Creating a responsive curriculum for inclusive schools

As school communities begin to serve students with significant disabilities in general education classrooms, there is a need to recognize and employ curriculum orientations and practices that interface with the purposes and principles of inclusive education. This article begins by offering reconstructionism-or the process of critique and reformulation of practice-as a useful orientation for viewing the design of curriculum in inclusive schools. Sound theoretical foundations and the use of learner-centered, process-oriented, and communication-based instructional approaches are proposed as promising practices for designing a curriculum that is responsive to the needs of diverse learners. Following this discussion, implications for future research are articulated.