South African teachers' views of collaboration within an inclusive education system

Abstract

The development of sustainable collaborative partnerships between different role players within an inclusive education system seems to be a continuous challenge in South Africa. The focus of this research study was to understand how teachers view collaboration within an inclusive education system. Open-ended questionnaires were completed by 85 participating teachers and focus group interviews were employed with 24 educators. The findings indicate that educators still believe that they are not adequately trained and skilled to play an equal role in a collaborative partnership and prefer to rather refer learners experiencing barriers to learning to other support structures and professionals for support.

Keywords:

• South African teachers
• collaboration
• collaborative partnerships
• inclusive education

Notes on contributors

Prof. Mirna Nel worked for 15 years in the support services of the Gauteng Department of Education. In 2006 she was appointed as senior lecturer and promoted to associate professor in 2013 at North West University teaching Life Orientation, Inclusive Education and Learning Support to pre-graduate as well as post-graduate students. She is also the B. Ed. Programme Manager at the Vaal Triangle Campus. Currently she is involved in an international research project focusing on the role of the teacher in inclusive education. She has published a number of articles, written chapters for several books, co-edited a book on learner support and delivered several Masters and PhD students.

Petra Engelbrecht is Professor of Educational Psychology, Faculty of Education, Canterbury Christ Church University, Canterbury, England. Her research focuses on social justice, equity and equality in inclusive education. She has lead and is still leading several international research projects on inclusive education and teacher education in various parts of the world.

Prof. Norma Nel is a full professor in the Department of Educational Psychology, College of Education at the University of South Africa (UNISA). Her responsibilities include teacher training, postgraduate supervision, research, community engagement, and international collaborative research projects. She has presented several papers at national and interantional conference and published articles in journals and books during her academic career at UNISA. Prof Norma Nel serves as editor for an international journal as well as three international conference committees.

Dr Dan Tlale Lloyd is a lecturer in the Department of Inclusive Education at UNISA. His responsibilities include teacher training (tuition), postgraduate supervision, research, community engagement and international collaborative research projects. He completed his D.Ed. (Inclusive Education) in 2013 with UNISA. He previously worked for Department of Education as a high school teacher, senior lecturer at a Teachers' college and a senior education specialist. His area of interest is Inclusive Education, Gifted Child Education, Children in conflict with the law and Qualitative research. He presented papers locally and abroad.