What teachers think about inclusion. Data from a large-scale explorative survey

Abstract

Inclusion is high on the agenda of school systems around the world. But what does “inclusion” mean? Do teachers really know what it is? Do they know what strategies to use in order to achieve it? This paper investigates some of the “myths” about this issue, highlighting that teachers are often in contradictory in what they state and what they actually do. Group-work is a typical inclusive strategy, yet oftentimes disguises the weaker contributions of lower performing students while giving the impression that “everyone is taking part.” Peer-to-peer learning may be useful for the lower performing students but may also not add much to the best ones. Using the results from a survey of 258 respondents, including all teachers on the job, from all school grades, this paper provides useful findings in this regard. Additional considerations come from the authors’ experience with a three-year long national project about educational experiences and inclusion, called Learning4All - www.learningforall.it. This involved more than 250 teachers being interviewed in detail. The paper presents what teachers think and say about inclusion, what they do in the class and what they get, in terms of benefits, from the students.