Supporting All Educators to Take Part in Teacher Professional Learning for Inclusion

Abstract

In the process of ensuring inclusive education, teachers’ individual roles are shifting towards collaborative practice, involving sharing tasks and expertise among a wide range of educational professionals. Policies for inclusion have resulted in a sense of urgency among universities to better educate teachers for inclusive practice. Yet, the tools to support this demand appear to be quite limited, or do not address the gaps in teacher professional learning identified in the research. Proceeding from the outcomes of a policy review on teacher professional learning for inclusion in Europe, the European Agency for Special Needs and Inclusive Education explored the use and relevance of the Profile of Inclusive Teachers, developed in 2012, for all education professionals. This paper reports on the approach and the main findings of a study conducted in collaboration with European countries, leading to a new and complementary Profile for Inclusive Teacher Professional Learning developed in 2022. The new Profile is built upon the initial 2012 Profile for pre-service teachers and aims to include all education professionals in teacher professional learning opportunities for inclusive education. Findings highlight the Profile’s core values and areas of competence and the essential features of competence development for inclusion. The paper concludes with recommendations for the collaborative use of a shared competence framework for inclusion and the role of universities offering teachers professional learning for inclusion.

Keywords

• teacher professional learning
• inclusive education
• university pedagogy
• policy