Abstract:
When it comes to meeting the diverse needs of students and promoting the success of as many as possible, the college
network reflects a relative societal consensus on the need to foster equal opportunity. This wish for inclusion is an outgrowth
of humanist values that are essential for living together, giving meaning to our collective actions, and fulfilling
the educational mission of our colleges. Teachers, as the key players in fulfilling this mission, welcome heterogeneous
classrooms that include anxious, autistic, dyslexic, allophone, Aboriginal, gifted, back-to-school, mentally challenged,
and simply unmotivated students. Given their desire to adequately support all their students, teachers sometimes have
a sense of powerlessness or exhaustion when faced with this seemingly gargantuan task. The situation is compounded by
frequent confusion between the concepts of inclusion and integration, and a lack of knowledge about issues relating to
accommodations, college admission requirements, and the achievement of standards. All of these elements contribute to
a sense of demoralization among teachers, and can sometimes influence their instructional choices, which do not always
prove realistic in such a context. Nevertheless, these elements must be addressed, given that they shape the scope of
actions teachers take in the classroom.
This article begins with an overview of relevant concepts before presenting an educational perspective that helps clarify
the role of the teacher as a figure that complements other professionals in our colleges. The paper ends with a discussion
of the tools teachers have at their disposal to nurture an inclusive pedagogy, that help them meet the needs of their
students as well as their own.
