International academics join MA SEND students for conversation and collaboration

Recently, academic visitors from Central Asia joined one of our MA SEND teaching sessions, exploring the questions ‘What is SEND? To Label or Not to Label?’. 

The visitors’ involvement connects to the wider ALLECO project (Accelerating English Language Learning in Central Asia), supported by the British Council and UK International Development, involving colleagues from the University of Lincoln and project partners in Central Asia. 

The session explored the deceptively simple question of “What is SEND?”, including whether labels help us understand people or can sometimes restrict how we see them. 

Lori Hall, Lecturer in SEND at Lincoln Bishop, ran the session – prompting attendees to look at different ways of understanding disability and SEND, including medical, social, and relational perspectives, and consider how assumptions around ability, behaviour, communication, and difference can shape educational experiences.

Lori said: “As we had academics from several Central Asian countries in the room alongside our MA students, the discussion also became a really interesting cross-cultural one. Rather than assuming that SEND and inclusion look the same everywhere, we were able to talk about how language, education systems, culture and expectations can shape how disability is understood and responded to.”

The session encouraged students to think critically about labels and categories while still recognising that labels can be important for identity, access to support, legal protection and understanding. It is about sitting with some of that complexity rather than reducing SEND to a list of conditions.

Lori continued: “With our international visitors present, there was an additional purpose too. I did not want the afternoon to become a session where we presented a British model of inclusion as the answer. It became a genuine exchange, with people able to compare experiences, practice and thinking across different educational and cultural contexts.”

Although having an international group of academics joining the session was an extra bonus, the session itself was part of the normal MA SEND programme of teaching. The Lincoln Bishop’s SEND team’s approach is deliberately interactive and discussion-based, asking students to critically examine ideas rather than simply learn definitions or accept established ways of thinking. 

The ALLECO project has been running for around two years and is now in Phase III. The collaboration between Dr Olanrewaji Olaoye (Larry) at Lincoln University, Dr Alison Raby, Fiona McManus and Lori Hall highlights the benefits of international collaboration. Dr Olanrewaju Olaoye, known as Larry, from the University of Lincoln Business School was instrumental in facilitating the wider relationship and the academics’ visit to our campus. 

More information about the project can be found here: British Council AELLCA Project – Accelerating English Language Learning in Central Asia (AELLCA)

Lori said: “What I loved about the afternoon was that it genuinely felt like an exchange. Nobody was there to say, ‘this is what inclusion looks like, and this is how you should do it’. We had people around the same tables, from different countries and different educational contexts, talking about what SEND, disability and inclusion might mean and learning from one another. 

“There were Barbies, fidget toys, sweets and lots of conversation, which probably sums up my teaching quite well! It was also really lovely to see something that began through an international project become a face-to-face relationship here at Lincoln Bishop.”

Feeling inspired? To find out more about MA Special Educational Needs and Disabilities, please visit MA Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND).