Session Information
02 SES 02 A, Inclusion of Disadvantaged Individuals
Paper Session
Contribution
The topic: Practices Promoting Inclusion of Adult Students with Disabilities in Kazakhstani Technical Vocational Education and Training Institutions (TVETIs).
Kazakhstan through its State Program on Education Development (2016-2019) has set a goal to make 100 percent of TVET Institutions inclusive by 2019. Although, the government adopted a number of international policy documents and reaffirmed its willingness to promote inclusion, adults with disabilities are still underrepresented within TVETIs. On the other hand, the extent of inclusion of Kazakhstani TVETIs is unknown. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to explore practices promoting inclusion of adults with disabilities within Kazakhstani (TVETIs).
The study will attempt to answer this overarching research question: Which teaching practices promote inclusion of adult students with disabilities in Kazakhstani Technical Vocational Education and Training Institutions? The following sub-questions will help answering the main research question: How is inclusive education understood within TVETIs? How is inclusion of adult students with disabilities applied in TVETIs generally? Which practices are known to promote inclusion of adult students with disabilities in TVETIs internationally? Which of those practices could be applicable to a Kazakhstani TVETIs and how those could (if necessary) be promoted?
Departing from the Activity Theory by Engestrom (2001) as a lens, this qualitative study will adopt Collaborative-Action-Research (CAR) as a research design. The participants will be selected conveniently to form a collaborative action research team composed of faculty and students. The research data will be collected in four phases of Action Research i.e. Planning, Observation, Action and Reflection. During an action research cycle, the data will be collected by means of focus-group discussions, observations of lectures, interviews, document analysis and diaries. Triangulation of findings from the literature as well as empirical data will be conducted in order to achieve trustworthiness. The data will be analyzed through group interpretative data analysis and an inductive analysis of all sets of data.
The study will develop the conceptual framework of inclusive education and contribute to the development of research methodology of Action Research design. The significant contribution of this study is that it applied Activity Theory as the facilitator of research where the CAR is the tool for implementing changes and Professional Learning Community (PLC) is the vehicle to explore inclusive teaching practices. In this study, PLC is a collaboration of five TVET teachers and the researcher who is continuously looking for learning opportunities; share their learning for developing the individual and joint capacity of the community with the aim to improve learning to students. Such approach connecting CAR and PLC within Activity Theory contributes to implementing meaningful changes in Kazakhstani TVETIs by maintaining inclusive education to adults with disabilities during their lifespan. The recommendations of this research, if accepted, will help to raise the enrollment of the target group population as well as its graduates’ employability.
Method
The qualitative approach for this study has been chosen as it allows exploring the experiences in detail. Qualitative research begins with assumptions and the use the interpretive framework that informs the study of the research problem. It is assumed that the researcher and the team of teachers have assumptions about inclusion and inclusive teaching practices in relation to Kazakhstani TVET system. Collaborative-Action-Research (CAR) as a research design will be employed by the researcher in this research. This study will employ five most common data collection instruments: one-on-one interviews, focus group interviews, observation, diaries and document analysis.
Expected Outcomes
The strong argument for promoting inclusion in TVETIs is that training of the unemployed including those with disabilities can be beneficial to the economy of Kazakhstan. In order to facilitate this progress, it is necessary that Kazakhstani TVET colleges become inclusive and promote inclusive practices. Adoption of inclusive education by the Government of Kazakhstan along with life-long education is aimed at all levels of education including TVETIs by 2020. The study aims: 1) To investigate how inclusive education understood and conceptualized within Technical Vocational Education and Training Institutions? 2)To identify teaching practices of inclusion of adult students with disabilities in Technical Vocational Education and Training Institutions in other contexts and internationally? 3) To identify which of those teaching practices could be applicable to a Kazakhstani Technical Vocational Education and Training Institutions and how could those (if necessary) be promoted? 4) To develop a practical guide of practices which promote inclusion of adult students with disabilities in Kazakhstani TVETIs.
References
Ainscow, M., & Sandill, A. (2010). Developing inclusive education systems: the role of organisational cultures and leadership. International Journal of Inclusive Education, 14(4), 401-416. Avalos, B. (2011). Teacher professional development in teaching and teacher education over ten years. Teaching and teacher education, 27(1), 10-20. Ball, S. J. (2007). Big policies/small world. An introduction to international perspectives in education policy. I The RoutledgeFalmer Reader in Educational Policy and Politics, Bob Lingard och Jenny Ozga (eds.), 36-48. Booth, T., Ainscow, M., Black-Hawkins, K., Vaughan, M., & Shaw, L. (2002). Index for inclusion. Bristol: Centre for Studies on Inclusive Education. Burton, N., Drundrett, M., & Jones, M (2008). Doing Your Education Research Project. London EC1Y: Sage Canning, M., Finney, J., Jones, D., & McGuinness, A. (2013). RoadMap for the development of education in Kazakhstan: Higher education roadmap recommendation. Retrieved from: http://www.gse.upenn.edu/pdf/irhe/roadmap_kazakhstan.pdf Creswell, J., & Clark, V. (2007). Designing and Conducting Mixed Methods Research. SAGE Publications, Inc. California 91320 Creswell, J, W. (2013). Qualitative inquiry & research design: Choosing among the five approaches (3-rd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Creswell, J.W. (2014). Educational Research: Planning, Conducting and Evaluating Quantitative and Qualitative Research. Pearson Education Limited. Creswell, J. W., & Poth, C. N. (2017). Qualitative inquiry and research design: Choosing among five approaches. Sage publications. Derri, V., Vasiliadou, O., & Kioumourtzoglou, E. (2015). The effects of a short-term professional development program on physical education teachers’ behaviour and students’ engagement in learning. European Journal of Teacher Education, 38(2), 234-262. Goodnough, K. (2011). Taking action in science classrooms through collaborative action research. Springer Science & Business Media. Hennink, M., Hutter, I., & Bailey, A. (2010). Qualitative research methods. Sage. Hoyle, E.,P. John. 1995. Professional Knowledge and Professional Practice. London:Cassell. Jarvis, P. (2007). Globalization, Lifelong learning and the Learning Society Sociological Perspectives. Rouledge Taylor & Francis Group. London and New York Makoelle, T. M. (2012). The State of Inclusive Pedagogy in South Africa: A literature review. Journal of Sociology and Social Anthropology, 3(2), 93-102. Makoelle, T.M. (2016). Inclusive teaching in South Africa (First edition). Published: SUN MeDIA MeTRO. United Nations, (1983). World Program of Action Concerning Disabled People. New York: author. Retrieved March 22, 2017 from: http://www.independentliving.org/files/WPACDP.pdf UNESCO, (1994). The Salamanca Statement and Framework for Action on Special Needs Education. Paris: UNESCO.
Search the ECER Programme
- Search for keywords and phrases in "Text Search"
- Restrict in which part of the abstracts to search in "Where to search"
- Search for authors and in the respective field.
- For planning your conference attendance you may want to use the conference app, which will be issued some weeks before the conference
- If you are a session chair, best look up your chairing duties in the conference system (Conftool) or the app.