Dropping out of learners with hearing impairment from inclusive classes in urban schools in Bulawayo

This study explored factors contributing to the dropping out of learners with a hearing impairment from inclusive classes. It used the interpretivism theory to extract rich data and the qualitative research approach to conduct the study. A case study was used as a research design. In this study, par...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Loveness Dube
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Global Association of Educational and Research in Psychology 2024-09-01
Series:International Journal of Studies in Inclusive Education
Online Access:https://pubs.ufs.ac.za/index.php/ijsie/article/view/1269
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:This study explored factors contributing to the dropping out of learners with a hearing impairment from inclusive classes. It used the interpretivism theory to extract rich data and the qualitative research approach to conduct the study. A case study was used as a research design. In this study, participants were purposively selected. Semi-structured interviews, observations, and document analysis were used to collect data. The findings from the study revealed the challenges encountered in the teaching and learning of learners with hearing impairment. These include curriculum adaptation, social interaction with peers, negative attitudes of teachers and hearing learners, parental involvement, communication barriers, lack of interpreters, high learner ratio, and lack of resources. The findings further revealed that some opportunities are being gained by learners with hearing impairment in inclusive classes, such as access to a wider curriculum, social interaction, enhanced communication, and learning in local schools. However, challenges seemed to outweigh the opportunities gained by learners with hearing impairment, compelling them to drop out of inclusive classes. Therefore, the study gave some recommendations to help curb the dropping out of learners with hearing impairment from inclusive classes. These include allocating more resources in inclusive classes to address the problem of inadequate materials and the fact that government policies on inclusion should be made available to all educators and fully implemented. In addition, supervision, monitoring, support from parents, and evaluation of the system should be done to facilitate the learning of learners with hearing impairment in inclusive classes.
ISSN:3008-1858
3008-1866