Exploring factors that full-service school teachers believe disable their self-efficacy to teach in an inclusive education system

Abstract

IntroductionTeachers’ sense of self-efficacy has been identified by research as a key factor in the successful implementation of inclusive education. This article reports on disabling factors in South Africa that are reportedly influencing inclusive Full-Service school (FSS) teachers’ sense of self-efficacy to implement inclusive education successfully.MethodologyA qualitative study, using semi-structured individual and group interviews as well as collages, was employed.ResultsThe findings revealed that the disabling factors included internal and external factors. Internal factors comprised a lack of knowledge and skills, including a lack of self-confidence, FSS teachers seeing themselves as a barrier, and physical and psychological problems. External factors were also identified. They are ineffective implementation of inclusive education, inadequate training, incompetent education department officials and managers, a lack of support from the education department, curriculum constraints, as well as disabling factors within the school system. Negative media perceptions were also mentioned.ConclusionIt was concluded that it is important for the basic and higher education departments of education to be aware of the identified disabling factors and purposefully attempt to improve the external factors, while ensuring that FSS teachers’ capabilities are developed and sustained in in-service and pre-service teacher education. This could contribute to developing and improving their sense of self-efficacy.

Teacher wellbeing and retention: The impact of rapidly transforming learning and teaching with digital technologies

“…In addition, the continuous training should focus on the practical completion of Support Need Assessment Form 1 ( SNA1) as embedded in the SIAS document. This support need for continuous training is congruent with the findings reported by Van Staden-Payne and Nel (2023) who reported that the training of teachers in FSS is inadequate. These findings further corroborate the findings by Chow et al (2023) who reported continuous teacher training as the perceived support need within the inclusive education setting.…”

“…Lack of collaboration was highlighted as the challenge in the implementation of inclusion (Ayaya et al, 2020;Chow, De Bruin, and Sharma, 2023). Van Staden-Payne and Nel (2023) reiterated that inadequate training of teachers, the ineffective functioning of the DBE, the incompetence of the school management team, lack of parental involvement, and inadequate resources contribute to ineffective instructional pedagogy that is not inclusive. The lack of resources in inclusive education settings was reported by .…”

Factors Influencing the Teaching Practices of In-service Teachers in Inclusive Education: A Systematic Review

“…The ineffective implementation of IE stems from various reasons, besides teachers' personal factors, insufficient training needs to be considered as a significant external factor (Van Staden-Payne & Nel, 2023). Disparities in training also result in differing levels of effectiveness concerning teachers' embrace of inclusive practices in the classroom (Ismailos et al, 2022).…”

“…IE has attracted the attention of all sectors of society, countries worldwide are discovering methods to enact inclusive policies to genuinely accommodate all students, however, there are still many problems and barriers to IE in practice (Van Staden-Payne & Nel, 2023). How to promote the success of IE has been a widely discussed subject across various fields, and it is valuable to study the factors that influence the development of IE in order to promote inclusion and equity in education.…”

“…Whether it is the attitude of IST, SE, or their teaching strategies, which seem to be attributed to elements internal to the teachers themselves. The reasons for the ineffective implementation of IE are manifold, apart from the teachers' own factors, inadequate training needs to be taken into account as a key external factor (Van Staden-Payne & Nel, 2023). PD of teachers is one of the most effective ways to strengthen student achievement and is one of the keys to improving the quality of schools (Sokal & Sharma, 2017).…”