Title: Teachers perspective on inclusive methodologies in primary schools in Shanghai.

PhD candidate: Dandan Li

Supervisors: Josep M. Sanahuja and Mar Badia

Expected completion date: 2022

In order to ensure effectively equitable education for the disabled children, China has implemented a practical model on inclusive education—LRC (Learning in the Regular School) in 1980s. The education has never been stagnant, and today educators face the double challenge of keeping pace with rapid advances in education research while also adapting to the social and political circumstances, especially within the vision of inclusive education. Teachers are of critical importance in any reform designed to improve inclusion. A mixed research approach will be implemented to examine teacher inclusive methodologies in primary schools in Shanghai in the thesis. To examine the perspective of primary teachers on inclusive methodologies in China, the specific objectives try to describe the development of inclusive methodologies in China; to identify the facilitators of and barriers to apply inclusive methodologies and to highlight the importance of inclusive methodologies to meet every student’s need.

Paraules clau: inclusion, teaching strategies, teacher training.

Title: Mental health in families with children with autism.

PhD candidate: Amirhossein Montazeri

Supervisors: Mar Badia and Josep M. Sanahuja

Expected completion date: 2022

The aim is to obtain information about the trauma of the autism and the family’s psychological health and to treat their families. If we pay attention to the mental health of most of the families of autism, we will be able to get to the conclusion that we can start educating the mental health of families from schools, social environments and students.

Keywords: autism, mental health, parents, family, iran, DSM-5.

Title: The Performing Arts as generators of change in the socio-emotional, artistic and socio-cultural dimension.

PhD student: Xesca Vela Carmona

Director: Josep M. Sanahuja and Mar moron

Expected completion date: 2022

The Arts have accompanied humans throughout their existence, they are the vehicle of communication through which emotions are channeled and arouse curiosity about the internal and external world of the person. This thesis investigates how the Performing Arts are generating change in the socio-emotional, artistic and sociocultural dimension of an educational community in compulsory secondary education (ESO). A group of teenagers from the Vallbona d’Anoia high school, who are studying the Performing Arts and Dance (4th year of ESO) and the educational community, have been followed up throughout the academic year. Surrounding them: teachers, families, administrative and service staff members. During the academic year 2020-2021, several theatrical activities were proposed that generate change in the three dimensions mentioned and it is verified how beneficial the presence of the Performing Arts in education is for this reason. as a subject at the curricular level within compulsory education.

Key words: Performing arts, ESO, educational community.

Title: Development of emotional competencies in people with special needs: interacting with their surroundings.

PhD candidate: Gabriela Rangel

Supervisors: Mar Badia and Sílvia Blanch

Expected completion date: 2022

With this observational study we explore and analyze communication and change generated by the implementation of a program that provides strategies for parents to discuss emotions with their children with complex communication needs (CCN). Strategies, interventions, and research on people with CCN remain inadequate despite the existence of several studies on emotional education. People with speech difficulties need an environment which allows the acquisition of skills that promote emotional and communicative competence. Our research focuses on how spaces can be used to talk about emotions to support the development of emotional competence in people with CCN within a framework built around prevention while using contexts conducive to natural interaction.

Keywords: complex communication needs, emotional competency, communication, change, augmentative and alternative communication (AAC).

Title: Initial training on Inclusive Education in the Primary Education degrees in the Catalan Public Universities.

Supervisors: Oscar Mas and Josep M. Sanahuja

Expected completion date: 2022

If we wish to move towards a real inclusion model in classrooms, the importance of selecting and training teaching staff is key. Teaching in an increasingly demanding system forces professionals to acquire the classroom competencies and personal skills necessary for taking on the mantle of leadership in education. Analyzing the training provided and implementing an improvement plan, if required, is the nucleus of this proposed doctoral thesis.

Keywords: Inclusion, training, teaching competencies.

Title: The relationship between professional competency and the labor market: Towards improving the skills profile in higher education.

PhD candidate: Adriana Antonieta Romero Sandoval

Supervisors: José Tejada and Òscar Mas

Expected completion date: 2018

This study assesses the relationship between the generic competencies acquired in some undergraduate degrees and the requirements of the labor market in Ecuador.

Keywords: university, generic competencies, labor market, professional competencies.

Title: The development of social competencies in students with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) within the inclusive school.

PhD candidate: Rosa Fortuny

Supervisor: Josep M. Sanahuja

Expected completion date: 2022

Our aim is to obtain more in-depth information on Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and to evaluate its effect on the development of students’ social skills within the school context. Taking into account that the competencies involved in social growth represent one of the educational needs detected in students with ASD, it is essential to give teachers a program of psycho-pedagogical intervention that will serve as a guide for them to work with all students, specifically those diagnosed with ASD. In this way all students will be able to achieve the social competencies asked of them during the school year.

Keywords: Educational inclusion, educational needs, autism, social competencies.

Title: Making reasonable adjustments to the workplace for people with special needs: Origin, evolution, and current configuration.

PhD candidate: David Gutierrez

Supervisor: Ricardo Esteban

Expected completion date: 2018

Our objective is to address the legal obligation of making reasonable adjustments in the workplace provided for in Article 5 of Directive 2000/78, and transposed into the Spanish legal system in article 40.2 of the Royal Legislative Decree 1/2013 of November 29, which approves the consolidated text of the general law on the rights of persons with special needs and their social inclusion. Specifically, we aim to analyze the emergence, evolution and current configuration of the above law, offering an international, European and Spanish perspective for its configuration.

Keywords: special needs, labor law, workplace

Title: Examining the Barriers to Inclusive Education for Students with Special Educational Needs: A Case Study of Two Primary Schools in Mainland China.

PhD candidate: Tan Qinyi

Supervisor: Josep M. Sanahuja

Expected completion date: 2014

The purpose of the study was to explore the barriers to inclusion of students with special educational needs in two regular primary schools within the Chinese socio-cultural context through the Index for Inclusion in five dimensions, including attitudes and values, classroom management and class size, school leadership and collaboration, teacher education, and physical environment.

In order to meet the diversity of inclusion for special educational needs in regular classrooms, it attempted to implement the instruments of questionnaires (Index for Inclusion), interviews, focus group discussions and documents to collect the data in the primary schools through a case study. Data was gathered from two primary schools, and teachers, parents, students and school principle participated in the study.

It found that there were several barriers in the schools, especially the attitudes and values, and teacher education through methodological triangulation. Besides, the class size was large, and local communities and families were seldom participated in the school activities in the process of inclusion. In conclusion, inclusive education is a process, China was experiencing the primary stage, attitudes and values, classroom management and class size, school leadership and collaboration, teacher education, and physical environment should be improved in mainland China.

Keywords: Inclusion, barriers to learning and participation, special needs, Index for Inclusion

Title: School Discipline: development and application of an attitudinal-cognitive program for the continuous training of primary education teachers.

PhD candidate: Rosalba Zamudio Villafuerte

Supervisors: Mar Badia and Concepció Gotzens.

Expected completion date: 2010

The word ‘discipline’ refers to the set of rules and procedures that apply to the classroom in order to generate optimum conditions for the achievement of learning goals. As an instrument of the instructional process, the management of discipline requires a set of propositional principles derived from the field of psychopedagogy. Unfortunately for the management of discipline in the classroom, teaching staff rely mainly on their innate skills and immediate means which can often lead to failure. The present study addresses the challenges associated with this approach with questions such as: 1) What are the professional tools in attitudinal-cognitive terms available to teachers in order to establish school discipline as a necessary condition of the teaching-learning process?; 2) What factors allow teachers to overcome the barrier of established beliefs associated with ‘common sense’ when managing discipline in order to develop correct attitudes and knowledge to the benefit of the instructional process? Our methodological framework is aimed at the following: determining the impact on the attitudinal-cognitive spheres of primary education teachers; deploying a training program in school discipline whose contents are explained as a preventive instrument in the establishment of optimal classroom conditions for the benefit of the teaching-learning process.

Keywords: School discipline, teaching staff, students, beliefs.

Title: Job training for people with intellectual disabilities and their quality of life: perceptions of parents, students and teachers of a training program in Chile.

PhD student: Paula Contesse Carvacho

Director: Josep M. Sanahuja and Pilar Pineda

Expected completion date: 2022

This research analyzes how a socio-labor training program, aimed at young people with intellectual disability (ID), contributes to their quality of life, considering the perception of the students themselves, their parents and the teaching staff; At the same time, the curriculum and methodology are evaluated, which would give a complete vision of the program. For this, the eight dimensions of Schalock and Executioner’s Quality of Life model are considered: Personal development, Self-determination, Interpersonal relations, Social inclusion, Rights, Emotional well-being, Physical well-being and Material well-being. The research has a sequential mixed character, since it is carried out in two different interrelated phases, a quantitative phase and another qualitative phase seeking to understand and interpret a reality little explored and considering the meanings of the people themselves.

Key words: Intellectual disability, Quality of life, training and labor inclusion.

Title: The process of inclusive education through the art project in a multicultural school with Chinese students. A case study of the Institut Escola Arts in Barcelona.

PhD student: Tingting Liang

Director: Mar Moron and Josep M. Sanahuja

Expected completion date: 2024

The aim of this research is to evaluate the inclusive process with Chinese students through an art project in a multicultural school. Based on the analysis of the school and the identification of the educational needs of Chinese students, an art project is implemented with the participation of students, families, teachers and museum educators. Under a phenomenological paradigm, a mixed methodology is used to obtain information through questionnaires, interviews and observation.

Keywords: inclusion, chinese community, arts education, multiculturalism.