Mandating Awareness / Inviting Inclusion: Challenges Confronting Educators of Inclusive Education

Increasing diversity within Canadian schools, along with greater acknowledgement about historical and current educational inequities, has generated significant interest in teacher education reform. While this has prompted some changes within teacher education, there is still a distinct void in the research and practice of inclusive teacher education. This study responds to this void by providing an in-depth examination of the rationale, development, challenges and successes of a mandatory inclusive teacher education course at one Canadian university. The course, at the heart of this study, focuses on education for the meaningful inclusion of all learners, especially those at risk of exclusion due to their ethnicity, culture, gender, sexual orientation and/or socio-economic status. In investigating this course, this study provides insight into the limitations and possibilities of using inclusive teacher education to effectively prepare teachers for diverse classrooms. The effective structural, pedagogical and evaluatory practices uncovered in this study will be of particular interest to those involved in the policy, administration and/or instruction of teacher education.