Educator training and support for inclusive education
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Date
2008
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Publisher
University of Zululand
Abstract
When the implementation of inclusive education was announced by government, it did not come without shared concerns by many parents, educators, lecturers, specialists and learners about the future of the educational system in South Africa. Research needs to be done in order to address these concerns.
The present study aims to address some of those concerns as well as to investigate what is provided to mainstream educators in terms of training, support and skills in three schools in the Cape Winelands district of the Western Cape Education Department. These educators have all previously received training in inclusive education. The researcher embarked research to establish whether the educators believed the training and support they received was effective.
Previous studies, local as well as abroad, indicate the importance of effective training and support for mainstream educators when it comes to the successful implementation of inclusive education.
Aspects the researcher attempted to highlight are pre-service and in-service training of educators.
A closer look is taken at classroom support, collaboration among all parties involved and peer support in order to get a clear understanding of what is needed, with special reference to the issue of support.
The researcher also took a closer look at the types of skills that are required for the successful implementation of inclusive education-Data was collected through the administration of a questionnaire. The main findings revealed that the majority of educators believe that the training, support and skills they received from the Western Cape Education Department were effective.
These results were interesting, given the fact that most educators, both locally and abroad, still raise concerns about training and support.
Some key focus areas the researcher identified for the successful implementation of inclusive education are the integration of pre-service and in-service training programmes, parental involvement and collaboration between special and mainstream schools.
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Keywords
Inclusive education--South Africa.