March 2025
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European Journal of Inclusive Education
In France, recent years have seen a national-level acceleration towards embracing inclusive schooling, with the 2019 education law reform providing for a standardised national teacher education 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. In this context, is initial teacher education effectively preparing teachers for their work with pupils with diverse learning and special educational needs (SEN) in mainstream schools? A 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 discussing views from teacher educators, mainstream teachers and deaf specialist educators. Findings highlight educators’ views that a separatist approach to preparing teachers for inclusion of diversity leaves teachers having to find “do-it-yourself” solutions for SEN learners in their classes. In response to this problem, SEN and mainstream educators alike suggest that school inclusion could be strengthened by reinforcing preparation within core initial teacher training programmes.