Making meaning of inclusive education: classroom practices in Finnish and South African classrooms

Abstract

This paper reports on the findings of an international comparative research project where the roles of teachers in the implementation of inclusive education in mainstream-classroom settings in South Africa and Finland were investigated. Inclusive education within this project is broadly defined as welcoming all students to general-education schools and classrooms and not segregating students on the basis of ability or other individual or sociocultural characteristics. In this paper a qualitative analysis of Finnish and South African teachers’ day-to-day teaching and learning support practices in their classroom is discussed. Individual and focus-group interviews encouraged teachers to articulate their views in this regard. Initial findings indicate that despite the dissimilar cultural and historical contexts of these two countries, both complex contextual issues and classroom practices based on a medical-deficit understanding of diverse educational needs play a role in Finnish and South African classrooms.

Keywords:

• Inclusive education
• special educational needs
• mainstream schools
• disabilities

Acknowledgements

This article was language-edited by a qualified freelance language editor, Anthony Sparg. He has edited several academic journal articles and master’s and doctoral theses in the field of education.

Notes

1. ‘Small group’ is a newer term used instead of the term ‘special class’.

2. In Finland, the average group size was 19.66 in Grades 1–6 (primary) and 16.46 in Grades 7–9 (secondary) in 2013.