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Moore, Shelley

University of British Columbia

This instrumental case study investigated how collaborative, ongoing, situated, and inquiry-oriented professional development can support teachers to shift towards more inclusive practices in secondary and academic classrooms that include a student with an intellectual disability (SwID). Within a school district in greater Vancouver, British Columbia, this research addressed three research questions: (1) How were teachers in secondary academic classrooms aligned to and/or moving towards guiding conditions of inclusion that increase opportunities for SwIDs to be included?; (2) In this context, how were teachers moving towards planning for and enacting practices for all students in secondary academic classrooms?, and (3) What were the experiences of students, both with and without disabilities, in secondary academic classrooms when teachers were moving towards more inclusive practices? Findings suggested that classroom teachers came to see SwIDs as competent which supported establishing other guiding conditions for inclusion (e.g., including SwID in meaningful learning). They were also able to shift towards more inclusive practices, especially when they collaborated. In addition, collaboration influenced how educational assistants (EAs) were utilized in classrooms, which was important because findings also suggested that students who received one on one support had fewer opportunities to participate with their peers. This study also identified a disconnect between student IEPs and the academic classrooms where students were in enrolled, which became a barrier to navigate, particularly for support teachers. Students in this study shared that they valued inclusive efforts and found practices that teachers were trying to be useful. Most students shared that they felt included, although there were some students who didn’t perceive that their unique needs were being met. Implications for the potential of professional development and collaboration to foster inclusive practices are discussed.

Text

2023-01-04

Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International

http://hdl.handle.net/2429/83565

Cross-Faculty Inquiry in Education

University of British Columbia

UBCV

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/