Description
Abstract:
Florian and Spratt (2013) understand an alternative, ‘inclusive pedagogy’, that requires a theoretical framework of how children learn, inter-related issues of social justice that encroach upon children’s experiences, and an enactment of choices teachers make in the classroom.
Embodying the space of the mainstream classroom for the enactment of inclusive pedagogy is complex and challenging for student teachers (Florian and Black-Hawkins 2011). Furthermore, the nature and provision of teacher education has become ‘technicist in nature’ (Dall’ Alba and Barnacle, 2007; Giles, 2010), built on individualised competence standards and knowledge (Robinson, 2017). With their lack of experience, confidence, autonomy and power to make decisions based on theory learnt at the university, student teachers are often ‘tracing’ (Deleuze and Guattari, 1987) the mentor’s pedagogy, and consequently stalling their own craft knowledge, which should always be felt and responded to emotionally and corporeally (Zembylas, 2005). In my study I eschewed the Cartesian mind/body dualism, where inclusive practice is a mental phenomenon, and a non-physical pursuit as a self-conscious lone agent. Unexpected encounters between human and non-human, material things, spaces, places, and the environment, known as ‘agential realism’ (Barad, 2007), were instead noticed through a deep and rigorous exploration of inclusive practice.
Moving beyond the representational, I used large-scale collages as a unique site of inquiry. Juxtaposed images from magazines re-presented the lived experience of student teachers in mainstream classrooms. Metaphorical language flowed in multiple conversations with participants about their collages, rather than one-off traditional ‘semi-structured’ interviews, and led to unpredictability and disruption that reversed assumptions (Culshaw, 2019). Hence, micro encounters or agential cuts glowed in the participants’ collages. Rhizomatic or nomadic wanderings, and ‘lines of flight’ (Deleuze and Guattari, 1987), unsettled conventional knowledge about inclusion, and communicated new insights into the possibilities for transforming inclusive pedagogy.
| Period | 7 May 2025 |
|---|---|
| Held at | PXL Hasselt, Belgium |
| Degree of Recognition | International |