IntroductionAccording to The Education Commission, a global initiative encouraging a greater progress on improving education in line with Sustainable Development Goal 4, an increasingly diverse student population needs a deeper engagement with a diversified teacher workforce (Education Commission, 2019). However, discussions on teacher diversity in countries around the world tend to focus on race, gender and ethnicity with very little attention being paid to other factors such as disability and sexual orientation. England is no exception. Since the 1990s, while considerable attention has been placed on developing inclusive schools (Ainscow 1999), very little attention has been placed on the inclusion of disabled teachers in the education workforce. The Department for Education (DfE) requires schools in England to record how many teachers identify themselves as disabled, however, in the 2016 census, only 50% of schools reported the status of disabled teachers (DfE, 217). The most recent report makes no mention of disability at all (DfE, 2018). No data is collected on disability status among people who work as Learning Support Assistants (LSAs), Teacher Assistants (TAs) or other support staff.Available data from the 2016 census suggests that only 0.5% of the teaching workforce report having disabilities (DfE, 2017). There were 457,300 Full Time Equivalent (FTE) teachers in state-funded schools in England in 2016 (DfE, 2017), thus only some 2,287 teachers openly identifying as having disabilities were employed in England. This was also highlighted in an earlier survey of disabled teachers registered as part of an e-network under the National Union of Teachers (Rieser, 2008: 17), which observed that only a "small number of disabled students (were) entering teaching". This low figure could reflect underreporting among teachers, but it also highlights the significant underrepresentation of educators who may be coming into the teaching profession or remaining in it, should they acquire a disability.The aim of this research is to explore in depth the working lives of disabled teachers in English schools. Keeping in mind that the inclusive education agenda is paramount in the English context, we are particularly interested in exploring how inclusive is this discourse of disabled teachers. We strongly believe that disabled teachers are central to the development of inclusive schools and that their experiences and reflections can enable us to identify challenges but also, importantly they can serve as enablers in the system which can bring about positive change. This paper, based on interviews with a small group of disabled teachers, is intended to foster greater dialogue with disabled teachers about their own experiences and recommendations for improvements in the mainstream education system. Overview of existing literaturePritchard (2010:3) notes that "the plethora of research data and documentation around issues of equity in education has centered largely on the provision of opportunities for students to access all leve...
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Despite the fluid and nonlinear nature of data analysis, specifically in qualitative research, published work in comparative education has rarely discussed the messy aspects of data analysis. This Forum addresses the complexity of the analysis stage faced by three doctoral researchers in terms of: considering data analysis when selecting data collection tools; messiness of data analysis deriving from fieldwork and data collection; integrating different data sources; practising reflexivity during data analysis; and ethical issues arising from data analysis. The Forum aims not only to offer suggestions and tips to deal with data analysis but also to encourage more open discussions on this topic within the research community.
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