Changing to more inclusive practices: a study on the nature and impact of cognitive conflicts
To support the changes inherent in inclusive education, several researchers have shown how important it is to provide teachers with opportunities to explicitly state and question the beliefs, subjective theories and values on which they base their practices. Experiencing imbalances on some of these dimensions would thus yield new options to support the inclusive project (Ainscow, 2005). This article is based on a secondary analysis of the findings of two action-research-training undertakings and aims to describe the nature of cognitive conflicts experienced by teachers and their impact on the change process. The findings highlight the influence of conflicts surrounding the concepts of diversity, learning and teaching. These conflicts help teachers to be more attentive to manifestations of differences, test out more learning-focused practices and get more involved in the change process.