Teacher training in digital technologies for inclusion

Technology can play an important facilitating role in the process of school inclusion by supporting the pupil's learning and increasing the level of understanding. On the other hand, teachers' beliefs and attitudes towards the use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) and how they can play a fundamental role in the integration of these tools in different educational contexts need to be taken into account. Various sources (National Institute for Statistic, 2022) on the inclusion of students with disabilities in school show that training in educational technologies to teaching for Special Needs, especially inclusive teaching, is still not widespread, although the pandemic period has given a decisive push in this direction. According to the data, in one out of ten schools no teacher has ever attended a specific course and, in general, only in half of Italian schools do teachers use digital tools for teaching. The aim of this paper is to investigate the reasons for this still wide gap and the motivations for not using ICT in didactics, through a research with a non-probabilistic sample of two hundred teachers in training (Active Formative Apprenticeship and in-service training), using a Mixed Method Approach to investigate the resistances and motivations for this phenomenon. In particular, a questionnaire and semi-structured interviews were used to investigate how much teachers use ICT for inclusive teaching, how competent they are in the use of ICT and how it is used. The data collected was further explored through semi-structured interviews, trying to bring out especially the critical and positive aspects experienced by teachers in their use of ICT in the classroom. The paper also attempts to explore how specific initial and in-service teacher training can contribute to the acquisition of the necessary skills to use ICT in an inclusive perspective.