Issues influencing inclusive curriculum management in selected secondary schools in South Africa
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Date
2024
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Sabinet
Abstract
The 2001 White Paper 6 on Special Education commits to ensuring that all learnershave equal opportunities to be educated and welcomed in all schools, irrespective oftheir abilities. Consequently, the inputs and contributions of educational leaders suchas principals and school management teams (SMTs) are critical in leading andmanaging schools that accommodate and provide for learners with diverseeducational needs. It is important to note that when managing the curriculum forinclusion, leadership is not confined to the principal but is also delegated to theSMTs and teachers tasked with the academic programme of the school. This studysought to examine the nature of curriculum management for inclusion in secondaryschools. A qualitative research design was adopted for the study and a purposivesampling technique was used to draw a sample of ten SMT members and 10teachers from 10 secondary schools in Limpopo Province, South Africa. The mainresearch instrument for data collection was a focus group discussion with the studyparticipants. Thematic analysis was subsequently applied to analyse the qualitativedata gleaned from the transcribed focus group discussion. The findings revealed thatbarriers to implementing inclusive education included inadequate teacherpreparation, curriculum inflexibility, unfavourable classroom learning environmentsand weak support structures. Based on the findings, some recommendations were made
Description
This study was thus conceptualised to bridge theobserved research gaps in curriculum issues in inclusive education within the SouthAfrican context. The objective of this study was to assess the issues that influencecurriculum management to include the diversity of learners' needs in South Africansecondary schools. Based on the objective of this study, it therefore follows that theresearch question that guided this study was: What issues influence curriculum management for the inclusion of a diversity of learners' needs in South African secondary schools
Keywords
Inclusive education, School management teams, Curriculum monitoring, Curriculum management, Accommodating learners with barriers to learning in mainstream schools, Namibia, University of Namibia