Teachers’ joy of teaching children with a chronic illness: the opportunities to learn

Abstract

ABSTRACT Inclusive education communities and systems are based on how teachers can use their knowledge, skills, and social awareness to meet the increasingly diverse needs of the learners within their classrooms. International research suggests that teachers often feel underprepared to meet the needs of all learners and are largely ill-prepared to know how best to teach and include children living with a chronic illness. The findings from a mixed-methods study involving 55 New Zealand primary school teachers are reported here. Drawing on this study, this paper presents teachers’ experiences on how they got to know these children as individuals. Teachers reflected on how they sought the children’s own voices to better understand the implications of their illnesses for living and learning. The paper presents teachers’ experiences on how they embraced the opportunity for their own professional learning and development, and for some teachers, the joys of working with these inspirational children. The themes ‘don’t stress’, ‘learn everything you can’, and ‘work as a team’ are presented. This paper argues that teaching a child living with a chronic illness is a privilege. It is an opportunity for teachers to develop knowledge and skills that will benefit their practice with all children.