A CASE STUDY OF INCLUSIVE EDUCATION PRACTICES EMPLOYED

British journal of special …, 2006

The British Index for Inclusion was selected to be used in three primary schools in the Western Cape Province in South Africa in order to develop a South African model to assist in the development of inclusive schools. The Index for Inclusion process entails progression through a series of five developmental phases and this paper, written by Petra Engelbrecht, professor in educational psychology and special education and senior research director at Stellenbosch University, Marietjie Oswald, lecturer in special education at Stellenbosch University, and Chris Forlin, associate professor in special education at the Hong Kong Institute of Special Education, is a reflection of the first two phases. Qualitative data were generated from the consultative process followed in the schools during the first phase and both qualitative and quantitative data from questionnaires regarding the perceptions of all school community members on the inclusive practices or lack thereof in their schools during the second phase. The authors drew out the following five themes from the three sets of data: an inclusive school philosophy; democratic leadership, structures, processes and values; collaboration; addressing learner diversity; and resources. Petra Engelbrecht, Marietjie Oswald and Chris Forlin, all of whom were working on a UNESCO-funded project to trial the use of the Index for Inclusion in South Africa, suggest that these themes provided invaluable insights into both the common and unique complexities, the problems and the assets of the different school communities. The themes are discussed in detail in this article, raising fascinating issues for the development of inclusion in different contexts around the world, and will be used to inform the three remaining phases of the Index for Inclusion process.

Inclusive education was adopted at the Salamanca World Conference on Special Needs Education (1994) as the best educational measure capable of dealing adequately with varying learning needs in the general classroom setting. Most of the participating countries e.g The United States, South Africa, Canada etc. have gone far in providing inclusive education. However, Nigeria, being one of the countries that recognise Inclusive education has failed to create conducive atmosphere for the proper take-off of this wonderful educational policy by putting in place all the necessary apparatus needed. Based on the observation, the study was however carried out to assess the level of awareness among regular primary and secondary school teachers as well as suitability status of the schools for implementation of inclusion. The study used 10 randomly selected schools, and from these schools, 50 teachers were also randomly selected (5 from each school). A questionnaire tagged" Baseline Questionnaire for Teachers on Inclusive Education" was used to elicit information on the teachers' level of awareness, as well as the teachers' view on the suitability of the schools for inclusive education practice. Data analysis was carried out using descriptive statistics. The result showed that the teachers' awareness level about inclusive education is very low and majority of them also viewed their schools as unsuitable for accommodating students with special needs. Recommendations based on the findings were made to make Inclusive education a reality in the country.

Journal of Education and Practice, 2014

The thrust of this study was to examine the challenges facing the implementation of inclusive education programme in public primary schools in Nyeri town, Nyeri County. The study had three fold objectives, namely(i) to find out the status of implementation of inclusive education in Nyeri town, Nyeri county;(ii)To analyze the factors hindering the implementation of the inclusion process for all the school-going-age children and, (iii) to establish the plausible solutions to the challenges facing implementation of special needs education curriculum. It was premised on the classical liberal theory of equal opportunities advanced by Sherman and Wood (1982). A descriptive survey research design was utilized in Nyeri County, Kenya. The study employed a stratified random sampling technique to draw 80 respondents comprising 12 headteachers, 60 teachers, and 8 education officials in the study locale. The main research instruments used were questionnaires and observation checklists. The major findings were that, first, physical and critical teaching learning resources were either inadequate or were quite dilapidated. Secondly, there were inadequate specialized teachers to handle the special needs education curriculum. Third, there were several socioeconomic and cultural variables that constraints effective teaching and learning in most sampled schools .It was recommended that since the named constraints were negatively affecting access and quality of education Nyeri County, the Government of Kenya through the Ministry of education should put in place adequate and appropriate physical and human resources to enhance the implementation of SNE not only in the in the study locale but all other areas experiencing similar constraints.[252 words].

Journal of Educational and Social Research, 2014

The trends in the educational provision for children with disabilities have since the past two and a half decades continued to focus on their education in the same setting as that for their peers without special needs. The education now being most advocated for children with disability is inclusive education. Despite the many benefits of inclusion, difficulties inherent in this process are major setbacks to wider implementation of inclusive education. Many teachers of regular schools and other stakeholders doubt the workability of the strategy and resist the idea of having children with special needs in regular classrooms. Teachers play a critical role in the workability and effectiveness of inclusive education. However, many at times they are faced by different tasking challenges and that make inclusive education difficult to implement. These challenges are important to understand so that new methods can be implemented to improve the educational situation in the field of special needs education particularly inclusive learning. The study aimed to establish the perceptions of headteachers and teachers on the implementation of inclusive education, in Yatta Division, Machakos County.

Mediterranean Journal of Social Sciences, 2014

This study sought to find out ways in which teachers can be supported to implement inclusive education at a primary school in the Kwaluseni district of Swaziland. The government of Swaziland introduced Free Primary Education (F.P.E) also called mainstreaming. As per governments order, parents brought their learners for grade 1 and that was in 2010 January. That marked the beginning of the problem as teachers were not used to teaching disadvantaged learners in their classes but believed that such learners have to be transferred to specials schools of which the country only has four. The study is a case study using a qualitative approach. Purposive sampling was used in choosing the sample. The key informant were teachers from Kwaluseni primary school. For data collection a designed interview with semi structured and open ended items was used. Data was analysed using codes and there was a search for patterns of thinking or behaviour, words or phrases that appeared with regularity was the coding categories. A report was then written based on the findings. Then recommendations were stated.

2016

Inclusive education is a rising trend in the world. The first step towards inclusive education is providing the awareness to the general education teachers. This study focused to investigate the general education teachers of primary and secondary level awareness about the special education and inclusive education. This study is descriptive method used survey type. Closed ended questionnaire developed for collecting data. 300 teachers were selected as sample from primary and secondary schools through random sampling technique. Teacher’s awareness level unfortunately not good particularly primary rural areas school teachers. The age groups (25-30) of teachers with high qualification have strong awareness level about special education (90%) and inclusive education (40%). While,senior age group (51-55) have poor knowledge about special education (40%) and inclusive education (2%). Respondents’ education matters regarding awareness about special education and inclusive education. Awarene...

The thrust of this study was to investigate the challenges facing the implementation of inclusive education programme in public secondary schools in Rongo Sub-County, Migori County. The study had two fold objectives, namely (i) To analyze the factors hindering the implementation of the inclusion process for all the school-going-age children and, (ii) to examine the copping strategies to challenges facing implementation special needs education curriculum. It was premised on the classical liberal theory of equal opportunities advanced by Sherman and Wood (1982). The study sample comprised of 5 students with special educational needs per school from all the types of school as boarding, day mixed, yielding a total of 170 students, all school principals, three teachers per school and the Sub-County Quality Assurance and Standards Officer .Data was collected using questionnaires for students and teachers and interview schedules for school principals and the District Quality Assurance Standards Officer. The main research instruments used were questionnaires, interview guides and observation checklists. The major findings were that, first, physical and critical teaching learning resources were either inadequate or were quite dilapidated. Secondly, there were inadequate specialized teachers to handle the special needs education curriculum. Third, there were several socioeconomic and cultural variables that constraints effective teaching and learning in most sampled schools. It was recommended that the Government of Kenya through the Ministry of education should put in place adequate and appropriate physical and human resources to enhance the implementation of SNE not only in the in the study locale but all other areas experiencing similar constraints.[257 words].

Electronic Journal for Inclusive Education, 2015

The purpose of this article is to shed light on the aspects of inclusion which have proved to be essential for further development of newly founded inclusive education. The practice of inclusive education gets increasingly obvious in gains more support and interest in education system in almost all countries in the world. There is a distinctly declared agreement in the world that all children have the right to education regardless of their race, gender, nationality, disability and etc. And these agreements have been indicated in universally important documents. Over several decades the concept of inclusion has contributed a lot to the teaching and learning practice as well as theoretical and practical experience of schools. However, all these blessing have not appeared ready in a moment. The analysis of inclusive education experience of some countries, which have quite sophisticated inclusion, apparently indicates that the satisfactory results of inclusion turned out only after serious and energy-consuming reforms and innovations.

Perspectives in Education, 2021

Inclusive education is the term used to describe an education system in which all learners are accepted and fully included, educationally and socially. The process of inclusion proves to have challenges in developing countries such as South Africa which adopted it a bit later than the developed countries. Research has mentioned that amongst other challenges is the lack of resources and overcrowding. Hence, this paper debates and discusses the challenges in the implementation of inclusive education in South African schools. The study was designed as a multiple case study research in which a qualitative research approach was employed. Three schools in the Buffalo City Metro and three participants per school participated in the study. Qualitative data analysis was grounded on an interpretive philosophy. The findings revealed that overcrowding, insufficient training, lack of knowledge and skills of educators were the overarching themes that resulted in educators feeling a sense of inadequacy to teach in an inclusive education classroom. The study will cover the challenges faced in the implementation of inclusive education. Therefore, the study recommends that inclusive education should cater to all learners irrespective of the type of disability.

The purpose of this study was to explore implementation of Inclusive Education (IE) in the Northeast sector of Thailand. The methodology used documentary analysis and an open ended survey questionnaire. Survey data were collected through interviews with teachers and principals in 34 inclusive schools in the Northeast sector of Thailand. It was found that inclusion has been adopted in some schools as an educational policy to enhance educational achievement, social justice, equity and human rights. However, many educational and social benefits of inclusion are not being successfully achieved as the result of three key barriers to implementation. First, facilities and personnel training programs to assure adequate support services, relevant materials and support personnel are not available. This factor was considered a major problem to effective implementation in addition to lack of a permanent funding structure to provide educational and special services to students with special needs. Second, it was estimated that support for special needs students was approximately 5 times greater than the cost of providing for students without special needs. A special needs provision for inclusive classrooms were not a priority of government policy and expenditure due to high costs. Finally, although Thailand has laws to support the effective implementation of inclusive education the Government has not recognized the priority and policy established by translating policy into practical entitlements and programs. The study concluded that the most prevalent form of inclusive services practiced nationwide in regular schools was integrated education for students with special needs and mainstreaming.