Developing the teaching workforce to support pupils with special educational needs and disabilities
Fundamental to the success of inclusion is the teaching workforce: their attitudes, skills and knowledge. However, effective support for teachers to support pupils with SEND has been limited. The standards agenda, increasing attainment and improving pupil behaviour, has provided further challenges to the development of inclusion. Progress requires creative approaches to address the dynamic tension f the two policies.
This symposium explores a challenging, national multi-faceted initiative in England through the Department for Children, Schools and Families and the Training and Development Agency for Schools over the period 2008-11. Designed to support the development of those in initial teacher training (ITT) and those qualified and at different levels within the teaching workforce the main elements are the development of support materials for those in ITT and the Inclusion Development Programme (IDP) for those in schools. In each case a phased system of development, dissemination and embedding was set up, the latter under the guidance of the National Strategies and using the Regional Hubs for SEND as a key component. Other elements included the development of extended placements in special schools and specialist provision for ITT trainees, and the development of the Stammering Information Programme for schools.
The symposium draws on evidence analysed to date (January 2010), supplemented by further data collection up to June 2020. Data are derived from all ITT programmes (tutors and trainees); and from IDP leads, headteachers, SENCOs, newly qualified teachers, experienced teachers and teaching assistants in schools from 30 LAs. Large scale surveys (1000 schools) and interviews with each participant group (> 100 currently, about 200 by June) are the main means of data collection.
The three papers will provide:
1. An overview of the role of professional development of the teaching workforce in the development of support for pupils with SEND, the policy drivers for the initiative and the policy implications of results from the overall study to date
2. An examination of the effectiveness of the dissemination model adopted for the IDP 3. A detailed examination of the strategies used by regional hubs and schools to encourage school participation: five dimensions each with 3-8 options are identified. Implications for fidelity and consistency are explored.
A discussant will interrogate the findings and conclusions
(Click on an abstract title to view it in PDF format.)