Purpose: This paper emerged from the challenges encountered by both authors as academics during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond. Based on their subsequent reflections on inclusion in education for minoritised academics in pandemic-affected institutional contexts, they argue that beyond student-centred foci for inclusion, equity in the field, is…

In the context of international systemic reforms promoting professional standards for teachers and inclusivity of diverse students in schools, this paper presents and demonstrates conceptual means by which educators can critically respond to the uncomfortable couplet of standardisation and difference. This is primarily achieved by theorising…

This paper presents an overview of a situational analysis of inclusive schooling in Spain from the perspective of students with special educational needs. The purpose of this work was to learn how young people collectively considered their experiences of school inclusion. The participants--aged 12-19 years who attended six different…

In this paper I draw upon findings of a recent qualitative project conducted in Queensland, Australia in which all actors--the researcher and 5 participants aged 13-17 years--were linked together by our shared experiences of being students with impaired vision (VI) and who were educated in inclusive secondary schools in Australia during the last…

Life's paradoxes present across the varied landscapes we traverse in education and serve as formidable barriers in attempts to secure ethical consistency in practice. The presence of paradox invites educational researchers and practitioners to diligently examine our available choices, particularly when fixed by dominant ways of knowing/being. This…

This paper explores the experiences of a small group of families in Australia in relation to recent reform to disability policy by way of the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS). Framed in critical disability perspectives of policy implementation research, the paper focuses on the extent to which the scheme articulates inclusive…

In this paper, I report core findings of a small-scale qualitative study that I conducted with a group of young people with vision impairment who attended an inclusive secondary school in the Australian state of Queensland. My objective was to capture their voiced experiences of their schooling through face-to-face interviews and to develop a…

In this paper, we weave in and out of theory and narrative in order to consider the potential of disability and its relationship to knowledge construction. We consider theories to be stories that one can tell about the world. And these theories are enlivened by other stories that we tell about ourselves and the world around us. As disability…

As education systems the world over acknowledge the significance of supporting students with disabilities and related conditions to maintain school enrolment, building the capacity of educators to fulfil an inclusive ambition is frequently promoted through activities like awareness training. Here, the intention is to potentially change how people…

Aligned with the broader movement from structuralism to the post-structuralisms [Lather, P. 2013. "Methodology-21: What Do We Do in the Afterward?" "International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education" 26 (6): 634-645; St. Pierre, E. A. 2009. "Afterword: Decentering Voice in Qualitative Inquiry." In "Voice…

The scientific metaphor of the lens remains widely used in qualitative education research, despite critiques of positivism. Informed by two recently completed empirical doctoral studies relying on "Metaphors We Live By," we propose that the attachment to the lens is a fetish. We argue that this fetish, evident even in purportedly…

The contextual precept of this paper is to re-theorise inclusive education beyond technical rational solutions to the "problem" of disability. Drawing on Foucauldian and critical disability theories, I make the case for the analysis of inclusive schooling through the lens of students' "included" subjectivities--notwithstanding…

In this paper, a detailed analysis based on the lived experiences of the study participants and the researcher (each with vision impairment) in education, post school and in the pursuit for employment is developed. The policy discourses of disability legislation--both at national and international levels--are explored with particular reference to…