Integrating Practice and Theory in Teacher Education: Enhancing Pre-Service Self-Efficacy for Inclusive Education

Inclusive education demands that children worldwide have access to education alongside their peers in their neighborhood schools and within regular classrooms. Understanding experiences that contribute to pre-service teachers’ self-efficacy is important as it influences their readiness to enact inclusive strategies effectively. This study involved 69 pre-service teachers from Canadian faculties of education in mixed-methods research using Group Concept Mapping. The analysis identified five clusters of experiences; a repeated measures ANOVA revealed that ‘Applying Knowledge’ and ‘Collaborating with Colleagues’ comprised the most important experiences for contributing to pre-service teachers’ self-efficacy for inclusive practices, while ‘Community Support’ and ‘Experiences with Diverse Student Needs’ were significantly more important than ‘Professional Development’. By aligning these clusters with Bandura’s sources of self-efficacy, this study highlights the importance of mastery experiences and supportive interactions. These findings suggest that teacher education programs that focus on and enhance practical experiences and interpersonal supports will connect to and better prepare pre-service teachers for inclusive education.