Portraying Teacher Education for Inclusion: An Analysis of the Institutional Discourse of Dual Certification Programs

Dual certification programs are proliferating as the principal means of preparing teachers for inclusive practice. Drawing on the 1,408 university-based teacher education programs on the 2019 Title II database, we examined the institutional website discourse for every program offering prospective teachers the opportunity to earn a general and special education license. One-quarter of these websites reflected discourse conveying inclusion as a reform, transformational, and equity strategy for teaching; three-quarters limited discourse to the practical benefit of earning two licenses, absent any elaboration regarding inclusive teaching. This raises questions regarding whether these programs serve a robust reform function in orienting prospective teachers to inclusive practice or instead a transactional function that maintains the traditional binary relationship between general and special education.