Can collaborative consultation, based on communicative theory, promote an inclusive school culture?

Abstract

This article contributes to furthering our knowledge of how collaborative consultation, based on communicative theory, can make teachers’ learning from, and with, each other an inclusive process, and thus promote an inclusive school culture. The aim is to study special education professionals’ experiences of, and reflections on, leading collaborative consultations. The data consists of critical reflection (collaborative meta-consultation) in groups of special education professionals (consultants) and one researcher. The focus of the collaborative meta-consultations was on the consultations that the consultants held with groups of teachers. The data has been analysed using qualitative content analysis. Besides identifying some basic conditions, certain strategies and approaches have also been identified to make collaborative consultation an inclusive process. Collaborative consultation can promote an inclusive school culture if the concept of inclusion embraces how professionals collaboratively examine their practice, strategies, and values