Investigating Principals’ Beliefs and Efforts to Foster and Create an Inclusive School Culture: Real or Imagined?

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Sunday 9:50 am Four Seasons Ballroom 2-3
  In Roundtable Session: Challenging Ableism in Education: Teachers' Beliefs and Practices (Table 7)

Abstract

To lead one’s school and community toward the adoption of an inclusive school culture and develop and communicate their vision of inclusion to others, school leaders must be willing to examine their held beliefs and mindset about student ability and inclusion and determine whether they are enacting their professed beliefs within their schools. Mezirow’s Transformative Learning Theory was employed to examine the journey that 18 district-identified inclusive school principals within three Texas school districts went through to become inclusive school leaders, as determined by district administration, and the extent to which they have truly been able to realize the development and cultivation of an inclusive school culture.

Authors

• Barbara L. Pazey, University of North Texas

• Suzy Hardie, University of South Carolina