Inclusive practices: valuing teachers’ own knowledge

Abstract

Teachers commonly claim not to know what to do when faced with the educational needs of students who require inclusive practices, that is teaching practices not anticipated by the system. This produces an excess of distress that manifests anger, anguish, or even paralysis. They call for medical diagnoses that they then find of little or no use for thinking through their own practices.

This article attempts to show that teachers have resources to interpret the cognitive and subjective conditions of their students beyond the knowledge and readings offered by specialists in specific disabilities/conditions. Teaching practices produce specific knowledge unique to teaching that must be identified, valued, and conceptualized so that it can be recovered, critically reviewed, and transmitted.

The hypothesis is that this operation requires the presence of a third party who, from a certain distance, provides interdisciplinary support in formulating the conceptual arguments underlying this practice and in conceptualizing its consequences for each student and for the class.