Inclusive Education for Learners With Disabilities in ... - SAGE Open

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2 SAGE Opento prepare children with special educational needs forsocial integration by integrating them as far as possiblewith their peers in ordinary schools.to ensure a comprehensive assessment that is based onthe child’s learning needs, and not on group norms,and which is followed by individualized instruction.to promote the early identification and interventionwhich will ensure the maximum success of the rehabilitationprocess.to ensure the support and active participation of thechildren’s parents and community through an educationand information campaign. (Government ofBotswana, 1994, p. 38)Two other key recommendations are worth noting. First,each school has a senior teacher who is responsible for learnerswith special educational needs and who will coordinate aschool intervention team. Second, all teachers have elementsabout special needs education as a part of their preservice orin-service training.Practice of Inclusive Education in BotswanaAlthough inclusive education has been rapidly gainingacceptance in Botswana academic circles, government texts,and mass media, there is a lack of shared understanding ofthe implication of the concept, as neither the government noracademics have been able to engage critically with the meaningsand relevance of the concept within the context ofBotswana (Mukhopadhyay, 2009). Empirical studies in thisarea have been scarce and the small amount of existing publishedliterature largely consists of personal opinions. Thelimited research (Gaotlhobogwe, 2001; Masimega, 1999)that is available in Botswana has concentrated on the inclusionof learners with specific categories of disabilities.Researchers (Brandon, 2006; Mangope, 2002) examinedattitudes of Botswana teachers toward inclusive education andfound that teachers held nonfavorable attitudes toward inclusiveeducation. In addition, synthesis of these research studiesalso indicates a gap between recommended practice and thereality of implementation of inclusive education. However,most studies have focused on teachers’ perspectives and haveignored other critical stakeholders’ involvement in the process,such as learners with and without disabilities.MethodThis report is based on qualitative methods employing amultiple–case study approach. In the rest of this section, wedescribe the design of the research, the research settings, theparticipants and participant selection process, the interviewprocedures, and the approach to data analysis.Research DesignA multiple–case study approach was employed to gaininsights into the practice and process of inclusive educationin the South Central Regions of Botswana. Qualitativeresearch traditions are investigations of lived experience ofthe participants in their naturally occurring environments.Given the focus on multiple stakeholders’ views and experiences,it was possible to construe the methodologicalapproach of the study as phenomenological in nature. Ingeneral, phenomenological research aims at clarifying individuals’situations in everyday life (Giorgi & Giorgi, 2003).In this study, the specific aspects of everyday life that wereof interest to the researcher were the processes and practicesof inclusive education. Using this approach enabled theresearcher to explore the perspectives of participants and toexamine their experiences in the contexts in which theyoccurred.Research SettingsSchools in the Republic of Botswana are grouped into 10administrative regions. This study was carried out inselected primary schools located in the South CentralRegion. The medium of instruction in these schools waspredominantly English, but the local language, Setswana,was also used in the classroom for ease of understanding.The South Central Region consists of schools in the followingdistricts and city council: South-East, Kgatleng,Gaborone City Council, and Kweneng. In terms of the location,the schools were categorized into three groups, namely,urban, semiurban, and rural. Schools from each of the threegroups were selected purposively.ParticipantsThe population of government-aided primary schools of theSouth Central Regions of Botswana totaled 165 schools. Asample of schools was selected purposively from amongthose that already included learners with disabilities. A totalof 6 schools were selected, 2 schools from each of threetypes of location (urban, semiurban, and rural). Initially, sixschool-heads were chosen; thereafter, learners with disabilities,their peers, and general education teachers wereselected using snowball sampling. Snowball sampling wasused because the potential teachers under investigation were“hidden,” due to low numbers of learners with disabilities inregular primary schools (Kath, 2005). Careful attention waspaid to the process of gaining entry to the schools, selectionof informants, developing and maintaining rapport, andDownloaded from by guest on January 12, 2015
Mukhopadhyay et al. 3Table 1. Number of Participants and Methods of Data CollectionParticipants detail Number Data collection method1. Learner with disabilities attending in regular school Five learners from each school Total six focus group discussions2. Learner without disabilities placed in a class with Five learners from each school Total six focus group discussionslearners without disabilities3. School-heads One school-head from each school Total six individual interviews4. Regular teachers experienced in teaching learnerswith disabilitiesFive teachers from each school Total six focus group discussionsmaintaining ethical protocols. Table 1 displays the participantsand methods of data collection.ProcedureEach school formed a case and presented a unique ecologyof classrooms and school culture. The researchers describedthe similarities and differences from those classroom/schoolcommunities to explore the factors that influenced the practicesof inclusive education. In-depth focus group discussionsand one-on-one interviews were employed to collectinformation from the participants. A total of 18 focus groupdiscussions (6 for teachers, 6 for students with disabilities,and 6 for students without disabilities) and individual interviewsfor the six school-heads were carried out at that stage.The following four content questions were designed to elicitopinions from the focus group members on factors and skillsthat contributed to the successful social and academic inclusionof students with disabilities.••What does successful inclusion of students withdisabilities mean to you?••What are the barriers that may limit access tosuccessful inclusion?••What are the most important skills that inclusionteam members need to make the inclusion ofstudents with disabilities possible?••What are the strategies that should be used forsuccessful implementation of inclusive education?All focus group discussions and individual discussionswere audiotaped and transcribed verbatim for later analysis.The meetings took place at the staff room. The participationin this research was voluntary and without any compensation.The focus group discussions helped the researcherscapture opinions about inclusive education from the variousstakeholders. All focus group discussions were conducted inEnglish. While interviewing the learners with and withoutdisabilities, a translator (MEd student) was engaged. Thetranslator was conversant with the native language andresearch methods, and was experienced in teaching in primaryschool, and the researchers trained the translator on thepurpose of the research and the interview guide.Six nonparticipant classroom observations were alsoundertaken by one of the researchers. These observationsfocused on classroom interactions by teachers and learners,peer interactions, instructional deliveries, lesson content,classroom accommodation, adaptations of learning materials,language of instruction, and overall classroom managementstrategies. The purpose of these observations was togain insights into the inclusive practices used in classrooms.In so doing, the researcher was able to collect in-depth andauthentic data to understand the culture and practice of inclusiveeducation in each school. Classroom observations tookbetween 35 and 40 min. The researchers took reflective fieldnotes using an observation guide specifically prepared forthis research. After each observation, the researchers hadinformal follow-up conversations with teachers about theclassroom instructions for clarification purposes.Furthermore, one of the researchers also conducted schoolobservations to inspect infrastructure facilities such as buildings,toilets, and sports and recreation facilities. Accessaudits were carried out to find out the types of provisions thatwere made to enhance access and participation of learnerswith disabilities. The observations were noted in the observationguide. In addition, the researchers took photographsof various facilities and activities in the school, and reviewedthe documents, referral notes, curriculum, individualizededucational plan (IEP), and assessment reports (medical andpsychoeducational) to gather information about the practiceof inclusive education in each school.Data AnalysisThe data gathered from the multiple sites, sources, andmethods were triangulated to “shed light on a theme or perspective”(Creswell, 1998, p. 202). During this stage,responses of the stakeholder groups were compared withinand across the groups. In this study, the combination ofdocument analyses, interviews, and observations provided arelatively potent means of assessing the degree of convergenceand complementary findings as well as elaborating ondivergences between results obtained (Atkinson & Coffey,2002). For example, on one hand, interviews improvedunderstanding of the inclusive process and on the other hand,observations added to a richer contextual understanding ofDownloaded from by guest on January 12, 2015
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