Die implikasies van inklusiewe onderwys vir leerders wat verstandelik erg gestremd is

[摘要] ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Since the realization of a new democratic dispensation in South Africa, manychanges took place politically, socially, economically and educationally.Before 1994 education in South Africa, was based on a political philosophynamely, apartheid. The provision of education was characterized by afragmented system of different education departments with discriminatorypractices by virtue of language, race, religion and disability. Education forlearners with disabilities, which include intellectual disability, was provided bymeans of separate schools.The new Constitution and subsequent policy documents and legislation, laidthe foundation for a uniform system of education in which the rights of thelearner with disabilities, was acknowledged. Several recommendations andcomments by role players on various policy documents contributed to thepublishing of Education White Paper 6 Special Needs Education: Building anInclusive Education and Training System, in July 2001 in which a frameworkfor the implementation of inclusive education is given. Inclusive education isan effort to overcome the barriers within the learner and education system toprovide quality education for all learners. This means that learners with severeintellectual disabilities should be accommodated in mainstream schools withinmainstream classes. This has serious implications for these learners andvarious role players who are involved in the education of these learners. Thepurpose of this study was therefore to determine what implications inclusiveeducation holds for learners with severe intellectual disabilities in an inclusiveeducational school.Information for this study, was obtained and analyzed by means of aqualitative research design and the methods of collecting data, included areview of literature, open-ended question and structured interviews withvarious role players. Data was analyzed using the constant comparativemethod. Findings in this study indicate that teachers in special schools are lesspositive about inclusive education for learners with intellectual disabilities withspecific reference to these learners' complex emotional, physical andeducational needs. Other participants indicated that inclusive education forthese learners is possible, provided that the barriers caused by the complexnature of their needs, are successfully dealt with. This implies that specialattention must be given to the training and support of teachers in an inclusiveeducational context, as well as the collaboration between role players and theprovision of resources.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University