International perspectives on preparing pre-service teachers for inclusive education pedagogies: implications for developing countries

Abstract

The Dakar World Education Conference (2000) committed governments to ensure that their education systems are inclusive and specifically cater for the needs of disadvantaged, vulnerable and marginalized learners. For Zambia as one of the developing countries, in its Persons with disability Act of 2012, it affirms the government’s commitment for persons with disabilities to access an inclusive, quality and free primary, secondary and higher education on an equal basis with others in the communities in which they live. The debates on how best to prepare pre-service teachers for diverse, inclusive classrooms have led to some teacher educators working more closely with schools in trialing new approaches. In this discourse, we explore literature on preparation of pre-service teachers in inclusive pedagogies worldwide. Emerging from this study is the strong emphasis on inclusive pedagogy with a bias on improving the quality of mainstream education and addressing educational inequality among others. The findings contribute to inclusive education policy development in institutions of higher learning and pedagogical practices among others. The study further adds on to scanty literature on inclusive education pedagogies.