Preparing Music Teachers for Inclusive Education in Lithuania

Abstract

Today inclusive education encompasses many more types of “otherness” than before. Systems like the Universal Design for Learning encourage us to consider the abilities of all learners, not just those with disabilities, yet in-service and preservice teachers feel unprepared to teach diverse populations of students, accounting for negative attitudes towards inclusion.

Changing the dispositions of future teachers is no easy task. For teacher education to become transformative rather than reproductive, many researchers have pointed to field experiences as being the key to success in changing teacher practices and dispositions. Since field experiences involve collaboration between the pre-service teacher and the school-based mentor, the aim of this research was to examine the voices of participants and prompted these research questions: how are future music teachers being prepared by university-based teacher education programs for inclusive classroom practice? What problems do pre-service music teachers face during field experiences? What challenges do school-based mentors face when guiding student teachers to work with diverse pupil needs? Focus group discussions were chosen as the method of data collection. Three groups consisted of bachelor-level students from two Lithuanian universities. The fourth consisted of six music teacher mentors.

Although attitudes are changing there is still a prevailing notion that children with differences are problem children. When asked to explain “the other,” students spoke about immigrants, children of nationalities other than Lithuanian, children from challenging home situations, and any pupils that cause problems or discomfort for the teacher.

Students from both universities acknowledged instruction about children with special needs, but coursework was not aligned to fieldwork needs. They also noted the illogical sequence of coursework and complained that mentors gave them little advice and did not analyze specifics. Mentors admitted that one of their greatest challengers is the inclusion of children with special needs. When they themselves went to college they had no coursework on inclusive education and only a couple had participated in seminars on inclusion. Mentors primarily saw themselves as facilitators of music-related instructional problems. Undoubtedly Lithuanian university study programs need to assume greater responsibilities in facilitating more effective partnerships with the schools and mentors that agree to host aspiring educators.