How Teachers Include Students with Moderate and Severe Disabilities in Elementary Classes: The Means and Meaning of Inclusion

Abstract

This ethnographic study investigated the ways general and special educators went about including students with moderate and severe developmental disabilities in five elementary classrooms. Interpretations suggest that all teachers shared a common goal of including the focus students as members of their classroom groups, and had devised an unwritten agreement specifying the modifications that would and would not be made. The modifications made to teachers' roles, classroom routines, and instructional activities are described. Discussion focuses on the assimilationist approach to diversity evidenced by these modifications, and on the implications for facilitating full social and instructional inclusion through teacher collaboration and instructional modifications.