ABSTRACT
A growing body of literature now exists on pre-service teachers and their dispositions towards and views of inclusive education (e.g. Bradshaw & Mundia, 2006; Forlin, Loreman, Sharma & Earle, 2009). However, rather than asking how schools can become more inclusive, some researchers have been asking questions about why some children are excluded from regular education (see Slee, 2011). Exclusion challenges educators to consider who is not a candidate for inclusion and why, and in doing so to recognize their own preferences and biases. The views of the pre-service teachers expressed in this chapter prompt teacher educators to consider school exclusion criteria that may provide a focus of discussion for more inclusive instruction. The following questions guide the discussion in this chapter:
What are one group of Canadian pre-service teachers’ views of educational exclusion, examined through a critical lens formed through a reading of the work of Michel Foucault and Paulo Freire?
What can teacher educators learn from multiple insider perspectives related to inclusive experiences to inform inclusive teacher education experiences?
How can teacher educator researchers gather insider perspectives?
How can teacher educators come to understand what teachers need to know for inclusive practice and how teachers come to know, do, appreciate and be through promoting greater appreciation of insider perspectives?
