Training Reflective Practitioners for a Sustainably Inclusive School [Symposium discussant]

1 The challenge of inclusion and reflexivity

Inclusion/exclusion, interculturality and equal opportunities are social and educational key challenges in Europe. The research project "pro-inclusive-reflective" presents aims to promote inclusion in the long term by focusing on how to deal with heterogeneity, especially the experience of foreignness, in the first phase of teacher training.

Given the many contingencies in our society, the individual characteristics and symptoms of pupils and teachers alike, the challenges of supporting young people on their educational journey are enormous. This is only possible if teachers know how to deal reflexively with foreignness and fear of alterity in terms of culture, milieu, disability, or gender orientation.

Accordingly, we pursued the following objectives:

- promoting inclusion in schools,

- increasing necessary competences of student teachers to deal with heterogeneity and disconcerting foreignness,

- qualification of trainee teachers to supervise educational processes of future teachers, i.e. to become reflective practitioners dealing productively with their own alterity as well as the alterity of pupils and students.

2 Reflexivity as a necessary competence for teachers

Our research is based on the approach of the reflective practitioner promoted by Donald Schön (1987). According to our experiences it seems important to articulate reflective work when encountering others. Especially according to the psychoanalytic approach (Lacan, 2004) which addresses the unconscious as a real confusion with arising affects, desires and passions during the process.

Research on becoming a teacher as well as our own qualitative studies identifies recurring challenges for teacher candidates and their supervisors (Weber, 2008). Practice supervisors should be prepared to work with students on the following aspects:

- applying and reflecting on differentiated approaches,

- becoming aware of the relationship between knowledge and ignorance and developing an eye for their students' unique relationship to knowledge,

- learning to deal with affects, resistance to alienation, their own desires and the desires and enjoyment of their students',

- personal motivation to become a teacher and the matter of one's own style,

- students' ideas about heterogeneity, educational equity and the specific needs of children and young people.

3 Aims of the training program for trainee teachers

To supervise someone firstly requires a "commitment"; it requires a "yes" to singularity, to the alterity of the novice (Derrida, 2003). The training we have developed for reflective trainee teachers has the following aims.

Participants

- are aware of challenges that students face during their practice concerning alterity,

- be able to verbalize and reflect on their own imaginary-narcissistic expectations, projections, and transfers onto students,

- be aware of the importance of reflection when dealing with heterogeneity in a group or when designing inclusive settings,

- can apply methods of solution-focused practical reflections to support students in developing their own teaching style

- are aware of the importance of a psychoanalytic perspective, especially regarding action-determining phantasmas, structure of drives and unconscious resistance to alterity (e.g. social and cultural differences, disabilities, gender orientation) and are familiar with central concepts of psychodynamic/psychoanalytic educational work.

- are aware of functions, tasks and ethical positioning of supervisors.

Methodologically, the training will articulate psychoanalytic/depth psychological work on case studies of interactions between practice teachers and trainee teachers.

4 Process and purpose of the symposium:

- Discussion the importance of reflexivity focusing on verbalization.

- Working on the biographical-singular aspects, especially in the context of heterogeneity.

- Illustrating psychoanalytically orientated case work and how it can promote reflexivity of trainee teachers.

Discussion

What do colleagues think about our approach? What experiences have they made on this topic? What challenges are they facing? Are there any international differences?

References
Derrida, J. (2003). Eine gewisse unmögliche Möglichkeit, vom Ereignis zu spreche. Merve; Lacan, J. (2004). Le Séminaire, Livre X, L’angoisse. Seuil; Pro-inklusive-reflective (2023). Module Coaching in Practicum: Reflexive Practicum for Inclusive Education. https://pro-inklusiv-reflexiv.eu/en/intellectual-outputs-2/; Schön, D. A. (1987). Educating the reflective practitioner. Jossey-Bass; Weber, J.-M. (2008). Le tutorat comme métier impossible et de l’impossible. ULP.