Educational Action Research to Initiate Discourse on Inclusion in an E-learning Environment in Teacher Education

Source: Educational Action Research, Volume 21, Issue 1, 2013, pages 72-89

In this article, the authors report on a fragment from an educational action research in a teacher education setting.
The authors ascertain the possibilities of using the online environment of google.doc for initiating pre-service teachers’ discourse about the nature of inclusive relationships between individuals and the environment, and the ways of their enhancement.

The method of discourse analysis applied to the generated data demonstrates contradictory evidence as regards the effectiveness of the chosen medium for discourse in terms of the participants’ involvement.
However, content analysis of the generated discourse yields a system of 15 approaches that pre-service teachers use for communicating about the nature of and prerequisites for inclusive relationships as well as for contemplating the role of education in enhancing them.

The authors suggest that teacher educators can apply these approaches as a framework for exploring the frames of reference that future teachers use in making sense of the phenomenon of inclusion.
The identified approaches can help to identify the paths to be pursued to develop these frames, on the grounds of an assumption that a balance can be found between the cognitive, affective, experiential and action orientations.