Promoting inclusive practice in primary initial teacher training: influencing hearts as well as minds

Abstract

Concern has been expressed over many years about the lack of time and attention given to the preparation and training of teachers to meet the diverse needs of all children. In this article, Alison Bishop and Phyllis Jones describe a small‐scale research project designed to explore the attitudes and perceptions of a group of student teachers towards children with complex and profound learning difficulties. In this study, the students were interviewed before and after participation in structured workshop activities with children. The results suggest that many more student teachers would benefit from the further development of the approach described here.