The government of Alberta defines children with “diverse needs” as children who require special education programming because of their behavioral, communicational, intellectual, learning, or physical characteristics or a combination of those characteristics, and children learning English as a new language who benefit from enhanced language programming to support growth and development. Postmodern thinking views diversity as an approach to building a learning community that is inclusive of varying identities and abilities so that difference “becomes part of the social structures and practices within the environment” and that children and families “do not feel stripped of their ‘being and belonging’ or put into marginalized situations.”
Published in Chapter:
Creating a Culture of Inclusion in Pre-Kindergarten: An Integral Analysis of Beliefs, Understandings, and Practices of Early Childhood Educators
Natalie Anne Prytuluk (Edmonton Public Schools, Canada)
Copyright: © 2019
|Pages: 32
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-5225-5873-6.ch011
Abstract
The purpose of this study was to understand how beliefs, understandings, and pedagogical practices of early childhood educators affect, and are affected by, their relationships with children, classroom team members, parents, and colleagues, as they create an inclusive culture in a pre-kindergarten classroom. To explore this research problem from multiple perspectives, integral theory was selected as the conceptual framework, and a multi-methods exploratory sequential design was employed using integral methodological pluralism. Data about educational experiences, culture, behaviors, and systems, were collected from five early childhood educators in pre-kindergarten classrooms in four urban schools, followed by a questionnaire of classroom practices, document analysis, and a focus group. Findings revealed that important factors for creating an inclusive classroom culture included: early childhood educators' positive beliefs toward inclusion; a social constructivist theoretical perspective; and the ability to build strong relationships with children, parents, and colleagues.