Inclusion explored through student voices within the framework of formal teacher-student conversations

Abstract

ABSTRACT A great deal of research has addressed the field of inclusive education. However, yet we know little about the phenomenon of inclusion explored though student voices. This qualitative study draws on data from a research-practice partnership in Norway, where the parties together developed a framework for the school’s formal teacher–student conversations to find out more about the students’ experiences of inclusion. As a result of inductive analysis of the voices of three students, we discovered a tension between each student’s current childlike lifeworld and a school system emphasising conformity and future academic achievement. Analysis revealed that there were several barriers to students expressing themselves during the conversations. Despite this, the students asserted their own capability and agency, guiding the subject of those conversations towards their own desires and needs. The findings suggests that teachers ought to be given the opportunity to increase their competency in what should be an ongoing process of listening to and acting upon student voices in inclusive education, potentially going so far as to become agents for change in the school system.