Inclusive education: why it poses a dilemma to some teachers

ABSTRACT

Inclusive education is a contested domain with positions ranging from strident opposition through cautious support to strong advocacy. Some stakeholders have taken a middle-of-the-road position because while they endorse the human rights discourse that makes inclusion a global imperative, they are caught up in a dilemma between their aspirations and the realities at school level which leave them uncertain of exactly what gains and losses might be involved in a total commitment to inclusive education. This paper reports on the findings of a study that investigated perceptions of selected primary school teachers on inclusive education in order to gain an understanding of the connection between learner support and experiences in the inclusive classroom. In-depth interviews were conducted with 9 teachers at two schools in a site-based study augmented by responses to questionnaires administered to 59 teachers across four schools in one of the district municipalities in South Africa. The study, informed by a realist philosophical perspective, adopted a mixed methods approach and a convergent parallel design. Teachers’ commitment to a human rights discourse was evident. The pragmatic realities which, in teachers’ experiences, constitute the major impediments to thorough-going and successful inclusive classroom practice are time, class size and insufficient training.

KEYWORDS:

• Inclusive education
• teaching
• teacher education
• South Africa
• human rights
• barriers to learning

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes on contributor

Dr Ellen Kakhuta Materechera graduated with a PhD in Education at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa. Her research focus was in the field of inclusive education. She is currently a Senior Academic Advisor at North West University.

ORCID

Ellen Kakhuta Materechera http://orcid.org/0000-0001-7036-8327