Perceptions of Agriculture Teachers toward Including Students with Disabilities

Abstract

The inclusion of students with special needs in regular education classrooms has been required by federal law for more than three decades. However, much of the responsibility for successful accommodation of students with disabilities rests upon the shoulders of teachers. Previous research has indicated that successful inclusion of students with special needs is strongly influenced by the attitude of teachers involved. In this study, all secondary agriculture teachers in Utah were surveyed to determine their attitudes and perceptions related to their willingness and ability to include students with special needs in their classrooms and laboratories. Selected personal and professional characteristics were correlated with these attitudes and perceptions. A large majority of teachers responded that they understand the concept of inclusion, are in favor of including students with disabilities, and have had a positive experience teaching students with special needs. However, fewer respondents indicated that they had the skill level to iv successfully include students with disabilities. Overall, while teachers indicated willingness to include the students with most of the specific types of disabilities, they were less positive in their perceived abilities to successfully accommodate students with some specific categories of special needs.

The Experiences Of Parents Of School Children With Special Education Needs: An Empirical Study

“…At home, questionnaire and interview data indicated that parents needed to take a little more time with their children yet they had other duties to perform. Their responses were in line with an earlier finding by Bender (2008) and Giffing (2009) who noted that there is an additional expense, time and energy to care for the child with a special education need.…”

“…Those who thought that inclusive education was good argued that the policy came as a relief since their children were admitted in neighbourhood schools. These observations were however, in line with what Turnbull et al (2010) and Giffing (2009) said when they advocated for inclusive education.…”

“…In a study by Giffing (2009) on the perceptions of agriculture teachers towards the inclusion of students with disabilities in mainstream classrooms, the participants described teachers as lacking patience to cope and attend to children with SENs. One may expect challenges of either transport or feeding to be the major challenge at school but the study has indicated prejudice on the part of the teachers.…”

“…Parents of children with special education needs (SENs) are confronted with numerous and distinctive social and psychological challenges in dealing with their roles as caregivers to their children (Mundia, 2001;Lewis & Doorlag, 2006;Giffing, 2009;Makgopa & Mokhele, 2013) Such challenges appear to have serious and multiple implications on the nature and quality of their care-giving (Bender, 2008;Tshabalala, 2011;Ministry of Education Singapore, 2012). While many studies have researched teacher experiences in teaching children with SENs, no rigorous study has examined the experiences of parents with such children.…”

“…This requirement is imperative as parents are expected to cooperate with teachers, psychologists and other educators to share information about their child's abilities in the home and nonschool social environment and to participate in formulating effective learning programme for the child with SENs (Bender, 2008). In addition, participants in Giffing's (2009) study perceived parental training as necessary for successful inclusive education because they would be able to know and learn how to cope. Notwithstanding, many parents, however, do not always play a meaningful role in developing their children's Individualised Educational Programme (IEP).…”