Session Information
10 SES 14 A, Promoting Inclusion and Social Justice through Teacher Education Programmes
Symposium
Contribution
Employing teachers with physical and sensory impairments (PSI) has significant advantages. Their presence in schools contributes to diversifying the teaching force, and provides opportunities for social and personal interactions that are often limited and evoke discomfort. Effective teachers with PSI can reduce negative stereotypes relating to disabilities. Furthermore, they can be positive role models for students with disabilities (Neca et al., 2022; Parker & Draves, 2018). The transition from initial teacher education into teaching requires particular attention and support, as this is the most vulnerable stage in the career of most teachers. In Israel, during the first two years of teaching, beginning teachers (BTs) have regular meetings with school-based mentors, and participate in an obligatory workshop facilitated by a higher education based teacher educator. This case study examines a unique online workshop that was devised to support BTs with PSI. It explores how the workshop’s facilitators supported BTs with PSI’s professional development as teachers and their integration into the education system. The participants are the four facilitators of the workshop. The data are transcripts of audio recordings of the workshop’s 18 meetings. We received the participants’ (and the institutional IRB’s) permission to analyze the recordings, while disguising participants’ identities. We performed a thematic analysis of the facilitators' audio segments in the recordings (Braun & Clarke, 2021). The analysis resulted in themes that describe the facilitators’ behaviors as ‘actionable principles’ (Schechter, 2019): 1. Workshop facilitators were devoted to BTs by being available to them at all times (Miller & Kass, 2018). 2. They set high expectations and performance standards (Miller & Kass, 2018; Hewett et al., 2020). 3. They supported BTs’ wellbeing and psychological needs by strengthening BTs’ sense of autonomy, relatedness, self-efficacy and accomplishment (Hewett et al., 2020; Ryan & Deci, 2020). Specifically, facilitators encouraged BTs to share solutions they devised themselves to overcome challenges, and added further ideas. 4. They designed the academic workshop as an online Community of Practice (Kaplan et al., 2022). The first two principles are known as supporting individuals with disabilities, whereas the latter two support BTs. Together, these principles can be implemented in other contexts, and thus contribute to successful inclusion of teachers with SPI in schools.
References
Braun, V., & Clarke, V. (2021). One size fits all? What counts as quality practice in (reflexive) thematic analysis? Qualitative research in psychology, 18(3), 328-352. Hewett, R., Douglas, G., McLinden, M., & Keil, S. (2020). Balancing inclusive design, adjustments and personal agency: progressive mutual accommodations and the experiences of university students with vision impairment in the United Kingdom. International Journal of Inclusive Education, 24(7), 754-770. Kaplan, H., Alatawna-Alhuashla, H., Bar-Nadav, B., & Al-Said, K. (2022). Developing Excellence Leadership and Autonomous Motivation among Beginning Teachers in the Arab-Bedouin Community in Israel: A Self Determination Theory-Based Intervention Program. Open Journal of Leadership, 11(3), 246-278. Miller, E., & Kass, E. (2018). Professional success stories of people with disabilities. (Research report No. mof.study_13131). Tel Aviv: MOFET (In Hebrew). Neca, P., Borges, M. L., & Pinto, P. C. (2022). Teachers with disabilities: A literature review. International Journal of Inclusive Education, 26(12), 1192-1210. Ryan, R. M., & Deci, E. L. (2020). Intrinsic and extrinsic motivation from a self-determination theory perspective: Definitions, theory, practices, and future directions. Contemporary educational psychology, 61, 101860. Schechter, C. (2019). The collective wisdom of practice: Leading our professional learning from success. Thousand Oaks, Cal.: Corwin Press.
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