8. Conclusiones y Recomendaciones
8.3. Trabajo Futuro
Some comments on skills gaps were embedded in overall views on the structure of courses, and suggestions for improvements. For example, BA of Ed. Primary student B3 pointed out that being a student on the special education specialist pathway was key to having far larger input on inclusivity:
I feel I’m prepared and from my school placement experiences I’m very well prepared, but talking to other people on the BEd course as a whole I think the reason I feel so prepared is down to the major specialism. (B3, BA of Ed. Primary)
Student B10, who also took this course agreed and pointed out other areas of the course that related to inclusive teaching:
PE is one good example, they did it really well. Like we’d be doing something in PE and then they might say like “Okay imagine like someone’s in the class now who’s a wheelchair user, how are you going to include them in this?” (B10, BA of Ed. Primary) Student B4, also on the specialism, provided further details:
Mathematics, Literacy especially there was a big emphasis on what we could do to be looking not only at the children who were striving and getting along fine and didn’t need the help, but the other children that needed to. Um, I think special ed was very good in the fact … this year especially I found it that we did a lot on IEPs and how to look at a child in a way that it isn’t anything to do with their home life, just look at it in an educational way and I just thought it was very informative. (B4, BA of Ed. Primary) Some students commented on the timing and nature of modules. Student B10 noted a large gap in the 2nd and 3rd years, arguing that there needed to be more dedicated special education
modules:
But like we do more religion modules … than we do special ed, and we do way more Irish than we do special ed. … I just think they should have more special ed modules for everyone. I know they try to like integrate it across the course, but I just think it’s very important for all of us to have. (B10, BA of Ed. Primary)
Student A4 (PME Post-Primary) commented on delivery, suggesting that workshops rather than lectures were important:
It was just lectures … there was no situation where we’d sit down and decide “okay, should you give this work to a student with Autism?” “No, yes, why not?” Um, there was nothing there. I think really a workshop or something more hands on to help with our planning … would’ve really been beneficial. (A4, PME Post-Primary)
D1 (PME Post-Primary) suggested that other professionals should be invited to contribute to college teaching:
I mean we had 50 minutes on autism, and like autism is such a broad spectrum of things. Like how can you prepare someone to go into a teaching career on 50 minutes of one massive disorder like … There needs to be like more education then about different learning difficulties … guest speakers that … tell you about their experience they could maybe do like a focus on a specific … disorder or something every week. (D1, PME Post-Primary)
Student A4 also raised the issue of assessment, and emphasised a need for practical rather than written activity:
Built in work with the SEN co-ordinator or built in work with an SNA as part of the course would be much more beneficial than go write an assignment on it if that makes sense. … I had never taught students with SEN and I didn’t actually know what to do or how to teach them and I didn’t feel that there was anybody really in the college say that would have given any sort of advice on that … (A4, PME Post-Primary)
The emphasis on SEN in these comments is noteworthy. Despite the fact that they do comment at other points in the interviews on the challenges and dilemmas of inclusive
education in general, students are clearly focused on SEN issues. This is in spite of a recognition that it would not be practicable to cover every potential issue in their courses, and the emphasis within courses on ongoing teacher learning. This latter is picked up by Student B8, however, who felt that they lacked experience but they would be able to develop their skills:
I feel like I haven’t had the experience to effectively do it well from the get go. I feel like I’d have to you know find my feet, find the context … I feel like I would be able to, but it would take me a while. (B8, BA of Ed. Primary)
4.4.5 Summary
The interview analysis raises a number of issues in response to our research questions. First, it appears that students feel very positive about their courses in terms of how they have developed their attitudes to inclusion, and concepts of inclusion which align closely with the EASNIE core values are clearly visible, permeating students’ emerging professional identities. We find that students feel that they have a range of theoretical knowledges for developing as inclusive teachers, and that they locate valuable sources of learning in personal experience, their college input, and in their placement learning. As might be expected, they see many challenges to inclusivity, but are not unduly surprised by their existence.
However, when asked how well prepared they feel they are for being inclusive teachers, there appears to be a clear trend in terms of students who have specialised in special needs feeling better equipped and more confident. This seems to reflect perceptions of a stronger focus on classroom practice in these programmes, as illustrated by this quote from student B1 (Concurrent primary):
Because we had four hours a day talking about differentiation, special needs, in an actual classroom … where the rest of them were just going … they were studying Romeo and Juliet in their English, Arts … and they were writing essays that had nothing to do with the classroom. (B1, Concurrent Primary)
Despite the enthusiasm shown by students when talking about teaching, when invited to comment directly on their courses they can be very negative about what they see as missing practical skills input. Nevertheless, students do seem to appreciate that they are novices just about to begin careers in teaching, and that they will continue to learn in their NQT years. Student A1 (PME Post-Primary) perhaps sums up the situation best in terms of students’ experiences of their teacher education programmes as a whole package of college input and placement experience:
We had a course caring for diversity, that was focused on the different aspects in a school that you may be confronted with, like ESL or children with learning difficulties and I really read into the spectrum differentiation and so including everyone through the means of differentiation of your lessons …
I Okay, and what has been the most helpful?
R … teaching practice, just working with mainstream teachers and getting from them the experience that they have and the insight that they have in dealing with students. Like I said the catering for diversity course was hugely influential in showing us the … reasoning behind it or the literature behind it. All of that in theory is fantastic, but it is only
whenever you go into practice that you’re able to realise what the difficulties are and how best to achieve being an inclusive teacher … So talking to the co-operating teachers, talking to established teachers.
I Okay that’s great and how well has the course prepared you to be an inclusive teacher do you feel?
R Oh massively so.
4.5 Staff interviews
This analysis is based on 11 staff interviews spread across the five case study sites. Their locations and labels for this analysis are as follows: