Inclusive Education
Teacher Education 709
Mondays, 4pm – 6:40pm, NE 273, plus online activities
Scot Danforth, Ph.D., Professor, NE 292, scot.danforth@gmail.com
Description:
Intensive, advanced study of research, theory, and practice of inclusive education,
including examination of the politics of disability in the public schools and American
society.
Readings
Danforth, S. (2014) Becoming a great inclusive educator. New York: Peter Lang.
All videos and additional readings are on Blackboard.
Course objectives
1. understand how the meaning of disability has been constructed and contested in
the United States
2. understand the political and ethical dimensions of inclusive teaching
3. understand how different ways of thinking about disability (e.g. medical model
vs. social model) matter in the ways we organize our classrooms and schools
4. develop knowledge and skill in planning and implementing differentiated lessons
with students of varying abilities and interests
5. develop knowledge and skill in a variety of inclusive teaching practices that meet
the needs of nondisabled and disabled students
Assignments and Grades
1.
2.
3.
4.
25%: Inclusion Case Study or School-wide Inclusion Analysis (Presentation 12/8)
25%: Two Completed Differentiated Lessons (Due 11/24)
25%: (Online) Blackboard discussions
25% (Live) Class participation
A 95-100 points
A- 91-94 points
B+ 88-90 points
B 83-87 points
B- 80-82 points
C+
C
CD
F
78-79 points
73-77 points
70-72 points
60-69 points
59 or fewer points
Students with Disabilities Policy
Students who have any disability or health condition, either permanent or temporary, that
might affect their ability to perform in this class are encouraged to inform the instructor
at the beginning of the term. The instructor and the Disability Services Office will
provide the accommodations to support participation and success.
Attendance/Participation Policy
Students enrolled in this course are expected to attend and participate in class activities.
To prepare for class discussions, students are expected to have read the assigned readings
and complete the assignments. Absences (both partial and complete) will be a factor in
assigning final course grades. All absences must be due to illness or an emergency.
Class Sessions
Date
Live or
Online?
Live
Readings/Videos
none
none
Online
(Video) Including
Samuel
(Video) Going to
School
After viewing videos, Blackboard
discussion board
Week 4
9/15
Week 5
9/22
Live
(Text) Danforth,
Chapters 1, 2, 4
Class discussion/activities
Online
(Video) Geraldo
Rivera’s “Hell on
Earth” Willowbrook
documentary, Parts
1, 2, 3
After viewing video (all three parts),
Blackboard discussion board
Week 6
9/29
Week 7
10/6
Live
Danforth, Chapters 5,
11, 14
Class discussion/activities
Online
(Article) Lazerson,
The Origins of
Special Education
(Text) Danforth,
Chapter 3
After completing both readings,
Blackboard discussion board
Week 8
10/13
Week 9
10/20
Live
Danforth, Chapter 6,
12, 15
Class discussion/activities
Online
(Video) Body and
Soul
(Video) Collector of
Bedford Street
After viewing videos,
Blackboard discussion board
Week 10
Live
Danforth, Chapter 7,
Class discussion/activities
Week 1
8/25
Week 2
9/1 Labor
Day – no
class
Week 3
9/8
Assignments/Activities
Introduction to Course
Activity: My theory of disability
None
10/27
Week 11
11/3
18, 21
Online
(Video) Wretches
and Jabberers
(Video) When Billy
Broke His Head
After viewing videos,
Blackboard discussion board
Week 12
11/10
Week 13
11/17
Live
Danforth, Chapter 8,
16, 17
Danforth, Chapter 9,
19, 20
Class discussion/activities
Week 14
11/24
Week 15
12/1
Week 16
12/8
Live
None
Differentiated Lessons Discussion
Online
Danforth, Chapter 10,
13, 22
None
After completing readings, Blackboard
discussion board
Online
Live
After completing readings, Blackboard
discussion board
Presentation: Inclusion Case Study or
School-wide Inclusion
Blackboard Discussion Board
1. Complete the assigned readings or videos.
2. Due Monday 10pm: Post one question related to the readings or videos. The
question should be the best single probing (ambitious, searching, seeking
understanding and insight) question that you can muster.
3. Due by Friday 10pm: Select three of the questions posed by classmates. Write
thoughtful responses (about 300 words) to each of the three questions. These
responses should be well-written and demonstrate the fact that you have thought
carefully about the issue. Since they are mini-essays requiring some time and
effort, I recommend writing them in Word first before posting them on
Blackboard.
(Total of 4 posts – one question, three question responses)
Inclusion Case Study
Exclusion and inclusion – acceptance and rejection - are the flip sides of the same
coin. Studying and learning about inclusion requires that we also study and learn about
exclusion. We are interested in the kinds of lessons, structures, activities, and interactions
in the classroom that both create greater acceptance and affiliation between classroom
members OR that reject, isolate, or cast off specific classroom members.
Exclusion takes place within many social processes that single out an individual
student and divide that child – socially and instructionally – from the larger classroom or
school community. Exclusion may have moments of heightened or dramatic activity, but
it generally does not occur in a single day or in a single moment. Exclusion involves
many actions – some intentional and some not so – by adults and children within a
classroom or school community.
Inclusion, too, takes place within many social processes. The result is that an
individual who under less supportive and accepting circumstances (another teacher,
another classroom, another school) might be singled out as unfit or unable to belong to
the classroom community is, to the contrary, embraced as a full member of the larger
group.
A Handy Framework for Thinking About Levels of Inclusion
Chris Kliewer, in his book Schooling Children with Down Syndrome, offers three
different descriptors for the included/excluded status of individual children. These three
levels progress from most excluded to most included. Note: The social status of
individual child in a specific school context may match more than one of these levels
depending on the activities, social group, and instructors involved.
1. Alien – “The alien represents community membership overtly denied” (Kliewer,
p. 11). The child is generally viewed as defective, lacking something essential that
is considered necessary to participate and belong in the general classroom. This
child is viewed as a burden to the general classroom and is schooled in a separate
special education location.
2. Squatter – The squatter is constructed with many of the same “burden” and
“defectiveness” meanings attributed to the alien, perhaps with some reduction of
intensity. The squatter generally occupies a space at the periphery of the general
classroom community. The squatter is physically included in the general
classroom, but this inclusion “effectively creates a new border within the general
classroom” that isolates defectiveness within general education.
3. Citizen – The citizen is a human being who is fully valued as a member of the
learning community. The community itself is viewed as a web of human
relationships that requires the participation and contribution of all members.
Community is both the location and the social process whereby individuals
become themselves and democratic values such as equality and freedom are
enacted.
These three terms and three levels of included/excluded individual identity give us a
handy way to refer to what is happening in the classroom lives of specific children.
Project Goal: The goal of the case study is to develop a very full and useful picture of
one child in multiple schooling contexts, a child learning and interacting in specific
socio-cultural settings in the classroom and school, in order to understand how that child
is actively included and/or excluded. This is done by studying simultaneously (1) the
child and (2) the classroom context. Possible driving questions:
 When and under what conditions is this child socially connected to peers?
 When and under what conditions is this child socially disconnected from peers?
 What happens in the classroom that seems to facilitate and support friendships
between this child and peers?
 What happens in the classroom that seems to obstruct or deter friendships
between this child and peers?





When and under what conditions is this child highly included in instructional
lessons?
When and under what conditions is this child highly excluded from instructional
lessons?
What specific teacher attitudes or behaviors seem to support this child’s
instructional or social inclusion?
What specific teacher attitudes or behaviors seem to deter this child’s
instructional or social inclusion?
Etc……(You can come up with more.)
Areas of Analysis: Child and Contexts
CHILD: Our primary two areas of interest at the individual level are the child’s activity
(behavior, cognition, affect) in classroom instruction (teaching and learning) and
classroom social relations (interactions and relationships between class members).
Instruction
 The child as a learner, possibly including his/her ways of
learning in one or more areas of typical school learning o as a literacy learner
o as a math learners
o as a science learner
o as a social studies learner
(You may focus on one area of learning or more….)
Social relations

o
o
o
The child as a friend, including
playmate in one-one or group arrangements
school work partner
citizen of the whole classroom community
CONTEXT: Our primary two areas of interest at the social context level are the
classroom community and the school-wide community. For children who spend their
entire day with a single class, only the classroom community analysis is necessary. For
children who spend significant amounts of time in multiple classrooms or social groups
across a school building, the school-wide community analysis is necessary.
Classroom Community 
o
o
o
o
School-wide
Community (optional)
The classroom as web of relationships
groups of children sharing a lesson or learning activity
groups of children sharing recreation (social time, fun)
teacher – student interactions and communications
peer – peer interactions and communications
 The school as a (very big) web of relationships
o
degree of support or non-support from school
administration for inclusive education
o
degree of support or non-support from other teachers and
professionals in the school for inclusive education
o
degree of support or non-support from parents for
o
inclusive education
degree of support or non-support for social diversity and
individuality in various school contexts where child
spends time
Step-By-Step Guide
Step 1 – Who will you study? Select a child (with or without an identified disability)
whom you believe is experiencing or is in jeopardy of experiencing social and/or
instructional exclusion. Observe the children carefully for a week or so. Who intrigues
you? Why? Who plays/works with whom? Who seems to be “on the outside” during play
or instructional time?
Select a student you genuinely want to learn more about (not simply the most accessible
or cooperative student). Be sure to record (and date) notes on these initial conversations,
observations, and questions in your file.
Step 2 – Create a Case Study File. This should be a space (notebook, composition
book, folder, etc.) dedicated to recording thoughts and questions, collecting/organizing
data, making connections to course readings, recording analysis notes, etc. across your
case study inquiry. Keep the contents of your file organized. Date all entries and
additions as these may become data resources.
Step 3 – Focusing
a.) Write a (brief) series of overarching questions for this inquiry. Through the
inquiry process, identify your own questions about the case study child. Record these in
your case study file.
b.) Plans for data collection.
What kinds of data (information) will help you address your questions as well as the
questions listed above?
 Field notes: Jot down descriptions of what you observe (see and hear) during
specific kinds of activities that you have decided to study. Since you can’t keep
notes all day long (not possible), choose activities based on your questions.
Examples:
o If your classroom instruction focus is mathematics learning, you would
carefully observe the student and the context during math lessons.
o If you are interested in social exclusion and inclusion during “free” time or
play time, you might carefully observe behaviors and interactions during
recess or lunch.
o If you are interested in certain peer-peer or peer group relationships, you
might carefully observe behaviors and interactions during an activity or
time when you know that they interact.



Daily journal: Since it is often difficult to jot down field notes while you are busy
with the kids, and since field notes are typically focused on just a few time periods in
the day, you can keep a daily observation journal. The key is to know what you are
looking for during the day, the kinds of interactions and activities that involve
moments of inclusion or exclusion. At the end of the day, sit down for 15 – 30
minutes and write down what you remember from the day. Focus on events that
related directly to your questions. Don’t wait until morning. Your memory will lose
the details, and your data will be stale.
Interviews: An interview consists of any time that you ask an adult or child one or
more questions in an attempt to understand what is going on in the classroom. If you
notice that your child is rejected, ignored, or mistreated by a peer, make a mental note
to ask that child what happened. If you notice that your child is confused or wanders
away from an instructional lesson, make a mental note to ask the child what
happened. Remember: You are gathering information in order to understand, not to
judge people for their actions.
Student work products: If you are following the progress of your child as he/she
learns in a specific content area, you can gather the child’s work products as evidence
of learning and change over time.
Step 4 – Data Collection and Analysis
a. Collect and analyze data.
It is usually best to analyze data as you collect it. Successful execution of this case study
is NOT dependent upon the completion of a list of required data sources. At this point,
your challenge is to identify questions of concern, collect data that helps you answer
these questions, analyze data, and relate your findings to instructional planning and
interactions.
Analysis of initial data leads to hypotheses (hunches about what might be going on),
further data collection, and then confirmation, refinement, or modification of your
hypotheses. Your cycle of analysis might look like this:
1. Initial hypothesis based on data: Here is what I think might be going on. Here is
the data that I have gathered that supports this.
2. Alternative hypotheses either supported by or not controverted by the data: If my
main hypothesis is wrong, here are other possible explanations that also make
sense given the data I have.
3. More data collection: I want to look into my hypothesis further. I’ll need to
collect the following kinds of data to find out more…..
4. Refine hypothesis: With my new data added into the mix, should I modify my
initial hypothesis? Do any of my alternative hypotheses make sense?
5. More data collection……etc....process is virtually unending.
Keep in mind that you’ll have multiple hypotheses at once, so you’ll have two or three or
four or five versions of this cycle going on at once.
b. Consultation (optional – as needed)
At any point in this project, you may share questions/thoughts about your case study
student with your instructor (email, face-to-face, telephone) and discuss data collection
and analysis.
Step 6 – Final product representing your work is a Presentation (10-15 Minutes,
with Powerpoint)
Specifically address the 8 general questions listed below. Be sure to address the
overarching questions listed in step three as well as questions you raised through the
process. Assertions made should be backed by multiple and confirming pieces of
evidence.
1. Provide answers for your own inquiry questions (step 3a above). Keep in mind
that your own questions may have changed during the study. You might have
discovered that your initial questions were not on target, so you modified or
replaced them with better questions as you moved along.
Answer each of the following domains if they were not addressed
in your responses to #1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
What have you learned about this case study student as a learner?
What have you learned about this case study student as a friend?
What have you learned about this classroom as a web of relationships?
(optional) What have you learned about this school as a web of relationships?
How has (or will) your inquiry findings influence your instructional plans for this
student?
7. How has (or will) your inquiry findings influence your management of the
classroom community?
8. What have you learned about inclusion, exclusion, and/or yourself as a teacher?
Schoolwide Inclusion Analysis
Directions: Complete any 3 snapshots from #1-4. Must complete snapshot #5.
1. Mathematical Snapshot – goal: to get a quantitative understanding of where
students with disabilities are being educated in a school
a. How many students attend your school?
b. How many students with disabilities attend your school?
c. Of the students with disabilities, how many spend 80% or more of their
school time in general education classrooms?
d. Of the students with disabilities, how many spend 80% or more of their
school time in (pull out or self-contained) special education classrooms?
e. **This snapshot can become complicated when some, many, or all
students with disabilities from a certain general education school are sent
to a separate, “special” school for kids with disabilities. When this
happens, the school’s number may seem to be fairly inclusive because the
exclusion involves sending kids elsewhere. If you find this to be the case,
do the best you can (this can be hard) to find out how many neighborhood
students who would have been assigned to your building are educated in
separate facilities. You may find the data on this to be murky.
2. Leadership Snapshot – goal: to understand the level of commitment and support
that the leaders give to inclusive education. Conduct an interview with (at
minimum….more interviews gives a more complete picture) the building
principal or assistant principal. Your goal is to assess the degree of support for
inclusive education among the leaders. Possible questions: Is the inclusion of
students with disabilities a priority in this school? What has this school done to
become more inclusive or to improve inclusive education in the past two years? Is
there a school-wide effort to improve inclusion? What are the strengths of this
school in relation to inclusion? What are the weaknesses/challenges? Be specific!
3. School Culture Snapshot – goal: to understand the level of commitment to
inclusion among the faculty. Interview (at minimum….more interviews gives a
more complete picture) two general educators and one special educator. Possible
questions: Similar to #2.
4. Parent Snapshot – goal: to understand how parents of students view inclusive
education. You may focus on parents of students with disabilities, parents of
students without disabilities, or both groups of parents. Interview (at minimum)
three parents to find out what they think and feel about including students with
disabilities in general education. Possible questions: What do think about
including students with disabilities in general education? What are the benefits?
What are the challenges? Do you have any experience with inclusive education?
If so, what can you tell about your experiences?
5. Classroom Snapshot – goal: to understand what inclusive practice within this
school looks like, how it works. Observe (at minimum) two full lessons (typically
30 – 50 minutes per lesson) in classrooms where (1) students with disabilities are
included in general education, and, if possible, (2) a general and special educator
co-teach the lesson together. Take notes on what you see. Watch specifically for:
a. Does the lesson (academic content, instruction, activities) attend to the
diverse needs of the many children (those with and without disabilities)?
How or how not?
b. Are the students with disabilities socially integrated into the whole? How
or how not?
c. What specific teacher actions stand out as helpful or harmful to the goal of
inclusion?
d. What could the teachers do better to improve this lesson?
e. Does anything you see remind you of something you’ve read for this
class? If so, explain.
f. What did you learn in this observation?
Final Product: Make a 10-15 minute presentation to class (with Powerpoint) that
summarizes your findings. Be sure to address each snapshot that you completed.
Completed Differentiated Lesson
1. Consists of a completed lesson that you (alone or in cooperation with other
professionals in your building) planned and carried out with students
2. Includes a detailed, narrative description of what happened in the lesson,
including
a. Learning goals or objectives – statements of what the students were
expected to learn in the lesson
b. Learning activities – detailed description of what students did AND what
you and the various teachers or aides did
c. Evaluation – explanation of how you know what the students learned
(typically relates back to learning goals or objectives)
d. Differentiation - description of how the lesson is differentiated according
to one of more of following:
i. content – what we want students learn (skills, knowledge,
attitudes)
ii. process – activities in which students learn
iii. product – what students make that gives evidence of what they
learned
3. Includes reflections on
a. Success - What went well? Why?
b. Less-than-success
i. Who was or wasn’t effectively included, involved, and
participating? Why?
ii. What didn’t go well? Why?
c. Your learning
i. What you learned about yourself, other professionals, or your
students?
ii. What you would do differently next time? Why?