Story-problems and Universal Design for Learning for Inclusive and Accessible Mathematics Education: A Study of Italian Preservice Special Education Teachers

This article reports on a study that explored how narrative problem design and the Universal Design for Learning (UDL) framework support inclusive and accessible mathematics education. The research involved 269 Italian preservice secondary school special education teachers, with the goal of developing competencies in designing inclusive striped problems: mathematical story-problems structured according to Zan’s Context and Question (C&Q) model and enriched through the use of multiple representations in line with UDL. Participants worked in groups to redesign mathematics problems and subsequently completed an individual questionnaire reflecting on inclusive educational design. Data were analysed through a combination of analysis of group designs and deductive qualitative content analysis. Results show that all groups incorporated multiple representations, over half successfully designed striped problems coherent with the C&Q model, and a majority included personalisation for specific disabilities. Questionnaire responses revealed participants’ emerging awareness of narrative coherence, multimodality, and personalisation as interconnected dimensions of inclusive mathematics design. The results of this study suggest that inclusive striped problems are useful for designing inclusive learning activities in mathematics. The study highlights the potential of integrating the C&Q model and UDL in preservice teacher education to foster teachers’ professional identity as designers of inclusive and accessible mathematics learning environments.