Toward an Inclusive Teacher Education Program

Abstract

Although definitions of high quality teaching vary considerably, a good teacher capitalizes on the strengths of every student. Yet, novice teachers struggle to identify all students’ abilities. Many teachers describe inclusion practices as just another obstacle encountered in the classroom. Scholars seek to identify ways of changing this burden of inclusion mindset to a welcoming/enriching notion aligned with social justice agendas. In this paper, we discuss the need for pre-service teachers to enter the classroom with the disposition to focus on individual strengths and to understand how the diversity of students’ abilities and backgrounds contributes to the subjective well-being of the student population.

Keywords

• Inclusion
• Practice
• Novice
• Teachers
• Education
• Strengths