Experiences of How Brazilian and Norwegian Students Understand and Practice Inclusion in Schools

• In Event: International Collaborative Remote Teaching of Inclusive Education to Preservice Teachers: Challenges and Possibilities

Abstract

1.Objectives or purposes
Using comparative case-studies with data from Brazil and Norway this paper investigates teacher and pedagogy students’ understanding and practice of inclusion in schools. In light of the UN-CRPD, one of the challenges for governments and universities has been to train educators to work with diversity in schools.
2.Perspective(s) or theoretical framework
Within a social constructivist paradigm we used Stephen Ball’s policy cycle approach (Bowe, Ball, & Gold, 1992) as a theoretical-methodological framework where the understanding of inclusion is considered to be a dynamic and contested process rather than an end product. This approach ensures we capture how pre-service teachers contextually construct inclusion. Norwegian pre-service teachers’ understanding of inclusion is influenced by being in a wealthy and socially equal country (Gini coefficient 0.26, OECD, 2019, p. 99) and is quite different from those of Brazilian teachers who experience more poverty and social inequality (Gini coefficient 0.47, OECD, 2019, p99). Through this cultural knowledge and experience-exchange the pre-service teachers’ learning is enhanced.
3.Methods, techniques, or modes of inquiry
Exploratory case studies with interviews in the form of focus-groups were used. The focus-group interviews were conducted synchronously with pre-service teachers from both countries and combined with their records on an asynchronous online platform in order to give us insight into how and where the two groups diverge or intersect in their understanding of inclusion.
4.Data sources, evidence, objects, or materials
Three focus groups were interviewed during the collaboratively developed online global class about inclusion. The two primary questions were asked: 1) the pre-service teachers’ perceptions and understanding of inclusive education and 2) how their perceptions changed by interacting with their international counterparts.
5.Results and/or substantiated conclusions or warrants for arguments/point of view
Results show considerable differences however both Brazilian and Norwegian pre-service teachers had a good understanding of inclusion as being something for everyone. A particularly prevalent point seen in Brazil is how social inequalities affect inclusion. Differing contexts led to the Brazilians placing more emphasis on different forms of education and types of school whereas the Norwegians had a more relational understanding of inclusion. Brazilians tend to emphasize the recurrence of infrastructure problems and precarious conditions in schools, especially in large urban centres. Norwegians took a more holistic approach to where pupils with additional support needs are placed and also tended to idealize the notion of all pupils being educated in the same space despite evidence suggesting the Norwegian system is exclusive (Nordahl et al. 2018).
6.Scientific or scholarly significance of the study or work
The presented research is part of an international cooperation on pre-service teacher-training in inclusive education that also involves Germany and Japan. The broader project promotes a more critical and humanistic view of the human condition and differences. The differing understandings and conceptualising of inclusion from Brazil and Norway provide us with examples of good practices that enriches the global understanding of inclusion as we strive to uphold the Salamanca statement (UNESCO, 1994).

Authors

• Gregor Maxwell, UIT The Arctic University of Norway

• Márcia Denise Pletsch, UFRRJ