‘This Has to Be Done Without Bending Over Backwards’: Collective Orientations and Experiences of Student Teachers in Relation to Heterogeneity in School

Abstract

Collective orientations about learners’ heterogeneity emerge on the basis of experiences which are unique to individuals but are in many aspects structurally similar. The aim of the presented project is to investigate such experiences and collective orientations among student teachers in Saxony (a Federal State in the east of Germany) and to develop sustainable concepts for seminars which reveal alternative ways of handling heterogeneity and render student teachers better able to regard learners’ heterogeneity as something profitable. The joint teaching of children with and without special educational needs is a recent innovation in the educational system in Saxony and is leading to many changes and uncertainties. Guided by the assumption that collective orientations are a central influence on the practice of (student) teachers, we want to reconstruct their ways of thinking in the context of heterogeneous learning groups. In the project, group discussions with student teachers of different school types are held and analysed using the documentary method. Initial results show that student teachers are aware of the tension between selection and the promotion of individual pupils’ development in the context of inclusive schooling within the current selective German school system. In addition, they feel unprepared for their future responsibilities teaching an inclusive class and wish to receive external support in order to ensure they are able to adequately deal with heterogeneity. After some theoretical considerations about heterogeneity and inclusion in mathematics classrooms and the significance of teachers’ and students’ orientations concerning these issues, this article provides a detailed analysis of a selected group discussion with student primary-school teachers.