La ejecución inmediata de la sentencia de primera instancia como remedio

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to which the educators at mainstream secondary schools perceive the effectiveness of implementing Inclusive Education in their schools. The findings of the perceptions of educators on the effectiveness of the implementation of Inclusive Education are presented below.

4.2.2.1 Perceptions of the effective implementation

The responses of some educators during the in-depth interviews indicated that the implementation of Inclusive Education in their mainstream schools has been done to a lesser extent. The educators maintained that their schools have started to implement at least the first stage of the Policy on Screening, Identification, Assessment and Support (SIAS) (DBE, 2014) protocol at school level and ‘Curriculum differentiation’ of the learning content, methodologies, and assessment strategies, which denotes that it has not yet effectively been implemented. Verbal quotes that are presented below reflect the perceptions of those educators.

“Yes, we are doing our best to implement Inclusive Education. We have also undergone the SIAS training, the screening process and we believe that the screening process will really help us into implementing this process effectively.” (MP9)

“We have got situations whereby we try to identify learners with learning barriers and problems and then we’ve tried in our own capacity and capability to actually implement at least the first step of SIAS. All I’m saying is, we are trying.” (FP8)

“Yes, we are trying our best to implement ‘Curriculum Differentiation’. I always make sure the content of my lesson is adapted to suit all the learners, even when I assess them, you know, the questions cover all their levels of understanding.” (FP10)

The findings from in-depth interviews also revealed the perceptions of some educators about the inclusive teaching and learning strategies being effectively implemented in their schools. The educators expounded on how they usually make some efforts to apply or implement various inclusive teaching strategies in their classroom situations to accommodate learner diversity. The inclusive teaching and learning strategies that the educators claimed they were applying in their classrooms were revealed as they gave explanations, for example, peer- tutoring, flexible grouping of learners, designing down and scaffolding, accommodation of learners with visual impairments, and accommodation of learners with intellectual

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disabilities. The following verbal quotes reflect what the educators have elucidated: (a) Peer tutoring:

“In the classroom situation, I usually group learners and assign a group leader in each group. I normally encourage peer tutoring to help those learners who are struggling.”

(FP10)

“Sometimes we use self and peer assessment where learners assess each other and sometimes assess themselves.” (FP4)

(b) Flexible grouping of learners:

“I make it a point that I group these learners, look at those different abilities and identify their levels of IQ (intelligent quotient) which in most cases helps me to know them so that I can be able to classify or group them according to their IQs.” (FP2)

“For those who are highly gifted, sometimes I give them enrichment which is a little bit of their standard. I give them varying types of assessment so that I can include them all and they don’t get bored.” (MP9)

(c) Designing down and scaffolding:

“I use different types of assessment in my class. I know that the learners in my class are not the same. We have those who are gifted and those who are not gifted, so when I assess, I take that into consideration.” (FP7)

“We usually give them remedial work; extra work and so on and then starting of course with the work which might not be difficult and then we take it from there, from the known to the unknown. We give them guidelines.” (MP3)

(d) Accommodation of learners with visual impairments:

“In our school, we have a case of Albinism. We always expand the font because she has got a problem with eye-sight, and she is writing Grade 12 examinations this year. We also filled the concession form for her and the paper will come during the Trial Exams with enlarged font.” (FP6)

“For those learners that are in the class for now, like those that are visually impaired; we put them in front just closer to the chalkboard, so we are trying to implement Inclusive

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Education.” (FP3)

(e) Accommodation of learners with intellectual disabilities (dyslexia and dysgraphia):

“Normally we identify our learners with reading and writing problems in high school at Grade 8 and the latest in Grade 9 so that when they write the exams, the examiner and the marker will be told not to pay a lot of attention to spelling.” (FP5)

“Some of the learners have got a problem regarding their hand-writing, yes, at secondary school level, and in Grade 12. I’ve got evidence of those learners; I’ve got evidence of their work, and they are now showing improvement.” (MP2)

The in-depth interviews further revealed that the educators had positive perceptions about supporting learners with behaviour problems, especially those who were perceived as being hyperactive, and having a tendency to finish writing before the others, and those with bullying behaviour. In both cases, the educators reported that they would give advanced activities to the hyperactive to keep them busy, and remind the bullies of the classroom rules in order to calm them down. The following verbal quotes reflect the educators’ perceptions:

“In cases of those who are hyperactive and have a tendency of finishing to write before others, I give them an advanced work to keep them busy.” (MP1)

“In my class, I do accommodate these different learners, so others show bullying behaviour; I normally remind them of our classroom rules and the consequences for those who are found ill-treating other learners.” (MP9)

Having presented the findings regarding the educators’ perceptions of the effective implementation of Inclusive Education, the following subsection presents the findings on the challenges that the educators experienced in their endeavours to implement Inclusive Education.