Book: Duets and Dialogues: Voices on Inclusive Practices in Our Schools

The members of the of the Midwest Region of the Task Force have experienced tremendous interest as we have actively sought to collaborate with K-12 partners and community advocacy agencies to promote the advancement of effective inclusive practices across New York state. While many of the Task Force participants are affiliated with college or university teacher education programs, our interactions with our K-12 partners and various community stakeholders have allowed us, corporately, to share significant gains in the advancement of effective inclusive education for all students. Because we have enjoyed such rich, meaningful collaborative partnerships, we felt it would be advantageous to invite colleagues from each of these constituencies to submit collaboratively-authored articles describing their best inclusive practices for publication in this Duets and Dialogue monograph.

Each of the peer-reviewed readings included in this monograph was co-authored by a combination of teacher educators, school-based practitioners and parents. The articles themselves symbolize the “duet” – the perspectives of two or more inclusive educators representing different, but complementary, viewpoints with regard to the advancement of effective inclusive education. Each reading is preceded by an introduction and followed by a set of discussion questions posed by a member of the Task Force. These introductions and follow-up activities are designed to foster extended “dialogue” between the reader and his or her colleagues. We envision many possible uses for this monograph: a reference for school principals, content for professional literature circles, discussion topics in teacher education courses, impetus for advancing inclusive practices in one’s own district….and the list goes on and on.

This monograph, Duets and Dialogue: Voices on Inclusive Practices in Our Schools, has been a very exciting project for the Midwest Region of the HESC task force, and is a product which represents what we value and believe in as an organization. The Midwest regional task force includes individual faculty representative from Institutions of Higher Education (IHEs) from Rochester, NY, south to the Pennsylvania border and partnership network representatives from The Advocacy Center, Teacher Center, school administrators, S3TAIR, and Regional School Support Center (RSSC) initiatives.

Download the complete 108 page book below.

Edited by Marie Cianca and Cathy Freytag with contributions from authors within the Mid-West region.