Teachers with disabilities: a systematic review of the international literature

Abstract

Despite an increasingly heterogeneous student population, the teaching staff is still characterized by a high level of homogeneity and the under-representation of teachers with disabilities. Research on the issue is also quite limited. To fill this knowledge gap, in this article we present a systematic review conducted by selecting primary studies published between 1990 and 2018 investigating the experiences of teachers with disabilities. The 32 included studies were evaluated in terms of methodological rigor and analyzed through thematic analysis, from which 9 categories emerged. The latter highlight the full potential of these teachers, both in terms of teaching effectiveness and greater understanding of special needs in the classroom, but at the same time they underline the complexity of their careers in learning settings, still partly permeated by ableism and discriminatory practices.
 
 Insegnanti con disabilità e DSA: una revisione sistematica della letteratura internazionale.
 Pur a fronte di una popolazione studentesca sempre più eterogenea, il corpo docente è ancora caratterizzato da una forte omogeneità e dalla sottorappresentazione di insegnanti con disabilità/DSA. Anche la ricerca sul tema è assai limitata. Per colmare questo gap conoscitivo, in questo articolo presentiamo una systematic review, condotta selezionando gli studi primari pubblicati tra il 1990 e il 2018 sulle esperienze di docenti con disabilità/DSA. I 32 studi inclusi sono stati valutati dal punto di vista del rigore metodologico e analizzati mediante un’analisi tematica, da cui sono emerse 9 categorie. Queste ultime mettono in luce tutto il potenziale di questi insegnanti, sia sul fronte dell’efficacia didattica che della maggiore comprensione dei bisogni speciali in classe, ma allo stesso tempo sottolineano la complessità delle loro carriere in setting di apprendimento ancora in parte permeati da una cultura abilista e da pratiche discriminatorie.

Inclusion of teachers with disabilities in the Ecuadorian education system. A systematic review

“…To the surprise of this review, in other countries such as Italy the situation does not vary much, since, despite standing out in strategies to strengthen the inclusive education system for students, there are few bibliographic contributions that have been developed for teachers, however, given the experiences collected in the results of the articles cited, The dynamics of discrimination, exclusion, and ableism persist, where due to a fact of underestimation, the number of teachers who can exercise their role widely and freely is also reduced, this without taking into account the previous challenges they had to perceive in their training. (Cornejo, 2022) (Bellacicco et al, 2022)…”

The Experiences of Teacher Candidates With Disabilities: A Systematic Literature Review

“…In the ancestry search, three articles were screened in full, and one met all additional inclusion criteria for this review. The progeny search of all six results yielded two literature reviews (Bellacicco & Demo, 2021; Neca et al, 2022) in which to conduct additional ancestry searches of references. This final ancestry search yielded no further results, as all potential articles were excluded for occurring outside of the United States.…”