Abstract
The Graduate Certificate in Higher Education upskills teaching staff as a form of professional development. Extant literature advocates for inclusive education training as part of capability building among staff, however there are knowledge gaps regarding the specifics and recommendations for content and delivery. At Deakin University, one subject within the Graduate Certificate focuses on ‘Establishing Inclusive and Effective Learning Environments’, and it was of interest to examine insights from enrolled educators about how they perceived embedding inclusive education in their own current teaching practice to ascertain ‘where to from here’. This is a cross-sectional, qualitative descriptive study where assignments served as the dataset. The assignment asked educators to reflect on what they believed to be their strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats in relation to embedding inclusive teaching principles and practice and discuss strategies for addressing each moving forward. A thematic analysis was applied to identify patterns in responses across the cohort (N = 127) and examine perspectives from academic and professional staff accordingly. This study served as a timely needs assessment for understanding confidence levels among staff for a) knowing inclusive education principles and b) how to apply them. Outcomes are discussed suggesting specific recommendations and what is required for contemporary training in inclusive education, to create meaningful changes to curricula and further support student success and retention.
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
Education and Learning Worlds of Differences
KEYWORDS
Inclusive Education; Qualitative; Teacher Perspectives
