Inclusive Education And Teacher´s Professional Development In Teachers Of Allgemeinbildenden Höheren Schulen (AHS) in Vienna, Austria

Author(s):

Judith ´t Gilde(presenting / submitting)

Conference:

ECER 2015

Network:

27. Didactics - Learning and Teaching

Format:

Paper

Session Information

27 SES 11 B, Inclusive Education and the Quality of Classroom Activities?

Paper Session

Time:

2015-09-10

17:15-18:45

Room:

202.Oktatóterem [C]

Chair:

Florence Ligozat

Contribution

The research question of my PhD research is: `In what ways does inclusive education affect processes of professionalisation in teachers of Allgemeinbildende Höhere Schule (AHS) in Vienna?´

Sub questions are:
- What does inclusive education mean to teachers and headmasters?
- What are the practices in integration classes and to which extend are they inclusive?
- Which developmental tasks are constructed by teachers in integration classes?

Inclusion is a fairly new, challenging and sometimes confusing concept. Not only in Austria, but also in other countries of the world, it raises many discussions. Since Austria has signed and ratified the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, and the Optional Protocols in 2007 and 2008 respectively, the school system should be in the process of becoming inclusive. Therefore, in a first part this research looks at the meaning of inclusive education for teachers and headmasters, and at what the practices are.

An issue that comes up in Austrian and in international researches is the lack of appropriate training and skills for teachers to manage inclusive classes (Feyerer et al. 2005; Kershner 2007; Pijl 2010; Donnelly/Watkins 2011). Teachers are learners with their own goals, perspectives, former experiences and developmental tasks, and all these interact with societal demands.

In this paper I would like to discuss my research so far and its preliminary results. The theoretical framework of this research is based on the concepts of developmental tasks, Bildungsgang and the four developmental tasks for pre-service and in-service identified by Uwe Hericks (2006).

Bildungsgang is a German concept that is difficult to translate into English. Meyer (2010) explains that it contains two fundamental meanings: (1) learner development and (2) educational experience the learner has out of and in school. Therefore he translates it as 'Learner Development and Educational Experience´. The emphasis of Bildungsgangforschung is on the perspective of the learner (Kunze/Trautmann/Meyer 2010). Bildung is understood as a social process that allows the learner to develop him or herself through for instance crises, regressions, and developmental shifts. Bildungsgangforschung implies that professionalisation is a biographical process. Teachers who are teaching in integration classes might be confronted with difficulties or issues that they need to solve. For my research, this means that it is a process where teachers figure out solutions to the developmental tasks that are related to inclusive education or integration.

The concept of developmental tasks comes from the American sociologist and educationalist Havighurst (1972), who devised the concept of developmental stages and tasks from infant hood to old age. The developmental tasks are developmental objectives which learners ('subjects´) construct by interpreting societal ('objective´) demands (Meyer 2010: 81) and are the 'inner motor for learning' at the same time (Schenk 2005).

Hericks (2006: 92) has identified four developmental tasks which pre-service and in-service teachers in their first years of teaching are confronted with: (1) The development of competence; (2) the development of the ability to mediate or transfer acquired knowledge and competence to others (3) the development of the ability to acknowledge the student's otherness (4) the development of the ability to interact within the school system. Through my research I would like to find out which developmental tasks teachers define in relation to inclusive education and/or integration.

Finally, this research hopes to give teachers a voice and to give insight in the need for training and development of secondary school teachers in relation to inclusive education, by taking into account teachers’ experiences. This research also aims at giving a contribution to research on inclusion at secondary level instead of primary level where a lot of research about inclusion is already being done.

Method

This is a qualitative research that aims at reconstructing knowledge that underlies everyday practice. The four public schools that offer integration classes at AHS level in Vienna, Austria (seven classes in total) participated in this research. Convenience sampling was done: three directors, twelve subject teachers, six integration teachers and one teacher who assists blind students, volunteered to participate in this research. In a first part (November-December 2014), problem based interviews were done with the participants (Witzel 2000; Flick 2012). In the second part, that took place from January 2015 until July 2015, non-participant observations in the classrooms were done. Presently, I am trying to figure out which kind of research method or research methods should be best applied: the documentary method and nothing else, or an ethnograpic research combined with the documentary method? For now, I have started to analyse the interviews using the documentary method, thinking of combining ethnograpic research and the documentary method. What is communicated explicitly and verbally in interviews is not the only important element to the empirical analysis. Following Nohl (2010:200), there is an underlying meaning that needs to be reconstructed. The documentary method helps going beyond the immanent or literal meaning, reconstructing the participants' knowledge and perceptions of their experiences and thoughts in relation to inclusive and integrative education. It allows understanding in particular the challenges faced and the actions taken to resolve them. Instead of focusing on one case it captures the multidimensionality of spoken data (Bohnsack 2010, Nohl 2010). At present, interviews with three directors, twelve subject teachers, six integration teachers and one teacher who assists blind students have been done. The non-participatory unstructured ethnographic observations took place when the participating subject teachers are teaching the integration class. In total nineteen teaching hours have been observed. The observations will be used to describe the practices and current situation in an integration class and to see if any new element or category appears that did not come up from the interviews. Questions concerning methodological triangulation, for the combination of teacher inerviews and classroom observation will probably have to be done.

Expected Outcomes

So far, it seems that there is a large grey area between integration and inclusion in the AHS in Vienna, which would be interesting to explore more. For instance, one school feels it is on its way to becoming an inclusive school, whereas two others are considering having less integration classes. From the twelve in-depth interviews undertaken with subject teachers, it becomes clear that subject teachers do not really know what inclusion means. For some teachers inclusion is yet another change that the government is proposing without involving them in the process. To use their words: “Inclusion is simply a fashionable word”. The interviews with the subject teachers have resulted in interesting and promising discussions and reflections. In particular the following two developmental tasks seem to come up during the interviews: (1) the development of the ability to mediate or transfer acquired knowledge and competence to others and (2) the development of the ability to interact within the school system, in particular with reference to coping with children with physical disabilities and cooperating with an integration teacher and thus a second person in the classroom. However, a thorough analysis of the interviews needs to be done in the coming months to see which other developmental tasks are mentioned, how developmental tasks are constructed and solved by the teacher

References

Bohnsack R. (2010). Documentary Method and Group Discussions. in Qualitative Analysis and Documentary Method in International Educational Research. ed by Bohnsack R., Pfaff N., Weller W. Germany: Barbara Budrich Publishers, 99-124 Donnelly V., Watkins A. (2011). Teacher education for inclusion in Europe. Prospects 41: 341-353. Feyerer, E., Hayward, L., Hedge, N., Ness, K. (2005). Towards an Inclusive Masters' Curriculum in Europe. Available from [19 April 2013] Flick, U. (2012). Qualitative Sozialforschung. Germany: Rowohlts Enzyklopädie. Havighurst, R. J. (1972). Developmental Tasks and Education. 3rd edition 1972. New York: Longmann Inc. Hericks U. (2006). Professionalisierung als Entwicklungsaufgabe. Rekonstruktionen zur Berufseingangphase von Lehrerinnen und Lehrern. Wiesbaden: VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften. Kershner R. (2007). What do teachers need to know about meeting special educational needs? in: the SAGE Handbook of Special Education. ed by Lani Florian. London: Sage Publications, 486-498. Kunze I., Trautmann M., Meyer M. (2010). Zum Stand der Bildungsgangforschung und Bildungsgangdidaktik. Rhino Didactics, 34. Meyer M. A. (2010). A view on Didactics and Instructional Planning from the Perspective of research on learner development and educational experience. Éducation et didactique, Vol. 4, no 2. Nohl A. (2010). Narrative Interview and Documentary Interpretation. in Qualitative Analysis and Documentary Method in International Educational Research. ed by Bohnsack R., Pfaff N., Weller W. Germany: Barbara Budrich Publishers, 195-217. Pijl S.J. (2010). Preparing teachers for inclusive education: some reflections from the Netherlands. Journal of Research in Special Educational Needs. Volume 10, number s1. Schenk B. (eds) (2005). Bausteine einer Bildungsgangtheorie. Wiesbaden: VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften Trautmann M. (eds) (2004). Entwicklungsaufgaben im Bildungsgang. Wiesbaden: VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften Witzel, A. (2000). The Problem-Centered interview. Forum Qualitative Social Research. Vol. 1, No. 1.

Author Information

Judith ´t Gilde (presenting / submitting)

University of Vienna

Vienna

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