Understanding Inclusive Pedagogy
Over the last two decades or so many national governments have introduced legislation intended to support more inclusive education systems. Yet, despite these policy changes, developments in inclusive classroom practices do not seem to have been so easily
- PDF / 225,491 Bytes
- 16 Pages / 612 x 792 pts (letter) Page_size
- 12 Downloads / 320 Views
2. UNDERSTANDING INCLUSIVE PEDAGOGY Learning with and from Teachers
Over the last two decades or so many national governments have introduced legislation intended to support more inclusive education systems. Yet, despite these policy changes, developments in inclusive classroom practices do not seem to have been so easily achieved (Artiles, Kozleski, Dorn, & Christensen, 2006; Göransson & Nilholm, 2014). This not only has important consequences for learners and teachers, but also for those who research in inclusive education. How can we contribute to an understanding of everyday classroom practices that recognises and responds to the individual differences of all learners, but does not marginalise or stigmatise some because of their particular needs? Significantly, how can our findings be made worthwhile and meaningful in ways that are respectful of teachers’ knowledge and experiences, support their on-going professional development, and take account of the demands of ordinary classroom life? This chapter is based on a lecture given at The Inclusive Education Summit (TIES, 2015) at the Victoria University, in Melbourne. The conference’s key theme was ‘Making sense of everyday practice’, and its overall aim was ‘How best to strengthen inclusive education practices for the benefit of all students’. With both these in mind, the lecture (and now this chapter) focused on inclusive pedagogy, or the inclusive pedagogical approach: an area of research in which I have been engaged for a number of years, working with colleagues in schools and universities and, especially, in collaboration with Lani Florian and Martyn Rouse (e.g. Florian & Black-Hawkins, 2011; Black-Hawkins & Florian, 2012; Florian, Black-Hawkins, & Rouse, in press). This work has led us to an understanding of inclusive pedagogy as a fundamental shift in teachers’ pedagogical thinking: • away from a traditional, or individualised, approach to learner diversity that starts by making provision for most learners, and then offers something additional or different for some learners identified as having particular needs, • and towards a pedagogical approach that starts with the learning of everybody. That is, in the inclusive pedagogical approach, teachers focus on how to make rich learning opportunities available for everybody so that all learners can participate in the community of the classroom. This chapter also explores the significant contribution that teachers have made to our developing understanding of inclusive pedagogy. In our research we have V. Plows & B. Whitburn (Eds.), Inclusive Education, 13–28. © 2017 Sense Publishers. All rights reserved.
K. Black-Hawkins
endeavoured to ‘bridge’ the gap between research and practice (McIntyre, 2005), by learning with and from teachers. However, as McIntyre (2009) reminds us, doing so must be based on a deep respect for, and intellectual engagement in, the complex work that teachers do in their daily classroom practice. This is important if the findings of research are to resonate with teachers and be useful t
Data Loading...
