Cases on Effective Universal Design for Learning Implementation Across Schools

Book excerpt: Universal Design for Learning (UDL) has been hailed for over a decade as a revolutionary lens that allows schools to shift their efforts to create inclusive environments, from a medical model lens to a social model approach. In recent years, UDL has gone beyond disability and impairment and is now considered an effective tool to create inclusive classroom provisions for Indigenous students and more widely for culturally diverse learners. There is now a sizable body of literature that details the benefits of implementing UDL in the K-12 sector. There is, however, a paucity of studies and papers examining the strategic challenges of developing UDL across schools and school boards. While the initial concern has been to evidence the pedagogical benefits of introducing UDL to the classroom, the challenges discussed at this current stage by classroom practitioners and school leaders are of a different nature: they are strategic in nature and focus specifically on the organizational hurdles of scaling up initial efforts. It is time for the UDL implementation drive the K-12 sector to go beyond curiosity and to explore sustainable growth and development. Cases on Effective Universal Design for Learning Implementation Across Schools fills the gap that exists in the UDL literature at present. It offers case studies and practical examples of the reflection which accompanies the systemic implementation of UDL on a wider scale across schools and schoolboards. It examines the full spectrum of ecological repercussions this growth leads to. Covering topics such as deficit model practices, bilingual K-12 education, and UDL implementation, this case book is a dynamic resource for educators and administrators of K-12 education, instructional designers, curriculum developers, pre-service teachers, teacher educators, community leaders, government officials, researchers, and academicians.