Becoming an inclusive teacher: reducing gaps in theory and practice through inclusive research

ABSTRACT

The course ‘Inclusive Education’ at the University of Vienna (UV) serves as a microcosm of national and international discourses. Policies such as the UN-CRPD run counter to established school systems and the latest developments in federal and state legislation. Against this backdrop, a small-scale study has been conducted to (a) examine the situation of pre-service teachers in inclusive education and (b) contextualise this against the experiences of self-advocating former special-school pupils, namely persons with learning difficulties who politically speak up for their own rights. Nine interviews (seven with pre-service teachers and two with self-advocates) have been analysed using Situational Analysis. An inclusive research approach has been applied at every step of the research process.

Findings show that pre-service teachers tend to get lost in the tension between their vision of inclusive education and the reality of special education. In this situation, self-advocates serve as allies who help to overcome these barriers through constant exchange. Since this inclusive research approach exists in academic teaching, a shift from inclusion in theory to inclusion in practice might be introduced to synthesise theory and practice.

KEYWORDS:

• Teacher education
• inclusive education
• inclusive research
• self-advocacy

Disclosure statement

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

Acknowledgments

My warm thanks go to Susanne Prummer, Alexander Klement, and Barbara Nemestothy as well as Andreas Paukner for their fundamental contributions to the research project.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Gertraud Kremsner

Gertraud Kremsner holds a visiting professorship in inclusive education, with particular focus on social and emotional development, at the University of Leipzig. She has previously held Senior Lectureship and Post-Doctoral positions at the Center for Teacher Education (research unit: inclusive education) at the University of Vienna. In the summer term of 2019, she undertook a visiting professorship in general education in rehabilitation and integration at the Martin Luther University, Halle-Wittenberg (Germany). Her research fields are disability studies (in education), inclusive research (with persons with learning difficulties), and self-advocacy.