Breaking down the walls of the ‘Ivory Tower’: critical reflections on how co-teaching partnerships can bridge the gap between inclusive education theory and practice

ABSTRACT

For decades, the gap between theory and practice has remained the central problem of teacher education. This study will present an alternative approach in an attempt to try to bridge the gap between theory and practice in a teacher education course focused on inclusive education. The approach is based on a model that integrates a university-based and school-based curriculum to promote collaborative partnerships through an arrangement that involved university lecturers and school teachers co-teaching an inclusion unit. The aim of this study was to explore how the experience may have influenced the practice of two university lecturers and two secondary school teachers who co-taught an inclusive unit over a 12-week period. Critical reflections of the university lecturers and school teachers were collected using reflective journal entries and semi-structured interviews. Data was analysed using a critical reflection framework for transformative learning proposed by Liu (2015), as an extension of the Brookfield’s critical reflection model. Findings showed that a co-teaching partnership provided opportunities for university lecturers to draw on the practical real-life examples of the two school teachers they co-taught with, they reflected on how this helped them make connections between inclusive education theory and practice for their students.

KEYWORDS:

• Inclusive education
• teacher education
• preservice teachers
• theory and practice
• co-teaching
• critical reflection

Acknowledgments

The research team would like to acknowledge the time and effort of the Monash University, Education, Professional Practice Consultants, Tara Mannix and Katie Lackwho coordinated the placement of students in the partnership school. We would also like to acknowledge the Principal of Keysborough Secondary College, Victoria, Australia, John Baston, who supported his staff to take part in the project.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Research involving human participants

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

Informed consent

Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Stella Laletas

Stella Laletas is an Academic, Researcher and endorsed Educational & Developmental Psychologist. She is a lecturer in inclusive teacher education and child and adolescent development at Monash University in the Faculty of Education. She has over 20 years of teaching experience in various educational settings. Her professional profile also includes experience in School Leadership in Student Wellbeing and Coordination of the Program for Students with Disabilities (PSD) with the Department of Education and Training in Victoria, Australia.

Christine Grove

Christine Grove is an Educational & Developmental Psychologist, Fulbright Scholar & Academic. She lectures in inclusive education and psychology and supervises research students within this area. Underlying her research interest is her passion for supporting the learning needs of all students in the best ways possible through their active participation and agency.

Umesh Sharma

Umesh Sharma is a Professor in the Faculty of Education at Monash University, where he is the Associate Dean (Equity and Inclusion). Umesh’s research programs in the area of disability and inclusive education span India, Pakistan, China, Bangladesh, Fiji, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu and Samoa as well as Australia, Canada, USA and New Zealand. He is the chief co-editor of the Australasian Journal of Special Education and the Oxford Encyclopedia of Inclusive and Special Education. His main areas of research are: positive behaviour support, inclusive education for disadvantaged children and policy and practice in special and inclusive education.

Thomas OToole

Thomas O’Toole has over 11 years of experience as a Teacher and School Leader in secondary education with the Department of Education, Victoria. He is dedicated to and passion about developing an inclusive school culture that supports holistic student improvement with a strong focus on developing self and others and aiming to evolve educational leadership skills into the next generation of future teachers.

Mervi Kaukko

Mervi Kaukko is an Associate Professor at Tampere University, Finland. Her current research explores refugee students’ educational experiences in Finland and Australia, asylum-seeking students’ access to higher education in Australia and relational wellbeing of young refugees in Finland, Norway and Scotland. Most of Kaukko’s research is framed within practice theories, in particular the theory of practice architectures.