Supervision As A Collaborative And Transformative Process In The Development of Inclusion

Author(s):

Charlotte Riis Jensen(presenting / submitting)

Conference:

ECER 2017

Network:

04. Inclusive Education

Format:

Paper

Session Information

04 SES 01 A, Leadership and Collaboration

Paper Session

Time:

2017-08-22

13:15-14:45

Room:

W6.13

Chair:

Gottfried Biewer

Contribution

This thesis focusses on how teachers experience to participate in a long-term supervision process.

A Danish survey shows that teachers find twenty five percent of the students challenging and having behavior problems in a way that undermines the ideas of inclusive education (Nordahl, 2011). This indicates that pupils with different preconditions often give their teachers a big challenge in order to make inclusive environments and that there seems to be some insecurity about how to develop inclusive environment within schools and how to arrange inclusive teaching (Allan, 2008; 2010, Tetler, 2015, 2016). Other studies emphasizes further that teachers find it difficult to accommodate all the new requirements and expectations they face in developing inclusive learning environments (Ahlberg 2007; Näslund, 2007; Allan 2008; Tetler 2010; 2011b; Slee, 2011; Hedegaard-Sørensen, 2013; Sanner, Rundwall & Hermansson, 2015; Blossing, 2015; 2016) and that some teachers feel guilty being unable to cope with the inclusive recommendation (Allan, 2008). The latter have had a considerable impact on the position and working conditions of teachers (Allan, 2008; Ainscow & Miles, 2008; Slee, 2011; 2012; Sanner, Rundwall & Hermansson, 2015)

Against this background, this thesis examines how supervision of teachers influences the extent to which teachers feel able to cope with the challenges they face in practice thus according to Bladini (2004) supervision could be seen as part of a professional development and that the successfulness is characterized by how the teacher develops the understanding and the interpretations of the problems they experienced prior supervision. Furthermore studies indicates that collaborative dialogues can create new perspectives on the phenomenas that appears and help to enhance or change what we already think we know (Bladini 2004, Sundqvist, 2012, Sundqvist og Von Ahledfeldt Nisser 2014, Von Ahlefeldt Nisser 2009, Ahlberg 2013).

Therefore the ambition of the study has been to generate knowledge of how teachers experience a long-term supervision process, and how approaches, understandings and identification of problems are transformed in a collaborative process between the teacher and the supervisor and how the strategies and approaches used by the supervisors have impact on these processes.

In an international context the study is of relevance in order to get knowledge of the potentials of how a long-term supervision process could influence the development of inclusive processes in mainstream classrooms, as suggested (Bladini 2004, Sundqvist, 2012, Sundqvist & von Ahlefeldt Nisser 2014, von Ahlefeldt Nisser 2009, Ahlberg 2013; Sanner, Rundwall & Hermansson, 2015; Hedegaard-Sørensen & Grumløse, 2016).

It has therefore been an ambition to explore what teachers experience as significant in relation to the processes of changes that occurs through the supervision processes. Based on these ambitions the following main research questions are:

a) How do teachers experience to participate in a long-term supervision process aimed to develop their own inclusive practice?

b) Which approaches and strategies are used by the inclusion supervisors, and how may they affect teacher’s options of action?

The teachers in this study have all found the inclusionary practices introduced as part of the reforms particularly challenging, and had expressed a desire to leave their profession prior to the supervision. Therefore, the research on which this thesis is grounded is an examination of how these teachers experience their working lives and the challenges they face, as well as of how these teachers can be supported and guided in developing an inclusive practice.

Method

The research design is inspired by the case-study method (Yin, 1994, 2014) and employs a multiple-case design where each of the four supervision processes constitutes a case. An initial case analysis was produced for each of the four cases, followed by a cross-case analysis synthesising these results. The study involves four processes of supervision in three Danish municipalities. Which were monitored for a period of fourteen months from May 2013 – June 2014. In each case-study, teachers and supervisors were interviewed before, during and after their participation in the supervision processes. A total of 24 qualitative, semi-structured interviews were conducted with five teachers, as well as three supervisors (Kvale, 2009) and are designed to make it possible to follow the changing of understandings and experiences through the collaborative processes. In addition, classroom observations were monitored during the supervision, as well as both prior to and following the teachers’ participation Since the study mainly focuses on the teachers' and supervisors’ experiences of the supervision processes, the thesis is founded on a phenomenological understanding where the subjective perspective is given meaning and relevance. The study does not seek to offer explanations, but to produce understandings of how teachers experience participation in a course of supervision, and how the learning and change processes that occur during the supervision processes have influenced the lines of action available to teachers to establish an inclusive practice. The theoretical framework focuses mainly on theories with a life-world perspective that can handle a high degree of reflective complexity (Zahavi, 2011; Rønholt et al., 2003; Dahlberg, 2008; Husserl, 1995; Giorgi & Giorgi, 2008). The socio-cultural learning perspective involved in the study is connected to the understanding that teachers shape their practices and their surroundings at the same time as the practice and the surroundings shape them as teachers. Therefore, teachers' understandings of and perspectives on the issues they have asked for support in tackling also influence how they form and develop an inclusive learning environment in the classroom (Vygotsky, 1978; 1987; Säljö, 2000; Dysthe, 2003; Dysthe & Igland, 2003).

Expected Outcomes

Data from the study show that teacher’s preconceptions about seeing the children with an inherent pathology are being challenged through the supervision settings. It also shows that the mindsets of the teachers are transformed in a new way of approaching and understanding pupils which implies that teachers are having an increased awareness about how a relational and contextual perspective may help to develop inclusive practices (Ahlberg 2007; Näslund, 2007; Allan 2008; Tetler 2011a; 2011b; Slee, 2011; Hedegaard-Sørensen, 2013; Van de Putte & De Schauwer, 2013, Sanner, Rundwall & Hermansson, 2015; Blossing, 2016). The analysis shows that, prior to the commencement of a supervision process, the teachers have a sense of being stuck in their situation and have difficulty identify the possibilities of action to change their situation. The analysis also shows that, through a collaborative process with an external supervisor over a long-term period, teachers slowly begin to feel capable of dealing with the challenging situations they encounter in their inclusive practice and that the uncertainty about how to create inclusive environments in school is being improved and that teachers experience they are getting new options for actions in order to handle the challenges in the inclusive classrooms. Furthermore data shows that there also occur significant and critical moments which teachers experience have a transformative aspect in the supervision processes (Putnam, 2004; Stern 2013; de Haan, Bertie, Day, & Sills, C., 2012). Overall, the study shows that there are no easy solutions as to how inclusive learning environments can be developed, but that there is a need for a reflective and persistent process of collaboration if teachers are to overcome the challenges they experience in order to develop an inclusive practice.

References

Ahlberg, A. (2013). Specialpedagogik i ideologi, teori och praktik. Liber, Stockholm. Ainscow, M., & Miles, S. (2008). Making education for all inclusive: Where next?Prospects, 38(1), 15-34. Allan, J. (2008). Rethinking inclusion: the philosophers of difference in practice. Dordrecht: Springer. Allan, J (2010) The sociology of disability and the struggle for inclusive education, British Journal of Sociology of Education, 31 (5), 603-619. Bladini (2007). Specialpedagogers veiledningssamtaler som vertøy og rom for reflesksjon. I Kroksmark, T., og Åberg, K. (red.), Veiledning i pedagogisk arbejde. Fagbokforlaget Blossing, U. (2016) Practice among novice change agents in schools. I Improving Schools 1 -11. Sage. Dahlberg, K. & Dahlberg H. (2008) Reflective Lifeworld Research. Studentlitteratur, Lund. de Haan, E., Bertie, C., Day, A. and Sills, C. (2012) Critical Moments of Clients of Coaching: Towards a ‘Client Model’ of Executive Coaching. Ashridge Centre for Coaching, Ashridge Business School, Berkhamsted, U.K. Husserl, E. (1995) Fenomenologins idé. 2. oplag. Bokförlaget Daidalos AB, Göteborg Kvale, S. (2009). InterView. 2. udgave, 2. oplag, København, Hans Reitzels Forlag Nordahl, Thomas, Sunnevåg, Anne-Karin, Aasen, Ann Margreth & Kostøl, Anne (2010). Uligheder og variationer. Danske elevers motivation, skolefaglig læringsudbytte og sociale kompetencer. Rapport til skolens rejsehold. Høgskolen i Hedmark & University College Nordjylland Putnam, L. (2004) Transformations and Critical Moments in Negotiation. I Negotiation Journal 20(2):275 – 295. april 2004 Sanner, Rundwall & Hermansson (2015) Från idé til praxis. Väger til inkluderande l¨rmiljöer i tolv svenska kommuner. Ifous, Malmö Högskola, 2015 Slee, R. (2011) The Irregular School, Foundation of future Education Stern, D. N. (2004) The Present Moment in Psychotherapy and Everyday Life (2004). Sundqvist, C. (2014). Den samarbetande läraren. Lärarhandledning och samundervisning i skolan. Studentlitteratur. Tetler, S. (2015). In- og eksklusion – når udfordrede børn og unge udfordrer skolen. In: Udsatte børn og unge – En grundbog. Hans Reitzels forlag. Van de Putte, I. & De Schauwer, E. (2013) Becoming a different teacher…: Teachers' perspective on inclusive education. Erdélyi Pszichológiai Szemle. p.245-265 / http://hdl.handle.net/1854/LU-4249081 Von Ahlefeld Nisser, D (2011). Kunskapande samtal i (special)pedagogisk verksamhet. I Å. Bartholdsson. & E. Hultin. (red.) (2011). Praktiknära utbildningsforskning vid Högskolan Dalarna. Nr: 2011:2. 69-88. Vygosky, L. S. (1978). Mind in Society. The development of Higher Psychological Processes. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Zahavi, D. (2011) Husserls fænomenologi. 2. udgave, 3. oplag. Dan Zahavi og Samfundslitteratur, 2011. Yin, R. K., (2014) Case Study Research – Design and Methods, 5. edition. SAGE Publications (2014)

Author Information

Charlotte Riis Jensen (presenting / submitting)

Aarhus Universitet

DPU

Ølsted

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