Topographical teaching’: A metaphor for professional practice with learners with severe, profound and multiple learning difficulties
Written by: Tracy Edwards
7 min read
TRACY EDWARDS, LEEDS BECKETT UNIVERSITY, UK
Introduction
It has been noted that research into inclusive education has tended to overlook considerations around teaching students with severe learning difficulties and/or profound and multiple learning difficulties (SPMLD) (e.g. Colley, 2020). This paper outlines research findings that were obtained as part of a wider study involving the analysis of professional dilemmas encountered by teachers working with either or both of these two groups of learners.
The study interacted with the ‘craft knowledge’ of participating teachers. Hagger and McIntyre (2006) define craft knowledge as ‘all the complex, largely tacit knowledge that informs the contextualised professional judgements made by individual teachers in their everyday practice’ (p. 34). Craft knowledge has been highlighted as distinct from other forms of teacher knowledge by being cultivated over time and through experience (e.g. Florian and Graham, 2014).
The study the
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