Translating inclusive values into pedagogical actions

ABSTRACT

Inclusive education is an increasingly adopted approach to pedagogy, and it is based on values that should inform school policies and daily practices. It is about creating school cultures that cherish participation: learning, playing and working with others as well as making choices about, and having a say in, what happens in the school community. Therefore, teachers aiming to develop inclusive practices need to be conscious of the values behind inclusive education and put these values into action. This paper draws on ethnomethodology to explore how teachers perceive inclusive values and how they translate these into pedagogical actions, particularly in co-teaching. We approach classroom activity as an intersubjective process that becomes ordinary through interpretive practices. In this study, the teachers built their pedagogy on the diversity of both themselves and the learners. They showed an understanding of the learners’ needs and provided support through changes in the learning environment and interaction in the classroom. While all of the teachers practiced co-teaching, they may not have consciously adhered to inclusive values, albeit many of their actions showed connections to these values. Continuous discussion of teachers’ values is necessary for sustainable inclusive education.

KEYWORDS:

• Inclusive education
• values
• co-teaching
• interprofessional collaboration

Acknowledgements

This study has been carried out within the framework of the project ‘A School for All – Development of Inclusive Education’.

Disclosure Statement

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

Notes on contributors

Sai Väyrynen has worked in basic education as classteacher and special needs education teacher, and she has also a long career in development co-operation. Currently she is on leave-on-absence from her senior lecturer post at the University of Helsinki, Open University, Finland, and works as Counsellor (education) at the Embassy of Finland, in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

Merja Paksuniemi works as a senior lecturer in the teacher training programme in Faculty of Education, University of Lapland, Finland.

ORCID

Sai Väyrynen http://orcid.org/0000-0002-3744-2094

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by EU (Kolarctic ENPI CBC).