Suchergebnisse

In a rapidly changing and culturally diverse world, teacher quality may play a key role in addressing different instructional needs and promoting equality of opportunity for all for a democratic society. Beyond the idea of "Best Practices", this paper aims to examin the complex process of learning and implementing a cooperative strategy for promoting inclusion in multicultural classrooms. By discussing data collected during an ethnographic research project in some Italian Primary schools, the paper sheds light upon some of the challenges teachers encountered in putting the new strategy into practice in their own classrooms. Findings reveal how teacher previous educational ideas and ways of teaching, as well as the local teaching context, affected their choices and the meanings they gave to innovation. Instead of applying the new strategy as a "ready-to-use package", these teachers recognized themselves as active agents in this process of change.

Within the European debate on quality education for all, and along with the willingness to implement the Rights of Children, the paper will examine how diversities – which may relate to immigration status, disability, ethnicity, culture and social class – can challenge teachers' identity and class context in order to enhance the diversity of each student as a resource. The paper will analyse data gathered during an action-research project, which has been developed in so-called high-complexity classrooms in Primary schools, with the aim of investigating the process of implementing teaching strategies for inclusive pedagogy. It will discuss how this process engages teachers in a dynamics between pitfalls and creativity as well as between school cultural barriers and educational opportunities. This leads to transform their professional identity, by developing a deep reflexivity in their own contexts of practice and strengthening their competence to support democracy and inclusive classrooms.