To date only a limited number of studies have focused on teacher-led functional assessments in the mainstream classroom. This purpose of this study was to observe what happens when a general education teacher attempts to individualise parts of her programme to meet the unique teaching needs of certain children. The participating teacher identified eight children with behavioural and/or learning needs in her classroom. For each of the children with learning difficulties the teacher was able to formulate a function-based hypotheses and design an effective intervention after being provided with some written support. The teacher did not form a function based hypothesis for a child with behavioural difficulties. The subsequent intervention was not function based and failed to decrease the problem behaviour. In each of the eight remaining case studies the teacher required support from the researcher in order to implement, supervise, and maintain an individualised intervention.

Submitted in fulfillment of the requirements for the degree MASTERS IN EDUCATION In the Department of Educational Psychology and Special Education of the Faculty of Education at the University of Zululand, 2010. / The aim of this study was to investigate the challenges facing educators’ in the inclusion of ADHD learners in the mainstream classroom. As an introduction to the study the challenges faced by educators’ in the inclusion of ADHD learners in mainstream classes were reviewed by means of a study of available and relevant literature. Educators are people who make learning and teaching possible and their own challenges in what is happening in the classroom are of crucial importance. Research done in South Africa on challenges faced by educators’ in inclusive education indicated that educators in mainstream classrooms generally express negative attitudes to mainstreaming policies and thus finds himself with many challenges. In the new education dispensation educators in mainstream classrooms have to accommodate learners with impairments, such as the ADHD child. Inclusion makes additional demands on educators because of the special educational needs of learners with impairments. The challenges facing educators in inclusion and their efficacy in meeting the special needs of learners with impairments play a determining role in the successful implementation of an inclusive education policy. For the purpose of the empirical investigation a self-structured questionnaire was utilized. An analysis was done of 110 questionnaires completed by primary school educators from the Mafukezela Gandhi district on the North Coast of KwaZulu Natal. The data was processed and interpreted by means of descriptive statistics. Essentially the following were the main findings from the empirical study:  Educators lack the necessary knowledge, skills, training and experience of learners with special educational needs.  Educators have difficulty in identifying ADHD learners.  Educators needed to change their teaching methods to accommodate learners with diverse educational needs. The study concludes with a summary and findings from the literature study and descriptive statistics. Based on these findings the following recommendations were made:  The development of curricula, institutions and methods of assessments must include a variety of strategies to accommodate learners with special educational needs, such as ADHD learners.  The basic training of educators must include compulsory courses such as orthopedagogics that will enable them to cope with the demands for inclusion of learners with special educational needs.

The growing population of English language learners (ELLs) in an urban school district in the southwest United States has maintained low achievement scores in the K-5 grades. Students who do not attain reading proficiency at least by the end of 3rd grade are at risk of continued academic failure through high school. Research shows that teachers' knowledge and preparedness to teach reading has an influence on student performance. The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore the readiness of mainstream classroom teachers to teach reading to ELLs. Guided by the sociocultural frameworks of Bruner and Vygotsky, this study explored teachers' perceptions about the adequacy of instructional resources they receive to improve reading instruction. A sample of 12 purposefully selected teachers from 10 different school districts, with at least 3 years of experience teaching ELLs, shared their responses via semistructured interviews. Data sorted through inductive and axial coding showed teachers expressed an inadequacy in preparing to teach ELLs and depended on their experience with ELLs to provide specific teaching strategies in a risk-free environment that would promote positive student outcomes. The participants' responses helped design a professional development initiative to address the need for more training specific for reading teachers of ELLs. Implications for positive social change include providing more training in reading instruction for teachers of ELLs that can result in increased ELL student reading achievement and greater academic success through high school.

In recent years Sweden has witnessed an increasing number of newcomers into its schools from an array of sociocultural and ethnic backgrounds. Rather than see this as a ‘burden’, this case study looks at ways teachers can embrace diversity, build upon students' prior knowledge and experiences and challenge traditional notions of how knowledge is produced in the classroom. Drawing on multicultural and critical pedagogies, 11 class teachers across four subject disciplines and working at 2 different schools, in a provincial town in the south of Sweden, were asked about their pedagogical practices teaching in mainstream classrooms with students of different ethnic backgrounds. The analysis focuses on whether the teachers are able to create spaces for inclusive learning. Findings suggest that while aspiring to a participatory model of teaching which welcomes students’ views and experiences newcomers are largely excluded from such practice further cementing their marginalised status. Furthermore, in navigating dominant discourse around race, ethnicity and cultural diversity teachers, for the most part, end up reproducing stereotypes or rely on common sense understandings of otherness which do not change the status quo. However, some of the teachers’ pedagogical practices demonstrate ways of moving beyond normative practice towards a more critical approach by providing students with alternative ways of knowing that aim to challenge stereotypes, avoid generalisations and disrupt the Western/Eurocentric ideal of the universality of truth.

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