Teaching practices and teachers' perceptions of group creative practices in inclusive rural schools

AbstractThe central purpose of this paper is to highlight the research in a context where inclusive education is recognised within current global challenges in education. We aim to present different teaching practices and perceptions of teachers from rural schools regarding attention to diversity, before and during a collaborative action that reinforces and develops creative teaching practices. Participant observation, informal conversations and video-recording are the methods that we used. The data show the adoption of relevant group creative teaching practices and the development of inclusive thought. These aspects seem to promote the access to the curriculum of all children. The collaborative work is interpreted as encouraging the professional development. The study is of interest as it shows how the knowledge of creative teaching practices from a collaborative work can be systematised. This paper considers implications for founding research that contributes to the comprehension and development of educational contexts of diversity.Keywords: ethnographic methodscollaborative actioninclusive educationcreative teaching practicesteachers' perceptionssmall schools AcknowledgementsWe thank Dr Geoff Troman for helping us to deep on the connection between rural schools, attention to diversity and creative teaching and learning practices, the Oxford Ethnography Conference for the feedback on the subject and the anonymous reviewers for their critical and constructive feedback to earlier version on this paper. We are specially indebted to Carmen Julve, our colleague involved in the process of research.Notes1. This research has been conducted at different times. In the first year, the study was financed with the help of the Established Research Group, granted by the local Aragonese authorities (Gobierno de Aragón).The study was financed by local Aragonese authorities (Gobierno de Aragón) during two years within the framework of extended research ‘Evaluation and methodology: Bases to improve teaching in an inclusive rural school’ (262-101) the first year, and ‘The improvement of teaching and learning in a rural school from a creative perspective inclusive’ (262-103), the second year.2. ‘rural schools’ in Spain is not a different type of school in the legal context. From a functional perspective, they are schools that do not include the six levels of elementary education. The tendency is group different schools. Grouped rural schools (Colegios Rurales Agrupados – CRA) are made up of several schools from various municipalities with one shared head teacher. Tutors are usually fixed in one school and specialist teachers (physical education, foreign languages, education therapy, hearing and language) travel from one school to another. However, they are small schools with one, two or three classrooms of children with different ages and educational levels without group with others.3. Colegio de Educación Infantil y Primaria (CEIP) – Primary and preschool include children from 3 to 12 years. Education is compulsory from 6 to 12 years.