The mediating role of exclusionary school organizations in pre-service teachers’ constructions of inclusion

ABSTRACT

In this article, we build on the extant literature documenting efforts to reform teacher education for inclusive education in the United States to demonstrate the complexity of preparing teachers to enact inclusive education given their own educational trajectories. We draw on qualitative data from a larger study on the nature and impact of an undergraduate course in inclusive education, providing an empirical analysis of the mediating role of general education pre-service teachers’ educational experiences in their constructions of inclusive education and its feasibility. Our data reveal how pre-service teachers’ educational experiences within school organisations configured by professionalisation and specialisation, worked to perpetuate and legitimate the separation of general and special education. We conclude by suggesting possible efforts to prepare educators for inclusive education.

KEYWORDS:

• Inclusion
• teacher preparation
• sociocultural theory
• educational reform
• teacher beliefs

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Margaret R. Beneke, Ph.D., is an assistant professor in the College of Education at the University of Washington in Seattle. Her scholarship focuses on rethinking inclusive education for children and families from historically marginalized backgrounds.

Thomas M. Skrtic, Ph.D., is the Williamson Family Distinguished Professor of Education in the Department of Special Education at the University of Kansas. He specializes in organization theory, special education policy and administration, and qualitative research and evaluation.

Chunlan Guan and Sorcha Hyland are doctoral students in the Department of Special Education at the University of Kansas.

Zhe Gigi An, Ph.D., is an assistant professor in the Department of Rehabilitation Psychology & Special Education at University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Turkey Alzahrani is a lecturer at Al Jouf University and doctoral candidate in the Department of Special Education at the University of Kansas.

Hatice Uyanik and Jennifer M. Amilivia are doctoral candidates inthe Department of Special Education at the University of Kansas.

Hailey R. Love, Ph.D., is an assistant professor in the Department of Early Childhood, Multilingual, and Special Education at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.