Everyone Belongs, Everyone Achieves: Examining One Teacher's Sense-Making of Inclusive Education Policy

• In Event: Moscone Center West Roundtable Session 2
  In Roundtable Session: Beyond Inclusion: Disability Studies and Special Education for Social Justice

Abstract

Schools across the United States increasingly serve students with disabilities in inclusive settings, and teachers are charged with consideration of students’ disability status and its intersection with students’ race, class, gender, and language backgrounds. Yet, the question of how teachers make sense of inclusive education policies has been under-examined in the literature. Using portraiture, this article illustrates how on teacher made meaning of an inclusion policy, and the resulting shifts in his practice and leadership. This portrait reveals that enacting such policies necessitates a constant negotiation within a teacher’s practice. It also reveals that when teachers take on leadership roles at their schools, they can have opportunities to broaden notions of inclusion to encompass both children and adults as learners.

Author

• Heather Francis, Boston College