Liana Luyt

Inclusive education is a fundamental human right, enshrined in Article 24 of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and embedded within Australia’s legislative and policy frameworks. Western Australia has made significant strides toward inclusive schooling through initiatives such as the Disability Access and Inclusion Plan (2023–2027) and the Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Plan (2021–2025). However, challenges persist, including teacher support and professional development, as well as resource limitations in remote communities. This presentation explores the multifaceted nature of inclusion - physical, social, pedagogical, and cultural - and highlights key principles such as Universal Design for Learning (UDL), differentiated instruction, and Multi-Tiered Systems of Support (MTSS). Drawing on case studies like Brabham Primary School, we illustrate how policy translates into practice through co-designed learning plans, culturally responsive teaching, and integration of students with disability into mainstream classrooms. Participants will gain practical strategies for embedding inclusive practices, including whole-school planning, collaborative partnerships, and data-driven evaluation. The session also addresses systemic challenges and outlines future priorities for Western Australia, including legislative reform, inclusive infrastructure, and professional learning. Ultimately, inclusion must be recognised as a measure of educational excellence, requiring sustained commitment across policy, practice, and community engagement.

Educating students with disability rests on the precipice of significant transformation in Australia. Recommendations resulting from the Royal Commission into Violence, Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation of People with Disability have highlighted the need for significant change in the way in which people with disability are educated. This has triggered a wave of reviews and reforms in Australia. However, the path forward remains tangled, divided and deeply complex. This presentation explores one teacher education provider's innovative journey to re-weave their initial teacher education programs and addresses the needs of the evolving school cohorts in Western Australia, and to provide and celebrate course offerings for those seeking primary and secondary school qualifications. Utilising the qualitative methodological approach of weaving an otherwise (Tachine and Nicolazzo, 2022), we approach this research design considering Before, During and After. Weaving an otherwise considers giving voice to the silenced, dehumanised or erased in our communities. We offer narrative vignettes from diverse perspectives-including teacher educators, classroom teachers and other educational leaders. who co-designed these courses. The questions we seek to explore relate to the concept of problematising the education of students with disability as well as identifying both the challenges and opportunities in the schools and teaching workforces related to inclusive education and positive reform of teacher education. Importantly, how do we gain the trust and build a community to co-create in a space that has often been forgotten or misunderstood? This requires, on some level, active resistance to the dominance of policy and practice that limits the preparation of pre-service teachers. Providing education to students of all abilities requires intentional mobilisation of resources, re-imagining of priorities and a determination to persist in the face of reform and negativity, to effect meaningful change. Join us as we discuss what comes “After”.

What can lead to the effective implementation of the General Capabilities of the Australian Curriculum into school teaching and learning programs? The General Capabilities constitute one of the three mandated curriculum dimensions for school students and encompass seven key areas: Literacy, Numeracy, Critical and Creative Thinking, Intercultural Understanding, Personal and Social Understanding, and Digital Literacy. Given the rapid societal, environmental, and economic transformations occurring within an increasingly competitive global landscape, the inclusion of the General Capabilities within the curriculum has received support from educators and policymakers. Proficiency in these areas is regarded as essential for school leavers to successfully navigate the evolving challenges shaping their world. However, despite widespread recognition of the importance of the skills associated with the General Capabilities, there remains a limited body of research on effective strategies for their integration into Australian schooling.

This study explored the implementation of the General Capabilities within a Western Australian school identified as a leader in this area. Specifically, the research investigated the conditions that initiate, support, and maintain the effective incorporation and implementation of the General Capabilities, forming the central research question and objective of this study. Adopting a constructivist paradigm through a single-site case study approach, key school staff provided insights through semi-structured interviews. Additional text-based data, including relevant internal and external school documents and social media content, were analysed to complement and triangulate the findings derived from interview data. The Activity System of the Cultural Historical Activity Theory (CHAT) informed the analysis of the data, with inductive elemental coding and deductive exploratory and pattern coding forming the first and second coding cycles of the analysis process.

The findings, derived from the themes emerging through analysis, supported current knowledge on effective implementation processes and highlighted significant new knowledge within this field. Results underscored that successful school-based implementation of the General Capabilities extends beyond the availability of resources, pedagogical strategies, and programs. Effective integration commences prior to resource development and lesson planning, emerging from a conducive and purpose-driven school culture characterised by trusting relationships. This environment situates teachers as active participants in decision-making processes and aligns with the intentional planning of the General Capabilities within school programs, underpinned by a shared commitment to preparing students for a rapidly evolving world.

A significant contribution of this research is that it led to the development of a General Capabilities Implementations Guidelines Handout for School Leaders. The intended outcome of this document is to provide recommendations for school leaders before and during the implementation of the General Capabilities within their school’s teaching and learning programs. These guidelines draw on the new and existing research findings on effective implementation practices within this space and address the Change, Creativity and Innovation strand of the Conference. Broader application of these guidelines can; however, be supportive of any program initiative within schools.

Inclusive education rests on the precipice of significant transformation in Australia. Recommendations resulting from the Royal Commission into Violence, Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation of People with Disability (Sackville et al., 2023) have highlighted the need for significant change in the way in which people with disability are educated and this has triggered a wave of reforms in education policies in Australia (Department of Education, nd). However, the path forward remains tangled, divided and deeply complex. Utilising the metaphor of a Gordian Knot, this presentation attempts to unravel the needs, perspectives, challenges and opportunities to re-weave the education of pre-service teachers who seek to work with students with disability in Western Australian schools. This presentation offers vignettes from the different communities involved in inclusive education, where we invite participants to listen to the perspectives and reflect on the issues, standpoints and their interlacing themes. Our exploration of these will be influenced by qualitative methodological approaches of weaving an otherwise (as expressed by Tachine and Nicolazzo, 2022) to observe the interconnectedness and divergence of the vignettes. The questions we seek to explore relate to the concept of problematising the education of students with disability as well as identifying both the challenges and opportunities in the schools and teaching workforces related to inclusive education. We reflect on what has been, the process undertaken to re-design and re-imagine pre-service teacher education where students with disability and the communities that support them to re-weave a different knot. Rather than problematising the knot and seeking to ‘solve it’ – we imagine it as a thing of beauty, uniqueness and as an opportunity to begin in a place to disentangle and re-weave the Gordian knot. Our journey to create pathways for pre-service teachers in both primary and secondary school contexts has been complex, creative and continues to evolve as we re-imagine inclusive teaching and schools. This requires, on some level, active resistance to the dominance of policy and practice that limits the preparation of pre-service teachers to dominant and traditional frames of reference. These inadvertently submerge the perspectives and needs of children and young people and inhibit opportunities to enact contemporary pedagogies and person-centred and responsive provisions for these students required within all learning environments. Providing inclusive education to students of all abilities requires intentional mobilisation of resources, re-imagining of priorities and determination to persist, in order to effect meaningful change. These insights highlight to us the need for cultural shift, to overcome resistance, micro-aggressions and casual ableism that makes change difficult to achieve and progress towards it slow.