Universal Design for Learning in a Teacher Residency: Re]Framing Tensions through Collaborative Self-Study

ABSTRACT

Over the past two decades, interest and support for Universal Design for Learning (UDL) has prompted many teacher education programs in the United States to incorporate it into preservice curricula. Developed by CAST, an educational nonprofit, the UDL framework aims to support the design of inclusive educational environments by minimizing barriers to learning, and building on student variability as a starting point for instructional and curricular design. Despite UDL’s recent growth at multiple levels of education, there remains a dearth of research examining practitioners’ experiences working with the framework. The purpose of this self-study is to analyze tensions that emerged as we, a team of five teacher educators, attempted to apply Universal Design for Learning (UDL) in our own practice in a rural teacher residency (TRRE) program. We analyze our incorporation of UDL, the tensions we experienced, the factors contributing to those tensions, and the ways we responded to them. The two main tensions were: (a) balancing UDL’s strategies with its necessary shift in mindset, and (b) grappling with UDL’s concept of barriers alongside the necessary cognitive dissonance of the learning process. We conclude by offering implications for research and practice as we continue to navigate these tensions and incorporate UDL into our practice.

KEYWORDS:

• Universal design for learning
• self-study
• teacher education
• rural teacher education

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/17425964.2022.2129609.

Disclosure statement

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

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the US Department of Education Teacher Quality Partnership under Grant # U336S160019. The views expressed in this manuscript are those of the authors; U.S. Department of Education.