Teacher training for inclusive education in Lesotho: assessing factors that influence teacher attitudes towards supporting LSEN in mainstream schools

Abstract

This paper explores the centrality of teacher training for inclusive education. It evaluates the extent of teacher development in Lesotho and how training influences teachers’ attitudes towards inclusive education. A descriptive research using purposive sampling and structured questionnaire was adopted to explore teachers’ views on inclusive education. Mann–Whitney U test and Kruskal–Wallis tests were used to assess differences in teachers’ attitudes towards inclusion. All tests were performed at a 5% significance level for results. A post-hoc Dunn’s pairwise comparisons test was performed with p 0.001). The study also found that teachers believe that education level, H (5, n = 266) = 18.178, p = 0.03; length of teaching experience, H (4, n = 266) = 11.752, p = 0.019 and type of training, H (4, n = 266) = 57.168, p 0.01). The study concludes that inadequate teacher training effects their attitude towards inclusion of LSEN. Thus, Lesotho must invest on teachers’ professional development for inclusion.

Keywords

• Attitudes
• inclusive education
• Lesotho
• mainstream schools
• special education needs
• teacher training