Interrogating What Counts as an Inclusive Classroom: Toward Power, Participation, and Voice

• In Event: Interrogating the Notion of Inclusive Education Through Research, Policy, and Teacher Preparation

Abstract

Purpose

Social justice, equity-oriented approaches to inclusive education embrace divergent histories, capacities, and cultures that students and educators bring to a classroom (Proffitt, 2022; Kozleski, 2020). For learners to feel that they belonged, a classroom must have structures in place that honor students’ voices, funds of knowledge, and intersectional experiences (Gutiérrez & Rogoff, 2003). Thus, the study sought to: (a) examine a classroom activity arena, its cultural scripts, routines, and participation structures aimed at supporting students of color labeled with dis/abilities in a general education classroom; and (b) identify contradictions and possibilities that can be used as tools to disrupt what passes as an inclusive classroom.

Theoretical Framework

The study employed the conceptual lens of cultural-historical activity theory (CHAT) (Sannino & Engeström, 2018), decolonial theory (Mignolo, 2011), and equity-based inclusive education framework (Waitoller & Kozleski, 2013) to analyze a classroom positioned by school officials as an inclusive classroom. Following CHAT, a classroom is a site of cultural activity which encompasses cultural practices, expectations, actors, and tools that carry collective and individual histories and experiences. The decolonial theory emphasizes that the ways in which space operates culturally and politically reflect the hegemony of dominant group (Mignolo, 2011; Maldonado-Torres, 2007). The notions of power, participation, and voice manifest student learning and must be interrogated in order to promote equitable classroom cultural scripts, practices, and structures (Artiles & Kozleski, 2007; Gutiérrez, 1995).

Methods and Data Sources

Drawing on critical ethnographic data and qualitative methods, the paper presents a case study of how two teachers set up their practices to support students of color labeled with dis/abilities in a general education classroom. Two phenomenological individual interviews, twelve hours of classroom observations, and four individual video-recall interviews were conducted with a special educator and a general education teacher from one of the U.S. elementary public schools. A corpus of data was analyzed using a grounded theory approach.

Results

The findings revealed that often what educators perceived to be an inclusive classroom was a distorted notion of inclusivity. Standardization of teaching, cultural tensions, and deficit views toward what constituted learning and teaching led to hierarchies and students’ marginalization. The politics of recitation and homogenization of instruction based on disability labels were dominant cultural scripts in a classroom. Teacher-, worksheet-driven, fixed protocols functioned as structures to police student behavior. In this way, students were recruited into dominant [white, ableist] ideologies which diminished personalization and opportunities to acquire meaningful learning.

Scholarly Significance

Teachers are powerful actors in constructing and interrogating what constitutes learning and membership for students of color labeled with dis/abilities in a general education classroom. By supporting teachers’ understanding of a classroom as a site of cultural activity and the roles they play provides opportunities to identify socio-cultural conflicts that can be used as possibilities to disrupt what passes as inclusive teaching and learning. Thus, the paper interrogates the notion of inclusive classroom and calls to action future research to question educational contexts in which claims for inclusive classrooms might serve to mask inequities.

Author

• Inna Stepaniuk, Simon Fraser University
  Presenting Author