How teachers manage their work in inclusive classrooms

The aim of the study reported in this paper was to develop substantive theo ry regarding how teachers manage their classroom work when they are placed in the position of having a student with a severe or profound intellectual disability included in their class. The result was the theory of selective adaptation. The theory proposes that teachers can be classified as 'technic ians', 'strategists', or 'improvisers' according to the extent to which the y selectively adapt their classroom practices. Furthermore, there is a corr espondence between the extent to which teachers selectively adapt their cla ssroom work and the impact of inclusion on their lives. (C) 2000 Elsevier S cience Ltd. All rights reserved.