English language teaching embraces a diversity-based approach that promotes an inclusive classroom culture and diversity-oriented teacher education and teacher competencies development. The purpose of this dissertation was to investigate English language teachers’ competencies for inclusion in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), with a focus on teaching students with specific learning difficulties (SpLDs). Although important steps have been made, the implementation of inclusive education in BiH faces multiple challenges, resulting from the complex geopolitical context, lack of comprehensive evaluation strategies, lack of a human rights-based approach to education and sustainable planning, and scarce initiatives in systemic initial and continuing teacher education for inclusion. The study followed a multiphase research design with an embedded mixed-methods approach. Hence, several instruments were used during the data collection process: Phase (1) content analysis and a pilot study at the University of Sarajevo (N=126); Phase (2) a foundational questionnaire for pre-service and in-service teachers in Canton Sarajevo (N=211); and Phase (3) a baseline/endline program survey (N=43) and subsequent focus groups (N=38). Results and findings indicate that pre-service and in-service English language teachers in BiH demonstrate limited knowledge on inclusive education and SpLDs, low levels of positive attitudes towards teaching students with SpLDs in inclusive classrooms, high levels of concern about inclusion, and low levels of self-efficacy in teaching students with SpLDs. Post-program levels showed more positive attitudes, knowledge and self-efficacy in both pre-service and in-service teachers, and less concerns in teaching students with SpLDs in the context of inclusive education. The study contributes to the field of inclusive foreign language teaching and teacher education as it suggests the need for a continuum of foreign language teacher competencies for inclusion and three interconnected principles that might facilitate a transformative framework of foreign language teacher education for inclusion: (i) rethinking teacher skills through craft knowledge, (ii) inclusive foreign language teaching as reflective inquiry, and (iii) inclusive foreign language communities of practice, with the aim to advance inclusive foreign language teaching of all students, including students with SpLDs.
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