Following the current discourse and understanding of educational inclusion, non-discriminatory teaching in the sense of inclusive education “calls for efforts to enable education systems to serve all learners, with a particular focus on those who have traditionally been excluded from educational opportunities” (Ainscow & Messiou, 2018, 1f.). In this context, Savolainen et al. (2012) stress the schools’ and teachers’ responsibility to create a setting that facilitates the implementation of inclusive education that is about “belonging, nurturing and educating” every student (Savolainen et al., 2012, 52) with the goal to stop social and educational disadvantage due to students' individual characteristics (UNESCO, 2020, 6). The ideological pursuit of an inclusive and discrimination-free school culture goes hand in hand with professional demands for teachers and the need for critical didactic awareness. Teachers’ responsibility includes the provision of access to learning processes for all learners in order to enable successful education for every student regardless of their personal traits. The diverse characteristics and biographies of students within one class lead to a need for teachers to adapt their general teaching strategies to the individual needs of their students namely the implementation of inclusive teaching practices (Tomlinson, 2014; Bondie et al., 2019). Against this background, the question arises as to how to create and provide and inclusive educational environment and processes for all learners with the goal of giving every student the possibility to exploit education’s full potential.

In order to take a broad view of the methodological and didactic demands on teachers, the symposium will include three quantitative studies dealing with teachers' perspectives on inclusive teaching practices such as differentiated instruction (DI). 

The first presentation deals with teachers' implementation (N= 275) of DI as a three-part didactic process (1) intentional planning, (2) implementation itself, (3) evaluation. In this context, the following research questions are formulated: (1) Which intentions do teachers pursue when implementing DI practices and do they vary across school tracks? (2) Is there a relation between the intention teachers have while planning the implementation of different inclusive practices, the implementation itself and the evaluation afterwards? (German perspective)

The second presentation encompasses data from 906 teachers at rural schools in China, questioning the extent of teachers' implementation of differentiated instruction. In addition, variables on teacher level (teachers’ understanding about DI philosophy, principles, demographic characteristics) and school level (school location, school type) were checked for possible explanations of variance. (Chinese perspective)

As teachers’ actual implementation of inclusive teaching practices such as DI may pursue participatory inclusion of every student, students’ actual perception of individual inclusion as objective of teachers’ use of inclusive teaching practices is to be questioned. Against this background, the third presentation provides data from Japanese students (N=678) and their teachers dealing with the outcome of inclusive teaching practices namely the perception of actual inclusion by using the PIQ (Perception of Inclusion Questionnaire). (Japanese perspective)

In conclusion, the symposium will provide insights into the need for didactic awareness of teachers in the context of inclusive education by encompassing results from international quantitative research projects.

Ainscow, M., & Messiou, K. (2018). Engaging with the views of students to promote inclusion in education. Journal of Educational Change, 19(1), 1–17. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10833-017-9312-1 Bondie, R. S., Dahnke, C., & Zusho, A. (2019). How does changing “one-size-fits-all” to differentiated instruction affect teaching?. Review of Research in Education, 43(1), 336-362. https://doi.org/10.3102/0091732X18821130 Savolainen, H., Engelbrecht, P., Nel, M., & Malinen, O. P. (2012). Understanding teachers’ attitudes and self-efficacy in inclusive education: Implications for pre-service and in-service teacher education. European Journal of Special Needs Education, 27(1), 51-68. https://doi.org/10.1080/08856257.2011.613603 Tomlinson, C. A. (2014). The Differentiated Classroom: Responding to the Needs of all Learners. Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development. UNESCO (2020). Global education monitoring report 2020: Inclusion and education: All means all. UNESCO.