A Case Study Assessing a School District's Readiness to Support Successful Implementation of Inclusive Education
Abstract
The purpose of this research was to examine the readiness of schools within a large urban school district to implement Alberta Education’s inclusive education policy. Through the investigation, the degree to which four factors supporting inclusive education environments were evident in these schools was examined: (a) a shared understanding of inclusive education, (b) inclusive leadership, (c) capacity building, and (d) parent engagement. An evaluative case study (Merriam 1998; 2009) was conducted to examine readiness for inclusive education in randomly selected schools in the district. Data were collected through 7 semi-structured individual interviews and 2 online surveys of staff and parents from participating schools. The data were analyzed using category construction (Merriam, 2009). Five findings emerged from the analysis of the data: (a) definitions of inclusive education vary among stakeholders; (b) ways to support implementation need to be discussed with stakeholders; (c) challenges exist to building staffs’ understanding of inclusive education; (d) decision-making on students’ needs is based on the staff member’s role; and (e) parent input is not being sought in creating an inclusive environment. These findings are significant in four important respects. The study provides evidence that (a) the district is ready to develop inclusive education environments and to facilitate inclusive practices within its schools; (b) stakeholders demonstrate a clear interest in being involved in the process; (c) there is still work to be done by the district in developing a shared understanding of inclusive education; and (d) more effective communication about inclusive education is needed.
Description
Keywords
Education, Education
Citation
Dow, M. (2017). A Case Study Assessing a School District's Readiness to Support Successful Implementation of Inclusive Education (Doctoral thesis, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada). Retrieved from https://prism.ucalgary.ca. doi:10.11575/PRISM/24641