Collaborating for Inclusion: Participatory Action Research in Indonesia

The Government of Indonesia is committed to inclusive education that provides full access to and meaningful participation in mainstream educational programs for children with disabilities. Inclusive education in Indonesia is backed by international conventions, the Constitution of the Republic of Indonesia, and regional support. Creating inclusive education environments has been put forward by the Indonesian Government as an important target area for equalizing opportunities, upholding the rights of people with disabilities, and promoting broader societal acceptance of diversity (Purbani & Tripamungkas, 2012). In 2013, the UNESCO Indonesia Representative chose Yogyakarta as a model laboratory for developing an inclusive education strategy that could be scaled up as best practice across Indonesian school systems. Yogyakarta parents and educators currently wrestle with the definition of best practice across different school systems and student populations, and are further challenged in developing an effective strategy for implementing it. This paper reports the results of a Participatory Action Research (PAR) collaboration between the University of Sydney, Yogyakarta State University (YSU) and six schools from the Yogyakarta region, designed to promote the development of inclusive education practices through participant driven inquiry for children and young people with a disability in Yogyakarta. PAR is the integration of community action (implementing a plan) with community-based research to understand and improve the effectiveness of implementation. It “seeks to understand and improve the world by changing it” (Baum, MacDougall & Smith, 2006, p. 854). Founded on the principle that those who experience a phenomenon are the most qualified to investigate it, PAR is specifically designed to seek collaborative solutions to problems involving people, tasks, and procedures. Key personnel, including parents and students, from each of the six schools formed a PAR Team representative of their school. PAR teams attended a three-day workshop, facilitated by the University of Sydney and YSU, aimed at developing collaborative practices to support inclusive education for children with disabilities in Yogyakarta. Each PAR team identified ‘inclusion goals’ for a focal child and discussed quality inclusion strategies to support the meaningful participation of this child at school. Following the workshop, PAR teams met regularly to reflect on the inclusion goals set and collaborative practices implemented to support the achievement of educational inclusion at their school. Each PAR team documented their experiences of collaboration, social learning and problem solving as they planned and implemented a student-centred inclusive educational program. Data from the six multiple perspective case studies were analysed to share findings about inclusion and collaboration. Emerging factors that supported or challenged the collaboration and inclusion process in Yogyakarta, Indonesia will be highlighted in this presentation alongside key experiences from each of the PAR teams involved in this project.