Pre-service teachers' experience of inclusion.

Abstract

Internationally, the concept of "inclusion" has been much promoted (UNESCO, 1994; Pijl, Meijer & Hegarty, 1997) and there is a growing conversation amongst educators in Australia about how best to provide for children with differing developmental abilities and needs in our care and education institutions. A major part of this debate is the training needs of teachers who will work with these children and their families. The present paper addresses some of the tensions that exist among training, divisions within the literature and practical experience by analysing pre-service teachers' assignments that were collected during a semester course on inclusive practices.

Introduction

Staff in schools and early childhood settings in Victoria are being challenged by the issue of how best to provide for children who are different (Meyer, 2001). There are calls for teachers to promote more inclusive practices (Vlachou, 1997; DHS, 2002). This is a complex demand and there are many constraints that are barriers to more inclusive group settings for young children. Not least of these barriers is the tension between the rhetoric of inclusion in government policy documents and the existing funding models that do not support inclusion (Llewellyn, Thompson & Fante, 2002). In an attempt to bring about reform universities are currently engaging in the conversation of how pre-service teachers' knowledge and awareness of inclusion might be improved. As part of its contribution to this debate RMIT University, in the School of Education, has introduced a course "Inclusive Practices". This is a generalist teachers' course on inclusive education, including the population of gifted children. "Inclusive Practices" is delivered to pre-service teachers studying for the Bachelor of Education or the Graduate Diploma of Education (Early Childhood). The pre-service teachers are therefore third year students or graduates and the course concentrates on children in mainstream settings from 6 weeks to 8 years.

Contradictions between government policy and existing practice has been difficult for pre-service teachers who are told one thing in their university texts and lectures and often do not see the practices of inclusion represented in the "real" world. This is also a complex area of study as there are two distinct bodies of literature, reflecting differing philosophies, and this creates a tension. Much of the early intervention and special needs literature presents a remedial skills based model of withdrawal, training and exclusive assistance. The inclusive literature is more humanist in its approach and less prescriptive consequently providing less of a guide for the pre-service, or novice, teacher. Identifying differences in the literature and making informed choices about practice requires a sophisticated level of knowledge. This paper will focus on RMIT pre-service teachers' experiences to discuss problems encountered when course content, expectations and practice are not complementary.

Utilising a representative sample of pre-service teachers' work some of the confusion and contradictions pre-service teachers encounter in the area of inclusive education will be identified. This is an important educational issue as these pre-service teachers, as novices, will presumably be expected to have an active role in change within the workplace in relation to reacting to changing government policy direction and changing community standards. Therefore, pre-service teachers' understanding of the principles of "inclusion" is the focus of this research and three assignments were examined as a primary source of data. Assignment one consisted of group presentations within the university setting. With their peers as an audience pre-service teachers used this context to present their views on self-selected topics. These assignments were videotaped and used to examine pre-service teachers' intellectual understandings of "inclusion" before encountering these ideas in practice. Assignment two took the form of a research report. Pre-service teachers' use of the literature and their ability to identify the philosophical bases of differing strategies and recommended practices was the focus for this part of the study. Assignment three was a case study which combined direct observations in an educational setting, interview material and critical discussion. The case studies were examined to discover the relationship that existed between teaching practices in the workplace and those promoted within the "Inclusive Practice" course.

Principles of inclusion presented in the "Inclusive Practices" course