Date of Award
1-2025
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
College/School
College for Education and Engaged Learning
Department/Program
Teacher Education and Teacher Development
Thesis Sponsor/Dissertation Chair/Project Chair
Monica Taylor
Committee Member
Susan Baglieri
Committee Member
Emily Klein
Abstract
This qualitative research study examines how eighteen elementary and middle school educators within a feminist professional learning community, grounded in a book study, developed inclusive understandings, practices, and actions. My first research question was: How do elementary and middle school educators, working within a feminist PLC, make sense of and enact inclusive teaching practices?, and the sub question was: How did using a shared text act as a catalyst for exploring inclusive practices? My second research question was: How do I enact feminist pedagogy in my facilitation of a professional learning community for inclusive teaching? I constructed and collected data between spring of 2021 and the summer of 2022. Data included audio recordings and transcripts of our PLC meetings, audio-recordings and transcripts of individual interviews, and researcher’s journal entries. Throughout my facilitation of the study, I engaged in self-reflection with the help of critical friends. To analyze the data, I immersed myself in “a conversation with the data” (Merriam & Tisdell, 2016, p. 204), moving from open coding to analytical coding, and using In Vivo coding to preserve participants’ voices (Saldaña, 2016). As I moved into theming and deeper analysis, I applied iterative analysis through memo writing and reflective responses to the data. My dissertation chair, Dr Monica Taylor, participated in ongoing conversations with me during data analysis, and supported me in deepening my interpretations. Findings shed light on the complexities of inclusive teaching, including the importance of affirming learners’ intersectional identities, cultivating connection and belonging with students, and embracing uncertainty and unknowability. The collaborative work participants engaged in subsequent to the book study led to deepened understandings, including the need to take risks through challenging conversations, shifting away from deficit mindsets, examining our practices for authenticity, providing students with multiple ways to access learning and belonging, and disrupting norms by recognizing and challenging institutional barriers. I conclude the study by using a dialectical framework to examine several of the underlying tensions, including the erasure of disability from our intersectional inclusive learning, the need for both individual and systemic transformation to meaningfully enact intersectional inclusive teaching, and the importance of bringing bodies, hearts, and minds into the classrooms.
File Format
Recommended Citation
Summer, Laurie, "Learning to Teach for Inclusion: A Professional Learning Community of Elementary and Middle School Educators Collaborate for Inclusion" (2025). Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects. 1495.
https://digitalcommons.montclair.edu/etd/1495
