Facing the Storm, Turning the Tide: Using Practitioner Research To Meet Children's and Families' Needs in an Inclusive Setting

Abstract

The director and two teachers in an inclusive preschool, faced with forces within and outside the school that challenged school policies and practices affecting children with special needs and their families, responded by engaging in a year-long process of practitioner research. This voluntary, systematic, and intentional collaborative study of policy and practice was guided by four questions that arose from their personal experiences and convictions and the unique confluence of events in their context: • Do current administrative policies and practices match the current goals and values and mission of the school? • How can an administration best support teachers in inclusive classrooms? • What does it take for teachers to successfully include children with special needs in school classrooms? • What do families of all children need and how can we support them? This examination of both the process and outcomes of this study is set in the personal and institutional contexts of this work. Consonance between process and individual and institutional histories and values and the impact of this work on policies and practices and on the practitioners themselves are highlighted.