Becoming an Inclusive Educator: Agentive Maneuverings in Collaboratively Taught Classrooms

• In Event: Enacting Inclusive and Culturally Relevant Practices in Special Education Teacher Preparation

Abstract

Despite the rapid international spread of inclusive education in recent years, there has not been a systematic investigation into teachers’ experiences in enacting inclusion in an era of accountability. In this paper, we explore the experiences of novice teachers who were prepared for inclusive education within a critical disability studies-informed teacher education program. We investigated how these teachers took up “inclusion” within their practices in diverse urban public schools in the US, and how they configured their identities as inclusive educators in this process. Data from this study disclosed that the relational and discursive context of teachers’ work produced particular understandings of inclusive practice that create some dilemmas for the effective preparation of teachers for inclusion.

Authors

• Srikala Naraian, Teachers College, Columbia University

• Sarah L. Schlessinger, Long Island University - Brooklyn