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School leadership and special education: challenges, dilemmas and opportunities from an A ustralian context
Author(s) -
Garner Philip,
Forbes Fiona
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
support for learning
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.25
H-Index - 30
eISSN - 1467-9604
pISSN - 0268-2141
DOI - 10.1111/1467-9604.12033
Subject(s) - premise , mainstream , context (archaeology) , curriculum , educational leadership , principal (computer security) , set (abstract data type) , pedagogy , inclusion (mineral) , psychology , quality (philosophy) , special education , order (exchange) , mathematics education , public relations , medical education , political science , social psychology , medicine , computer science , finance , economics , paleontology , philosophy , linguistics , epistemology , law , biology , programming language , operating system
This article examines the personal and professional attributes of school leaders in relation to special educational needs and disability ( SEND ) and assesses the extent to which these might be sufficient to give such professionals the confidence necessary to be role models for their staff. Data were collected via a survey of a randomly selected set of A ustralian school leaders, in both special and mainstream schools. This included principals from all sectors of the A ustralian school system. The study was based on the premise that school principals place as much importance on the need to be instructional leaders as they do on being managers. The study was informed by an assumption that in order to be successful as a school leader in respect of SEND , a school principal requires a deep pedagogical knowledge and a clear understanding of children's developmental milestones. The study found that school leaders expressed a need to develop further understanding of how to differentiate the taught curriculum in order to identify and support school‐wide quality teaching and learning processes for students with SEND .