Abstract
Significant and effective implementation of inclusive education (IE) has been a major challenge in many countries during the last decades. Although teachers’ knowledge and skills are considered a key factor for successful inclusive practice, the whole school staff commitment and contribution to implementing IE policies are equally important. Collaboration between different professionals such as teachers, school leaders, and support specialists is crucial. This study aimed to design and implement an in-service training course for school teams (teachers, support specialists, school leaders) on IE in the Estonian context and to explore how participants experienced learning as a team in this course. The results of this study showed that the main aspects of the in-service training for school teams valued by participants were: (1) All topics covered in a systematic and coherent way gave a good opportunity to focus on relevant issues, which should be considered in the schools’ self-development activities in the field of IE; (2) practical approach to training structure helped to identify priority areas that need to be developed in particular schools; (3) learning from each other both within their own school team and across school teams contributed to finding the best solutions for meaningful implementation of IE. The implication of these findings is further discussed in the paper.
Highlights
While the idea of inclusive education (IE) has been accepted in most countries, problems are still encountered with its meaningful implementation [1,2,3]
As the main goal of the current study was to design and implement an in-service training course for school teams on IE and to explore how participants experienced learning as a team in this course, the following research questions were formulated: 1
It was emphasized that covering the topics helped create an overall picture and a system for the aspects to be addressed in implementing IE at a school level
Summary
While the idea of inclusive education (IE) has been accepted in most countries, problems are still encountered with its meaningful implementation [1,2,3]. Additional barriers are related to attitudes towards teaching all children in an inclusive classroom, lack of IE policy at the school level, limited resources, insufficient professional development programs for staff, and limited engagement with key stakeholders [11,12]. Studies have shown that teachers who are dissatisfied with the insufficiency of efforts to implement inclusive teaching in their schools often acknowledge the inadequacy or total lack of collaborative teamwork at the school level [19,20]. The development of teachers’ agency related to the promotion of IE depends on cooperation at the school level [21]. Collaborative teamwork, in turn, contributes to the development of collective agency, which is a prerequisite for the successful implementation of IE at the school level [22]
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