Italian Journal of Health Education, Sports and Inclusive Didactics
Arts, Generative Technologies, and Appreciative Inquiry for inclusive teacher education: an exploratory study on the transformation of disability representations
Abstract
The proposed study presents preliminary findings from an exploratory research project involving 66 pre-service support teachers enrolled in the Special Education Teacher Training Program at the University of Salerno. Grounded in Appreciative Inquiry and the Quality of Life framework, the research-training intervention explored how arts-based practices, narrative approaches, assistive technologies, and digital/generative tools can support a positive reconfiguration of disability representations. Through a transformative mixed-methods design, participants developed individualized life projects and completed an appreciative questionnaire on the emotional and professional impact of the experience. The analysis of projects, narratives, and questionnaire data shows a shift from deficit-oriented and medicalized views of disability toward relational, participatory, and possibility-centered perspectives. Arts-based practices emerged as tools for identity construction, affective mediation, and narrative agency, while technologies were seen as facilitators of participation, autonomy, and accessibility.
Keywords
References
Aiello, P. (2024). Formazione e professionalità docente tra inclusione e agentività. In P. Aiello & C. Giaconi (Eds.), L’agire inclusivo: Interfacce pedagogiche e didattiche. Manuale per l’insegnante (pp. 257–264). Scholé.
Athanassopoulos, S., Tzavara, A., Aravantinos, S., Lavidas, K., Komis, V., & Papadakis, S. (2026). Teacher education students’ practices, benefits, and challenges in the use of generative AI tools in higher education. Education Sciences, 16(2), Article 228. https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci16020228
Barone, T., & Eisner, E. W. (2012). Arts based research. SAGE Publications. https://doi.org/10.4135/9781452230627
Berthoz, A. (2015). La vicarianza: Il nostro cervello creatore di mondi. Codice Edizioni.
Braun, V., & Clarke, V. (2019). Reflecting on reflexive thematic analysis. Qualitative Research in Sport, Exercise and Health, 11(4), 589–597. https://doi.org/10.1080/2159676X.2019.1628806
Brown, I., & Brown, R. I. (2003). Quality of Life and disability: An approach for community practitioners. Jessica Kingsley Publishers.
Brown, R. I. (Ed.). (1997). Quality of Life for people with disabilities: Models, research and practice (2nd ed.). Stanley Thornes.
Cairo, M. T. (2019). Qualità della vita (progetto di vita). In L. d’Alonzo (Ed.), Dizionario di pedagogia speciale (pp. 325–332). Scholé–Morcelliana.
Cooperrider, D. L., & Srivastva, S. (1987). Appreciative inquiry in organizational life. In R. W. Woodman & W. A. Pasmore (Eds.), Research in organizational change and development (Vol. 1, pp. 129–169). JAI Press.
Cooperrider, D. L., & Whitney, D. (2005). Appreciative inquiry: A positive revolution in change. Berrett-Koehler Publishers.
Decreto legislativo 3 maggio 2024, n. 62. (2024). Definizione della condizione di disabilità, della valutazione di base, di accomodamento ragionevole, della valutazione multidimensionale per l’elaborazione e attuazione del progetto di vita individuale personalizzato e partecipato. Gazzetta Ufficiale della Repubblica Italiana, Serie Generale, 111.
Demetrio, D. (2005). Narrare per dire la verità: L’autobiografia come risorsa pedagogica. M@gm@, 3(3).
Di Fabio, A., Maree, J. G., & Kenny, M. E. (2019). Development of the Life Project Reflexivity Scale: A new career intervention inventory. Journal of Career Assessment, 27(2), 358–370. https://doi.org/10.1177/1069072718758065
European Agency for Development in Special Needs Education. (2012). Profile of inclusive teachers.
European Agency for Special Needs and Inclusive Education. (2022). Profile for inclusive teacher professional learning: Including all education professionals in teacher professional learning for inclusion.
Heron, K. E., & Smyth, J. M. (2010). Ecological momentary interventions: Incorporating mobile technology into psychosocial and health behaviour treatments. British Journal of Health Psychology, 15(1), 1–39. https://doi.org/10.1348/135910709X466063
Hunt, S. M. (1997). The problem of Quality of Life. Quality of Life Research, 6(3), 205–212. https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1026402519847
Iwasa, H., Masui, Y., Inagaki, H., Yoshida, Y., Shimada, H., Otsuka, R., Kikuchi, K., Nonaka, K., Yoshida, H., Yoshida, H., & Suzuki, T. (2015). Development of the Japan Science and Technology Agency Index of Competence to assess functional capacity in older adults: Conceptual definitions and preliminary items. Gerontology and Geriatric Medicine, 1, Article 2333721415609490. https://doi.org/10.1177/2333721415609490
Jordan, A., Glenn, C., & McGhie-Richmond, D. (2010). The Supporting Effective Teaching (SET) project: The relationship of inclusive teaching practices to teachers’ beliefs about disability and ability, and about their roles as teachers. Teaching and Teacher Education, 26(2), 259–266. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2009.03.005
Lascioli, A., & Pasqualotto, L. (2021). Progetto individuale, vita adulta e disabilità: Prospettive e strumenti su base ICF. Carocci.
Lauermann, F., Karabenick, S. A., Carpenter, R., & Kuusinen, C. (2017). Teacher motivation and professional commitment in the United States: The role of motivations for teaching, teacher self-efficacy, and sense of professional responsibility. In H. M. G. Watt, P. W. Richardson, & K. Smith (Eds.), Global perspectives on teacher motivation (pp. 322–348). Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781316225202.011
Legge 8 novembre 2000, n. 328. (2000). Legge quadro per la realizzazione del sistema integrato di interventi e servizi sociali. Gazzetta Ufficiale della Repubblica Italiana, Serie Generale, 265, Supplemento Ordinario 186.
Loveless, A. (2011). Technology, pedagogy and education: Reflections on the accomplishment of what teachers know, do and believe in a digital age. Technology, Pedagogy and Education, 20(3), 301–316. https://doi.org/10.1080/1475939X.2011.610931
Mareza, L., Mumpuniarti, Suwarjo, Mustadi, A., & Dewi, D. S. E. (2025). Arts education for children with disabilities: A systematic literature review. Center for Educational Policy Studies Journal, 15(3), 227–254. https://doi.org/10.26529/cepsj.1667
McLaren, P. (2004). Paulo Freire’s pedagogy of possibility. In S. F. Steiner, H. M. Krank, P. McLaren, & R. E. Bahruth (Eds.), Freireian pedagogy, praxis, and possibilities: Projects for the new millennium (pp. 1–22). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203009550-2
Mezirow, J. (1991). Transformative dimensions of adult learning. Jossey-Bass.
Miao, F., & Holmes, W. (2023). Guidance for generative AI in education and research. UNESCO. https://doi.org/10.54675/EWZM9535
Moscovici, S. (1984). The phenomenon of social representations. In R. M. Farr & S. Moscovici (Eds.), Social representations (pp. 3–69). Cambridge University Press.
Nussbaum, M. C. (2011). Creating capabilities: The human development approach. Belknap Press of Harvard University Press. https://doi.org/10.4159/harvard.9780674061200
Oliver, M. (1990). The politics of disablement. Macmillan Press. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-20895-1
Priestley, M., Biesta, G., & Robinson, S. (2015). Teacher agency: An ecological approach. Bloomsbury Academic. https://doi.org/10.5040/9781474219426
Redi, M. (2013). Semantic indexing and computational aesthetics: Interactions, bridges and boundaries. In Proceedings of the 3rd ACM International Conference on Multimedia Retrieval (pp. 337–340). Association for Computing Machinery. https://doi.org/10.1145/2461466.2461532
Roe, J., & Perkins, M. (2024). Generative AI and agency in education: A critical scoping review and thematic analysis [Preprint]. arXiv. https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2411.00631
Schalock, R. L., & Verdugo Alonso, M. A. (2002). Handbook on Quality of Life for human service practitioners. American Association on Mental Retardation.
Schalock, R. L., & Verdugo, M. A. (2012). A conceptual and measurement framework to guide policy development and systems change. Journal of Policy and Practice in Intellectual Disabilities, 9(1), 63–72. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1741-1130.2012.00329.x
Sen, A. (1999). Development as freedom. Oxford University Press.
Shakespeare, T. (2017). Disability: The basics. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315624839
Sibilio, M. (2014). La didattica semplessa. Liguori.
Sibilio, M. (2015). Simplex didactics: A non-linear trajectory for research in education. Revue de Synthèse, 136(3–4), 477–493. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11873-015-0284-4
Sibilio, M., & Aiello, P. (Eds.). (2015). Formazione e ricerca per una didattica inclusiva. FrancoAngeli.
Symeonidou, S. (2022). Teacher education for inclusion and anti-oppressive curriculum development: Innovative approaches informed by disability arts and narratives. International Journal of Inclusive Education, 26(7), 659–673. https://doi.org/10.1080/13603116.2020.1711819
Symeonidou, S. (2025). Teacher education for disability-focussed anti-oppressive pedagogy: The case for reconceptualisation. Disability & Society, 40(5), 1404–1424. https://doi.org/10.1080/09687599.2024.2360430
Tschannen-Moran, M., & Woolfolk Hoy, A. (2001). Teacher efficacy: Capturing an elusive construct. Teaching and Teacher Education, 17(7), 783–805. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0742-051X(01)00036-1
United Nations General Assembly. (2006, December 13). Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (A/RES/61/106).
Varsik, S., & Vosberg, L. (2024). The potential impact of artificial intelligence on equity and inclusion in education (OECD Artificial Intelligence Papers No. 23). OECD Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1787/15df715b-en
Voulgarides, C. K. (2026). Beyond compliance: Reclaiming agency in special education. Harvard Education Press.
Watt, H. M. G., Richardson, P. W., & Smith, K. (Eds.). (2017). Global perspectives on teacher motivation. Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781316225202
Wehmeyer, M. L. (1998). Self-determination and individuals with significant disabilities: Examining meanings and misinterpretations. Journal of the Association for Persons with Severe Handicaps, 23(1), 5–16. https://doi.org/10.2511/rpsd.23.1.5
Wehmeyer, M. L. (2005). Self-determination and individuals with severe disabilities: Re-examining meanings and misinterpretations. Research and Practice for Persons with Severe Disabilities, 30(3), 113–120. https://doi.org/10.2511/rpsd.30.3.113
Wehmeyer, M. L. (2020). The importance of self-determination to the Quality of Life of people with intellectual disability: A perspective. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 17(19), Article 7121. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17197121
Whitney, D., & Cooperrider, D. L. (2011). Appreciative inquiry: A positive revolution in change (Large-print ed.). ReadHowYouWant.com.
World Health Organization. (2001). International classification of functioning, disability and health: ICF.
Xie, Y., Liu, S., Tong, Z., Zhang, L., Pang, B., Huang, H., Lu, Y., Cui, Y., Liu, Y., & Liu, Y. (2025). Ecological land evolution index: An improved approach to characterize the process of ecological land evolution. Ecological Processes, 14, Article 47. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13717-025-00608-x
Yonk, R. M., Smith, J. T., & Wardle, A. R. (2017). Building a Quality of Life index. In A. A. Vilas Boas (Ed.), Quality of Life and quality of working life. IntechOpen. https://doi.org/10.5772/67821
DOI: https://doi.org/10.32043/gsd.v10i4.1884
Refbacks
- There are currently no refbacks.
Copyright (c) 2026 ITALIAN JOURNAL OF HEALTH EDUCATION, SPORT AND INCLUSIVE DIDACTICS
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Italian Journal of Health Education, Sports and Inclusive Didactics
Publisher: Cares srl – REN Press (since 2026). Previously published by Gaia srl – Edizioni Universitarie Romane (2017–2025).
ISSN: 2532-3296 E-ISSN: 3103-5744