Inclusive Education and the Developmental Tasks of Three Subject Teachers in Integration Classes in Academic Secondary Schools in Vienna, Austria

Context In 2007, Austria ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, committing to the implementation of an inclusive education system, including at the secondary school level. A common model in Austria is the integration class which is composed of a subject teachers, regular students, up to five students with special educational needs (SEN) and a SEN teacher. It can be challenging for subject teachers to work in such a class, but it can also be an opportunity for professional development. In other words, teachers are confronted with developmental tasks when working in the integration class. Developmental tasks is a concept which comes from the American sociologist and educationalist Havighurst (1948) who devised the concept of developmental stages and tasks from infanthood to old age. As far as teachers are concerned, previous research (Hericks, 2006) has identified four developmental tasks which teachers in their first years of teaching are confronted with and work on in this order: (1) the development of competence, (2) the development of the ability to mediate or transfer acquired knowledge and competence to others, (3) the development of the ability to acknowledge the student’s otherness and (4) the development of the ability to interact within the school system. Other research about the developmental tasks of pre-service teachers show that developmental tasks are embedded in a context of practice and experiences, differ per student and cannot be predicted (Kraler, 2012; Ostermann, 2015; Author, 2020, 2021). Approach This study reconstructed the developmental tasks of three subject teachers working in integration classes in secondary academic schools and looked at how these developmental tasks relate to inclusive education. We used a qualitative design. The first author observed 18 hours of lessons and conducted interviews with twelve subject teachers. We selected three contrasting cases of subject teachers and used the documentary method to reconstruct their developmental tasks. Findings We reconstructed three developmental tasks: (1) coping with diversity at pedagogical and didactic level; (2) cooperating with others; (3) acknowledging and promoting inclusive education in schools. Conclusion Successful inclusive education requires a supportive school environment where reflexive, transformative and cooperative teachers actively engage in professional development, which focuses on the three developmental tasks.