In subproject 1 we have explored how students and teachers understand and co-create inclusive practices in a diverse school context. The studies demonstrate that students possess significant resources as agents of change in their school lives. At the same time, the findings reveal tensions between students’ lifeworld,the professional's perspective and normative structures of schooling. When teachers reflect on conversations with students, they become more aware of both the challenges and possibilities for inclusion. Teachers experience student voices as demanding, as they feel compelled to respond and become conscious of aspects of their own practice that may not serve students’ best interests. The costs associated with listening to student voices appear to constitute a paradoxical source for developing inclusive teaching. In an ongoing scoping review, we maps research on students’ voices in relation to inclusion, focusing on samples, methods, and themes. The findings indicate that the diversity of students and their varied experiences of inclusion require research designs that demonstrate individual, contextual, processual, and interactional sensitivity.
Subproject 2 focuses on inclusion through interactional practices across subjects and learning activities, as well as didactic practices in mathematics and Norwegian. Adopting a co-creative approach, the focus and specific methods were developed and adjusted in collaboration with three teachers at the partner school: one from the reception class for newly arrived students, one from the sign language department, and one from regular classes. In addition, twelve master's students specialising in Norwegian didactics have participated. These students either carried out their own action research projects and generated their own data within the framework of the work package or analysed data collected by the researchers. The primary method employed in the work package is video-based conversation analysis, whereby interaction and teaching are filmed and analysed. The analyses demonstrate that teachers utilise a variety of strategies to engage students in conversations and learning activities. These strategies include translanguaging, i.e. the use of multiple languages and semiotic resources, which strengthens students' ability to understand, express themselves and participate. In mathematics, learning cards have been developed and tested. These cards are designed to help students translate real-life problems presented in written contexts into mathematical problems and facilitate group discussions. The analysis shows that the learning cards encourage engagement and strengthen participation.
Three teachers/special education teachers at the school, together with the school’s educational psychology counsellor, participated in subproject 3a. Students who are in the process of being granted individually adapted education have been recruited. Data has been collected in the form of recordings of conversations between the teachers, the counsellor, and the students. Transcriptions and recordings of these conversations have subsequently been used as a basis for reflection in group interviews with the teachers and the counsellor. Preliminary analyses reveal that the participating students demonstrate varying levels of insight into their own situations, with a dilemma emerging regarding how such information can be conveyed in a caring and protective manner. This relates to the challenge of balancing students’ rights—under the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child—to both protection and participation. A central question arising from this discussion is whether teachers’ strong inclination to protect students from potential discomfort might, in fact, inhibit participation.
In subproject 3b, during phase 1, we collaborated with three staff members from the partner school. Through an iterative process, the teachers contributed their perspectives on what the teacher’s role in an inclusive school entails. These perspectives were then coded by the researchers and transformed into a thematic list that formed the basis for a questionnaire. The questionnaire was distributed to all teachers at the school and the results will be used in reflection groups that will meet in the coming period. The questionnaire also includes situational descriptions (vignettes) that are part of a quasi-experimental factorial survey design. Preliminary analyses indicate differences between various groups of staff in their assessments and choices of action. Factors such as the students’ grade level, the teachers’ familiarity with the students, the types of challenges the students face and family’s involvement in religious communities appear to influence the likelihood of different courses of action. In addition, we have recruited 15 other schools that have completed the survey. We will present the results to these schools and facilitate discussions on inclusion, openness, and understandings of normality.
The INCLUSCHOOL project will gain new research-based knowledge about inclusion in diverse school-environments. The project is carried out together with the super-diverse Huseby school, the Change Factory, and the teacher education program at NTNU. Adopting a user-centered, collaborative approach, it explores how inclusion is perceived, experienced, and practiced by students, school staff and other professionals. In order to develop a joint understanding of what inclusion is and how inclusive practices can improve, the project facilitates and explores student's voices and agency. Trough three work packages the overarching research questions are investigated:How is inclusion co–created in heterogenous school environments (WP1)? How is inclusion done interactionally in adult-child-conversations(WP2)? How is inclusion perceived and practiced in interprofessional collaboration (WP3)? All questions address the need for knowledge, new perspectives, and improved practice with regards to inclusion in school.
WP1 has an exploratory design, focusing on inclusion as a co-created process between teachers and students; investigating how inclusion can be based in students’ experiences and understandings. WP2 has an interactional approach, with analysis of adult-child-conversations, exploring how children are given opportunities to express themselves and draw on their lifeworld experiences. Through a case-study design, WP3 focuses on how 3-4 children can express themselves in the process leading up to an expert assessment of the right to (inclusive) special education. WP3 also uses an experimental vignette design, exploring how to achieve joint child-centered attitudes and understandings of actions in interprofessional collaboration towards inclusion.
The projects ambition is to gain cutting-edge, actionable, ‘bottom-up’ knowledge that can inform and improve inclusion practices in school, as well as contribute to strengthening approaches to school inclusion in teacher education.
