Selected Presentations
The following is a list of selected recent presentations made by members of the Canadian Research Centre on Inclusive Education. Note: Centre-affiliated researchers' names appear in bold type; graduate students' names are underlined and partners are italicized.
Presentations at Conferences and Meetings
American Educational Research Association, April 2024, Philadelphia, PA:
The Canadian Research Centre on Inclusive Education was well represented at the AERA conference 2024. Submissions were welcome from the EEI special issue, and 5 papers were selected for the panel, including various centre members. The symposium's focus was on work that has been done in international contexts related to inclusive education, policy, programming, training and implementation, as they relate to and support UNESCO’s call to action for inclusive education for all children by 2030. The symposium stimulated critical questions and engaging discussion among presenters and participants in relation to Canada’s role in advancing inclusive education on a global level.
Link to the EEI Special Issue: https://ojs.lib.uwo.ca/index.php/eei/login?source=%2Findex.php%2Feei%2Farticle%2Fview%2F17519%2F13775&loginMessage=reader.subscriptionRequiredLoginText
Symposium papers:
1) Framing the Symposium: Why a Focus on Canada’s Connection to the World on Inclusive Education? Jacqueline Specht, Steve Sider
2) We Need Structures in Place”: Exploring Special Education within Policyscaped International Schools Overseas. Rebecca Stroud.
3) How do attitudes and self-efficacy predict teachers' intentions to teach in inclusive classrooms? A cross-national comparison between Canada, Germany, Greece, Italy, and Switzerland. Caroline Sahli Lozano & Sergej Wüthrich.
4) A case study on inclusive education in Mauritius and Ontario, Canada: an exploration of Policies and Practices. Deewakarsingh Authelsingh and Steve Sider.
5) Supporting the transition toward inclusion in St. Vincent and the Grenadines. Margo Shuttleworth, Monique Somma, John Freer, and Sheila Bennett
Other selected presentations from 2023:
Delorey, J., Thompson, S.A., Specht, J., Lau, Z. (2023, May). Four years of confidence: Stories of efficacy development for inclusive education. A presentation at the Canadian Association of Educational Psychology (CAEP) at CSSE. Toronto, Canada.
Freer, J., Somma, M., Miklas, E., Menard, D., & Scibetta, L. (2023). Psychological determinants of students’ attitudes toward disability. Research Session presented at the Council for Exceptional Children- Division on Autism and Developmental Disabilities (DADD) Conference. Clearwater, Florida.
Miesera, S., Specht, J., Metsala, J., McGhie-Richmond, D. (2023, August). Predictors of efficacy for inclusive education: Canada vs. Germany. Presented at the European Conference on Educational Research, Glasgow, UK.
Thompson, S.A., Delorey, J., Lau, Z., Specht, J. (2023). Mapping four years of beginning teacher confidence in the inclusive classroom: A Poetic Inquiry. Presentation at the Arts Researchers and Teachers Society (ARTS) at CSSE. Toronto, Ont.
Canadian Society for the Study of Education (CSSE) Conference, (virtual):
Specht, J., Charles, E., de Lugt, J., Delorey, J., Fairbrother, M., Gallagher, T., Howell, G., Ismailos, L., Lau, Z., Maich, K., McGhie-Richmond, D., Metsala, J., Sider, S., Thompson. S., Thorne, C., Villella, M., Whitley, J., Young, G. (2020, May30-June 3). Inclusive education and beginning teachers: Implications for research and practice [Symposium]. Canadian Society for the Study of Education (CSSE) Conference, (virtual).
This Symposium featured three breakout sessions to review research findings and discuss these aspects of developing inclusive practice in beginning teachers:
- Predictors of teacher efficacy
- Experiences that promote inclusive preactice
- How principals can support inclusive practice
American Educational Research Association, April 2019, Toronto, ON:
The Beginning Teacher Study research team was well represented at the American Educational Research Association (AERA) 2019 conference. Our invited AERA Symposium was titled "An Overview of Recent Canadian Research in Educational Psychology".
Members presented summaries of current research projects that are being undertaken by members across the country. Topics included furthering our understanding of anxiety as experienced by students in order to promote teachers’ capacities to improve the mental health experience of students;the examination of a universal school-based program for promoting mental health literacy; concept mapping of the experiences of pre-service teachers in the acquisition of inclusive classroom practices; an exploration of the relationships among beliefs, self-efficacy, organizational support, and the school journey with respect to differentiated instruction from the perspective of school administrators; an examination of how students develop comprehension with text that contains both verbal and visual information.
Click on the links above to view more information about each paper.
Katz, J., Mercer, S., & Skinner, S. Y. (2019, April 6). Dialectical behavior therapy skills and mental health literacy: A cluster randomized trial of a universal school-based mental health program. In I. A. Matheson (Chair), An overview of recent Canadian research in educational psychology [Symposium]. American Educational Research Association Annual Meeting, Toronto, ON, Canada.
Matheson, I. A., MacCormack, J. W. H., & McDonald, P. A. (2019, April 6). Examining how students develop comprehension while reading graphic text. In I. A. Matheson (Chair), An overview of recent Canadian research in educational psychology [Symposium]. American Educational Research Association Annual Meeting, Toronto, ON, Canada.
Specht, J., Howell, G., Ismailos, L., Fairbrother, M., Vanderloon, M., Gallagher, T., & Whitley, J. (2019, April6). The Influence of Preservice Education on the Development of Inclusive Practice. In I. A. Matheson (Chair), An overview of recent Canadian research in educational psychology [Symposium]. American Educational Research Association Annual Meeting, Toronto, ON, Canada.
Whitley, J., Duquette, C. A., Gooderham, S., Elliott, C., Orders, S., & Klan, A. (2019, April 6). Differentiated instruction: Innovation, support, and resistance from school administrators' perspectives. In I. A. Matheson (Chair), An overview of recent Canadian research in educational psychology [Symposium]. American Educational Research Association Annual Meeting, Toronto, ON, Canada.
International Association for the Scientific Study of Intellectual and Developmental Disability (IASSID) World Congress, August, Glasgow, UK
Dr. Scott Thompson organized a symposium at the International Association for the Scientific Study of Intellectual and Developmental Disability (IASSIDD) conference. The research was shared with the international audience, and also the songs of beginning teachers written by Dr. Thompson and based on our participants' stories. This Arts-based research initiative was a successful - and novel - way to share insights!
Also at IASSIDD, Dr. Sheila Bennett, Dr. Thompson and Dr. Jacqueline Specht participated in a round table discussion with other countries on the inclusion of students with developmental disabilities in secondary school and academically dense content areas. Papers presented at IASSIDD were:
Thompson, S. A. & Howell, G. Bringing voice to efficacy and beliefs of beginning teachers for inclusive practice.
Specht, J., Vanderloon, M., Fairbrother, M., Whitley, J., & Charles, E. Inclusive education in Canada.
Bennett, S. Ismailos, L., Gallagher, T., Lau, T. Z., & Villella, M. Concept mapping: Efficacy and beliefs of beginning teachers for inclusive practice.
Specht, J., Bennett, S., & Thompson, S.A. Beginning teacher study: Implications for the development of inclusive practice.
