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.

Magister Artium (Social Work) - MA(SW) / During apartheid, black learners with disabilities experienced difficulties accessing education. At this time very few special schools existed and admissions were limited, as they were restricted according to certain segregation criteria. In 2001, the Education White Paper 6 was published, demarcating that South African education should shift into the international trend of inclusion. Inclusion, relating to mainstream schools, encourages the schools to review their structures, approaches to teaching, student grouping and promote schools to meet the diverse needs of all students. Research indicated that inclusive education has been promoted in primary schools. However, there is limited research regarding inclusive education in secondary schools in South Africa. The purpose of this study was to explore the implementation of inclusive education in secondary schools for learners with special needs. The research study used an exploratory qualitative methodology with an interpretivist approach. Participants included the principal, teachers and learners from a secondary school which has an inclusive approach. Purposive sampling was used to identify participants. There were 12 participants who partook in the study and data was collected through a focus group discussion and individual interviews. The focus group consisted of 6 non-disabled learners who participated in the study. Data were analysed through the use of thematic analysis. The results suggest that learners with special needs should be taught in this mainstream secondary school. Teachers and non-disabled learners accept learners with special needs in their classroom and at their school. However, there are a number of barriers such as access, awareness, lack of training, that hinder the full participation of teachers when assisting learners with special needs.

People with diagnoses of mental illness have been described as the last minority group against whom it is socially acceptable to discriminate. Challenging the stigma of mental illness is a major social issue and public health concern. Despite a range of anti-stigma efforts being conducted in recent years, the problem persists. It has been argued that a good place to start when changing social attitudes is with young people, whose attitudes are in a state of flux, making them more open to alternative ways of thinking. However, school based educational approaches designed to address this issue are in their infancy. To date, the mental health stigma reduction agenda has largely been drawn up by those who hold most power in the field – predominantly psychiatrists. This has led to anti-stigma initiatives drawing primarily on a biomedical model. There is a growing body of evidence that this approach is not only ineffective, but can actually increase stigma. There is therefore a need to investigate and test alternative approaches. Furthermore, previous research investigating young people’s knowledge of and attitudes about mental illness has been constrained by being conducted within the terms of the dominant discourse.This research set out to investigate how young people construct their positions in relation to mental illness. A primary aim was to understand how they negotiate the ambiguities of the mental health discourse. In addition, it has looked at the impact of engaging in ‘inclusive dialogue’ about mental illness on young people’s sense making. Mental illness is itself an essentially contested concept. Inclusive dialogue is an approach which takes seriously the variety of competing concerns which make up the ways in which mental illness is approached in day to day life, aiming to embrace the complexities and encourage people to grapple with them, bringing their own experiences and beliefs to bear. The underlying purpose of the inquiry was to consider whether there is potential for educational initiatives to help young people adopt non-discriminatory stances in relation to mental illness. The research was conducted qualitatively, and engaged a group of seven year 10 pupils in a series of discussions, which took place over the course of a half term. In addition, individual interviews and follow up group sessions were carried out later in the academic year.The results of this study indicate that engaging young people in inclusive dialogue is beneficial across a range of domains. The young people said that the discussions left them more comfortable in talking about mental illness and confident about their ability to respond to mental illness in people around them. The study revealed that context and the specific details of each situation are crucial in determining whether young people take up stigmatising or supportive positions towards people with a mental illness. Stepping outside the terms of the dominant discourse reveals that far from being the product of poor comprehension of biomedical psychiatry, ‘stigma’ may in fact be just one of a set of responses to people with mental illness. People who are mentally ill sometimes behave in ways that are disturbing and frightening, and it is vital that education accepts, rather than sidesteps, this reality. The findings of this investigation suggest that what is needed to improve social responses to mental illness is a reframing of the issues; a conceptual shift, wherein the notions of ‘knowledge’ and ‘attitude’ are not taken for granted and the aim of ‘reducing stigma’ is left behind in favour of the positively framed target of increasing solidarity.

Consistent leadership of group travel by specific individuals has been documented in many animals. Most species exhibiting this type of leadership have relatively stable group membership. Animals using fission-fusion grouping are not expected to use specific leaders because associations would not be frequent. Certain conditions, however, may allow this type of control over group travel to occur. First, a population would need to be small enough to allow regular associations between individuals. Second, leadership may be useful if the environment where the population in question lives is complex and requires learning to access the resources efficiently. To determine whether fission-fusion species existing under these conditions utilize specific individual leadership, I examined a small residential population of bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) in the Lower Florida Keys (LFK) where the benthic habitat is highly complex. My goals were to 1) determine whether specific individuals in this population led group travel more often than expected; 2) determine whether certain factors predicted which animals would lead most often and 3) investigate the benefits of leading to leaders and to followers in a fission-fusion society. Multiple types of data were collected to answer questions posed including dolphin behavior (for leadership analyses), fish sampling (to examine dolphin habitat use under leadership), and dolphin biopsy sampling (for genetic analyses). Results of analyses provided strong evidence for consistent leadership in this population. Leaders were female, most were mothers and on average they had larger measures of centrality within the LFK population. Leaders benefited by leading individuals who were more closely related than expected. Followers benefited from efficient access to profitable habitat. Results build on previous leadership research by expanding our knowledge about the type of species in which specific individuals lead and predictors for what types of individuals may lead. Additionally, results provide the first detailed information about benefits group members obtain by both leading and following.

The Salamanca Statement (UNESCO, 1994) called upon all governments to implement inclusive education, ensuring that all learners with barriers to learning are included in the educational system. South Africa as a cosignatory to this global call responded with the implementation of the South African Education White Paper 6 (Department of Education, 2001) where the principles and foundations towards inclusive education were stipulated. It was expected of teachers to be able to accommodate learners with barriers to learning in their classrooms (Dednam, 2009, p. 371), although Ntombela and Green (2013, p. 2) state that teachers are not equipped to work with learners with specific disabilities. Learners present with various barriers to learning and these barriers pose problems and challenges in the classroom. One of these problems in the classroom is learners presenting with Auditory Processing Disorder. This qualitative study employed phenomenology as the research design. Through the use of memory work, drawings and focus group discussions as data production tools, the five Foundation Phase teachers’ experiences regarding learners presenting with Auditory Processing Disorder in the inclusive classroom, were explored. Bronfenbrenner’s ecological model was used to make meaning of the findings of the study. The findings of the study indicate that teachers are torn between the expectations of global and national policies regarding inclusive education and the management and support of learners presenting with Auditory Processing Disorder in their classrooms. Various challenges and problems arise with the inclusion of learners presenting with Auditory Processing Disorder in the classroom. The findings of the study were used to formulate guidelines to support Foundation Phase teachers working with learners presenting with auditory processing problems as well as policy suggestions for the Department of Basic Education. The Department of Basic Education should revise the implementation of CAPS to include the necessary adaptations for learners presenting with Auditory Processing Disorder; and also provide teacher assistants in Foundation Phase classrooms to enable the full inclusion of all learners.