Overcoming obstacles for the inclusion of visually impaired learners through teacher–researcher collaborative design and implementation

Stylianidou, Angeliki and Nardi, Elena ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7145-6473 (2023) Overcoming obstacles for the inclusion of visually impaired learners through teacher–researcher collaborative design and implementation. Education Sciences, 13 (10). ISSN 2227-7102

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Abstract

Teacher preparation to address the needs of disabled learners in mainstream mathematics classrooms is quintessential for the implementation of the inclusive educational policies that governments are often committed to. To identify teacher preparation needs, we draw on data and analyses from the doctoral study of the first author, who endorsed sociocultural and embodied perspectives in an investigation—first exploratory, then interventional—of visually impaired (VI) learners’ experiences and their teachers’ inclusion discourses. Here, we focus on the intertwined contributions of physical and digital resources in the mathematical learning experiences of VI pupils, as these resources co-existed simultaneously in the observed mathematics lessons. We first summarise findings from the exploratory phase that highlighted inclusion issues related to resource use in the mathematics classroom. We then offer a critical account of the circumstantial and systemic obstacles that impeded the successful intertwinement of digital and physical resources and discuss teacher–researcher collaborative design and implementation of classroom tasks (auditory, tactile) in the intervention phase. We conclude by making the case that well-meaning individual teacher–researcher collaboration is a necessary condition for such interventions to succeed but not a sufficient condition for these interventions to be scaled up and have longevity.

Item Type: Article
Additional Information: Funding Information: The study upon which we draw in this paper [12] was supported by a UEA Social Sciences Faculty Doctoral Studentship award to Angeliki Stylianidou (first author). During her doctoral study, Dr Stylianidou was also employed as a Research Associate to the CAPTeaM project (Challenging Ableist Perspectives on the Teaching of Mathematics) funded by the British Academy (Project Numbers: 2014-15, PM140102; 2016-21, PM160190) and led by Professor Elena Nardi (second author and Angeliki’s doctoral supervisor). Angeliki’s study benefited from her involvement with CAPTeaM and vice versa.
Uncontrolled Keywords: disability,inclusion,mainstream classrooms,mathematics teacher education,tactile and auditory mathematical tasks,visually impaired learners,computer science (miscellaneous),education,physical therapy, sports therapy and rehabilitation,developmental and educational psychology,public administration,computer science applications ,/dk/atira/pure/subjectarea/asjc/1700/1701
Faculty \ School: Faculty of Social Sciences > School of Education and Lifelong Learning
UEA Research Groups: Faculty of Social Sciences > Research Groups > Research in Mathematics Education
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Depositing User: LivePure Connector
Date Deposited: 07 Oct 2023 01:23
Last Modified: 25 Sep 2024 17:29
URI: https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/93144
DOI: 10.3390/educsci13100973

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