Supporting professional development of special needs teachers. How to promote inclusive perspectives and beliefs of preservice teachers

This article presents findings from an intervention research designed to support special needs preservice teachers in the development of their professional identity through the use of action methodologies based, respectively, on experience-based learning (Andresen, Boud and Cohen, 2000; Boud, Keogh and Walker, 2013) and learning from experience (Argyris and Schön, 1978; Lave and Wenger, 1991; O’Neil and Marsick, 2009; Bracci and Romano, 2017). The research project was conducted in an Italian university and involved the big classes of preservice teachers that, in the academic year 2016-2017, were involved into mandatory laboratories within the Training Path for Qualifications as Special Needs Teachers. One hundred and forty preservice teachers participated in the laboratories with an average number of approximately thirty-five participants per laboratory. The focus is on the methodological choices undertaken (in terms of methods, tools, and devices) and the kind of learning outcomes reached from participants in laboratories. The learning outcomes are analyzed within the conceptual framework of Transformative Learning Theory (Mezirow, 2000; Taylor and Cranton, 2012). The research did not intend to address a contextual problem, but to understand, formalize, and transform teachers’ established belief systems and representations about their attitudes and role as inclusive teachers and change agents.