Figuring It Out: An Interaction Analysis of How Preservice Teachers Construct an Understanding of Inclusion

• In Event: Teacher Knowledge, Learning, and Education in the Learning Sciences

Abstract

Preservice teachers (PSTs) are commonly taught about inclusion and expected to practice inclusion in their future classrooms and doing so requires them to develop an understanding of inclusion that coalesces an array of information. This research contributes to Learning Sciences scholarship by investigating PSTs’ learning processes as they consider issues around inclusion. This study applied interaction analysis to investigate how PSTs used conceptual resources and experiences to collaboratively construct an understanding of inclusion through drawing and discourse. The findings highlight how the intersections of multiple figured worlds can influence the trajectories of collaborative work and how fragile the process of figuring can be. Moreover, navigating such intersections can lead PSTs to pursue different epistemological approaches to inclusion.

Author

• Chris Ostrowdun, Mount Royal University