Inclusive Teacher Education Pedagogy

Abstract

One of the major challenges for teachers and teacher educators in modern times is the continuous search for pedagogy and approaches to meet the growing diversity within inclusive schools. Ideas of inclusion assume that every learner has equitable access to education and that schools organize learning spaces that accommodate everyone in the spirit of universal design. Facing these challenges, school systems and teachers have to consider how they can respond. We argue, like others have before us (Ainscow 2008; Meijer 2003), that teachers are the key to developing inclusive practices and pedagogies in schools. In this chapter we examine and discuss the ways in which teacher educators have employed self-study in order to research how they are preparing teacher students (preservice teachers) for working in inclusive education settings. We will explain the ideology of inclusion and provide a review of the available self-study research that focuses on inclusive education. We then provide a recent example of self-study research on inclusive practices and discuss how such self-study research has supported new understandings of inclusion, has resulted in the reconstruction of support services in one school, and has informed our thinking about further research.