The impact of an inclusive education intervention on teacher preparedness to educate children with disabilities within the Lakes Region of Kenya

ABSTRACT

There has been little empirical study within low- and middle-income countries on how to effectively prepare teachers to educate children with disabilities. This paper reports on the impact of an intervention designed to increase teaching self-efficacy, improve inclusive beliefs, attitudes and practices, and reduce concerns around the inclusion of children with disabilities within the Lakes region of Kenya. A longitudinal survey was conducted with in-service teachers (matched N = 123) before and after they had participated in a comprehensive intervention programme, delivered in the field by Leonard Cheshire Disability. Results showed that the intervention increased teaching self-efficacy, produced more favourable cognitive and affective attitudes toward inclusive education, and reduced teacher concerns. However, there was little evidence regarding the impact on inclusive classroom practices. The increase in teaching self-efficacy over the intervention period was also found to predict concerns over time. Results are discussed in terms of implications for international efforts, as well as national efforts within Kenya to promote inclusive education.

KEYWORDS:

• Disability
• inclusion
• self-efficacy
• concerns
• beliefs
• attitudes
• practices

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Mark T. Carew holds a Ph.D. in Social Psychology. He is currently a Research Fellow at the Leonard Cheshire Disability & Inclusive Development Centre, based at University College London. His experience and research interests lie in tackling problematic issues and barriers that affect people with disabilities globally.

Marcella Deluca is Senior Research Fellow at the Leonard Cheshire Disability and Inclusive Development Centre. As a social scientist, Marcella has two decades of experience in evidence-based analysis for policy making and guidance. Her area of expertise is in the field of comparative Education policy and practice. Specifically, her work focuses on Inclusive Education, applied research in disability and international development, and measures to alleviate social exclusion.

Prof. Nora Groce is an anthropologist, global health expert and Director of the Leonard Cheshire Disability and Inclusive Development Centre at University College London. She is widely known for her work on vulnerable populations in low- and middle-income countries, and is particularly known for her work on people with disabilities in the developing world.

Dr Maria Kett is Head of Research at the Leonard Cheshire Disability and Inclusive Development Centre. She has extensive experience of applied anthropology in disability and international development, with a particular interest in health, education human rights, poverty alleviation, and the consequences of social exclusion.

ORCID

Mark T. Carew http://orcid.org/0000-0002-1377-2910

Marcella Deluca http://orcid.org/0000-0003-3781-0261

Nora Groce http://orcid.org/0000-0002-7885-7042

Maria Kett http://orcid.org/0000-0002-1975-7674

Notes

1 For TOTs this training was delivered by experts on the project staff. For teachers, this training was delivered by the TOTs, closely supervised by the project staff. The TOTs subsequently cascaded the training to a further 600 teachers (not sampled) as part of the projects wider programmatic aims.

2 These were: ‘I believe that an inclusive school is one that encourages academic progression of all students regardless of their ability’ and ‘I believe that inclusion facilitates socially appropriate behaviour amongst all students’.

3 This was: ‘I am concerned that students with a disability are included in the regular classroom, regardless of the severity of the disability’.

4 The assumption of the homogeneity of variance was violated for both pre-intervention and post-intervention beliefs (i.e. Levene’s test p < .05). Further inspection revealed that the variance in the larger group (i.e. teachers, N = 122) was larger than that of the smaller group (i.e. TOTs, N = 30), meaning that the group analyses may be underpowered (Maxwell and Delaney 2004). Notwithstanding, a significant group difference was identified (p < .001).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Department for International Development: [Grant Number 6627].