Community of Inquiry: Research-Based Learning for Inclusive Practice

This article establishes a connection between research-based learning and the development of inclusive practices in teacher education with a special focus on pre-service teachers' ways of talking in philosophical dialogues with children. Adopting an interactionist point of view on learning as a co-constructive process and a processual understanding of inclusion and exclusion on the classroom level, the fundamental importance of conversational practices to learning is carved out and then exemplified using transcripts from a teacher education project. Building on this analysis, inclusive conversational practices are identified. Moreover, it is shown how joint reflection and peer feedback in teacher education courses lead to changes in pre-service teachers' conversational practices. These findings lead to reflections on how research-based learning in teacher education can contribute to inclusive education by looking at habitual ways of talking in class.