Unpacking the Possible: A Qualitative Case Study of Inclusive Teacher Practice in India

Abstract

Research on teachers and inclusive education in India has largely been conducted using standardised, quantitative measures of teacher attitudes, efficacy and behaviour. There is little focus on teachers’ perspectives on their practice. Such findings promote a deficit view of teachers, recommending interventions to ‘correct’ teacher attitudes and behaviour, with little attention to institutional and policy contexts within which the teachers operate. The existing studies focus on what is absent or lacking, rather than what is possible. The present study attempts to offer a perspective of what is possible in inclusive education in the Indian context. The purpose of this intrinsic case study research is to better understand the inclusion of girls with disabilities in Kolkata, India, at a home and school for orphan girls. Non-institutionalised, inclusive, community-based care is rare in India, specifically for individuals with disabilities. The overall case study involved interviews (N = 32) with students, teachers and staff, observations and document analysis, and this focuses on the n = 7 teacher interviews. All transcripts were analysed using structural and in vivo codes. These findings are centred on teacher voices and perspectives – identifying best practices, dilemmas and challenges. However, teacher perspectives are discussed within a larger school and institutional context. An important feature is the description of teachers’ inclusive practice as an iterative process, supported by feedback and input from the school leader. The findings highlight how the school provides and serves as a space of familial bonding, allowing teachers to challenge the views of educability, within the backdrop of a community that stigmatises disability. It is in this way that these teacher-centred voices demonstrate resilience in their teaching and conceptualisation of inclusion and disability.