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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Educ.
Sec. Higher Education
Volume 10 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/feduc.2025.1445612

Teaching Inclusive Education: A Contextual Higher Education Analysis

Provisionally accepted
Yolandi Korkie Yolandi Korkie Christa Beyers Christa Beyers Eben Swanepoel Eben Swanepoel *
  • University of the Free State, Bloemfontein, Free State, South Africa

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Abstract While it is widely acknowledged that inclusive education policy is the suitable approach for addressing the diverse needs of South African learners, research in the pilot stages of Education White Paper 6 warned that the implementation of this policy would be complex. Studies have elucidated that there is a chasm between policy and theory on the one hand, and practice on the other hand; a gap between knowledge and the interactional expression thereof. Drawing on qualitative data collected from thirty nine (39) pre service teachers (students) and eight (8) lecturers, this paper articulates three themes. Student participants possessed some knowledge regarding aspects of inclusive education, but they lacked the practical demonstration and application thereof. Lecturer participants, on the other hand, felt pressured to cover module content in a limited time, greatly influencing their attitudes towards inclusive practices. The lecturer participants furthermore suggested that their own knowledge was insufficient to prepare future teachers adequately. This paper proposes that in service training centred on contextual inclusive educational skillsets and knowledge for lecturers and teachers should be prioritised. Modules should be integrated inter-disciplinarily, based on inclusive education policy, to adequately prepare pre-service teachers to meet the needs of the diverse group of learners that they will teach.

    Keywords: Inclusive education, Learning barriers, pre-service teachers, social justice, ecosystemic theory, Social Justice

    Received: 07 Jun 2024; Accepted: 08 Jan 2025.

    Copyright: © 2025 Korkie, Beyers and Swanepoel. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Eben Swanepoel, University of the Free State, Bloemfontein, 9300, Free State, South Africa

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.