This paper presents an on-going project ‘Counting Every Child’, which aims to generate impact from PhD research in order to transform current policy, practice and thinking regarding disabled children’s inclusion in education in China. This one-year project is funded by the UK ESRC Global Challenges Research Fund Postdoctoral Fellowship and was recently commenced in January 2017. It responds directly to China’s open call for intellectual supports for implementing Education 2030 to achieve inclusive and quality education (UNESCO, 2015).

In China, over half of the designated disabled children are enrolled in mainstream schools (Ministry of Education, 2013). Over the past 30 years, there has been a gradual change in the country’s policy framework to support disabled children’s access to mainstream schools. However, little was known about what is happening in classrooms and schools. In particular, disabled children’s voices have not been heard. My PhD research thus explored disabled children’s experiences and views of current provision in mainstream schools. It was driven by a stance of recognising disabled children as active and competent social actors, and it adopted an ethnographic approach. The research found that children were still facing marginalisation and exclusion. The special educational provision, such as ‘resource classrooms’, was found to interrupt children’s sense of togetherness and generate negative labelling effects. Barriers to disabled children’s participation were further reinforced by the prevailing charitable model of disability in Confucian society and the competitive and performative school culture. The research concluded that pupil voice must be positioned as a core starting point for China to move towards inclusive education (Wang, 2016).

Built on the PhD research described above, the project ‘Counting Every Child’ is devised to disseminate four key messages: 1) disabled children’s voices must be heard as a sustainable strategy for developing inclusive education 2) there needs a more holistic understanding of disabled children’s inclusion 3) teachers’ development of inclusive pedagogy in classrooms needs to be supported. 4) it requires all stakeholders to work together to transform the status quo.

To engage with a wide range of audience, including pupils, families, practitioners from schools and NGOs, and key policy-makers, a variety of impact activities will be conducted. These activities not only involve producing reports, handbooks, child-friendly posters and brochures, but also include visits to schools, face-to-face workshops with teachers and policy-makers, and online dissemination through the project’s website and social media platform.

During May-July 2017, a field trip to China will be carried out. By the time of presenting this paper, I would be able to evaluate the effectiveness of these impact strategies and the whole process of making research relevant to its users. There are two specific questions that will be explored. First, to what extent can a researcher/research disrupt a nation’s dominant narrative? For example, is it possible to challenge the provision of ‘resource classrooms’, when significant funding pours into its nationwide expansion? Second, as a UK-based academic who does not have any formal role in China’s policy-making, how to negotiate impact through working with local partners (this project is in collaboration with the Research Centre for Inclusive Education at Beijing Normal University)? Indeed, the discussion of the latter question will enrich our understandings of collaboration and partnerships in international research.

Ministry of Education. (2013) Basic statistics of special education in 2013. Accessed at: http://www.moe.edu.cn/s78/A03/moe_560/s8492/s8493/201312/t20141217_181902.html UNESCO (2015) From Education for All to SDG 4 Education 2030 - China’s call for international experts on implementing the global agenda of sustainable educational development. Accessed at: http://www.moe.edu.cn/s78/A23/moe_880/201601/t20160104_226732.html Wang, Y. (2016) Imagining inclusive schooling: an ethnographic inquiry into disabled children’s learning and participation in regular schools in Shanghai. University of Edinburgh.