Conference Agenda

This paper explores research with pre-service teachers in Scotland about their development of understandings of inclusion and curricular justice. Teachers require the appropriate skills and knowledge to teach diverse pupils, seeing individual differences as opportunities for enriching learning (Ainscow, 2020). Teacher education programmes are one space where interruptions to students’ deeply rooted assumptions about, for example, education, teaching and diversity are made possible. Teachers’ curriculum making work is complex and has been described as a ‘highly dynamic processes of interpretation, mediation, negotiation and translation, across multiple layers or sites of the education system’ (Priestley et al. 2021: 1). Pre-service teachers need educational experiences which help them navigate this complex work. Knowledge of learners, subject matter, curriculum goals and pedagogy (Darling-Hammond, 2006) have been identified as key foundations for curriculum work. Developing effective inclusive practice begins in the teachers’ professional preparation when pre-service teachers learn about key pedagogical approaches, reflect on their own beliefs about human differences, and develop inclusive practices that are maintained throughout their teaching careers (Rouse, 2010). Inclusive education is linked to a human rights-based approach (UNESCO, 2017) underpinned by the principle of social justice and teacher’s understandings of social justice will shape their pedagogical leadership (Forde and Torrence, 2017). To achieve curricular justice (Riddle et al., 2023), based on Fraser’s (2008) tripartite definition of social justice, commitment to ‘pupil-centred’ education’ needs to be accompanied by understandings of what and whose knowledge (Coker et al., 2024).

Our teacher education programme restructured the second school placement experience so each week students spend 3 days in school and 2 days within the university. This structure is envisioned to enable students to make richer theoretical connections to ongoing practice, whilst also affording opportunities to question their existing horizons of expectation. This is a space where interruptions to students’ assumptions and their practices can be foregrounded on a weekly basis. The Differences and Identity module, taught during this semester at the university, aims to give the opportunity for students to explore the research around inclusion and to begin to think about the relevance of this research to their own practice. Students undertake this module concurrently with the second school placement and it aims to enrich and contextualize student’s experience by giving students the tools and knowledge to think about their practice differently, in terms of inclusion. The module introduces students to the key theoretical debates in Inclusive education, the principal research, current policy and provokes discussion regarding inclusive pedagogy. The expectation is that students will use this new knowledge to reflect on their practice through this process of interruption, reflection, and supportive discussion, and it is these experiences that this research focuses on.

The study aims to address these research questions:

1. What are student teachers’ (pre-service teachers) understandings of inclusion and social justice before and after having studied a module on inclusion and attending a concurrent school placement.

1. To what extent has their understanding been developed after this module and attending a concurrent school placement.

The study will use Fraser’s framework of redistributive and relational social justice as heuristic through which issues of inclusion and exclusion will be discussed and linked curricular justice (Riddle et al., 2023; Dawson, 2017).

The purpose of this paper is to present the development and initial findings of a three-year funded project, entitled the Collaborative Storytelling for Disability Awareness (COSDIA) approach. This approach was conceptualized through a careful consideration of the gap in the literature regarding interdisciplinary approaches that consider disability awareness, particularly the intersection between online-offline environments of interaction, collaboration between disabled and non-disabled pre-service teachers, the co-creation of educational materials, and creative writing and digital storytelling. In effect, the study explores the use of collaborative storytelling, through digital and other forms, of pre-service teachers’ own stories and/or fairy tales about disability and aims to foster pre-service teachers’ disability awareness.

This presentation will include findings derived mainly from the first phase of the three-year project. In this first phase, the researchers conducted a thorough literature review documenting existing models in the use of storytelling and drama techniques for pre-service teachers’ training, as well as the representation of disability in the media. Researchers also completed an initial analysis of pre-service teachers’ views around disability and their learning needs around inclusive pedagogy and practice, which facilitated the development of the COSDIA approach. The first phase of the project was concluded through the development of a theoretical and pedagogical framework for the COSDIA approach, as well as the development of its curriculum comprised of seven modules. The development, presentation and delivery of the modules adopt an inclusive pedagogical framework, as the research team agrees that the project has the potential “to reduce educational inequality by enhancing learning opportunities for everyone” (Florian, 2015, p.5).

The research questions complement the research goals of the proposed project, and the research team investigates:

(1) pre-service teachers’ perceptions in relation to innovative learning approaches regarding disability awareness and inclusive education

(2) pre-service teachers’ needs in relation to innovative learning approaches regarding disability awareness and inclusive education

(3) the ways in which COSDIA’s approach can contribute to enhancing pre-service teachers’ disability awareness

(4) the potential opportunities and challenges of collaborative storytelling (collaboration between disabled and non-disabled people), through digital, and other forms, of pre-service teachers’ own stories and/or fairy tales about disability/inclusive education

Norway has traditionally put inclusive education high on the agenda in their schools related to both practice and laws (Maxwell & Bakke, 2019). New teacher education reforms in Norway focus on subject specialization and research-based knowledge (Jakhelln et al., 2019). Antonsen et al. (2020) confirm however that there is a gap between inclusive education and the general teacher community. New teacher education programmes inadequately prepare early career teachers (ECTs) to work inclusively with Tveitnes and Hvalby (2023) finding a lack of inclusive education is problematic for ECTs and their mentors. However, the Norwegian master-based education is supposed to educate ECTs with the ability to develop their competence, reflect and collaborate with others (Jakhelln et al., 2019).

A positive connection between ECTs and students is important for teaching (Hattie, 2008). Norwegian ECTs experience many classroom challenges particularly when handling a varied student and parent group (Antonsen et al., for review). Teachers’ relational work also requires the handling of a broader range of learners from skilled students to behavioral problems (Rudkjoebing et al., 2020) and also to address themes from social, personal or health education (Nic Gabhainn et al., 2010). There are similar calls in Norway for teaching about life mastery (Lauritzen et al., 2021) and abuse and sexual harassment (Goldschmidt-Gjerløw, 2022). Given that teachers have many and contradictory discursive demands and relational tasks to solve in work (Spicksley, 2022), a novel relational approach to inclusive and relational education may help them in carrying out work.

Relational thinking is an educational practice that equalizes learning and well-being (Dalkilic & Vadeboncoeur, 2016). Florian et al. (2017) highlight that a teacher’s ability to act relationally impacts developing a more inclusive pedagogy. A relational thinking and approach to special education and adapted education shifts the focus from instrumental thinking such as having clear recipes and solutions, to what Florian and colleagues suggest as "a more nuanced and relational way of considering how schools can respond to difference is needed." (Florian et al., 2017, p. 27). For teachers, a relational approach involves the ability to question their assumptions and increase their own insight into the relationship between their behaviour and underlying thoughts and feelings whilst simultaneously giving an understanding of the individual student’s perspective (Aspelin, 2014, p. 240). Relational thinking thus means that inclusive education should both contribute to and be the result of an education system that provides a reasonable opportunity for all children to be active agents in their own learning (Dalkilic & Vadeboncoeur, 2016). Previously, Amartya Sen’s (1985) Capability Approach was used in research on the integration of disabled people (Reindal, 2009) and inclusion and special education (Terzi, 2014). A capacity-based approach can engage children, teachers, and families in principle, and in practice recognize differences, rather than shortcomings. One disadvantage of relational thinking is that the term becomes somewhat ambiguous because of its links to social ideology, human values​, and principles of integration, inclusion, and normalization. However, a relational approach can lead to the development of policy and practice that clarifies the processes required to develop capabilities and appreciating functions and the types of resources required to generate relationally inclusive environments. There is therefore need to investigate how ECTs with a master-based teacher education can become agents for developing relational thinking in their practice to work with inclusion and relations in their teaching (Pantić & Florian, 2015). The research questions:

1) How do ECTs express their learning regarding aspects of inclusive and relational teaching in their first five years in practice?

2) How are aspects of relational thinking expressed by ECTs about their teaching practice in their first five years of practice?