Ethnography of Teacher Training: Mantras for those constructed as 'other'

Abstract

This article draws on a 1 year ethnographic study of the process of teacher training from an inclusive position and that of general postgraduate training. Student teachers elected either to teach a given subject or to train in 'inclusive education' which aims to accommodate all learners, regardless of the notion of 'disability' or other forms of difference. The inclusive position challenges the notion of 'difference' and invites examination into how educational policy has the potential to enforce oppressive norms. The research reported here illustrates how socially constructed norms in relation to behavior and achievement are reproduced in the classroom. Ethnographic data demonstrates how educational philosophy is delivered to student teachers that supports either exclusive or inclusive strategies of teaching. The political environment that student teachers are immersed in is examined, together with documentation of the process of training and its inherent politics. Reflective points include how the political environment which teaching is delivered simultaneously creates and enforces dominant discourses of difference. Critical reflection on this research suggests that those involved in inclusive approaches to education need to be vigilant against the inclusive argument becoming a mantra.