Teachers' and practitioners' pedagogical practices also have legal professional responsibilities and regulations to adhere to under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. We understand the former as the policy master narrative that can reify inaccessibility in the classroom. We take a paradigmatic shift focusing on "storying"…

Teacher educators are in a unique position to prepare future educators to disrupt the status quo and enact changes that ensure equitable access to educational opportunities for all students, including those with disabilities. It is critical that those who prepare future special education teachers (SETs) ensure they are prepared to engage with the…

This chapter addresses the importance of community in fostering transformative learning and living environments for children with special needs. Community is conceptualized as a special kind of relationship between people, who, regardless of geography, share common values, concerns, interests, or experiences. This understanding of community as…

Coming to understand how cultural differences influence interactions between educators and students and their parents is a complex and perhaps life-long discovery. Culture helps to define groups' belief systems and expectations for appropriate behavior, often at a hidden level. Pre-service teachers need multiple opportunities to interact with…

Since 1966 when we began our careers in special education, we and others in our cohort have seen substantial changes in our discipline. In our personal experience, we had the opportunity to work together in situations that led us to focus on practices and procedures that produced better outcomes for our students, and better outcomes for students…

Emerging teachers undergoing initial teacher education programmes and given the opportunity to engage in a teaching placement in special provisions settings consistently report that they find the experience "transformative." Over eight years, informal and often unprompted data emerged which "insisted" upon reporting and suggested that the special…

In this article, a program to support inclusive education in India is presented. India is described as a country with many challenges and much historical strength. Developing inclusive educational practice in a country with one billion people, an attitude of charity towards people deemed less fortunate and extremely limited resources is a…