Vastness of Teachers' Awareness of Students with Special Needs at St. Pamachius Inclusive Secondary School in Hai District, Tanzania

Abstract

This formative assessment sought to determine the educators' awareness of special needs students' abilities in promoting inclusive education at St. Pamachius Secondary School. Anchored in Scaffolding theory by the Russian psychologist Lev Vygotsky in 1978, the evaluation employed the convergent design under a mixed methods evaluation approach in which qualitative and quantitative data sets were collected at one point in time, analyzed separately before they were converged in a single study. The targeted population was 439, from which 151 respondents were sampled through stratified random, census and convenient sampling techniques. Data were gathered using questionnaires and interview guides from 123 students, 24 teachers, 1 head of school, and 1 Catholic Diocesan Education secretary. Tools for data collection were validated through research experts from Mwenge Catholic University, and the reliability of the questionnaire was achieved through the Cronbach Alpha technique, where coefficients for students' and teachers' questionnaires were 0.85 and 0.76, respectively. The trustworthiness of the qualitative data was ensured by the triangulation of instruments and peer debriefing methods. Quantitative data were descriptively analyzed in frequencies and percentages and presented in a table. The qualitative data were coded, thematically analyzed and presented in direct quotations. The research findings indicate that both teachers instructing students with special needs and the students themselves exhibit awareness of inclusive education principles. Furthermore, the study highlights positive interactions between teachers instructing both special needs and non-special needs students. Consequently, it can be inferred that teachers and students possess an awareness of effective teaching and learning strategies for both groups, which ultimately contribute to their potential development within the framework of inclusive education at St. Pamachius Secondary School. Based on these findings, it is recommended that the Ministry of Education, Science, and Technology enforce mandatory inclusive education courses within teacher training programs. This initiative aims to mandate the integration of inclusive education modules in all teacher training institutions. This mandate ensures that every graduating teacher possesses the essential knowledge and skills for proficiently implementing inclusive education. Such a systemic reform aligns with the overarching objective of advancing inclusive education and comprehensively addressing students' diverse needs.