Students’ Perceptions of Teacher Training for Inclusive and Sustainable Education: From University Classrooms to School Practices

Abstract

Teachers are the pillar for the development of inclusion. Hence, their initial training becomes a matter of relevance for the success of creating inclusive schools. This work contributes to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goal 4: ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all. The other objectives were to delimit the competences in inclusive education for teachers and analyse the perception of future teachers in the acquisition of IE competences in the context of university classrooms and internship centres. This research was carried out with 315 students from Catalan public universities through a questionnaire to assess their perception of these competencies. The results show that competences related to leadership in educational environments, inclusive values, or the identification of the students’ abilities are being developed in internship centres. However, the university classroom context lead to the development of competences related to cooperative learning and assessment. In addition, there are significant differences between students who follow specialised teacher training in special needs and those who do not follow it. In conclusion, there is a need to extend specific training to all students and for a greater interrelationship between the training for developing competences in both contexts.