Exploring school administrators’ practices for inclusion of learners with special educational needs in regular schools: a case of Livingstone district, Zambia.
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Date
2025
Authors
Mweemba, Delphine
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
The University of Zambia
Abstract
This was a qualitative study of administrators’ practices towards the inclusion of learners. This study investigated administrators’ practices towards the inclusion of learners with special educational needs in three selected regular schools. The objectives of the study were to establish school administrators’ practices employed to promote the inclusion of learners with special educational needs in regular schools, to assess how administrators’ practices had helped promote the inclusion of learners with special educational needs, to explore support given to administrators to promote the inclusion of learners with special educational needs, and to suggest a framework that can support school administrators’ propensity to promote inclusive education for learners with disabilities in schools. A qualitative descriptive case study design was used. The sample comprised 14 participants: 3 head teachers, 3 deputy head teachers, 3 senior teachers, and 5 class teachers. Data were collected through interviews, focus group discussions and observation checklist. Participants were selected through use of expert purposive sampling technique. Analysis of data was done thematically. The study revealed that the most common administrators’ practices used by most participants were monitoring, coaching, sensitisation and enrolment of learners with special needs in the study schools. It was established that through monitoring, the administrators made sure that the needs of learners with special educational needs were met. Administrators also made sure that all learners were treated in the same way regardless of the individual needs, and also that the teachers used the right pedagogies when teaching, especially when it came to learners with special educational
needs (LSEN). The study further, revealed that through administrators’ practices there were high enrolment of LSEN in regular schools. Administrators were also modifying the existing infrastructure to become user-friendly for LSEN although the modification may not be up to the expected standards for such learners. Furthermore, the study revealed that to promote inclusive education school administrators regularly collaborated with other stakeholders. However, during enrolment of learners with special education needs, administrator never followed the right procedure of referring the children to the hospital for medical assessment, instead they just enrolled them based on the chronological age of the child. This led to wrong
placement of the children in the school. The Government were funding regular schools to promote inclusive education. Short training courses in the form of continuous professional development (CPD) meetings, workshops and seminars in inclusive education were done to equip the administrators and teachers without knowledge in special education. To help learners with health conditions the government introduced health rooms within the schools where such learners were easily attended to. The study recommends that there is need for every school administrator to be trained in inclusive education so that they become competent on how to handle learners with special educational needs in their schools. There is also need for all the
school community to be sensitised on matters concerning learners with special educational needs. There is need for teacher assistants in the schools to help the class teachers when they attend to learners when they are not feeling well.
Keywords: Administrator, Practice, Inclusion, Learners and Regular school
Description
Thesis of f Doctor of Philosophy in Special Education.