Designing for Learning Countercultural Practices: Moving Toward Inclusivity

• In Event: 68.060 - Roundtable Session 29
  In Roundtable Session: 68.060-4 - School Organization and Effects: Building Student Support Capacity

Abstract

How do educators learn to engage in countercultural practices? This instrumental case describes how educators in St. Elizabeth - a small Catholic elementary school in the Midwestern U.S. - learn to include students with special needs. Students with special needs tend not to be treated as valued, full-fledged members of school communities. Catholic schools have a particularly poor reputation in this regard, with exceptions proving the rule. St. Elizabeth represents one such exception. Educators here have pivoted from instinctively excluding students with special needs toward including them. Examining the countercultural shift – how and why it occurred, whether it is likely to persist – provides insight into this broader question of how educators across school sectors learn to embrace countercultural practices.

Author

• Martin Scanlan, Boston College