Abstract:
Inclusive Education (IE), the integration of learners with special needs and those without learning challenges into the same learning space, was introduced to remove barriers to learning. Prior to its adoption in 1994, Pupils with Disabilities (PwDs) were not adequately considered, but were victims of rejection, segregation, and discrimination by persons without disabilities. Nonetheless, there is evidence of poor implementation of the Framework across countries, a trend which has been attributed to stakeholders’ poor understanding of, and dispositions to IE practices. Previous studies focused largely on country-by-country analysis of IE practices with little emphasis on cross-country comparative analysis. This study, therefore, was designed to compare the perception and knowledge of, and attitude of teachers and pupils towards IE practices in Lagos and East London.
Bandura’s Social Learning, Vygotsky’s Social Development, and Lave and Wenger’s Situated Learning theories were adopted as the framework, while the survey design was used. East London (EL) in the United Kingdom and Lagos in Nigeria with enactment of inclusive educational policies and practices were purposively selected. Ten primary schools with inclusivity dominance were purposively selected from each of the two cities, and six teachers and 10 pupils were selected from each school. The instruments used were standardised Teacher Perception (r=0.76), Teacher Knowledge (r=0.86), Teacher Attitude (r=0.89), Pupil Perception (r=0.84), Pupil Knowledge (r=0.76) and Pupil Attitude (r=0.82) of inclusive educational practices scales. The scales were validated based on the cultural milieu of the sampled countries. These were complemented with three sessions of in-depth interview with the head teachers from EL and Lagos. Quantitative data were analysed using descriptive statistics, while qualitative data were content analysed.
The pupils’ age in Lagos was 10.50±2.60 years, while in EL was 7.00±2.30 years. There were 75.0% girls from Lagos and 51.0% boys from EL. The teachers’ age and teaching experience were 27.10±1.20; 2.0±0.05 years for Lagos, and 29.20±2.30; 4.5±1.00 years for EL. The teachers’ perception of IE was low (▁x=2.45) in Lagos, but high (▁x=2.73) in EL, while the pupils’ perception of IE was high (▁x=2.65) in Lagos, and in EL (▁x=2.94) as against the threshold of 2.50 and 2.50, respectively. The teachers’ knowledge of IE was 53.4% in Lagos and 59.6% in EL, while the pupils’ knowledge was 53.2% in Lagos, and 65.8% in EL, indicating that knowledge of IE was high in EL. The teachers’ attitude towards IE was low (▁x=2.46) in Lagos, but high (▁x=2.75) in EL, while the pupils’ attitude towards IE was low (▁x=2.48) in Lagos, but high (▁x=2.81) in EL as against the criteria norm of 2.50 and 2.50, respectively. The head teachers in EL were favourably disposed to the practice of IE, while their counterparts in Lagos complained about its implementation and implication on other pupils without disabilities.
Teachers and pupils’ perception, knowledge, and attitude towards the inclusive educational practices in Lagos, Nigeria were low compared to that of East London, United Kingdom. Therefore, there is need for more awareness and sensitisation programmes, particularly among the stakeholders in Nigeria.
