How do we educate inclusive teachers?

I will discuss the teacher education program at the University of Lapland. There is a need for teachers who are familiar with inclusive education and the indigenous pedagogy in the Nordic area, and education must be locally bounded and culturally relevant. This requires educating reflective practitioners who consciously construct professional knowledge and practice through inquiry, observation, documentation, analysis and reflection in inclusive learning contexts. The aim of my presentation is also to turn attention to the future: Arctic Inclusive Teacher Education – Is it dream or reality? All Finnish teachers complete a master’s degree in education studies, which includes both academic studies and practical experience at schools. Research-based teacher education has a long tradition in Finland. However, the students’ motivation and commitment to research activities has been low; students have considered research and pedagogical studies unconnected. They have also regarded research studies as irrelevant to teachers’ work; they have not seen the connection between research and their teaching practices (Hakala 1992; McKenzie & Santiago, 2005). To fill this gap, the aim of the University of Lapland’s teacher education program is for students to come to consider pedagogical studies, research studies and teaching practices as interlinked (cf. Kolb’s experimental learning theory). This will help them to make good use of theoretical work, not only during their teaching practice, but also in the future, as qualified teachers. At University of Lapland, inclusive education is the thread running through the research-based teacher education program. When graduating, all teachers should have attitudinal and educational personal resources to engage diverse learners from different cultural backgrounds. They should also be able to recognize pupils’ individual needs and prerequisites, and have the ability to support individual and collaborative learning processes. On the grounds of previous research results, teachers’ socio-emotional competences enhance pupils’ learning outcomes, participation and welfare at school. Because of that, student teachers’ learning processes need to touch the student teachers emotionally and they need to develop socio-emotional competences. Consequently, I suggest that we should highlight the student teacher as an emotional person in teacher education (cf. Korthagen 2017). My presentation will illustrate the process of the teacher education program, and display pre-service teachers’ process of developing critical reflection and building an identity as a reflective practitioner who are able to analyze and improve their own work guided by inclusive values. References: Hakala, J. T. (1992). Tieteellisen ajattelun kehittyminen luokanopettajakoulutuksessa: Kasvatustieteen syventävien opintojen tavoitteiden toteutumisen analyysia fenomenologisen perusnäkemyksen valossa [The development of scientific thinking: Analysing the realisation of the aims of educational advanced studies in the light of phenomenological view]. Oulu: University of Oulu. Korthagen, F. (2017). Inconvenient truths about teacher learning: towards professional development 3.0. Teachers and Teaching: theory and practice, 23(4), 387–405. critical McKenzie, P. & Santiago, P. (2005). Teachers matter: Attracting, developing and retaining effective teachers. Paris: OECD. Keywords: teacher education, inclusive education, teacher’s socio-emotional competences Questions to be discussed with the audience: • What does inclusive education include or mean? • What are the teacher’s main professional competences in the future? • How could we develop the teacher education at the University of Lapland?