One of the greatest challenges for teacher education is to prepare teachers for the complex task of teaching for excellence while at the same time pursuing equity and inclusion (Cochran-Smith, Ell, Grudnoff, Haigh, Hill and Ludlow, 2016).  

The challenges are not new. There have always been pupils who are marginalized by the education system and these systemic inequities have continually shaped the context in which teachers have to do their work (e.g. Gadsden, Davis & Artiles, 2009). However, today the dimensions of diversity and inequality have increased due to recent migration patterns (OECD, 2019) and social justice, equity and inclusion movements that gained importance during the last decades (Biesta, 2012).  

Many studies have been performed on how to prepare teachers to teach for equity and inclusion, growing at hundreds per year. Researchers have appraised, summarized and brought together existing studies in reviews and meta-analyses. A review of 26 review studies was performed by the chair (Van Peteghem & Consuegra, 2021) and summarizes the recurrent recommendations for teacher education in a grid containing ten principles: 1) inclusion and diversity should not be isolated in one course but integrated throughout the curriculum, 2) guidance  is needed during recruitment and study progress 3) critical inquiry and self-reflection should be key learning goals, 4)  mentoring and coaching should be offered before, during and after training practice, 5) community-based learning should be included to learn in and with local contexts and partners, 6) collaboration with schools is necessary to facilitate transition into practice to reduce the practice shock, 7) collaboration within and outside of school is a key learning goal, 8) student-teachers should have safe spaces to share thoughts without fear for negative consequences, 9) student-teachers should not only learn about inclusion and diversity in general but also about special needs of specific target groups, 10) the use of technology can  be exploited to support multiperspectivism.  

The grid has been discussed in depth during a physical two-day visit to Paris in November 2022 by the members of the Connected Research Community (CRC) ‘Research for inclusive education’ which is part of the EUTOPIA European University alliance. This alliance brings together ten European universities aiming to become, by 2030, an open, multicultural, confederated operation of connected campuses. The CRC aims to connect research initiatives across EUTOPIA partners and beyond in order to improve teacher education for inclusion.   

In this symposium four studies from teacher education institutions in Brussels (Belgium), Paris (France) and Gothenburg (Sweden) are presented with each study addressing one or more of the principles in the grid for teacher education for inclusion. The first paper shows how collaboration between regular and special education teachers can change practices and discourse about ‘students in difficulties’. The second paper describes under which conditions constructive disruption experienced by pre- and in-service teachers during collaborative inquiry in urban schools can lead to changes in beliefs and practices.  The third paper uses the grid to analyse program documents and interviews with leadership and teacher educators to assess the curriculum of a teacher education program.  The fourth paper investigates how hybridization of the teacher education curriculum can contribute to teacher education for inclusion for example by creating online safe spaces. 

Mixed methods are used in the studies such as document analyses, semi-structured interviews, observations and surveying. The discussant is not a member of the CRC and will discuss how inclusion might be defined and operationalised differently in the four studies and how the grid could be further developed to be used as an analytical framework for teacher education institutions to self-assess their programs.  

Biesta, G. (2012). Becoming public: Public pedagogy, citizenship and the public sphere. Social & Cultural Geography, 13(7), 683-697.doi: 10.1080/14649365.2012.723736 Cochran-Smith, M., Ell, F., Grudnoff, L., Haigh, M., Hill, M., & Ludlow, L. (2016). Initial teacher education: What does it take to put equity at the center? Teaching and Teacher Education, 57, 67–78. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2016.03.006 Gadsden, V. L., Davis, J. E., & Artiles, A. J. (2009). Introduction: Risk, equity, and schooling: Transforming the discourse. Review of Research in Education, 33(1), 7–11. doi: 10.3102/0091732X08330002 OECD (2019). The Lives of Teachers in Diverse Classrooms. OECD Working Paper No. 198. Retreived from https://www.oecd.org/officialdocuments/publicdisplaydocumentpdf/?cote=EDU/WKP(2019)6&docLanguage=En Van Peteghem, H., & Consuegra, E. (2021). Aandacht voor culturele diversiteit in de (leraren)opleiding. In R. Pulinx, M. Schrooten en E. Emmers (Red.), Diversiteit in het hoger onderwijs (pp.129-147). Brussel: ASP.