PRE-SERVICE EDUCATORS’ PERCEPTIONS ON STRATEGIES EMPLOYED BY THEIR MENTOR TEACHERS TO FOSTER INCLUSIVE EDUCATION IN THEIR CLASSROOMS

Mentor teachers are the key resource in the training of student teachers. Hence, it is important to explore their roles in this study as many studies have shown that their education and preparation training have a great influence on pre-service educators’ attitudes towards inclusive education. This paper seeks to examine the pre-service educators’ perceptions of the strategies employed by their mentor teachers to foster inclusive education in their classrooms during teaching practice period. It examines their understanding of inclusive education and how their mentors dealt with the challenges while implementing inclusive education in their schools. Furthermore, it is important to find out the challenges and the needs that student educators feel that should be addressed in order to realize full inclusive education in schools. The researcher’s approach to the study was shaped in part by Bronfenbrenner’s ecosystemic framework. Purposive sampling was considered the most suitable in order to examine the perceptions of participants. The study applied a qualitative research method, compiling data through interviewing 20 Further Education and Training (FET) students doing their second and third year of study. All audio recorded interviews were transcribed for analysis. Ethical approval for the study was sought and obtained. The results of the study indicate that some teachers do not fully understand inclusive education as they would at times confuse it with integration. They highlighted the lack of school resources and lack of training on inclusive education as some of the challenges that made it difficult for the teachers to implement it in their classrooms. In most schools there was a policy on inclusive education from the Department of Education, but many teachers were not following it. The participants felt that their mentor teachers' teaching strategies were not inclusive enough and failed to accommodate and support learners with learning barriers. Recommendations for practical solutions ranging from administrative changes to the support of each learner in the classroom are made.