Towards Inclusion: Teacher Learning in Co-Teaching, Anna Rytivaara
Rytivaara, Anna (2012): Towards inclusion – teacher learning in co-teaching. Department of Education, University of Jyväskylä
ABSTRACT
The framework of this study is built around the concepts of inclusive education and teacher learning, and embedded in the practice of ethnographic fieldwork. In many classes, in Finland and elsewhere, teachers face diverse groups of pupils. Many pupils with special educational needs are educated by a general education teacher with little knowledge on special education. Two primary school classroom teachers who had combined their classes and created a pedagogical system that was based on co-teaching provided the data for this study. One-third of their pupils were labelled as with special needs.
The study had two aims. The first aim was to understand how teachers experience co-teaching and how co-teaching is implemented in the classroom. The second aim was to study teacher learning within co-teaching. These aims reflect different levels of teachers’ work. The first aim concerns the level narrated by the teachers and observed by the researcher in the classroom whereas the second level is more conceptual and hidden behind the everyday work of teachers. The data were collected through ethnographic fieldwork, and comprise field notes and interviews. Ethnographic content analysis and narrative analysis were used to analyse the data.
The findings form a story that illustrates different aspects of the teachers’ learning process regarding their co-teaching. They found each other and commenced co-teaching in a supportive working environment. This resulted in several analytically separate outcomes: a shared professional identity, knowledge-sharing and constructing new knowledge, new practice in the form of a grouping system, and disciplinary practices. Moreover, co-teaching was also a content of their joint learning as they became involved in it together. In practice, the various factors were intertwined in the shared learning process of the two teachers. The teachers’ professional development was oriented towards inclusive education.
It is concluded that teachers’ professional learning is a complex and multidimensional process that can have far-reaching consequences in both teacher thinking and classroom practice. When both teachers share certain values and beliefs, co-teaching may also provide teachers’ with sufficient support to teach an inclusive classroom so that it results in positive experiences.
Keywords: Teacher learning, co-teaching, inclusive education, classroom management
