thus the study finds a lot of class time invested in the use of texts, but comparatively little effective mediation to help both native-speaking and ESOL students comprehend the language of the texts. The study reveals the need for teachers to acknowledge their role as teachers of language, and especially to mediate texts with students by teaching reading strategies.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Mainstreaming secondary students with intellectual disabilities into regular classrooms : an investigation of the perceived training needs of classroom teachers : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Education in Special Education at Massey University
    (Massey University, 1995) Shimman, Peter Greville
    The New Zealand education system, like that of other countries, is currently committed to increasing the level to which students with disabilities are integrated into regular classrooms. This policy of "mainstreaming" brings regular classroom teachers increasingly in contact with students with special educational needs. Pre-service training may not have prepared classroom teachers to work with mainstreamed students. In-service training has been advocated as an effective way to address this lack of skills. The thesis uses two research methods to investigate the training needs regular classroom teachers feel they have in order to prepare them for mainstreaming. A questionnaire survey was conducted requiring secondary school teachers to indicate their training priorities for mainstreaming. A case study was conducted using progressive interviews to focus on the experiences of nine secondary school teachers during their first year of mainstreaming and particularly on changes in their perceived training needs. Results show that relatively few teachers have received training for mainstreaming, although the majority of teachers surveyed feel such training is important. Training needs were seen to fall into three main categories. Those associated with classroom management were rated as most important, followed by training areas associated with addressing individual needs. Training in theoretical issues was seen as least important. The perceived training needs of the teachers in the case study changed during the course of the year. Initially, training needs associated with classroom management and those associated with meeting individual needs were given equal priority. By the end of the year teachers' focus was on training to address the individual needs of mainstreamed students. The implications of these results on the design and delivery of in-service training activities related to mainstreaming is discussed. Teachers in the case study also raised other issues and concerns which affected the quality of the mainstream placement. In particular the concerns were related to inadequate information about the individual needs and goals of mainstreamed students and their Individualised Educational Programmes.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    School principals' talk about mainstreaming - a study in discourse analysis : a thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master in Educational Administration at Massey University
    (Massey University, 1994) Thorburn, Janice Evelyn
    The interview accounts of nine urban, regular school principals are examined to identify the different positions held by these principals on the issue of the mainstreaming or inclusion of students with disabilities and special needs in regular schools. Applying the methodology discourse analysis, the different positions are investigated, and their implications explored, in terms of the ways they are justified in the context of wider beliefs and conceptions about the nature of education and the nature of disability. The literature review describes the development of special education in New Zealand, the growing practice of mainstreaming, and the significance of the emergence of the Regular Education Initiative to the mainstreaming debate. The conflict in the debate is seen to lie in the differing conceptions people hold about the nature of education and the nature of disability. These conceptions are fully explored and applied as discourses within the debate. Discourse analysis as a methodology is described in detail and the results of the analysis are reported in reference to the seven main discourses identified. Four of the discourses - the pro status quo, the medical, the lay and the charity discourses - are described as divisive discourses in that they in effect deny the equal rights of students with special needs to attend regular schools. Two other discourses - the rights and the proactive discourses - are described as inclusive, in that they argue for the rights of students with disabilities or special needs to be included in their neighbourhood schools and classes. A seventh discourse, the critical discourse, can be employed as a divisive or as an inclusive discourse. It is claimed that this study has increased the potential for critical analysis of the mainstreaming debate in two main ways: firstly, by applying Fulcher's four identified discourses of disability to accounts by school leaders in the New Zealand setting (Fulcher, 1989); and, secondly, by identifying from the literature and the data three further discourses and applying these to the debate. These three discourses provide further tools that enable educators and others to critically analyze their positions in the debate. It is hoped that critical analysis of discourses will lead to the challenging or current segregating practices in the education of students with special needs, and to more support and acceptance of their inclusion in regular classes and schools.