M.Ed. (Educational Psychology) / Please refer to full text to view abstract

Learners affected and infected by HIV/AIDS have been given priority status in the development of inclusive education. The Department of Education should develop and support the personal and professional self of educators as torch bearers of its educational policy. This inquiry attempted to understand educators’ teaching experiences to establish what educational and psychological support was needed to better include such learners. The information obtained may enable District Based Support Team’s (DBST’s) and School Based Support Team’s (SBST’s), as well as educational psychologists to develop educators, as limited research has been done in this regard. In this inquiry the data collection methods included 16 questionnaires completed by educators, an individual interview with a principal as well as two focus group interviews (with educators, and then with SBST and School Management Teams (SMT’s) members combined). Collages were visual representations of educators’ experiences and aided group discussions. Data obtained was analysed using the constant comparative method to determine the common themes and sub themes describing educators’ experiences over and above the identified educational and psychological support they needed to better include child-headed family learners within their classrooms. The findings presented suggest orphan status awareness at schools cannot be taken for granted. In coping with the effects of orphan-hood, learners presented with characteristic barriers such as: learning difficulties, incomplete school work and homework, failure to participate, school absenteeism, hunger, concentration difficulties, tiredness and sleeping in class, neglected appearance, behavioural difficulties, signs of sexual abuse, and accelerated adulthood. Efforts to create supportive learning environments included: impartial treatment, learning support provision, accessing support services and meeting basic needs for food, clothing, love, belongingness, reassurance, motivation and encouragement. Educators iii related accompanying negative psychological experiences (i.e. feeling sadness, distress and pain, as well as being emotionally drained and experiencing a sense of frustration at not knowing how to help or feeling unable to help). Identified educational and psychological support included: capacity building through contextualized and customized in-service training programmes, financial incentives and motivation, improved resources, increased governmental involvement, accessing multidisciplinary support services, community support and self care. Educators need to be supported and developed within a framework of whole school development if the goals of building health promoting schools within an inclusive education system are to be realised. Recommendations included: (i) Compelling stakeholders and health professionals to inform school and district based support teams of a learner’s orphan status. (ii) Building pre-service and in-service capacities through modules or customized workshops, on the identification, support and referral of learners from child-headed homes, basic counselling skills as well as self care awareness and educator burn out. (iii) Schools must develop financial incentives and motivation schemes by fund raising, obtaining sponsorships and ‘granting leave’ to deserving educators. Resource sharing was also encouraged. (iv) Government should conduct needs analyses at grass roots level to ensure equitable support service provision relative to the number of learners from child-headed homes at a school. (v) Educational psychologists or school counselors on behalf of school based support teams can co-ordinate Community Building Approach principles as one way of sharing the burden of care amongst interested stakeholders and community members. / Prof. Jace Pillay

The study focuses on the attitudes of teachers towards inclusive education that is phased in according to White Paper 6 on inclusive education. Since the first democratic elections in South Africa in April 1994, a general feeling of optimism and a common commitment to improving the quality of education has emerged and many changes have taken place. The basis of this change is laid by the constitution of the country and the Bill of Rights that ensures the rights of all civilians including those of learners towards education. Furthermore the rights of all learners towards their education is categorically emphasised in White Paper 6. White Paper 6 is a policy document which upholds inclusive education and is in accordance with international trends whereby all learners including those with barriers to learning have a right to an education of their choice wherever its practicable. White Paper 6 of 2001 makes reference to the need to remove these barriers in favour of effective learning for all learners irrespective of their barriers to learning. In the process of learning, teachers always play an important role. In much local and international literature where inclusion and teachers’ attitudes have been studied it has been found that positive attitudes in teachers towards inclusive education play an important role in the implementation process of inclusive education. It was also clear from the literature that negative attitudes makes teaching in an inclusive educational setting negative. In South Africa inclusive education is in the process of being implemented. Therefore, it is important to determine what the attitudes of teachers are towards inclusive education. Furthermore, the purpose of this study is to gain insight into teachers’ attitudes towards inclusive education. The data gathered will be helpful in training teachers, policy implementation towards facilitation of the development of positive attitudes and process of inclusive education. In achieving this of identifying the attitudes of special school teachers towards inclusive education, one focus group and two individual interviews were conducted at two special schools. From the analysis of data, it was apparently clear that teachers demonstrated negative attitudes towards inclusive education. The transcribed data of the interviews were analysed through the constant data analysis method as a “process whereby data gradually evolves into a core of emerging theory” (Merriam, 1998:191). In the dynamic and complex process of meaning making of data, five themes were eventually identified among the separate sub-themes to establish the main patterns for the data. In an effort to establish more positive attitudes in general towards inclusive education it would probably be advisable for government to take note of these negative attitudes and train teachers towards a more accepting changing of roles. / Prof. J. Pillay

Background: Inclusive Education (‘Support for Learning’ in the UK) is now a mandatory educational policy across the European Union. And yet, we understand remarkably little about its psychosocial impact on students. Scant research has been conducted in this area, particularly with respect to typically-developing students. Findings from existing studies are difficult to extrapolate from, due to methodological flaws and/or contradictory results. Method: A Systematic Review was carried out of international qualitative research in this area, to summarise and critique findings. An empirical study was also conducted with typically-developing Scottish adolescents, to explore their views of Support for Learning using a robust qualitative methodology. Results: Findings from the Systematic Review showed that existing qualitative studies are mostly of poor to medium methodological quality; that typically-developing students tend not to understand Inclusive Education; and that the majority regard it with fearful wariness. The empirical study mirrored these themes, and provided new insights into how students perceive the benefits and dangers of Inclusive Education, as well as barriers to understanding it. Conclusion: Schools urgently need to inform students about the principles and practices of Inclusive Education, and professionals working with adolescents should be mindful of its perceived psychosocial dangers, in order to challenge prejudicial attitudes.

M.Ed. / This research essay focuses on the empowerment of educators as adult learners with a view to develop a positive attitude towards inclusive education. The philosophy of inclusive education has become more prominent in the education fraternity worldwide with the turn of the century and has been applied with great success in countries like the USA, United Kingdom and the Scandinavian countries. Education White Paper 6 passes new regulations on the implementation of special needs education and inclusive education in South Africa Inclusive education as an education system is part of actions taken and reform supported by the National Education Department in South Africa to render education more accessable for all learners with their diverse educational needs. These new regulations are to be implemented by educators in South African schools. The problem that arises in South Africa is that educators do not have a good grounding in the philosophy and values of inclusive education, which leads to negative attitudes. These negative attitudes are seen by various South African researchers as an obstacle to implement inclusive education in South African schools. The statement of the problem in this essay is: How can a workshop for educators as adult learners be designed to empower them with positive attitudes to eventually successfully implement and apply the philosophy of inclusive education in South African schools? The aim of this research was to develop and design a workshop for educators to promote and enhance positive attitudes towards the implementation of inclusive education. Without the positive attitudes of the educators on ground level the implementation is doomed to failure. The philosophy of inclusive education is based on democratic values of freedom, equity and the acknowledgement of human rights. A paradigm shift towards learners who experience barriers to learning must be developed and those learners should be experienced as valued citizens of society. It must therefore be noted that inclusive education does not only include learners with dissabilities but all learners that have barriers to learning and those that were previously deprived of or denied access to education.

M.Ed. / The purpose of this study was to research and record the training process of teachers in a Grade R learning programme, within a context of inclusive education, by describing the teachers’ perception of the Grade R learning programme and by making certain changes to the training and training process that have been suggested in the study, and to offer guidelines with regard to the training of foundation phase educators, with specific reference to Grade R educators working within the context of inclusive education. The researcher opted for an interpretative action research design within a qualitative research paradigm since she wished to describe, interpret and explain actions within her research whilst attempting to bring about certain improvements within the teaching practice. The type of action research that was performed is known as practitioner action research because it was performed in the presence of, and with the cooperation of education practitioners as well as academics who assisted the researcher with relevant skills and resources. The following major themes were identified: Facilitating, programme implementation, complete empowerment, cooperation as well as common religious convictions. The most significant findings were the following: When we look at the facilitation of training programmes, it is of the utmost importance that the facilitator accepts from the onset that the participants as well as the facilitators will experience uncertainty within themselves, specifically regarding their own knowledge and abilities and the level of acceptance they will experience in the company of other professionals. It is therefore all the more important to determine each participant’s expectations regarding the purpose and outcomes of the the training programme as this will ease the process considerably and at the same time render the facilitator a clear idea of what needs to be addressed and what not. Facilitators of training programmes, especially within contexts similar to this study, should reflect on the importance of sound relationships being established between facilitator and participants. The initial level of experience and skill of each participant should be determined before the start of the programme and here the facilitator plays an enormous role as far as emotional and social support is concerned. When it comes to programme implementation, I should think that educators in all possible contexts will benefit immensely from the format of the lessons, the contents of the lessons as well as the presentation thereof because these are outcomes-based lessons. In terms of contexts similar to the one in this reseach, it is important that the facilitator works through each new lesson with the educators to ensure that they fully understand everything and also to give them the opportunity to ask questions as this will enable them to implement these lessons with enhanced confidence in their own classes. It was important for the teachers to experience their training in a practical manner because they learnt from one another, they had the opportunity to exchange ideas and, whatever problems they experienced, could be addressed and solved immediately. In conclusion I would like to strongly advocate the choice of practitioner research as research methodology in any study that is focussed on the improvement of the teaching practice. Not only does it hold immense benefits for practitioners, but as researcher I experienced complete personal enrichment in as far as I acted as an agent of meaningful change in the lives of the practitioners who accompanied me on this journey.

Magister Educationis - MEd / This research study explored the process in the development of the Teacher Support Team in assisting teachers of learners with special educational needs in the mainstream classroom. This research was conducted in the context of the restructuring of the South African Education system. The Policy Document White Paper 6 (2001) states that all learners irrespective of the barriers to learning and development have a right to be educated in the ordinary school, together with their peers. / South Africa

Philosophiae Doctor - PhD / The main aim of this study was to understand the factors that facilitate or constrain the implementation of inclusive education in the South African context. These factors were explored through a qualitative case study. A documentary analysis, as well as unstructured and semi-structured interviews was used to collect the data within die context of the research aims, questions, and a framework of categories, drawn from relevant literature, was used to analyse the data. The first major finding of this study was that the implementation of inclusive education policy in South Africa has been facilitated by the school communities' beliefs, values and norms relating to the inclusion of learners with disabilities. The second major finding of this study is that the designers of the inclusive education policy underestimated the deep-seated socio-economic factors that inhibit effective learning in certain contexts. Poverty was identified as a major constraining factor in the study, followed by the complexities of the National Curriculum Statement, a lack of capacity to implement the policy, lack of support for policy implementation, and the limitations of the Education White Paper 6 itself. Given the facilitating and constraining factors emerging from this study, the recommendations made have been based on the assumption that the implementation of inclusive education policy is a worthwhile endeavour. / South Africa

Magister Scientiae (Physiotherapy) - MSc(Physio) / In South Africa, the Education White Paper 6 on Special Needs Education (2001) Building an inclusive education and training system stated that the special schools would be resource centres for ordinary schools that admit learners with disabilities. Occupational therapists,physiotherapists, speech and language therapists (collectively called therapists) had previously been employed in special schools, but under the new structure, would form part of the district-based support teams to provide their support to ordinary and full service schools.Therapists working in an inclusive education system would need to change the focus of their model of support from a medical model of direct support to a health-promoting model of indirect support. The aim of the current study was to determine whether therapists are changing their model of support in building inclusive and health-promoting schools and also to determine the barriers and facilitators they experience in providing their support in an inclusive education system. This study used both qualitative and quantitative methodology.The quantitative component was a non-experimental, descriptive, cross-sectional design,using one questionnaire in a survey. The questionnaire was used to determine the type of support provided to schools. In total, 97 therapists, who worked at special schools in the Western Cape, participated in the study by completing the questionnaire. The test-retest results of the questionnaire indicated that most of questions (63%) showed perfect agreement (Kappa 0.81-1.0). Quantitative data analysis was done by descriptive statistics, using SPSS.The results indicated that therapists were using the medical model of support combined with a more holistic approach using the principles of the health-promoting framework. The qualitative component involved three group interviews, which were held at three different special schools, in three different education districts, with a total of 12 therapists. The group interviews were used to determine the barriers and facilitators that either prevent or promote provision of support. Qualitative data analysis was done by using content analysis with codes and themes to determine barriers and facilitators. The barriers included the following: therapists’ uncertainty about roles; lack of networking, lack of certain competencies and training; delayed response from district; lack of policy;autocratic leadership styles; exclusion from the district-based support team; concern to support learners at special school; therapists being based at the special school; lack of human resources; insufficient time; cost of therapists’ training; education department circuit boundaries affecting communication;negative attitudes of principals and educators; and parents’ non-involvement. The facilitators included therapists’ competencies to fulfil roles; educators’ positive attitude; meetings; training to improve therapists’ skills; the co-ordinating role of the district-based support team;and the supportive role of learner support educator and the principal. This study provides evidence concerning therapists’ roles and the barriers and facilitators which therapists experience regarding their support provision in an inclusive education system.

Magister Educationis - MEd / South Africa's education system has undergone dramatic changes in the last decade resulting in an increase in the levels of stress reported by educators. Changes, such as the implementation of Inclusive Education as well as the new culture of human rights in schools, have created extra responsibilities for educators. Today, educator’s don't just have to adjust to these changes, but also have to deal with a rise in learners experiencing barriers to learning and a variety of problems displayed by school leaners. This study explored the understandings and experiences of School-Based Support Teams (SBST) of inclusive education in the Western Cape. For the purpose of this study, a qualitative case study design was used. The researcher found it advantageous to use the qualitative research case study design because it enables the researcher to gain an in-depth understanding of the lived experiences of educators. The participants in this study were twenty educators who serve as members of the SBST in a special and public ordinary school. Participants reported that they experienced success in the implementation of Inclusive Education (IE) in their schools. These include established teamwork, increased access and participation, improved teaching practices as well as the provision of assistive devices. Participants reported positive gains during the implementation, they also reported challenges. These include lack of capacity, lack of resources, problem behaviours, unrealistic workloads and lack of support. This study concludes that if the School Based Support Team is critical in the implementation of IE in South Africa, the Department of Education as well as the schools needs to rethink these roles or develop a Human Resource Development Strategy that will empower educators with the knowledge and skills necessary to play the role. Secondly, the Department of Education should seriously consider ways in which educators can be protected from perpetrators. Lastly, based on the lived experiences of the SBST in the study, educators should continue with the good work but be allowed to provide support in ways that work within their capacity and broader socio-cultural contexts.