Outline of the current issues and debates on how teacher professional development should be organized in order to achieve an inclusive education system

1. Teacher Professional Development for
Inclusive Education: Current Issues & Debates
Seminar Teacher Professional Development for Inclusive Education
SACE, Centurion, 19 April 2016

2. Current Issues & Debates
Policy
Current beliefs
BACKGROUND CPTD
Changing attitudes
& beliefs
Inclusive Pedagogy
Effectiveness of CPTD
Contextual and systemic
factors
Implementation gap

3. International policy framework
• International Salamanca Statement (UNESCO, 1994)
– Importance of regular schools with inclusive orientation as the best
means of building an inclusive society and achieving education for all.
– Access to quality education for vulnerable groups, including girls,
children from minorities, children from poor and remote communities,
children with disabilities.
• Other relevant international frameworks
- Education for All (EFA)
- Millennium & Sustainable Development Goals (MDG/SDG)
- United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities

4. South African Policy Framework
• Constitution of Republic of South Africa (Act 108 of 1996, Section 29(1))
– “Everyone has the right to a basic education, including adult basic education
and to further education, which the state through reasonable measures must
make progressively available and accessible”
• White Paper 6 (2001)
– Legislative and policy framework for the implementation of inclusive
education
– Focus on addressing and accommodating learners who experience barriers
to learning in mainstream classrooms
– Shift from ‘special needs education’ to ‘barriers to learning’
– Recognising and respecting learner diversity
– Continuum of support: low-intensive, moderate and high-intensive support

5. Inclusive Schools
Inclusive schools are about belonging, nurturing and
educating all students, regardless of their differences in
ability, culture, gender, language, class and ethnicity.
Engelbrecht et al., 2015

6. Strong Case for Inclusive Education
• Human right
• Social justice
(social mobility)
• Social cohesion
(diverse society)
• Self-worth & motivation
• Economic rationale
(learning outcomes, drop-outs)

7. Current Issues & Debates: Outline
Policy
Current beliefs
BACKGROUND CPTD
Changing attitudes
& beliefs
Inclusive Pedagogy
Effectiveness of CPTD
Contextual and systemic
factors
Implementation gap

8. Beliefs about Education
• Traditional (entrenched) views on Education
– Deterministic: bell-curve thinking about ability
– Deficit-based: focus on differences, barriers are intrinsic
– Stems from special-needs orientation and teacher-centred
approach (often from ITE)
– Belief that learners with barriers need specialist teaching that
‘ordinary’ teachers have not been trained to provide.

9. Beliefs about Inclusive Education
• Confusion
– Inclusive practice not well articulated (what do teachers need to
know)
– Questions about its soundness for all learners (lack of
dissemination of research findings)
– Belief that presence of learners with disabilities negatively
impacts learning outcomes of other learners.
– Problematic metaphors (inclusion as a goal, a process,
hospitality) (Walton and Lloyd, 2011)

10. Current Issues & Debates: Outline
Policy
Current beliefs
BACKGROUND CPTD
Changing attitudes
& beliefs
Inclusive Pedagogy
Effectiveness of CPTD
Contextual and systemic
factors
Implementation gap

11. Implementation Gap
There have been minimal implementations on the ground
despite the major policy shifts towards an inclusive
pedagogic discourse (Ntombela, 2011).
The model of inclusive education with reference to the role
of all levels of systems support continues to reflect the
influence of special needs education (Makoelle, 2015).
The road from formal policy documents to actual practice is
rarely a straight one as it is seldom free of inconsistencies
and contradictions (Levin, 1998)

12. Current Issues & Debates: Outline
Policy
Current beliefs
BACKGROUND CPTD
Changing attitudes
& beliefs
Inclusive Pedagogy
Effectiveness of CPTD
Contextual and systemic
factors
Implementation gap

13. Priorities for CPTD
Changing teachers’ attitudes and beliefs
(and school leaders’ !)
– Informed by own experiences and by their training
– Empowerment: difficulties in learning as professional challenges
– Self-efficacy

14. Inclusive Pedagogy
“The development of a rich learning community characterised by
learning opportunities that are sufficiently made available for everyone,
so that all learners are able to participate in classroom life.”
Florian and Black-Hawkins, 2008: 818

15. Inclusive Pedagogy
• “Diagnoses”  careful assessment of the interaction
between learner and environment
• Attending to individual differences, while avoiding the
stigma of marking some learners as different.
• Avoid limiting expectations of both teacher and learners.
• Not separate, “specialist” pedagogy
• Not about the choice of a strategy but in its use
• Differentiation in content, processes and products

16. Inclusive Pedagogy
Strengthening teachers’ skills
– Cooperation and collaboration
– Innovation
– Creativity
– Nurturing
– Communities of Enquiry (action research)
– Reflection
– Open to educational change

17. Inclusive Pedagogy
• Balancing theory and practice
It was very clear that rather than expecting student teachers to learn
responses to all eventualities, they must be equipped instead with a set
of principles from which they can draw to interpret the situations in
which they find themselves and to respond in ways which align with the
inclusive pedagogy.
(Spratt and Florian, 2013)
• Importance of craft knowledge
(Black-Hawkins & Florian, 2012)

18. Inclusive Pedagogy
Aspects of student-centred (or active) learning
– Differentiation of learning tasks
– Creating options within activities (low threshold, high ceiling)
– Consulting with learners on how to help
– Self-directed learning (scaffolding)
– Providing additional supports and scaffolds
– Collaboration among learners
– Formative assessment (observation report, tasks…)

19. Current Issues & Debates
Policy
Current beliefs
BACKGROUND CPTD
Changing attitudes
& beliefs
Inclusive Pedagogy
Effectiveness of CPTD
Contextual and systemic
factors
Implementation gap

20. Contextualising Inclusiveness
• Systemic contextual factors and barriers
– Policies at various levels
– Inflexible curriculum
– Language
– Lack of resources
– Class sizes
• School-based Support Teams (SBST)
– Focus on identification of learners with special educational
needs and referring them to specialists usually based at the
district office
– Little attention for teaching methodology

21. Improving effectiveness of CPTD
1. Recognizing principles of (educational) change
2. Principles of effective CPD
3. Professional Learning Communities (PLCs)

22. Educational Change
Higher-order change
– Dealing with resistance
– Requires (un)learning
– Challenging beliefs
– Need for ownership
– Cannot be imposed
– Complex (not linear process)
“Change happens by degree not decree” (Spanbauer)

23. Hurricane Metaphor
“ In classrooms both change and continuity unfold in regular,
undisturbed patterns. The trend, regardless of what new
structures policymakers design, is small alterations over time in
stable teaching practices.”
Prof. L.Cuban, 2010
http://larrycuban.wordpress.com/2010/09/07/are-school-reforms-more-like-a-pendulum-or-a-hurricane

24. Educational Change
School leadership
– Vision for Inclusive Education
– Contextualize policy
– Create conditions to support collaboration (peer coaching,
PLCs…)
Rather than handing practitioners a blueprint for action we sought
to work collaboratively with then to explore how their context could
be understood and what actions might be possible therein
(Ainscow et al., 2006, p.56)

25. Effective CPD

26. Observe
colleagues
Give and
receive
feedback from
colleagues
Coach each
other
Training
Plan lessons
together
Asses
learner’s work
together
PLCs
Find a good
(external)
critical friend
Action
research
Workshop
Mentor novice
teachers
Reflect
together with
colleagues
Effective CPD

27. Professional Learning Communities (PLCs)
• Professional Learning Communities (PLCs)
– Put forward in ISPFTED as important instrument for CPD
– Development of culture of collaboration and enquiry
– Broad impact on motivation and self-efficacy
– Teacher-led based on real needs
– Recognize complexity of change
• Outside support
– Bring in expertise
– Guide change process

28. CPTD for Starting Teachers
“Schools have to encourage beginning teachers to engage in in-depth
conversations and have to create opportunities to share knowledge and
experience with other teachers. Lastly, it is crucial that beginning
teachers have opportunities to observe good teaching practices so that
they are encouraged to ask for information and help during their
personal progression toward differentiated teaching.”
“Therefore, to realize one of the most important elements of induction
arrangements, schools could provide beginning teachers with class-
free hours so that they get the chance to visit other teachers’
classrooms.”
De Neve & Devos, 2015

29. Conclusions
Creating inclusive schools requires a broad range of CPTD
initiatives
– Attitudes and beliefs
– Leadership
– Praxis (craft knowledge & skills)
– Action research
– Creating a collaborative school culture

30. VVOB in South Africa
PLCs
CPTD system
Providers
M&E
School
leadership for
effective CPD
CPD for
mathematics
teaching
M&E, research
• Non-profit international organisation
• Access to quality education in 10 countries

31. References
• Florian, L. and Black-Hawkins, K. (2011) ‘Exploring inclusive pedagogy’,
British Educational Research Journal, 37(5), pp. 813–828.
• Walton, E. and Lloyd, G. (2011) ‘An analysis of metaphors used for
inclusive education in South Africa’, Acta Academica, 43(3), pp. 1–31.
• Levin, B. (1998). An epidemic of education policy: (What) can we learn from
each other? Comparative Education, 34, pp. 131–141.
• De Neve, D. and Devos, G. (2015) ‘The role of environmental factors in
beginning teachers’ professional learning related to differentiated
instruction’, School Effectiveness and School Improvement, pp. 1–23.
• Spratt, J. and Florian, L. (2013) ‘Applying the principles of inclusive
pedagogy in initial teacher education: from university based course to
classroom action’, Número Monográfico, p. 133.