Special Education Teachers' Self-efficacy in Inclusive Schools During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

During the COVID-19 pandemic, a lot of challenges in education settings especially for teachers arose due to the complexity of online learning. Notably, the issues surrounding online learning severely affected the special education teachers because of their reliance to assess and teach directly via a face-to-face method. In long term, the complexity of increased workloads and duties, preparing the lesson plan, and overseeing the lesson process might lead to teachers experiencing burnout and stress. One of the factors that might affect teachers’ burnout and job stress is self-efficacy. This study aims to explore the pandemic effect on special education teachers and how learning method changes affected their self-efficacy. This study was conducted in Surabaya, Indonesia, and involves four special education teachers from local junior high schools which have an inclusive program. The study is conducted with a qualitative method of focus group discussion (FGD). The questions for the participant were derived from the teacher efficacy for inclusive practice (TEIP) scale. The result was produced by analysing the coding and transcripts of the video and audio feed. The result revealed that based on three dimensions of teacher efficacy; efficacy in inclusive instructions, efficacy in collaboration, and efficacy in managing behaviour, the special education teachers’ self-efficacy worsened during the COVID-19 Pandemic. The implications and limitations of the research are discussed further in this manuscript.
 Keywords: Special education teacher, inclusive education, teacher self-efficacy, covid-19 pandemic

Inclusive Education Can Bring Change: The Impact of Factors Influencing Teachers' Attitudes towards Inclusive Education in Private and Public Secondary Schools of Karachi

“…The ability of a teacher to teach children with varied needs and to create the necessary changes in student performance is known as teacher efficacy in inclusive education (Minghui et al, 2018). The skill of teachers to sustain the standard of student engagement and the learning process, to support their pupils in realizing their full potential, is said to be a key factor in their view of their efficacy (Permata, Ramadhani, & Putri, 2022). Several studies claim that teachers' efficacy in collaboration is associated with their attitudes toward inclusive education (Alquraini, 2012;Yada, Tolvanen, & Savolainen, 2018).…”

“…According to studies, a teacher's willingness to work with other teachers affects their selfefficacy. Teachers with high levels of self-efficacy were more amenable to asking their colleagues for help (Permata, Ramadhani, & Putri, 2022). H4.…”

Perceived Organizational Support in Special Needs Education Teachers

“…Self-efficacy teachers' is lowered as a result of factors such working multiple jobs, dealing with procedural uncertainty, and paying insufficient attention to welfare [6][7][8][9][10][11].…”

“…Consequently, these factors contribute to increased levels of work-related stress and burnout. Because the students in special needs education have characteristics that are highly sensitive and challenging to uphold, becoming a special needs education teacher demands a great deal of patience and attention while working with these students [8,11]. These difficulties can be effectively handled by an examination of the support mechanisms implemented by the organization in issue, aimed at proactively mitigating potential problems [12].…”

“…The execution of roles and responsibilities assigned to special need education teachers is inadequate. It was found that teachers in special education are experiencing an increase in their workload [9][10][11]13]. This is due to the fact that they are not only responsible for teaching special education classes, but also for instructing conventional classrooms.…”