Teacher training for inclusion. Wearing a yellow vest at school or daily practices that we learn to resignify

ABSTRACT

This paper analyses a research developed at the University of Cantabria (Spain) committed to inclusive education, as it proposes a process of collaborative enquiry into relevant educational concepts related to attention to diversity. The work carried out by the university students (preservice teachers) resulted in the production of a dictionary constructed from several voices (informants). The study is qualitative and involves 4 university professors (they are also the researchers) and 70 students of the Education Degree. Here we present the results of the enquiry process into the concept of the ‘yellow vest’. This project has been led by three preservice teachers with the participation of five six-year-old students, three tutors and two support specialists as informants. This enquiry project functions as the epitome of the training process and demonstrates how inclusion is a socially anchored process. The results highlight a number of factors that contribute to making teacher education inclusive: the agency of university students in their training process; recognition of the value of diverse voices in order to build legitimate knowledge; deliberative dialogue in inclusive education; the use of heterogeneous communicative languages.

KEYWORDS:

• Diversity
• preservice teacher education
• special education
• teacher education research methodology

Disclosure statement

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

Notes

1 Project funded by the Vice-rectorate of Academic Organization and Professorship of the University of Cantabria in the 2018–19 competitive call.

2 This integrated plan is complemented by a number of specialisations (such as Therapeutic Pedagogy, Speech and Language), which offer opportunities to explore aspects of the curriculum in greater depth and provide specialised training within a specific field of knowledge, but always forming part of the general training.

3 In each Spanish university the practicum is organised in different ways, although the total number of hours spent in the schools is the same and represents a full academic year (25% of the total training). At the University of Cantabria, it is divided into two periods of one month each in the second and third years and a more intensive period, lasting four months, in the last year of the university degree course.

4 The names used here are fictitious in order to preserve anonymity.

5 In Spain there is a parallel network of schools: public schools which belong to the public authorities and the network of state-supported private schools. The latter are privately owned schools which receive public funding through an agreement with the education authorities. These agreements are intended to complement the provision of free education in public schools during the compulsory stages. The subsidised schools are mostly religious in nature and constitute approximately 30% of all primary schools in Spain, although this percentage increases in urban settings, as is the case in the city of Santander.

6 In Spanish schools, in addition to the teachers who are tutors of each group, there are other support professionals, primarily the Therapeutic Pedagogy teacher (SENCO), the Speech and Language Therapist and the Educational Counsellor.

7 The state-supported private schools have the authority to directly hire the teaching staff (unlike the public schools which follow the general civil service process, so that appointment is determined by the competitive examination system).

8 These conclusions are elaborated by the university professors (researchers) and refer to the purpose of identifying aspects of the proposal that have potential for the inclusive education of future teachers.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Vice-rectorate of Academic Organization and Professorship of the University of Cantabria.

Notes on contributors

Ángela Saiz Linares

Ángela Saiz-Linares Lecturer, Department of Education, University of Cantabria (Spain). Ph.D in Education from the University of Cantabria. She is currently a lecturer in the Department of Education. Her fields of research include: initial teacher training and practicum, educational and social inclusion and exclusion, student voice movement and participatory research. Email: [email protected]

Noelia Ceballos López

Noelia Ceballos López Lecturer, Department of Education, University of Cantabria (Spain). Ph.D in Education from the University of Cantabria. She is currently a lecturer in the Department of Education at the University of Cantabria. Her fields of research include: practices and politics in Early Childhood Education; inclusive participation and listening processes in Early Childhood Education, student voice movement, participatory research with children. Email: [email protected]

Teresa Susinos Rada

Teresa Susinos Rada PhD in Education from the University of Salamanca. She is a researcher at the Department of Education (University of Cantabria) and she leads a research group that has carried out several research projects related to participatory research, inclusive education, qualitative and ethnographical research. Email: [email protected]

Julia Ruiz López

Julia Ruiz-López Ph.D in Education from the University of Cantabria. She has recently presented her doctoral thesis about a participatory research project with groups without a social voice and the opportunities of the digital for the communication of research results. She is a member of the research team headed by Teresa Susinos. Email: [email protected]