Inclusive provisions have been statutorily mandated in North America for now over two decades. Despite a growing body of literature around inclusive practices, many in-service teachers continue to express difficulties when it comes to tangible implementation of Inclusion in the everyday classroom. While there is debate around the various forms Inclusion can take (UDL, differentiation, personalization, etc.), there appears to be a more significant hurdle in getting in-service teachers to fully embrace Inclusion both as a goal and a practice. This paper investigates teachers’ degree of awareness around the Social Model of Disability. It argues that teachers often lack basic awareness of Disability Studies, more particularly of the Social Model of Disability, and that this has a direct impact on their capacity to conceptualize and embrace Inclusion. The paper draws from the researcher’s experience as a graduate instructor with in-service teachers, as well as from his experience as a consultant working with schools and school boards. The methodology chosen here is phenomenology, and it draws on tools such as auto-ethnography. The paper opens a discussion around the reform and transformation of pre-service teacher training. It argues that Disability Studies should be integrated into teacher training as it plays a key role in having teachers develop a theoretical understanding of Disability as a social construct.

1. Examining K-12 teachers’
understanding of the Social Model and
the impact on Inclusion provisions
CDSA-ACÉH Conference 2019
The 88th Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences
The University of British Columbia, Vancouver
Frederic Fovet, School of Education and Technology,
Royal Roads University

2. Quick personal intro
• My professional trajectory here is relevant to my presentation, and will explain my
perspective.
• Research and practice in Social, Emotional and Behavioural Difficulties (SEBD) in the
K-12 field (including 7 years as principal of a school).
• Over the period of my PhD I took on the position of Director of the Office for
Disabilities at McGill.
• Since end of 2015, returned to teaching as a faculty member in Education.
• Also a UDL consultant in both K-12 and Higher Ed sectors
• Straddle two fields and will be using this experience phenomenologically in the
presentation

3. Objectives of this session
• Examine the context within which there is currently a push back
against Inclusion in the K-12 sector across country.
• Explore reasons why teachers in the K-12 sector default back to a
deficit model.
• Assess the impact an introduction to the social model has on K-12
in-service teachers
• Reflect on the responsibility of the field of Disabilities Studies in
this landscape

4. Context
• Inclusive provisions have been statutorily mandated in North America for now
over two decades.
• Despite a growing body of literature around inclusive practices, many in-
service teachers continue to express difficulties when it comes to tangible
implementation of Inclusion in the everyday classroom.
• While there is debate around the various forms Inclusion can take (UDL,
differentiation, personalization, etc.), there appears to be a more significant
hurdle in getting in-service teachers to fully embrace Inclusion both as a goal
and a practice.

5. Interactive interlude
• I thought it might be useful to gauge the room a little before I
begin.
• How many of you (by show of hands or by waving something) feel:
(i) the inclusion discourse in K-12 incorporates a social model
dimension?
(ii) Teachers are introduced to the social model or Disability Studies?
(iii) Have considered tools and strategies to introduce the social
model to K-12 teachers?

6. Methodology
• Have taught 47 MEd courses over the last 3 years
• The great majority of these were offered to in-service teachers (tech,
methods, theory, critical ped, action research)
• Have also provided services as a UDL consultant to schools and school boards.
• Realized that I had a wide body of lived experiences in the process of
introducing teachers to disability studies and the social model more
particularly
• This represents a phenomenological analysis of these years of experiences,
wearing both hats.
• The data analysis relies on auto-ethnography and narrative methodology

7. The landscapeI haveexperienced
• Most mid-career K-12 teachers in Canada have never been exposed to Disability
Studies as a field and never received training around the social model of disability
• Even when they receive professional development in Universal Design for Learning
(UDL), it has usually been disarticulated to the point where they see it as a checklist
and are unable to see the connection with the social model of disability.
• As a result, they are conceptually unable to approach disability as a construct,
inclusion as a design issue or to accept the onus of designing barrier free learning
experiences.
• The default mode is the medical model, even when teachers manipulate more
sophisticated models of inclusion such as differentiated instruction.
• With differentiated instruction, even though the work is seen as ‘whole class’,
teachers still articulate the process as ‘identifying special needs’ in the moment

8. Tools used to introduce the social model as a lens
relevant to their practice
• The social model of disability is immediately appealing to teachers as a paradigm
once they are offered a concise and simple introduction to it.
• The key is to offer them the general concept of disability as a construct, in a format
that is palatable and in language that is accessible.
• Much success with Judith Butler’s YouTube video, Examined Life.
• An old, tongue in cheek, video from the UK has also proved useful.
• A short EDF ad from France also brings the message home efficiently
Take aways:
Simple resources work best
Aim to empower teachers to use the model autonomously after even just one session
The resources on the social model that fit the bill are rare and far between. There is a
real need for the field of disability studies to fill the gap

9. Impact of this process on my lived experience as an
instructor and consultant
• Exposure to the social model serves as a Eureka moment for many teachers
• Seem to be fairly autonomous with this reflection once they have been
exposed to it
• Helps them make sense of other tools such as UDL and empowers them to
explain to peers how it translates the social model into classroom practices
• In my contact with these clients and these students, I find they remain in
touch and that this represents the beginning of a life-long commitment to
social model thinking
• Gives them tangible tools and resources to steer away from the medical
model in their professional reflection
• The impact is considerable and sustainable

10. Policy recommendations drawn from this analysis
Disability Studies must be introduced into pre-service teacher training
It must also be proactively integrated into professional development for in-
service teachers
Training around Inclusion must be framed around social model considerations to
firmly shift teachers away from their reliance on the deficit model
Once they understand their roles as ‘designers of the learning experience’, there
is a need for ongoing support, as well as release times for them to ‘redesign’
Unions need to be part of this process so that collective bargaining integrates
provisions for teachers to be offered windows of time for the redesign of
instruction

11. Repercussion for Disability Studies as a
field - Discussion
• As a field we must:
• Break the silos that exist in our relationship with faculties of education
• Create resources that are concise and in plain language around the social model of
disability
• Actively fight the perception many people have of disability studies as a field that is
overly conceptual and disconnected from practice and every day concerns
• Create explicit overlaps/ bridges in the literature with/ to the work going on around
inclusion in the K-12 sector
• Be careful not to undermine efforts around Inclusion in the K-12 sector even if at
times a certain clumsiness is noticeable around critical theory (identity, power
dynamics, emancipation, hegemonic groups)

12. Questions
• We will have time for a few questions from the audience
at the end of the sessions

13. Resources
• Adams-Spink, G. (2011) Social Model Animation. YouTube.
Retrieved from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9s3NZaLhcc4
• Handicohésion (2011) Publicité EDF - Tout doit être accessible
pour tous. YouTube. Retrieved from:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k0HZaPkF6qE
• 黃小竹 (2010) Examined Life - Judith Butler & Sunaura Taylor.
YouTube. Retrieved from:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k0HZaPkF6qE

15. Contact details
• Dr. Frederic Fovet, Associate Professor and Program Head for
MAELM
• School of Education and Technology, Royal Roads University
• Frederic.fovet@royalroads.ca
• implementudl@gmail.com
• www.implementudl.com
• @Ffovet