Decolonizing Inclusive Education: Centering Heartwork, Care, and Listening

Inclusive education faces a critical challenge rooted in an outdated paradigm that treats students as fixer-upper projects rather than recognizing their holistic needs. The prevalent toolbox approach, governed by frameworks like MTSS and RTI, tends to prioritize immediate academic gains, neglecting the intricate tapestry of students' identities, cultural nuances, and unique strengths. This myopic strategy fails to foster sustained growth and well-being, undermining the true potential of inclusive education. Addressing this pervasive issue, Decolonizing Inclusive Education: Centering Heartwork, Care, and Listening, provides a groundbreaking solution. By shifting the focus to heartwork, care, and listening, the book pioneers a decolonizing praxis in inclusive education. It challenges the prevailing tool-centric model and advocates for an approach that embraces the diverse identities, funds of knowledge, and cultural understandings of students. The book delves into topics such as classroom stories, engaging families, funds of knowledge, and decentering whiteness, offering a comprehensive guide to transform inclusive education into a space that not only acknowledges but celebrates the holistic well-being and growth of every student. Decolonizing Inclusive Education: Centering Heartwork, Care, and Listening spans an array of related topics crucial for educators, system leaders, and researchers. It explores ethical ways of decentering whiteness and engaging families in partnerships centered on students' intersecting strengths. The book is ideal for current and pre-service teachers seeking a transformative approach to inclusive education, as well as system leaders and graduate education researchers aiming to contribute to a more inclusive and ethically grounded educational landscape.

Erin Keith is an Assistant Professor at St. Francis Xavier University (StFX). Her teaching and research focuses on inclusion, EDIAD literacy related to special education and mental health, culturally responsive and relevant pedagogies including engaging families and caregivers as partners, and supporting students through a strength-based lens using Nova Scotia's multi-tiered system of supports (MTSS) model. Erin uses a decolonizing praxis in her research methodologies inspired and guided by many Indigenous, Black, and racialized scholars. She obtained her Doctor of Education from Western University, her Master of Education from the State University of New York at Buffalo, and her Bachelor of Arts from Queen's University. As an Ontario Certified teacher, Erin has worked for over 16 years in public education primarily focused on Special Education roles such as ASD Itinerant, Special Needs Itinerant, Behaviour Support Itinerant, and in-school Special Education teacher. Erin's recent co-authored book entitled, Reframing Mental Health in Schools: Using Case Stories to Promote Global Dialogue shares stories of students from across the globe and how mental health is advocated within their country. She has also contributed and written book chapters on topics such as leadership in Early Childhood education, embracing math inquiry, 'whiteness' in principal leadership, among several others in development. Erin is a member of the Ontario Association of Mental Health Professionals. She has also written for EdCan Network, NAEYC, and been featured on TVOLearn. In addition to her scholarship, Erin partners and learns alongside teacher leaders from across the country including educators and administrators within various Regional Centres for Education in Nova Scotia. (Twitter: @DrErinKeith)