Curriculum Decision-Making for Students with Severe Intellectual Disabilities or Profound and Multiple Learning Difficulties

Students with severe intellectual disabilities or profound and multiple learning difficulties (S/PMLD) have the highest complexity of needs of any student cohort. Decisions regarding curriculum inclusions for these students predominantly fall to their classroom teachers. These decisions directly correlate with students' everyday learning experiences and have an influence on their life-long socio-economic, health, and well-being outcomes. This scoping review presents an overview of the factors that teachers consider when making these important choices. Online databases were used to identify peer-reviewed research undertaken internationally between 2011 and 2021 with 11 articles identified for inclusion. Results are presented using four key themes, (1) teacher as guardian, (2) teacher as educator, (3) teacher as employee and (4) teacher as (non)academic. Within, it details a paucity of research into understanding the decision-making schema of teachers of students with S/PMLD, revealing a lack of practical guidance or appropriate professional learning opportunities. Recommendations for future research and practice initiatives are detailed.