Supporting the transition to inclusive education: teachers’ attitudes to inclusion in the Seychelles

ABSTRACT

The inclusion of children with disability in regular classroom settings has been identified worldwide as crucial to the provision of effective education for all children and to the creation of more inclusive societies. To this end there has been significant focus on pre-service and in-service teacher education to ensure that teachers are adequately prepared to teach in inclusive classrooms. When delivering a unit on inclusive education in the Seychelles, which was developed in Australia, we considered it essential to determine the suitability of the unit in supporting Seychellois teachers to teach inclusively. Teachers’ attitudes and beliefs about people with disability are two aspects that have consistently been shown to impact on a teacher’s willingness to include children with disability. Therefore, the Seychellois teachers were asked to complete questionnaires in the first and final weeks of the semester in which the teachers undertook the unit. The two sets of responses were analysed to determine significance and effect sizes of any change in attitudes and beliefs. Data revealed that the Seychellois teachers reported more positive attitudes and beliefs about the inclusion of children with disability in regular classrooms after completing the unit, suggesting that the unit of study was suitable for the Seychellois context.

Keywords:

• inclusion
• attitudes
• in-service
• teachers

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the Seychellois teachers who participated in this research.

Notes on contributors

Susan Main is a Senior Lecturer in education at Edith Cowan University in Perth, Western Australia where she has delivered units in Educational Psychology, Special Education, Behaviour Management, and Literacy to undergraduate and Graduate Diploma pre-service teachers. She was the coordinator of the Edith Cowan University and University of Seychelles transnational program for the Bachelor of Education Primary and Early Childhood programs. She has extensive experience working with students who require teaching and learning adjustments and incorporating the use of ICT in teaching. Her teaching and research interests include strategies for preparing pre-service and in-service teachers to teach in inclusive classrooms, effective approaches to managing challenging behaviour, technology to facilitate learning, and supporting students with literacy difficulties. She has recently completed her PhD and was awarded the Western Australian Institute for Educational Research Prize for her thesis, which investigated professional learning for teachers of children with reading difficulties.

Dianne Chambers, Coordinator Research and Special Education, has been teaching at a tertiary level for the past 17 years and coordinates and teaches into units on catering for students with disabilities, inclusion and behaviour management at undergraduate level. Postgraduate teaching areas include adaptive education, behaviour management and social skills, children with special needs, contemporary issues in special education and educating students who are gifted and talented. She also supervises students within the School of Education Masters and PhD programs. She had published in the field of inclusive education, assistive technology and children with ASD. Dianne has also consulted with UNESCO on guidelines for persons with disabilities and Open and Distance Learning using open solutions, and teacher education for global citizenship. She is current president of the Australian Association of Special Education (WA Chapter).

Paulette Sara has a Master of Education specialising in Special Education and has had extensive experience teaching children with special educational needs. She has been involved in promoting inclusive education in the Seychelles for a number of years and has worked on policy development teams to further this objective. Paulette was an academic staff member with the University of Seychelles School of Education and delivered the Special Educational Needs unit as part of the twinning agreement with Edith Cowan University. She currently teaches courses at the Seychelles Institute of Teacher Education.

Notes

1. The Unit Teaching and Evaluation Instrument is administered electronically to students so that they can provide anonymous feedback on the units they study.