Targeting Teacher Education and Professional Development for Inclusion

Teachers around the world are likely to encounter students with varied backgrounds and experiences, strengths and weaknesses in their classrooms. The paper reviews the literature and available data on how teachers can be agents of inclusion in education. It focuses particularly on how teacher education and professional development systems can assist in this task. It then describes the challenges present in the existing design of systems and offers recommendations for ways forward. The article is based on the research conducted for the 2020 Global Education Monitoring (GEM) Report (UNESCO, 2020). Hence, it takes a broad view of inclusion in education, not limited to any groups, but rather focused on learning for all learners. The paper emphasises the central role teachers can play in accommodating students of all abilities and backgrounds. It also highlights the importance of relevant internationally comparable data on teacher training, as part of Sustainable Development Goal 4 (SDG4) and particularly its target 4.c. Finally, the paper discusses the challenges and ways forward in supporting and strengthening teachers’ role in building inclusion in education.