Practicum is considered an essential element of initial teacher education for inclusive education. In this article, we explore its contribution to the pre-service teachers' adoption of an inclusive approach. We conducted a qualitative, multicase study of three primary teacher education programmes in Chile. Through episodic interviews, we produced data from 18 pre-service teachers. The main results showed that practicum causes various emotions, cognitions, and actions that interact with the adoption of an inclusive approach. Overwhelming pre-service teachers’ emotions related to exclusion can undermine their self-efficacy, leading them to avoid an inclusive approach. Also, the practicum tends to reproduce deficit-centred inclusion perspectives without critical reflection on special needs. Besides, support, openness, and autonomy in practicum can contribute to embracing an inclusive approach and performing inclusive practices. Finally, we discuss the relevance of investigating initial teacher education for inclusion in its situated and complex nature.
Herrera-Seda et al. (Thu,) studied this question.