Blog post Part of special issue: Spotlight on SEND: Curriculum design and practice

Editorial: Spotlight on SEND: Curriculum design and practice

Gerry Czerniawski, Professor of Education/Research Degrees Leader at University of East London Victoria Pugh, Primary Lecturer in PSHE and RSE,Head of SENDI and Diversity at University of Worcester Richard Pountney, Emeritus Fellow at Sheffield Hallam University 5 Aug 2022

On 24 March 2022, the British Curriculum Forum (BCF) ran the Spotlight on SEND: Curriculum Design and Practice online event. The event focused attention on research-informed curriculum design and practice to support positive outcomes for all pupils with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND). Teachers, practitioners, researchers, leaders, managers and academics came together to share their critical perspectives and assumptions about researching this aspect of the curriculum. We are immensely grateful to all of our speakers for agreeing to write posts for this BERA Blog Special Issue. This collection of standalone, but related, posts consists of 10 contributions:

Katherine Runswick-Cole and Martina Smith kick-start this impressive collection by invoking DisPolitical Love as a force for change in SEND policy and practice. Margaret Mulholland invites teachers to ‘think like a detective’ in her metaphor for inquiry and teaching methodology for effective inclusive teaching. In her post, Amelia Roberts focuses on lesson study as a mechanism to enhance curriculum implementation and impact on pupils with special educational needs. Writing about the National Framework for Inclusion in Scotland, Kirsten Darling-McQuistan examines the extent to which a singular framework can support student teachers and teachers to include learners in diverse classroom communities. Challenging the ‘normative model of difference and its implications on pedagogy and practice’, Janet Hoskin asks how can we challenge assumptions about learners with SEND? Drawing on his experience as a teacher in Northern Ireland, a special needs advisory officer, vice principal and principal, Colin Millar highlights the importance of excellent communication between teacher and pupil and offers his guidance on communication efficacy in the classroom. For Luke Beardon, the equity versus equality debate is more than pertinent when any discussion about autistic inclusion takes place. In his post, Luke offers his take on what inclusion, for the autistic learner, is all about. Acknowledging the many barriers to inclusive education that pupils encounter, Amelie Thompson writes about a fascinating cross-sector action research project focusing on primary curriculum design and planning. Our final guest speaker contribution comes from Chandrika Devarakonda, who explores the concepts of special educational needs and disabilities and intersectionality, and highlights the importance of an awareness of how these are linked.

On the day of this event, participants had the opportunity to move into two parallel sessions where our speakers presented and took questions from their audience. In this collection we include the two summaries of those sessions from our two event chairs, Victoria Pugh and Richard Pountney.

We would like to thank, once again, all our speakers for agreeing to write for this BERA Blog special issue. These contributors share a passion and dedication to all things related to SEND and the curriculum. But this work is not something we can do on our own – it demands collaboration on all fronts: collaboration with our politicians and policymakers; collaboration with our subject associations, our examination bodies, our NGOs and charities; and collaboration with our teaching and student unions, and indeed all of us who are involved in teacher education in all its guises and locations. For this reason, we would like to ask everyone reading this collection to promote it on your social networks (including Twitter). In doing so we can celebrate and champion the work of these amazing colleagues and all those involved in this field.

Gerry Czerniawski, Professor

Professor of Education/Research Degrees Leader at University of East London

Gerry Czerniawski runs the Professional Doctorate in Education at UEL and teaches on Initial Teacher Education (ITE) courses. In addition to his role as a researcher, author and teacher educator he is the Lead Editor of the BERA Blog and a trustee and council member of the British Educational Research Association (BERA), standing as Engagement Chair since 2017.

Victoria Pugh, Mrs

Primary Lecturer in PSHE and RSE,Head of SENDI and Diversity at University of Worcester

Victoria is a senior lecturer at the University of Worcester specialising in PSHE and RSE. She is also the SENDI and diversity lead for Initial Teacher Education (ITE) teaching on both undergraduate and postgraduate courses. Victoria has 15 years of experience in early years, primary and secondary education including UK and international curricula. She has developed a PSHE framework for University ITE with the PSHE association and leads a number of network groups within Herefordshire and Worcestershire to support teachers and schools with PSHE education and SENDi.

Richard Pountney, Dr

Emeritus Fellow at Sheffield Hallam University

Richard leads the knowledge in education research group in the Sheffield Institute of Education at Sheffield Hallam University. He is a senior fellow of the Higher Education Academy (HEA). Richard holds a Teacher Fellowship from the university for excellence in learning and teaching. He has extensive project management experience and leads the online Mentoring Practice Enhancement Programme for teachers. He researches the curriculum and teachers’ professional knowledge for curriculum making, and he supervises postgraduate research in the curriculum. As a director and trustee of XP multi-academy trust, and chair of the trust’s curriculum committee, he advises schools on developing the curriculum. Richard is an international research associate of the Knowledge in Education Unit at Auckland University, and the LCT Centre for Knowledge Building at Sydney University.