Conference Agenda

Research on how schools become inclusive of all learners irrespective of their diversity has not yet clearly answered the question about how do schools become inclusive. The research has shown that many variables contribute towards creating highly inclusive schools and it ranges from leaders who are highly inclusive (DeMathews et.al, 2020; Woodcock & Woolfson, 2019); school staff who have positive attitudes towards inclusion; staff with high levels of teaching efficacy for inclusion (Wray, Sharma, Subban, 2022); and, availability of necessary resources (Finkelstein, 2021). While all these variables are important and do make a significant impact in influencing a school's inclusive practices, there is a lack of research that could explain how do these different variables influence each other and contribute cumulatively towards building a school's overall commitment to inclusion. We argue that one key variable that has not yet been researched enough and could perhaps be most significant in explaining how a school builds its overall commitment towards inclusion is the school staff's collective efficacy beliefs about inclusion (Subban et al, 2022).

The overall study was guided by the Theory of Planned Behaviour (Ajzen, 2005). Applying this theory to the field of inclusive education it is hypothesised that in a school, a teacher's actual behaviour (or the use of effective inclusive practices) could be determined if we know the teacher's intentions to teach in inclusive classrooms. The intention to teach in inclusive classrooms in turn is influenced by three interrelated variables of their attitudes towards inclusion, their competence to teach in an inclusive classroom (i.e. teaching efficacy to teach in inclusive classrooms), and the subjective norm or how the rest of the school community perceives the action of inclusion. The subjective norm for the purpose of this study was defined as collective efficacy beliefs. It is the first time we are making an attempt to measure collective efficacy beliefs and determine how it interacts with attitudes and efficacy and influences the intentions of the individual teacher in a school.

We established an international group bringing researchers from six countries (Australia, Canada, Greece, Italy, Switzerland and Germany) to undertake a series of projects in examining the role of collective efficacy beliefs in influencing a school's overall commitment towards inclusion. In this symposium, we will present findings from three interrelated projects.

The first paper of this symposium would focus on how we collaborated across different country contexts to conceptualise collective efficacy and commitments towards inclusion. The paper essentially argues that it takes a village (or everyone in the school community) to make collective efforts to make the school inclusive. The second paper of the symposium will discuss qualitative data from four countries where we interviewed principals of highly successful inclusive schools to understand how they build collective commitment to inclusion and how they support the implementation of inclusive practices. In the last paper of this symposium, we will present an analysis of quantitative data from five countries that examined the relationship between three variables of attitudes, individual teaching efficacy beliefs and teachers' intentions to teach in inclusive classrooms. An examination of this relationship is necessary as ultimately, it is school staff intention that actually is the best predictor of their teaching behaviour.

We hope the symposium will not be of value to researchers and policymakers, it will also be of value to educators. We will share new knowledge related to measuring collective efficacy beliefs and how it interacts with other variables. We will also share the key lessons learnt so far from different countries about how to build collective commitment to inclusion.

Inclusive education is often mandated in many countries through national legislation that is undergirded by global recommendations from recognised organisations like UNESCO (UNESCO, 2016). Student diversity within contemporary classrooms is increasing as learners adopt varied means of processing and expressing information received in the mainstream classroom. It is therefore essential to reconsider the responsibility and roles of modern educators, and of how different stakeholders located within the learning context, can best accommodate student needs (Subban & Sharma, 2021). This study proposes the adoption of more collective responsibility, drawing on the plethora of skills and knowledge vested in teachers, school leaders, paraprofessional staff and parents. In this context, Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological Systems Theory (1974) framed the view that classrooms, and indeed schools, are microcosms of society. If these spaces are to enhance societal functioning overall, there would need to be more socially-responsible sharing of responsibilities when attempting to include all students (Bronfenbrenner, 1974). Emanating from this premise, the study positions the contemporary classroom as a village, drawing together all stakeholders in order to foster a nurturing, compassionate space in which students with varying learning profiles are appropriately accommodated. The study draws on the cumulative wisdom of a group of collaborating academics involved in both teacher education and inclusive education. This convenient sample included experts in the field of inclusive education from Australia, Canada, Germany, Greece, Italy, and Switzerland. Their joint dialogue yielded four key themes that should be incorporated into the learning environment to promote intentional collective responsibility. These themes included the creation of a nurturing community; the development of empathetic relationships; building supportive interaction between stakeholders and designing learning programs involving targeted teaching. Creating adaptable and flexible learning contexts is fundamental to inclusive education, so dialogue of this nature will continue to inform the work of inclusive educators, researchers and educational administrators in the field.

Bronfenbrenner, U. (1974). Developmental research, public policy, and the ecology of childhood. Child development, 45(1), 1-5. Subban, P., & Sharma, U. (2021). Supporting inclusive education benefits us all. The Sydney Morning Herald. Accessed from: https://www.smh.com.au/education/supporting-inclusive-education-benefits-us-all-20210219-p57439.html. UNESCO. (2016). Education 2030: Incheon Declaration and Framework for Action for the implementation of Sustainable Development Goal 4: Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all. Education 2023. UNESDOC Digital Library., Accessed from: https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000245656.

Inclusion is a contested concept (Woodcock & Hardy, 2022). Research has shown the importance of teachers’ perceptions of school as well as leaders’ support for inclusion (Woodcock & Woolfson, 2019). Understanding those school systems where leaders effectively support teachers in carving out a community-based inclusive culture is vital for an equitable inclusive school for all. In this paper, we present the results of inclusive school principals’ perceptions and understandings of factors that facilitate inclusive policies and practices in their own school community. The study is an exploratory qualitative research design, collecting interviews and focus groups with 12 principals of highly ranked inclusive schools from Australia, Greece, Switzerland, Italy. The principals were selected through recognition of highly effective inclusiveness throughout the school community. The selected schools reflected a varied range of characteristics, including in relation to size (catering from approximately 100 to 750 students), class (low socio-economic situation to wealthy situation) and ethnicity (mostly white to multiracial and multiethnic schools). Interviews and focus groups were approximately 45-60 minutes each and were recorded and transcribed. T An iterative process of thematic content analysis was carried out manually from a group of three independent researchers (Saldana, 2013). They agreed to work individually and separately in a first cycle of the analysis, following a strongly inductive and “in-vivo” approach. The initial coding phase generated several inductive codes derived from the transcripts. Then, in a second phase, the three researchers confronted each other and identified the axial categories of the content analysis. Finally, in a third phase, categories were read, and additional inductive codes were generated to further compare principals’ perceptions and actions. The findings revealed five broad, key factors that affect and impact on school inclusivity. Those factors regard family cooperation, students’ engagement, commitment to inclusive practices, collaboration among peers (students, teachers, administrative staff), and inter-institutional network. We adopted the framework offered by communities of practices (Wenger et al., 2002) to depict a community-based approach to school inclusion that could encompass these key factors. While previous studies made clear that principals confront numerous challenges in creating inclusive schools, some of which are beyond their control, this study formalizes a community-based approach to school inclusion identifying key facilitation factors on which principals can rely on to navigate material, social, and political challenges.

DeMatthews, D. E., Serafini, A., & Watson, T. N. (2021). Leading Inclusive Schools: Principal Perceptions, Practices, and Challenges to Meaningful Change. Educational Administration Quarterly, 57(1), 3–48. Hardy, I. & Woodcock, S. (2020). ‘Problematising’ policy in practice: principals’ perceptions of inclusion in an era of test-based accountability. Pedagogy, Culture & Society. DOI: 10.1080/14681366.2020.1801813. Hoppey, D., & McLeskey, J. (2013). A case study of principal leadership in an effective inclusive school. Journal of Special Education, 46(4), 245-256. Saldana, J. (2013). The Coding Manual for Qualitative Researchers. The Coding Manual For Qualitative Researchers(2nd ed.). London: SAGE Publications. Wenger, E., McDermott, R.A., & Snyder, W., (2002). Cultivating Communities of Practice: A Guide to Managing Knowledge; Harvard Business Press Woodcock, S. & Hardy, I. (2022). ‘You’re probably going to catch me out here’: principals’ understandings of inclusion policy in complex times. International Journal of Inclusive Education, 26:3, 211-226, DOI: 10.1080/13603116.2019.1645891. Woodcock, S., Woolfson, L. (2019). Are Leaders Leading the Way with Inclusion? Teachers’ Perceptions of Systemic Support and Barriers towards Inclusion. International Journal of Educational Research, 93: 232–242.

Understanding what drives teachers to adopt inclusive practices is crucial for promoting equal educational opportunities for all students. Attitudes toward inclusive education and self-efficacy in using inclusive practices have been identified as important factors in this regard (e.g., Hellmich et al., 2019; Opoku et al., 2021; Sahli Lozano et al., 2021; Sharma et al., 2018). However, there exists considerable variability in their relative importance across studies and teacher samples, with teacher attitudes being sometimes less (e.g., Opoku et al., 2021) or more important than teacher self-efficacy (Hellmich et al., 2019; Sharma et al., 2018), and with diverging patterns across countries (Sahli Lozano et al., 2021). Country-specific differences (e.g., in school systems and in history, legislation and implementation of inclusive education) are used to explain such differences. But such interpretations must be taken with caution because of methodological issues (Davidov, et.al, 2014). This study is the first to systematically investigate the role of teacher attitudes and self-efficacy in the prediction of teachers’ intention to teach in inclusive classrooms across teacher samples from five different countries (Switzerland, Germany, Italy, Greece, and Canada; total N = 1207 teachers), while taking measurement invariance of the measured constructs into account. The results indicate that across all five countries, self-efficacy in collaboration is the most important and consistent predictor of teachers' intentions to teach in inclusive classrooms. This points to the importance of collaboration, a construct closely aligned to collective efficacy and commitment, across different country contexts. This further highlights the importance of enhancing collaboration within the school community which can lead to better inclusion in schools. In contrast, significant differences across countries were found regarding the role of attitudes toward inclusion. Accordingly, three important insights of this study are: 1) despite different national contexts, self-efficacy in collaboration is the most consistent and strongest predictor of teacher intentions’, 2) considering domain-specific aspects in teacher self-efficacy is important in the prediction of teacher intentions’, and 3) teacher attitudes seem more central in some countries than in others. Potential factors (e.g., the level of support provided to teachers in implementing inclusive practices or teacher training) that may explain these common and differential patterns across the five national contexts will be discussed.

Davidov, E., Meuleman, B., Cieciuch, J., Schmidt, P., & Billiet, J. (2014). Measurement Equivalence in Cross-National Research. Annual Review of Sociology, 40(1), 55–75. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-soc-071913-043137 Hellmich, F., Löper, M. F., & Görel, G. (2019). The role of primary school teachers’ attitudes and self‐efficacy beliefs for everyday practices in inclusive classrooms – a study on the verification of the ‘Theory of Planned Behaviour’. Journal of Research in Special Educational Needs, 19(S1), 36–48. https://doi.org/10.1111/1471-3802.12476 Opoku, M. P., Cuskelly, M., Pedersen, S. J., & Rayner, C. S. (2021). Attitudes and self-efficacy as significant predictors of intention of secondary school teachers towards the implementation of inclusive education in Ghana. European Journal of Psychology of Education, 36(3), 673–691. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10212-020-00490-5 Sahli Lozano, C., Sharma, U., & Wüthrich, S. (2021). A comparison of Australian and Swiss secondary school teachers’ attitudes, concerns, self-efficacy, and intentions to teach in inclusive classrooms: Does the context matter? International Journal of Inclusive Education, 1–19. https://doi.org/10.1080/13603116.2021.1988158 Sharma, U., Aiello, P., Pace, E. M., Round, P., & Subban, P. (2018). In-service teachers’ attitudes, concerns, efficacy and intentions to teach in inclusive classrooms: An international comparison of Australian and Italian teachers. European Journal of Special Needs Education, 33(3), 437–446. https://doi.org/10.1080/08856257.2017.1361139