Abstract
Educating students with disability rests on the precipice of significant transformation in Australia. Recommendations resulting from the Royal Commission into Violence, Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation of People with Disability have highlighted the need for significant change in the way in which people with disability are educated. This has triggered a wave of reviews and reforms in Australia. However, the path forward remains tangled, divided and deeply complex. This presentation explores one teacher education provider's innovative journey to re-weave their initial teacher education programs and addresses the needs of the evolving school cohorts in Western Australia, and to provide and celebrate course offerings for those seeking primary and secondary school qualifications. Utilising the qualitative methodological approach of weaving an otherwise (Tachine and Nicolazzo, 2022), we approach this research design considering Before, During and After. Weaving an otherwise considers giving voice to the silenced, dehumanised or erased in our communities. We offer narrative vignettes from diverse perspectives-including teacher educators, classroom teachers and other educational leaders. who co-designed these courses. The questions we seek to explore relate to the concept of problematising the education of students with disability as well as identifying both the challenges and opportunities in the schools and teaching workforces related to inclusive education and positive reform of teacher education. Importantly, how do we gain the trust and build a community to co-create in a space that has often been forgotten or misunderstood? This requires, on some level, active resistance to the dominance of policy and practice that limits the preparation of pre-service teachers. Providing education to students of all abilities requires intentional mobilisation of resources, re-imagining of priorities and a determination to persist in the face of reform and negativity, to effect meaningful change. Join us as we discuss what comes “After”.
