The many faces of culture: a grounded theory examination of Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) provision in an international school in Thailand

<p dir="ltr">The inclusion of students with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) has long been a focus of education policy globally. The way in which this has been enacted within schools, however, has been inconsistent, and often dependent upon several factors: teacher knowledge and efficacy, the resources and support provided to school staff, and the wider, national-societal context in which the school is situated. Given these, and other factors, international schools offer a mixture of facets through which to consider SEND. Such schools often deliver Westernised curricula within non-Western settings and operate in an increasingly competitive marketplace. Furthermore, they have faced little scrutiny regarding the way in which they accommodate students with SEND. As such, the purpose of this study was to explore the role of culture in influencing the perceptions of SEND and practices of inclusion within an international school in Thailand. </p><p dir="ltr">This thesis takes a grounded theory approach to examine the cross-cultural understandings of SEND from the perspective of different staff and explores how these influenced SEND provision and inclusive practice within the international school. Data were gathered over a 32-month period from 16 participants, made up of a mixture of Thai and Western teachers and school leadership staff. Data were collected using semi-structured interviews, and some participants were selected for follow-up interviews once initial analysis had taken place. </p><p dir="ltr">The findings are presented in three chapters that explore the perceptions and practices of the following groups of staff; Western teachers, Thai teachers, and members of the senior management team. The chapters on Thai and Western teachers examine the cultural perceptions of SEND existing within Thai society, teachers individually held values and beliefs regarding inclusion, experiences of supporting students with SEND, and perspectives of the international school provision. These chapters offer a comparison between the responses from the two groups of staff and consider how these impacted the approach taken towards inclusion by individual teachers. The chapter on the senior management team describes how the pressure of operating as both an educational establishment and as a business, and the perceived need to prioritise and promote the academic success of its students, significantly influenced school-wide approaches to inclusion. To protect participant identity, the findings of this chapter were presented using creative non-fiction. </p><p dir="ltr">The thesis concludes by suggesting that in culturally diverse international school contexts, the development of a coherent, school-wide policy towards inclusion is essential. In the absence of such an approach, there is a tendency for teachers to take individual approaches to the inclusion of students with SEND, resulting in inconsistency in the quality and type of provision made. In enacting such a policy, appropriate support and resourcing must be in place to address the varied prior experiences and professional development needs of staff. Finally, cross-cultural collaboration between staff must be viewed as an essential component of improving inclusive practice in international schools. Local staff must be recognised as the experts in providing important cultural context which will enable the development of effective, culturally sensitive approaches towards supporting students with SEND.</p>