Primary school teachers’ perceptions towards inclusive education for learners with disability in Lira municipality

Abstract

This qualitative research study focuses on inclusion of learners with disabilities in the mainstream primary schools in Lira municipality with the objectives of; To identify primary school teachers‟ perceptions towards inclusive education for learner with disabilities in the mainstream primary school setting; To establish primary school teachers‟ understanding and knowledge for inclusive education; To find out whether primary school teachers have knowledge of appropriate support required for inclusive education practice in the mainstream classroom setting; To identify teachers‟ capacity for meeting challenges faced during practices in the inclusive classroom setting. The study participants were 14 primary school teachers purposefully selected from two mainstream primary schools from Lira municipality. Data was obtained through semi-structured interviews and analyzed under relevant objectives thematically. Data analysis was guided by Ritchie (2013) model which proposes data reductions and thematic analysis. The results of the study revealed that most of the teachers have positive perceptions towards inclusive education of learners with disability in the “mainstream” classroom settings. The positive perceptions were subject to some factors like training in special needs education, regular contact of other general education teachers with learners with disability for quite a good number of years in the inclusive school, team work and collaboration with other stakeholders in education. In general the study revealed that the teachers‟ perceptions influence how teachers and school adopt, implement and commit to the inclusive education agenda.