Communities of Practice: a Conceptual Framework for Inclusion of Students with Significant Disabilities.

Inclusion of students with severe intellectual disabilities in general education classrooms remains a major challenge in education systems around the world. This is despite the manifest value of inclusion: it is consistent with today's hybrid, diverse knowledge societies, there are direct benefits for all students involved, and inclusion is a human right, which means that a status quo in which students are segregated for most of the school day needs to be continually challenged. This conceptual paper discusses how communities of practice, as an alternative theoretical framework of knowledge, can address some of the persistent barriers to inclusive education for these students. A community of practice (a) provides an alternative to a traditional top-down approach to innovation, (b) allows space for uncertainty and trust, (c) closes the gap between espoused theory and theory in use about special expertise, and (d) dilutes the effects of power imbalances and competing priorities among parents and educators. Adopting this framework of fluid knowledge based on local narratives can help inclusion teams recognise the unique ways in which they can move their practice forward; it can also help teacher preparation programmes shift away from a diagnostic focus when preparing teacher candidates to include students with disabilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]