Exploring teachers’ agency in inclusive education: Secondary education teachers navigating their projects in responding to the diversity in students’ sociocultural backgrounds

This study examined educational projects that Dutch secondary teachers consider to be inclusive and their agency in implementing them. Using Banks' (1993) Multicultural Education (ME) model, we analyzed inclusive projects that twelve expert teachers mentioned having developed and used Personal Project Analysis (Little, 1983) to capture teachers' accompanied agency. Inclusive projects were considered meaningful, but poorly manageable and connected with daily teaching practice. A high degree of agency hinged on the ability to connect with existing curriculum and a management that supports teachers' inclusive initiatives. This paper refines ME's dimensions and uncovers misconceptions hindering teachers' agency in inclusive practices.