A collaborative approach to developing the capacity of teachers to provide interim support to learners awaiting District-Based Support Team intervention

Abstract

Proponents of inclusive education (IE) advocate that given adequate support, most children and youth can learn. The goal of IE is to ensure that all learners, including those experiencing barriers to learning, have access to quality education alongside their peers in ordinary classrooms. The strengthening of Education Support Services through the District-Based Support Teams (DBST) and the School-Based Support Teams (SBST) were supposed to help attain this goal. However, these services cannot always respond within a suitable period; the aim of this study was therefore to capacitate teachers to provide interim support to learners awaiting DBST intervention, as research indicates that most teachers are not attending to this. The primary research question is: How can the capacity of teachers be developed to provide interim support to learners awaiting DBST intervention? An emancipatory paradigm guided the study to help participants realise their potential for action. A participatory action research (PAR) design was used to enable teachers and support structure representatives to find ways to collaborate and empower each other to support learners awaiting specialist intervention. Participants were recruited by means of purposive sampling technique and consisted of six qualified educators working full-time at a school in the Sedibeng West District of Gauteng Province and have experience with referring a learner for SBST intervention. Thematic analysis was used to analyse the data. Preliminary findings indicate that without adequate teacher training, support, personal professional development, and collaboration among teachers, interim support to learners awaiting DBST intervention will remain challenging. The study will hopefully contribute to the body of knowledge in the field of inclusive education. We generated guidelines about establishing collaborative strategies to develop the capacity of teachers to provide interim support to learners awaiting specialised DBST intervention. The limitations of this study Therefore, the study findings could be difficult to transfer to other schools since it was conducted in only one of the twelve full-service schools in Sedibeng West District. Teachers in other FSS of the same district may/may not experience the same waiting period as teachers in the research site.