Abstract
Abstract This article highlights ways in which disability studies in education (dse) and professional development school (pds) partnerships can be used to provide students with disability labels more access to inclusive classrooms. The authors of this qualitative exploratory case study interviewed 16 teacher and administration pds steering committee members to better understand how students with disability labels could be supported through the development and implementation of dse-informed inclusive practices. The findings indicate that instituting proactive communication structures, providing ongoing dse-informed professional development to teachers, administration, and staff, and teachers taking inclusive action increased the number of students with disability labels accessing general education classrooms. These findings, while a work in progress, show how members of one pds steering committee took steps to resist deficit models of disability and questioned traditional segregated approaches to special education at their school.
Highlights
This article highlights ways in which disability studies in education and professional development school partnerships can be used to provide students with disability labels more access to inclusive classrooms
The results presented in this article represent only the first of four cycles of cbpr participant interviews, but even from that first iteration of research, it was evident that teachers, administration, and staff were dedicated to taking observable actions to support more students with disability labels in inclusive classrooms
Education, which allowed them to deconstruct previous notions of inclusive education and think differently about disability in their school (Allan 2008; Connor et al 2008; Danforth & Gabel 2006; Gabel 2005; Graham & Slee 2008). These actions created opportunities and to infuse a dse perspective into the project – a perspective that acknowledges barriers to inclusion are within inaccessible school spaces rather than within the students with disability labels (Gabel 2005). These dse-informed professional development experiences eventually led teachers, administration, and staff to questions like, “What does this look like in my class?” and “How would this work with this specific student?” Addressing these foundational barriers eventually allowed the pds steering committee to take concrete first steps to increase the number of students with disability labels in inclusive classrooms
Summary
This article highlights ways in which disability studies in education (dse) and professional development school (pds) partnerships can be used to provide students with disability labels more access to inclusive classrooms. The findings indicate that instituting proactive communication structures, providing ongoing dse-informed professional development to teachers, administration, and staff, and teachers taking inclusive action increased the number of students with disability labels accessing general education classrooms These findings, while a work in progress, show how members of one pds steering committee took steps to resist deficit models of disability and questioned traditional segregated approaches to special education at their school. To address issues related to disability and segregation, a primary school and public university in the Northeastern United States used their professional development school (pds) partnership to systematically and proactively create more equitable access to inclusive classrooms for students with disability labels This access came in the form of instituting proactive communication structures, providing ongoing dse-informed professional development to teachers, administration, and staff, and teachers taking inclusive action. The research that does exist on pds and inclusive education show that pds can improve the attitudes of pre-service teachers about inclusive education (Strieker, Gillis & Zong 2013), broaden the instructional knowledge of pre-service teachers about teaching students with disability labels (Walmsley, Bufkin, Rule & Lewis 2007), and encourage the professional development of special educators (Voltz 2001)
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