Teachers' responsiveness to learners with learning barriers (visual impairment): a case study design

Abstract

The United Nations mandate was to have all children of the world to be educated, no matter their social status, race or disability. Teachers have affirmed that they had an increased number of learners with visual impairment in their mainstream classrooms, most of these learners have been diagnosed with multiple disabilities and teachers` responsiveness towards them is essential. This research was a qualitative study which sought to investigate the responsiveness of teachers to learners with visual impairment. The main purpose of this research was to find out teacher responsiveness to learners with visual impairment and later suggested intervention strategies that could help teachers overcome inclusive education implementation challenges. The paper not only presented teachers` responses but learners and braillists were also interviewed as well to state their opinions on how responsive teachers are to the learners with visual impairment. The braillist and students were pivotal to the research as they work closely with teachers, so their views and observation were very important as it was free from bias. Suggestions and recommendations were also given that could assist teachers to positively assist learners with visual impairment. To carry on this work the data was obtained by interviews, focus discussions and observation done in the classrooms. This study employed qualitative method design; force field model was used as a theoretical framework. Data revealed that several teacher responsiveness affected the learners` attitude towards their schoolwork. Some teachers seemed to be very helpful to their learners and the issue of lack of training and brailed resource scarcity were outcries as most of the teachers in the school lacked the skills to assist learners with visual impairment. It was also revealed that teachers faced difficulties in handling challenges that learners with visual impairment face because of the language or communication barrier, as they are unable to read braille. This made successful implementation of inclusive education hard.