What Does It Take to Teach Inclusively? A Study of Teacher Practice and Curricular Decision Making

• In Event: Hilton Roundtable Session 2
  In Roundtable Session: Envisioning Inclusion Through a Disability Studies Frame

Abstract

Inclusive education as an enactment of equity pedagogy has remained elusive, in part because it is philosophically at odds with accountability and audit cultures that govern schooling practices. Through close examination of the work of practicing teachers, we can begin to understand methods teachers employ to create inclusive spaces within these audit driven contexts. This multi-case study of three teachers enactments of inclusivity attempts to uncover some ways that teachers work to create inclusive spaces. Findings suggest that teacher’s curricular play, the creation of access points to that curriculum, and emphasis on student choice are approachable and significant methods by which teachers can work to shift exclusionary special education discourse while working within it.

Author

• Sarah L. Schlessinger, Long Island University - Brooklyn