Inter-school collaboration for promoting equal educational opportunities for students with disability: A case study from Hong Kong.

Abstract

Research has shown that inter-school collaboration benefits schools, teachers and students in many ways. School-to-school collaboration enhances efficiency in organization and financial resources deployment, curriculum enhancement, teachers’ professional development through the exchange of good practice and an expanded support network, and improved students’ attainment. This paper reported a case study of a collaborative network encompassing initially nine special schools in advancing equal educational opportunities for students with disability in Hong Kong. The Systematic Approach to Mainstream Education Network (SAME Network) is a university-school partnership initiative in response to the “one curriculum for all” principle to develop a curriculum framework through which students with disability in special schools can access the mainstream curriculum. Through inter-school collaboration, the SAME Network developed an inclusive curriculum for students in special schools based on the mainstream curriculum, a systematic approach of assessment for progress monitoring, established a professional developmental network and an award-winning e-learning platform for students, parents and teachers. With the proven success, the SAME Network was invited by The Education and Youth Affairs Bureau of Macao SAR to conduct a consultancy project to support professionals in special schools in Macao to develop an inclusive curriculum, assessment and pedagogy. Through the semi-structured interviews with 12 principals, 8 retired principals and 38 teachers in the SAME Network school, we explored the formation of school partnership, the management of the inter-school collaboration, the nature of collaborative practices, the impact of inter-school collaboration, factors influencing inter-school collaboration, and challenges of inter-school collaboration. Interview data show that inter-school collaboration between schools with similar student populations enables the sharing of best practices and resources development. Hub schools that performed better in particular areas provided teacher training, curriculum reforming, co-planning, inter-school lesson observation, knowledge and resources sharing to other SAME Network schools. This strong school-to-school network and partnership enhance schools’ effectiveness and efficiency in catering to learner diversity, which further fuels the SAME network schools’ motivation to collaborate and improve together. Learning Objectives: At the end of this session, participants will: Learn about the development of a decade-long inter-school collaboration in special education setting in Hong Kong. Learn about an initiative to develop an inclusive curriculum for special education setting in Hong Kong. Learn about the factors contributing to the success of inter-school collaboration in Hong Kong. Learn about the positive impacts of inter-school collaboration in special education setting in Hong Kong. Understand the challenges of diversity management in special education setting in Hong Kong.