Exploring full-service school educators’ understanding of inclusive education and its impact on learners' psychological wellbeing.

Abstract

This study explored the experiences of seven primary school educators within one full-service school in the Chatsworth area in Kwa-Zulu Natal. The educators were selected purposively since they were based within a full-service school. Each educator was selected per grade to identify different experiences within the classroom setting as learner needs tend to develop as they progress to the next grade. The study was a qualitative study grounded within the interpretive paradigm. The theoretical framework was guided by social constructivism. Social constructivism was appropriate for this study as it looked at educators' experiences of implementing inclusive education, and how teaching inclusively was influenced by the social settings in which they live. It was necessary in understanding how learners were influenced by the surroundings in which they lived, their peers and how this behavior affected teaching and learning in an inclusive environment. In spite of this, educators’ religious affiliations, belief systems, culture and values were often overlooked by policy designers. Data for this study was generated by means of three research instruments: unstructured observation, semi-structured interviews and semi-structured questionnaires. The findings from this study revealed that the experiences of educators teaching inclusive education was not fully accepted by the teachers. Educators conveyed their frustrations with regard to the teaching of inclusive education mentioning that the problems they experience are about the behavioral problems, emotional/psychological problems, lack of proper resources to support these learning barriers and lack of teacher training/skills. Furthermore, there were many limitations of the study. Since the study was limited to one school under one district, research outcomes cannot be generalised to other secondary schools with similar descriptions since contexts would be dissimilar. Also, most educators were reluctant to participate, time was lost and educators were absent. Despite this, recommendations were put forward for this study. Some that were mentioned includes differentiated teaching methods, appointment of trained and specialised educators in implementing inclusive education as well as continuous support provided by the Department of Education regularly.