Inclusive Learning and Educational Equity 5

Table 11.2 Selected facilitators to learning according to the teachers
Learning facilitators
1. Motivation
2. Quiet environment
3. Routines, security, rituals
4. Environment (furniture, climate, technical equipment)
5. Engagement
6. Motivated teacher
7. Praise
8. Steady environment
9. Learning strategies (learning/coaching), learning in small groups
10. Good atmosphere at home
11. Possibility to try out things
12. Freedom to think
13. Being allowed to experiment
14. Eating and sleeping
15. Reading
M. Proyer et al.

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Figure 
11.2
 depicts parts of an initial order of open codes along categories. 
Clearly, these are still impacted on by the discussion around barriers and enablers to 
learning and teaching. Teachers and student’s role as well as the impact of the living 
environment
(e.g., parents) were identified as relevant. Strengths point toward a 
positive take on the teaching environment, showing readiness to engage and accept-
ing diversity as a strength. Adequate strategies to enable learning for all and tack-
ling barriers and lack of resources were identified as being among the relevant 
aspects.
After an initial sorting and alignment of the relevant categories along overarch-
ing concepts, the analysis was taken to the next level through the application of 
constant comparison. This implies looking into the different data sources and draw-
ing from the ongoing exchanges with the teachers with a view to extracting core 
concepts. In the course of two additional interviews during the analysis process, 
interim findings were further discussed and developed. The following figure intro-
duces the emerging core categories and their interrelations. On this basis, an initial 
theoretical foundation can be established that frames further contextualization by 
assessing the existing teaching and learning practices under a UDL perspective. The 
main concepts and categories in the analysis point to a relationship between 
resources, strategies, strengths, and barriers that impact on an enabling and indi-
vidually oriented learning context.
The references to working with a focus on enabling and furthering strengths of 
students were strong in the data material. The aim of the teachers was to identify 
different approaches and abilities as strengths and to work with these accordingly. 
In relation to the need for a continuous focus on strengths, one teacher pointed out 
that constant reflection on what functioned well with her students (also using the 
Buddy Books) and her colleagues was essential. Giving students the space to reflect 
on what functioned well was considered to be of special relevance:
Gerti: It is good that we reflect on a regular basis; this enables routines. Actually, once a 
week we take the time to talk about the question “What are you proud of?” In my experience 
many of the students say, “I am proud of nothing.” This makes me gasp. It says a lot about 
self-worth
.
Gerti stressed the importance of making the children in her classroom aware of 
what they are able to do and that there are many reasons for them to be proud. 
Specific lessons, termed “study coaching,” are used to work against students’ per-
ceptions that they are incapable of succeeding and thus change how they “wander 
aimlessly around the world,” as she described it. The teachers believe that a certain 
flexibility in SZD and in the specific collaborative conditions of the approaches of 
the teacher teams to the curriculum is essential to be able to react to students’ needs 
without losing focus on academic outcomes. Specific lessons constituting an inte-
gral part of the lesson plan (in this case a so-called social lesson) can be used to 
discuss the needs of students, while others can be adapted to urgent needs. This is 
referred to as “emotional work” (a very specific term in German: Beziehungsarbeit) 
by the teachers, and is considered a specific strength of a reasonably open system 
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that allows for a certain degree of flexibility, but is also an indication of the heavy 
responsibilities the teachers have:
Gerti: We have a social lesson and the topic is: We are all different and that is fantastic. …