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Agency for Inclusion: A Case Study of Special Educational Needs Coordinators (SENCos)

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Title: Agency for Inclusion: A Case Study of Special Educational Needs Coordinators (SENCos)
Language: English
Authors: Hui Lin (ORCID 0000-0002-9026-3634), Lexie Grudnoff, Mary Hill (ORCID 0000-0001-9552-8112)
Source: International Journal of Disability, Development and Education. 2024 71(4):609-619.
Availability: Routledge. Available from: Taylor & Francis, Ltd. 530 Walnut Street Suite 850, Philadelphia, PA 19106. Tel: 800-354-1420; Tel: 215-625-8900; Fax: 215-207-0050; Web site: http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals
Peer Reviewed: Y
Page Count: 11
Publication Date: 2024
Document Type: Journal Articles
Reports - Research
Education Level: Elementary Education
Descriptors: Special Education, Coordinators, Student Needs, Inclusion, Professional Autonomy, Elementary Schools, Foreign Countries, Teacher Attitudes, Teaching Experience, Change Agents
Geographic Terms: New Zealand
DOI: 10.1080/1034912X.2022.2137110
ISSN: 1034-912X
1465-346X
Abstract: International recognition of Special Educational Needs Coordinators (SENCos) as agents of change for students with special educational needs calls for a deeper understanding of SENCo agency. However, literature on teacher agency for inclusion has paid little attention to SENCos. Taking a sociocultural view of agency, this qualitative case study collected rich data from five primary school SENCos in New Zealand via semi-structured individual interviews, work-shadowing and relevant documents. The findings showed that the SENCos exercised agency for inclusion through advocacy for students with SEN, commitment to the SENCo role, professional competence, self-efficacy, participation in decision-making, and collaboration with a wide range of people. The findings point to the need to conceptualise SENCo agency as a temporal, ecological process that involves engagement with culture, structure and resources in specific contexts.
Abstractor: As Provided
Entry Date: 2024
Accession Number: EJ1420040
Database: ERIC
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  Value: <anid>AN0176475219;54q01may.24;2024Apr10.06:35;v2.2.500</anid> <title id="AN0176475219-1">Agency for Inclusion: A Case Study of Special Educational Needs Coordinators (SENCos) </title> <p>International recognition of Special Educational Needs Coordinators (SENCos) as agents of change for students with special educational needs calls for a deeper understanding of SENCo agency. However, literature on teacher agency for inclusion has paid little attention to SENCos. Taking a sociocultural view of agency, this qualitative case study collected rich data from five primary school SENCos in New Zealand via semi-structured individual interviews, work-shadowing and relevant documents. The findings showed that the SENCos exercised agency for inclusion through advocacy for students with SEN, commitment to the SENCo role, professional competence, self-efficacy, participation in decision-making, and collaboration with a wide range of people. The findings point to the need to conceptualise SENCo agency as a temporal, ecological process that involves engagement with culture, structure and resources in specific contexts.</p> <p>Keywords: Special Educational Needs Coordinator (SENCo); teacher agency; ecological process; student inclusion; inclusive education</p> <hd id="AN0176475219-2">Introduction</hd> <p>Discourses surrounding educational equity and social justice internationally have increasingly depicted teachers as 'agents of change' by providing equitable learning environments for students with diverse learning needs (Li & Ruppar, [<reflink idref="bib13" id="ref1">13</reflink>]). The focus on emphasising teachers' roles in promoting educational equity implies the importance of teacher agency for implementing inclusive education, which is generally related to teachers' 'active striving, taking initiatives, or having an influence on one's [their] own life situation' (Eteläpelto, Vähäsantanen, Hökkä, & Paloniemi, [<reflink idref="bib10" id="ref2">10</reflink>], p. 46) to ensure the inclusion of all students in the learning environment. In inclusive educational settings, teacher agency is essential to assist children with special educational needs (SEN) gain access to additional learning support and participate in school activities (Wang, Mu, & Zhang, [<reflink idref="bib27" id="ref3">27</reflink>]).</p> <p>Empirical enquiry into teacher agency for inclusion, though limited, has focused on a variety of teaching roles, including general education teachers, special education teachers, subject teachers and pre-service teachers (see, e.g. Miller et al., [<reflink idref="bib15" id="ref4">15</reflink>]; Mu et al., [<reflink idref="bib16" id="ref5">16</reflink>]; Qu, [<reflink idref="bib24" id="ref6">24</reflink>]). Oddly, little attention has been given to Special Educational Needs Coordinators (SENCos) regarding their agency for inclusion despite extensive international interest in the nature and enactment of the SENCo role (see, e.g. Klang, Gustafson, Möllås, Nilholm, & Göransson, [<reflink idref="bib12" id="ref7">12</reflink>]; Maher & Vickerman, [<reflink idref="bib14" id="ref8">14</reflink>]; Rosen-Webb, [<reflink idref="bib25" id="ref9">25</reflink>]). In many countries, SENCos take a leading role in identifying SEN, coordinating inclusive practice, applying for resources related to SEN, advising classroom teachers, and liaising with families and outside agencies (Rosen-Webb, [<reflink idref="bib25" id="ref10">25</reflink>]). This suggests the important role SENCo agency plays in performing their service coordination role of ensuring students with SEN gain access to quality inclusive education.</p> <p>Although critical to the task of facilitating inclusion for students with SEN, SENCo agency appears to be an under-researched area. Thus, this qualitative interpretive study investigated SENCo agency and aimed to answer the overarching research question: How do SENCos exercise agency to work for inclusion?</p> <hd id="AN0176475219-3">Teacher Agency for Inclusion</hd> <p>There has been a prolonged effort by scholars to understand human agency. In the long-lasting structure-agency debate in sociology, agency is treated as a variable contributing to human action (Priestley, Biesta, & Robinson, [<reflink idref="bib21" id="ref11">21</reflink>]), influenced by social structure consisting of various social institutions and relationships (Eteläpelto et al., [<reflink idref="bib10" id="ref12">10</reflink>]). In contrast, agency from a socio-cognitive perspective is conceptualised as a capacity to exert influence on thoughts, acts and intentions of one's own, involving multifaceted cognitive functioning (Bandura, [<reflink idref="bib1" id="ref13">1</reflink>], [<reflink idref="bib2" id="ref14">2</reflink>]). The sociocultural perspective, however, does not view agency as an individual capacity but rather as a phenomenon emerging from social interaction in a given sociocultural context (Biesta & Tedder, [<reflink idref="bib3" id="ref15">3</reflink>]; Emirbayer & Mische, [<reflink idref="bib9" id="ref16">9</reflink>]). This article draws on a sociocultural view in order to understand how SENCos exercise agency to work for inclusion.</p> <p>Teacher agency for inclusion can be influenced by various personal and contextual factors. Personal influences include professional knowledge (Themane & Thobejane, [<reflink idref="bib26" id="ref17">26</reflink>]), personal and professional histories (Priestley, Biesta, & Robinson, [<reflink idref="bib20" id="ref18">20</reflink>]) and teacher identity (Miller et al., [<reflink idref="bib15" id="ref19">15</reflink>]). Contextual influences encompass structural and cultural factors, such as support at the school policy level (Naraian, [<reflink idref="bib17" id="ref20">17</reflink>]), the organisation of school systems, relationships within and beyond schools, and ideas, norms and traditions about inclusion in schools and the broader society (Li & Ruppar, [<reflink idref="bib13" id="ref21">13</reflink>]). Human and non-human resources, for example, teacher aides, inclusive programs and assistive technology (devices, equipment, software and technology that help students with SEN to engage and learn in class) can also affect teachers' agency for inclusion (Themane & Thobejane, [<reflink idref="bib26" id="ref22">26</reflink>]).</p> <p>It is also widely acknowledged in the literature that teacher agency for inclusion is a collective endeavour rather than an individual effort (Miller et al., [<reflink idref="bib15" id="ref23">15</reflink>]; Pantić, [<reflink idref="bib19" id="ref24">19</reflink>]). As Bandura ([<reflink idref="bib2" id="ref25">2</reflink>]) maintains, people often need to collaborate with, and influence, those who have the required knowledge, skill sets and resources to bring action to fruition because exerting agency alone is often inadequate to achieve given goals in social contexts. This is especially the case for inclusive educators as inclusive education cannot function through individual teachers alone (Miller et al., [<reflink idref="bib15" id="ref26">15</reflink>]). For instance, Themane and Thobejane's ([<reflink idref="bib26" id="ref27">26</reflink>]) qualitative study in South Africa revealed that, despite a lack of physical and human resources, the eight classroom teachers from inclusive schools exhibited higher levels of resilience in exercising agency for inclusion when collaborating with teaching colleagues, support staff and families than by working alone.</p> <p>The wide variation of contexts in which SENCos carry out their role also broadens the potential complexity of SENCo agency for inclusion. Countries differ from each other in whether they have statutory policies and formal training for the SENCo role, such as in the UK (Department for Education [DfE], [<reflink idref="bib6" id="ref28">6</reflink>]; Department for Education and Employment, [<reflink idref="bib7" id="ref29">7</reflink>]), or allow school autonomy and flexibility to implement the role in accordance with the needs of individual schools, such as in New Zealand (New Zealand Educational Institute [NZEI], [<reflink idref="bib18" id="ref30">18</reflink>]). Individual schools also vary widely in their interpretation and enactment of the SENCo role regardless of the existence of standardised guidelines for this role (Klang et al., [<reflink idref="bib12" id="ref31">12</reflink>]). Hence, a study of SENCo agency for inclusion necessitated an approach that took individual SENCos' unique personal and professional contexts into consideration.</p> <hd id="AN0176475219-4">Methods</hd> <p></p> <hd id="AN0176475219-5">Research Design</hd> <p>Following ethical approval by the University of Auckland Human Participants Ethics Committee, a multiple case study was utilised within the qualitative interpretive paradigm to deeply investigate each case (Punch, [<reflink idref="bib23" id="ref32">23</reflink>]) in its unique context (Yin, [<reflink idref="bib28" id="ref33">28</reflink>]). Purposive sampling (Creswell, [<reflink idref="bib5" id="ref34">5</reflink>]) was used to access prospective participants. Principals of primary schools in Auckland, the largest city in New Zealand, were invited, via email, to forward invitations and documents related to this study to the SENCo(s) in their schools. The first five SENCos who volunteered became the participants for this study.</p> <hd id="AN0176475219-6">Participants</hd> <p>The five SENCos were all female with teaching experience of more than 15 years. Four SENCos served in schools in high socioeconomic communities and one in a mixed socioeconomic community. Participants varied widely in their experience in the SENCo role (ranging from 1 to 12 years), employment type (four as full-time and one as part-time), status in school (two in the senior management team [SMT], one in middle management and two neither in SMT nor middle management), other roles they fulfilled (including junior literacy support, mentor teacher, team leader and deputy principal [DP]) and formal qualifications in special education (only one had these).</p> <p>Variation between SENCos reflected the autonomy individual schools in New Zealand have to implement the SENCo role. The Ministry of Education does not mandate that schools must have SENCos. It is up to individual schools whether or not they appoint SENCos and fund SENCos out of their school budgets. Moreover, the SENCo role is not standardised nor are SENCos formally trained in New Zealand (Kearney, Mentis, & Holley-Boen, [<reflink idref="bib11" id="ref35">11</reflink>]).</p> <hd id="AN0176475219-7">Data Collection and Analysis</hd> <p>Data collection and analysis took place iteratively, involving three phases over a 12-month period. Multiple sources of data were gathered via two rounds of semi-structured interviews (around 10 hours in total), work-shadowing (about 80 hours in total) and related documents (25 documents in total). In phase one, semi-structured individual interviews were conducted to gather participants' personal perceptions and experiences of being a SENCo. Following an explanation of the study, open-ended questions were asked about participants' conceptualisation of the SENCo role, how they became a SENCo, critical incidents that happened over the time they had been a SENCo, and their future career plans. The interviews lasted from 40 minutes to 1 hour and were recorded and transcribed for analysis.</p> <p>In phase two, each SENCo was observed for 2 days through work-shadowing to gather first-hand information about participants' engagement with their context for the exercise of agency. The first author shadowed the participants around the school as they were carrying out their SENCo role, and gathered/recorded field notes regarding participants' actions and interactions, materials, procedures and other people involved in specific contexts. When walking between buildings and in break time, the first author also gathered participants' immediate commentary about their reasons for certain actions and decisions. Before work-shadowing started, participants were informed about what work-shadowing would be like and their rights to deny the researcher's presence in the field if they and/or other people encountered in the field experienced any discomfort.</p> <p>Relevant documents were also copied during the 2 days of work-shadowing, with names redacted. Documents copied included SENCo job descriptions, SENCo annual performance appraisals, school policies regarding inclusion, the school charter and annual plan, and Education Review Office (a government department that assesses and reports the performance of schools and early childhood services) reports.</p> <p>In phase three, each SENCo engaged in a further semi-structured individual interview to reflect on their experiences during the 2 days of work-shadowing and add additional commentary about their agency for inclusion. The interviews were undertaken within 1 week of work-shadowing, lasted at least 40 minutes and were recorded and transcribed for analysis.</p> <p>This study used a reflexive thematic analysis approach (Braun & Clarke, [<reflink idref="bib4" id="ref36">4</reflink>]). The interview transcripts, field notes of work-shadowing and documents were read and reread, and initial ideas noted. Each data item was then coded with particular attention being placed on the data set regarding SENCo agency. Codes were categorised within and across cases to identify patterns and differences and to develop themes. Participants were given pseudonyms of 'SENCo 1, ' 'SENCo 2,' ... throughout to protect their identities. The names of the schools and people other than SENCos were redacted. To strengthen the trustworthiness of the findings, the interview transcripts were sent to participants to check the accuracy of the transcripts, and the two co-authors audited the codes, categories and themes.</p> <hd id="AN0176475219-8">Findings</hd> <p>Six themes were conceptualised from analysis of the data regarding how the participants exercised their agency to work for inclusion. The themes were advocacy for students with SEN, commitment to the SENCo role, professional competence, self-efficacy, participation in decision-making, and collaboration. These themes are presented in the following sections.</p> <hd id="AN0176475219-9">Advocacy for Students with SEN</hd> <p>All participants viewed themselves as advocates for students with SEN, which motivated them to exert agency for inclusion. They all had SEN students' learning and wellbeing at heart and strived to meet their needs as best as possible. For instance, SENCo 3 stated that 'I think my biggest role and being a SENCo is just advocating for children ... I think you do need to be somebody designated to fight for those kids [and] to stand up for those kids'.</p> <p>The participants also perceived the SENCo role as being a coordinator between stakeholders inside and outside school for inclusive provision. As SENCo 1 noted, 'I'm a link I often say between outside agencies, staff, students and families ... the link with other people that you can then identify persons to go and have a conversation with'.</p> <p>They also viewed themselves as providing support for teachers in terms of 'increasingly finding ways to cater for, understand, nurture and provide for a range of children whose learning is changing' (SENCo 1).</p> <hd id="AN0176475219-10">Commitment to the SENCo Role</hd> <p>All participants expressed strong commitment to their SENCo role, which was a way of exerting their agency to work for inclusion. They all wanted to stay in their current SENCo roles. None of them had aspirations to become a principal because they felt senior leadership roles would impede their focus on students with SEN. 'As a DP you've got to do the assemblies ... sports ... parents and interviews ... I wanted to just work within a school and really focus on those children with special teaching needs' (SENCo 2).</p> <p>In particular, SENCo 2 actively chose to pursue a career path in the SEN field early in her teaching career. She started teaching 28 years ago in a low socioeconomic community with a high percentage of children with multiple and complex learning needs. Training as a reading recovery teacher in her sixth year of teaching inspired her passion in the SEN field and she became a specialist teacher in the SEN area, completing a postgraduate diploma in special teaching needs. She worked in a special school, then actively applied for the SENCo role. 'My plan is I just keep on doing a great job as a SENCo the best I can', said SENCo 2.</p> <hd id="AN0176475219-11">Professional Competence</hd> <p>Another commonly noted aspect of SENCo agency was professional competence, encompassing extensive teaching experience, professional knowledge and practice in the SEN area, and specific qualities that the SENCo role required.</p> <p>Despite having distinct professional histories, all the participants had extensive teaching experience before taking on the SENCo role, ranging from 16 to 36 years. They acknowledged the value of their previous teaching experience in enhancing their professional competence. For example, SENCo 1 felt that her experience teaching young children with diverse learning needs in the reception class (the class children enter when starting school at age 5) over the past 20 years had developed her knowledge and practice in the SEN field, as well as her knowledge base about the students and families in the local community. SENCo 5 also noted that as an experienced teacher 'you can see something that perhaps someone with not as much teaching experience might miss'.</p> <p>In addition to previous teaching experience, all participants thought that they had developed their professional knowledge and practice in relation to SEN while carrying out the SENCo role.</p> <p>I've certainly learned a lot about looking for- you know being observant with children and noticing things, [and] being aware of resources that I can use to help children in their learning and to manage difficult behaviour or situations. (SENCo 5)</p> <p>The participants highlighted being flexible and creative as a critical element of SENCo professional competence. 'You can't teach everyone exactly the same because that's not equity ... So being a SENCo is thinking of flexible ways just to solve the problem ... Being a SENCo means you've got to look at it creatively' (SENCo 2). They also emphasised the importance of building good relationships with a wide group of people. As SENCo 5 felt, 'we've got to be highly relational I think ... The way you deal with people, how you get on with people and how you relate to people'.</p> <hd id="AN0176475219-12">Self-Efficacy</hd> <p>The participants experienced high levels of self-efficacy within the SENCo role, which contributed to their agency for inclusion. SENCo 1 felt that she could 'make a difference for a whole range of people', including students with SEN, parents, classroom teachers and teacher aides (TAs) as she 'imparted knowledge to strengthen others'.</p> <p>The major reason for participants' self-efficacy, as they pointed out, was because the school funded them as non-teaching SENCos with little or no responsibility for classroom teaching. They therefore had time to respond to SEN-related issues in a timely manner.</p> <p>If I was a regular class teacher, I couldn't do what I'm doing right now because I would be locked into nine to three with the class.... It's not like I can just walk out of the classroom and go and talk to a teacher aide, or visit another child. (SENCo 2)</p> <p>However, the SENCos also experienced constrained self-efficacy. The most commonly noted constraints were the shortage of funding and the length of time to receive the resources and services children needed. Other constraints included a lack of time (in the case of SENCo 3, who was a part-time SENCo having various other roles), the pressure of catering for an increasing number of SEN students, and being unable to influence anything outside school hours although the problem may lie with families.</p> <hd id="AN0176475219-13">Participation in Decision-Making</hd> <p>The participants also exercised agency through participating in decision-making regarding SEN issues, the extent to which varied though. As members of their schools' SMT, SENCo 1 and 5 engaged in school-wide decision-making extensively through regular SMT meetings. 'I feel like I bring a big-picture knowledge to senior leadership with the lens of special needs' (SENCo 1).</p> <p>Despite not being part of SMT, the other three SENCos felt that they had high levels of freedom and autonomy to implement inclusive provision in their schools. As SENCo 4 commented, 'I do have the freedom of being able to put those things in place ... knowing that I will be supported'. They thought the principal played a key role in supporting SENCo freedom and autonomy. 'It only works because management supports it and that comes from the principal' (SENCo 4). SENCo 2 left her previous school because the principal there did not encourage an inclusive culture nor value SENCo's opinions.</p> <hd id="AN0176475219-14">Collaboration</hd> <p>All participants noted that collaboration was important for them to exercise agency for inclusion. They highly valued their partnership with families. 'Without them[parents] we couldn't do the work that we do' (SENCo 1). They also conceived of TAs' support as indispensable for SENCo work as 'they are the ones that are on the ground everyday with some of our most challenging children' (SENCo 3). The contact with outside agencies was also critical for the participants. They thought that the service from RTLBs (specialist teachers who work with classroom teachers across schools to assist children with difficulties in learning and behaviour) was particularly helpful in terms of advising inclusive programmes, following up particular cases and supporting funding applications.</p> <p>In addition, two participants emphasised the advantage of having multiple SENCos in the school. SENCo 5 felt that collaborating with other SENCos helped her to gain both 'in-depth knowledge' of children in her own year level and 'a good picture of what is going on at school wide as well'. SENCo 4 felt the other SENCo was 'an incredible wealth of information', whose knowledge and experience informed her decision-making.</p> <p>However, the participants sometimes experienced constrained agency when collaborating with other people. Three participants felt that the service of educational psychologists was reduced to observations, neither working with nor following up the children, and thus the SENCos could not 'get anything tangible ... that would make a difference' (SENCo 2). The lack of parental involvement of some families also frustrated the participants. 'We can't make parents do it. I feel frustrated by that because sometimes they are very simple things that the parents could do, and it will make a big difference' (SENCo 3).</p> <p>In summary, the SENCos exercised their agency within their advocacy for students with SEN. They had expressed strong commitment to the SENCo role, making it an essential aspect of their agency for inclusion. SENCo agency was also woven through SENCos' professional competence, self-efficacy, participation in decision-making, and collaboration with a wide range of people. The interpretation and importance of the findings are discussed next.</p> <hd id="AN0176475219-15">Discussion</hd> <p></p> <hd id="AN0176475219-16">SENCo Agency for Inclusion: An Ecological Process</hd> <p>The six themes identified from the data indicated the temporal nature of SENCo agency. SENCos' advocacy for SEN students and commitment to the SENCo role gave them a sense of purpose towards the future; their professional competence derived from their past experience of being a teacher and a SENCo; and their self-efficacy, participation in decision-making and collaboration showed their interaction with the current context for exercising agency. This finding, that SENCo agency was simultaneously oriented towards the past, present and future, is consistent with Emirbayer and Mische's ([<reflink idref="bib9" id="ref37">9</reflink>]) three temporal dimensions of agency – 'iteration' (identifying and enacting patterns of thoughts and behaviour formed from past experience), 'practical evaluation' (making judgements and decisions in response to concrete circumstances), and 'projectivity' (reinventing alternative possibilities to pursue desires, objectives and purposes) (pp. 970–994).</p> <p>These temporal aspects of SENCo agency – iteration, projectivity and practical evaluation – were not separate but interrelated with each other. For instance, SENCo 2ʹs past experience working with students with diverse learning needs in the classroom before taking on the SENCo role (iteration), inspired her determination to be an advocate for SEN students and enhanced her commitment to the SENCo role (projectivity). Simultaneously, the participants contextualised the future and past in the present ecology for exerting agency through experiencing self-efficacy, engaging in decision-making and collaborating with other people (practical evaluation). Priestley and colleagues' ([<reflink idref="bib22" id="ref38">22</reflink>]) ethnographic study of three Scottish secondary school teachers' agency in curriculum making similarly showed that the teachers' professional and educational experience before entering the teaching profession (iteration) influenced their beliefs and aspirations of educational purposes (projectivity). All these iterative and projective elements manifested in those teachers' distinct classroom practice (practical evaluation).</p> <p>The contextualisation of the past and future as stated above existed within an ecology of culture, structure and resources that promoted SENCo agency. As the participants experienced, SENCo agency was constrained in an ecology sometimes with limited resources, unsupportive senior leadership, and low levels of parental involvement and agency supports. In contrast, enabled SENCo agency occurred in an ecology that entailed sufficient time relieved from classroom teaching, freedom and autonomy to implement inclusive provision, supportive senior leadership and effective partnerships with families, colleagues and outside agencies. The findings are consistent with Biesta and Tedder's ([<reflink idref="bib3" id="ref39">3</reflink>]) statement that 'the achievement of agency will always result from the interplay of individual efforts, available resources and contextual and structural "factors" as they come together in particular and, in a sense, always unique situations' (p. 137).</p> <p>Therefore, we suggest that the achievement of SENCo agency is an ecological process encompassing a variety of temporally oriented components. The work of inclusion cannot be accomplished by SENCos alone but requires an ecology of inclusion involving interactions between culture, structure, resources, other agentic actors and SENCos themselves. In their research into four primary school SENCos in Belgium, De Putte, Schauwer, Hove, and Davies ([<reflink idref="bib8" id="ref40">8</reflink>]) put forward a similar notion, which they called 'inclusion assemblage' (p. 898), to highlight SENCo agency as being part of 'the intra-active entanglement of multiple agencies' (p. 888).</p> <hd id="AN0176475219-17">Implications for Policy and Practice</hd> <p>The ecological process of SENCo agency argued here suggests that policies and practice aiming to support SENCos achieve agency should take into account the entire ecology of inclusion rather than focusing only on SENCo capability. This study showed that the amount of time allocated to the SENCo role was the most commonly perceived factor that influenced participants' agency for inclusion. Hence, the first and perhaps most effective way to create an inclusive ecology would be to organise the SENCo role to focus primarily on SENCo work. Mixing the role with classroom teaching particularly appeared to hinder SENCos' time and flexibility to achieve inclusive outcomes. Another commonly reported constraint of SENCo agency in this study was the shortage of funding related to SEN. Therefore, it is recommended that the relevant governing bodies allocate sufficient funding to SEN so that children with SEN can receive resources and services in a timely manner. Consistently, research (Kearney et al., [<reflink idref="bib11" id="ref41">11</reflink>]) has identified time and resource as being the two factors least available to SENCos when implementing inclusive provision.</p> <p>In addition, a key insight from this study is the positive link between SENCos' participation in decision-making and SENCo agency for inclusion. Thus, it is vital that school leaders value SENCos' opinions, support their actions and engage them in decision-making. Furthermore, as the findings suggested the critical importance of collaboration for SENCo agency, it is recommended that senior leadership facilitate an inclusive school culture and a whole-school approach to inclusive education. This can promote collective efforts to work for inclusion, whereby classroom teachers, senior leadership and other school staff all bring their expertise and resources to support student inclusion and thereby enabling SENCo agency.</p> <p>In countries like New Zealand that have not mandated the implementation of the SENCo role, not offered a standardised description for this role, and do not provide training for SENCOs, it would be difficult to ensure that SENCos across the country carry out their role in a facilitating ecology. To create an inclusive school ecology that values and supports the SENCo role, funding the SENCo role directly and providing formal guidelines for this role should be prioritised.</p> <hd id="AN0176475219-18">Conclusions</hd> <p>International recognition of SENCos as agents of change for students with SEN shows the importance of gaining a fuller understanding of SENCo agency for inclusion. Findings from this qualitative interpretive case study of how SENCos exercise agency to work for inclusion recognised both temporal orientations and spatial conditions of SENCo agency achievement, and thus supported the argument for an ecological process of SENCo agency. SENCo agency for inclusion appears to be an ecological process (not just an individual capability) that involves ongoing engagement with the culture, structure and resources (human and non-human) in a specific ecology of inclusion. The achievement of SENCo agency also entails interaction with the past (iteration), future (projectivity) and present (practical evaluation) to bring about inclusive action.</p> <p>Notwithstanding the small-scale nature of the research, the study contributes to the limited literature on SENCo agency. Though studied in the New Zealand context, understanding SENCo agency as co-ordination role in an ecological process may shed light on policy making and practice in other countries regarding strategies for an inclusive ecology that supports SENCo agency. SENCos in other contexts may also gain insights when reflecting on their own sense of agency. Future research is recommended in other contexts with a larger sample size and/or different approaches to deepen our understanding of SENCo agency for inclusion.</p> <hd id="AN0176475219-19">Acknowledgments</hd> <p>We wish to offer special thanks to the five participating SENCos. We also wish to thank the school principals for their assistance in accessing prospective participants.</p> <hd id="AN0176475219-20">Disclosure statement</hd> <p>No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).</p> <ref id="AN0176475219-21"> <title> References </title> <blist> <bibl id="bib1" idref="ref13" type="bt">1</bibl> <bibtext> Bandura, A. 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  Data: Agency for Inclusion: A Case Study of Special Educational Needs Coordinators (SENCos)
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  Data: <searchLink fieldCode="AR" term="%22Hui+Lin%22">Hui Lin</searchLink> (ORCID <externalLink term="https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9026-3634">0000-0002-9026-3634</externalLink>)<br /><searchLink fieldCode="AR" term="%22Lexie+Grudnoff%22">Lexie Grudnoff</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="AR" term="%22Mary+Hill%22">Mary Hill</searchLink> (ORCID <externalLink term="https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9552-8112">0000-0001-9552-8112</externalLink>)
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  Data: <searchLink fieldCode="SO" term="%22International+Journal+of+Disability%2C+Development+and+Education%22"><i>International Journal of Disability, Development and Education</i></searchLink>. 2024 71(4):609-619.
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  Data: Routledge. Available from: Taylor & Francis, Ltd. 530 Walnut Street Suite 850, Philadelphia, PA 19106. Tel: 800-354-1420; Tel: 215-625-8900; Fax: 215-207-0050; Web site: http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals
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  Data: 11
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  Data: Journal Articles<br />Reports - Research
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  Data: <searchLink fieldCode="EL" term="%22Elementary+Education%22">Elementary Education</searchLink>
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  Data: <searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Special+Education%22">Special Education</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Coordinators%22">Coordinators</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Student+Needs%22">Student Needs</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Inclusion%22">Inclusion</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Professional+Autonomy%22">Professional Autonomy</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Elementary+Schools%22">Elementary Schools</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Foreign+Countries%22">Foreign Countries</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Teacher+Attitudes%22">Teacher Attitudes</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Teaching+Experience%22">Teaching Experience</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Change+Agents%22">Change Agents</searchLink>
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  Data: <searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22New+Zealand%22">New Zealand</searchLink>
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  Data: 10.1080/1034912X.2022.2137110
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  Data: International recognition of Special Educational Needs Coordinators (SENCos) as agents of change for students with special educational needs calls for a deeper understanding of SENCo agency. However, literature on teacher agency for inclusion has paid little attention to SENCos. Taking a sociocultural view of agency, this qualitative case study collected rich data from five primary school SENCos in New Zealand via semi-structured individual interviews, work-shadowing and relevant documents. The findings showed that the SENCos exercised agency for inclusion through advocacy for students with SEN, commitment to the SENCo role, professional competence, self-efficacy, participation in decision-making, and collaboration with a wide range of people. The findings point to the need to conceptualise SENCo agency as a temporal, ecological process that involves engagement with culture, structure and resources in specific contexts.
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