Four Secondary Teachers’ Perspectives on Enhancing the Inclusion of Exceptional Students

Abstract

In Canada little research has been conducted on inclusive education practices in secondary schools. The purpose of this study is to report, for a diverse group of four secondary school teachers in a single school board in southeastern Ontario, their descriptions of facilitating the inclusion of exceptional students in general classrooms. The four teachers were recruited using an email referral method. Each of them participated in a semi-structured interview about their educational roles and role expectations, and about their reported instructional methods for inclusion. Seven categories emerged from the analyzed data, and these were clustered to form three themes: Structures and People, Meeting Everyone’s Needs, and Knowing Your Students. The findings suggest that the participants in this study were facilitating inclusion of exceptional students in regular classrooms by considering how the students’ functional needs impact their learning; most considered the functional learning and assessment needs of all students, not just exceptional students.