PROFESSIONAL VALUES AND INCLUSIVE PRACTICE

Professional Values and Inclusive Practice

Professional Values and Inclusive Practice

A case study of the interaction between identity, power and inclusive practice in a minority-language school

Abstract: This study is an ethnographic case study of one school as it developed over the period of a year, in its early years of implementing an inclusion policy as set out by the provincial government. Through interviews, participant observation, and document analysis, data was gathered, and analyzed continuously using the “constant comparative method” of Glaser and Strauss (1967). This grounded theory approach led to a theory elaboration of sociologist Pierre Bourdieu's theory of social organization (2006, 2002, 1986, 1982). Bourdieu's notions of habitus, capital, and field were applied to inclusion, and the results brought new insight into the relationship between individual and group experiences of school for all stakeholders involved in inclusion.

Introduction

The movement toward inclusion of students with special needs in the regular classroom has evolved in the education systems of countries around the world. This is a result of government policy, legal battles, and society's changing response to the segregation of groups and the rights of individuals (Kavale and Forness, 2000). Inclusion involves not only placement, but as an ideal it promotes the belonging of all students as part of their neighbourhood learning communities, regardless of language, creed, color, race, or physical, social or mental ability. Research has found that the practice of inclusion has been more difficult to implement than its philosophy (Valentine, 2001; Clark et al, 2009). The practices at the school level are what ultimately determine the extent of inclusion of students with special needs- be those needs physical, academic, or social (Carrington, 2009).

These practices include not only those of teachers in classrooms, but also interactions between staff, parents, and students (Pearson, 2000). The experiences and beliefs that all participants in inclusion bring to these interactions influence the success of inclusion at the school level (Carrington, 2009). Sociologist Pierre Bourdieu (1986, 2000a and b, 2001, 2005, 2008) theorized that individuals act on their own self-perceptions of their worth, as compared to others in social groups within society. This theory underpins the approach I have taken to my research into better understanding the way that inclusion is implemented.

This was my main research question: How do identity and power impact the inclusion of students with special needs in the regular classroom, in this case in a second language school?

Bourdieu (1986, 2000a and b, 2001, 2008) referred to habitus, capital and field as the basic components of his theory on the 'structuration' or act of organization of society. Habitus refers to the identity that individuals and groups develop, as a result of their own experiences over the courses of their lives to date. Habitus reflects one's capital, which consists of the resources one brings to everyday experience. Capital can be economic, cultural, intellectual, and eventually symbolic, and others perceive our power to rest in the capital that we own. We can use this capital to gain more ...