Teacher training for inclusion within an égalité framework in France

In France, recent years have seen a national-level acceleration towards embracing “l’école inclusive”, with the 2019 education law reform providing for a standardised national teacher training curriculum. While teachers are in theory being better prepared for inclusive practices, France’s egalitarian constitutional model remains in ideological conflict with differentiated treatment of diversity. This raises the question of whether current teacher education in the French context, within an égalité framework, can effectively prepare teachers for their work with pupils with diverse learning needs and special educational needs. A small-scale qualitative study carried out in Bordeaux in 2021-2022, as part of the research project Empowering Teachers for Inclusion in Schools (ETIS), explores this question by gathering views from 17 local teacher educators, mainstream teachers and SEN educators. Common themes across these interviews were identified using a Thematic Content Analysis. The main problems identified by educators are (1) institutional teacher training takes a separatist approach to preparing teachers for inclusion of diversity, and (2) a lack of initial teacher training for inclusion leads to “bricolage” (DIY) in response to the needs of SEN pupils in schools, rather than structured, strategic approaches to support learning. In a third finding, mainstream and SEN educators alike share the view that school inclusion could be strengthened by reinforcing preparation within core initial teacher training programmes.