Given that inclusion has been accepted as orthodoxy in many jurisdictions, policy developments continue to reinforce the importance of leadership in developing inclusive practice in schools. However many leaders fail to understand this complex concept (Billingsley, 2012), making it difficult to narrow the gap between values, rhetoric and practice. Principals or headteachers alone cannot enhance teachers’ professional learning for inclusion, which arguably will be won at the heart of the classroom teacher (MacRuairc, 2016). Even where a teacher has a strong commitment to inclusion, application and development is dependent upon many inter-dependent factors e.g. collegial relationships; the school culture and structures, of which the principal is a key lynchpin (Cooper et al., 2016). This paper focuses on supporting leadership development of early career teachers in schools through participation in a community of practice. Seven teachers who had undertaken a module in leadership for inclusion as part of their major specialism on their initial teacher education programme engaged in a ‘participatory action learning action research’ (Zuber-Skerrit and Passfield, 2016) ‘leadership for inclusion’ community of practice (Lin-CoP). This involved attending four workshops focused upon leadership development for inclusion as early career teachers. Workshops and associated artefacts were audio-visually recorded and were analysed using constant comparison of categories and codes. Findings concur with Poekert et al.’s (2016) theory of leadership development as being iterative and recursive and centred on the following constructs: personal growth, growth as a teacher, researcher and leader. However, to counteract challenges faced, teachers within the Lin-CoP were supported to develop a fluency in the language of critique and possibility (Shotter and Gustavsen, 1999) to support them in their commitment to exercising leadership for inclusion. This paper will evince examples of leadership for inclusion despite the myriad of challenges faced at classroom, school and community levels. It argues for leadership development as a collaborative activity among teachers and the wider school and school community which can be supported through engagement in a community of practice.

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