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Research on teachers and inclusive education in India has largely been conducted using standardised, quantitative measures of teacher attitudes, efficacy and behaviour. There is little focus on teachers’ perspectives on their practice. Such findings promote a deficit view of teachers, recommending interventions to ‘correct’ teacher attitudes and behaviour, with little attention to institutional and policy contexts within which the teachers operate. The existing studies focus on what is absent or lacking, rather than what is possible. The present study attempts to offer a perspective of what is possible in inclusive education in the Indian context. The purpose of this intrinsic case study research is to better understand the inclusion of girls with disabilities in Kolkata, India, at a home and school for orphan girls. Non-institutionalised, inclusive, community-based care is rare in India, specifically for individuals with disabilities. The overall case study involved interviews ( N = 32) with students, teachers and staff, observations and document analysis, and this focuses on the n = 7 teacher interviews. All transcripts were analysed using structural and in vivo codes. These findings are centred on teacher voices and perspectives – identifying best practices, dilemmas and challenges. However, teacher perspectives are discussed within a larger school and institutional context. An important feature is the description of teachers’ inclusive practice as an iterative process, supported by feedback and input from the school leader. The findings highlight how the school provides and serves as a space of familial bonding, allowing teachers to challenge the views of educability, within the backdrop of a community that stigmatises disability. It is in this way that these teacher-centred voices demonstrate resilience in their teaching and conceptualisation of inclusion and disability.

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Teachers are considered as the powerful implementers of inclusive education and are at the frontlines in responding to the increasing diversity of learners in their classrooms. India is a vast, diverse country where access to quality education is denied across various lines of marginalization, including caste, religion, gender, class, language, and disability. Inclusive education policy in India sets up contradictory expectations for teachers, with no clear pathways toward inclusive education. This scoping review examines empirical research on teachers within inclusive education in India to highlight gaps, challenges, and future directions. Education Resource Information Center (ERIC), Education Database, and Google Scholar were used to identify peer-reviewed articles on teachers within inclusive education in India. A total of 253 articles were identified and 27 articles were selected for the review. The present analysis identifies tensions in the literature on how inclusion is defined, how teachers are studied, and how teacher practices are understood. The analysis discusses the lack of research on teacher practices, the absence of contextualized perspectives on teacher practices, and implications of the confusion around inclusive education for teachers in India.

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