O’Brien is so passionate about inclusion that she takes every opportunity to share her experiences with other educators through writing articles for journals and newsletters and presenting at conferences. She has also researched and written extensively about inclusion for her master’s degree, CAGS, and doctoral degree—all of which she earned at Plymouth State. A member of PSU’s first doctoral cohort, O’Brien began her doctoral study in July 2009. Even then, when she thought about her dissertation, “I knew it was going to be about inclusion,” she says. “It was something I wanted to write about and learn more about.” O’Brien’s dissertation, titled “Through Our Eyes: What Effect does Participation in an Inclusive Primary Grade Classroom Community have on Typical Students?” looks at inclusion from the “typical” or non-disabled student’s standpoint. While years of teaching experience told her that children with special needs do well with inclusion, O’Brien recalls wondering, “What about the typical children? What did they think about inclusion? So that became my focus: to talk to the typical kids about inclusion in the classroom.”
The Classroom Community In spring 2011 she interviewed 20 typical students in grades one through five, all of whom were at one time her students. The interviews were conducted one-on-one, in a quiet space, and were followed by a brief multiple-choice survey. Students noted that their experience in an inclusive classroom allowed them to make friends with students they may not have had a chance to meet and taught them to be patient with others. But most of all, O’Brien says, inclusion taught the students that it’s okay to be different, and that “inclusion means everyone learning
together in a classroom community. Without a classroom community, you don’t have inclusion, and without inclusion, you don’t have a classroom community.”
Drawing on her student interviews, the research she had conducted for her earlier degrees, and the teaching journals she kept over the years, O’Brien completed her dissertation and earned her doctorate in May 2012. “I wanted to create a piece of literature that people would want to pick up and read, and I did,” she asserts. “It’s filled with stories, the children’s stories and my stories, and to me, stories are a basic part of education.” Now she plans on sharing those stories with a wider audience. “As teachers, we’re being pushed on the academics side, but we can’t lose sight of the importance of community-building in the classroom,” she says. “It doesn’t begin and end in the first few weeks of school. It continues throughout the year: the students change, the dynamic changes. I’ve had students go through illness, divorce, losing parents … and we’ve come together as a community, to support each other. Community first, then work on the academics.” In addition to promoting the importance of inclusion and classroom community, O’Brien also plans on earning her certification in special education and teaching graduate-level courses at PSU. “I want to keep going,” she says. “This degree has inspired me to learn and do more.”
“I initially went to college to be a social worker,” says Barbara O’Brien (right). Fortunately for her students at Beaver Meadow School, a stint teaching kindergarten as an undergraduate made her realize she had a passion for teaching.
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