Socially Inclusive Teaching

Abstract

Like other western nations such as the United States and the United Kingdom, Australia's record of education outcomes for marginalized groups is troubling, whether the comparisons are made within the nation or with other OECD nations. Although recent Australian Governments have sought to overhaul funding for schools and universities, on their own, more resources for educational institutions are not enough to redress problems of disadvantage and to achieve social justice. Also required is a focus on the pedagogic work (PW) of teachers and, by implication, their teacher educators. Central to this article is the argument that pedagogy is the most strategic place to begin this work because of its location as a central message system in education. In this article we conceive of PW as comprising of belief, design, and action. From these are derived three principles on which to build a socially inclusive pedagogy that creates opportunities for all students, whatever their circumstances, to participate more fully in education. Our focus on advancing a conceptual understanding of socially inclusive pedagogy is informed by a theory and politics of transformation, which seek to engage with the deep structures that generate injustice within schools and teacher education.

Attitudes, Sentiments, and Concerns About Inclusive Education of Teachers and Teaching Students in Spain

“…In day-to-day practice, it would be interesting to include in the academic curriculum more inter-disciplinary training on inclusive education in the classroom (Galović et al, 2014;Schmidt and Vrhovnik, 2015), not only from a theoretical point of view but also from a practical perspective. Thus, promoting activities that encourage inclusion in the classroom, such as, for example, the puzzle technique or cooperative tasks (Tsakiridou and Polyzopoulou, 2014;Gale et al, 2017) would aid to reduce prejudice and improve positive attitudes within the school context.…”

“…They must also have certain attitudes, abilities, skills and strategies that, applied in their educational praxis, enable quality education for all (Loreman et al, 2014;Novo-Corti et al, 2015). Therefore, as Gale et al (2017) argue, it is important to understand and monitor teachers' attitudes toward diversity (Loreman et al, 2014). Thus, the type of response, positive or negative, that the teacher (Booth and Ainscow, 2015) or future teacher (Novo-Corti et al, 2015) has toward the object of attitude-in this case diversitywill depend on the combination of the three integrating components of the attitude: cognitive (positive or negative beliefs toward diversity), affective (evaluation and positive or negative valuation toward diversity), which translates into an acceptance (inclusion) or rejection (exclusion), and conative-behavioral responses (disposition toward diversity depending on the other two components) (Ajzen, 2005;Fishbein and Ajzen, 2011).…”

Creating Conditions for Literate Engagement: Teaching, Learning, and Acting in the World

“…What is useful, important, necessary, equitable, or socially just in one context may not be the same in a different context. Gale, Mills, and Cross (2017) offered a simple framework for the sort of activist student engagement and pedagogy that we described in this article and experienced while working and writing together. The framework is simple: belief, design, and action.…”

Ongoing University Teachers and the Complexity of Their Knowledge Dynamics

“…In this way, the teacher is able to combine the content worked with his students to the daily life of these students, creating and recreating a rich environment of production of knowledge in which all are both authors and learners (Gale, Mills, & Cross, 2017).…”