Session Information
04 SES 08B, Teacher Education
Paper Session
Time:
2008-09-12
08:30-10:00
Room:
AK2 135
Chair:
Shereen Benjamin
Contribution
It has been argued that future progress in addressing the dilemmas of access and equity in education requires changes in thinking about provision and practice. Proponents of inclusive education suggest that current assumptions, systems and procedures in schooling must be replaced by new ways of thinking and working. The central problem facing those who wish to develop more inclusive practice is to articulate and to demonstrate the so-called ‘new ways of thinking and working’ that are called for by educational reformers. This paper describes the Inclusive Practice Project at the University of Aberdeen where Staff in the School of Education are involved in research and development activities, making major changes to the structure and content of the initial teacher education programmes for primary and secondary teachers to ensure that social and educational inclusion is addressed within the core Learning and Teaching programme rather than being an elective selected by only a few student teachers.
Key concepts associated with the development of inclusive practice have been addressed within the reform of the teacher education curriculum. These include three themes: the replacement of deterministic views of ability with a concept of ‘transformability’ (Hart, et al, 2004), demonstrating how the difficulties students experience in learning can be considered dilemmas for teaching rather than problems within students, and a consideration of how the implications of this new way of understanding of teaching and learning can lead to new ways of working with and through others.
Method
The three areas of curriculum reform focus on how to take difference into account (understanding social justice); taking responsibility for all learners (understanding learning); and learning how to work with others (becoming an active professional). Video and audiotapes of lectures and selected sessions of one tutor group are being analysed using Transana, an innovative new qualitative data analysis tool for evidence that the reforms are embedded in the curriculum; to identify contradictions in the curriculum; and to identify areas that might benefit from future development work.
Expected Outcomes
By focusing on how the concepts of ability and normalcy are conveyed in teacher education and reinforced when working with pupils in schools, we aim to identify places in the teacher education curriculum where we can create opportunities to replace them with different content such as the concept of transformability. The final section of the paper will report on the preliminary analysis of the curriculum study and discuss some of the implications of our work for initial teacher education.
References
Hart, S., Dixon, A., Drummond, M.J., and McIntyre, D. (2004) Learning without limits. Maidenhead, Berks: Open University Press.
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