Teaching visually impaired students: a case study in one technical vocational education and training college in KwaZulu-Natal.
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Date
2019
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Abstract
The research required to gain insight and understanding into teaching visually impaired students in TVET College by exploring their experiences in teaching visually impaired students in TVET College. Inclusive education has, since then, become a serious aspect of the KwaZulu Natal education system. This research explores lecturers’ experiences in teaching students with visual impairment in one TVET College in KwaZulu Natal. Using a qualitative, evocative and theoretical research design, the research hires a case research approach to answer the following questions: What are TVET college lecturers’ experiences of teaching visually impaired students? What approaches are used to teach visually impaired students in TVET College?
Why do they understand teaching visually impaired learners in particular ways? The data was generated from a sample of four lecturers from one TVET College in KwaZulu Natal through semi-structured interviews, classroom observations, and document reviews. The research exposed that the lecturers have not been properly prepared for the application of the inclusive education policy in this college; this is reflected by their inadequate sympathetic of inclusive education. It also displays a weakness in the distribution of inclusive education policies as lecturers are not well trained, especially to assist students with visual impairment. The focus inclined to be only on children with visual impairment, or sight impairment. Therefore, there is a need for the TVET College, not only to review the policy and curriculum of inclusive education, but also unload the distribution process so that it empowers and ropes lecturers with information and practical approaches. The theoretical framework that directed this research was American psychologist Urie Bronfenbrenner’s ecological systems theory. The submission of this theory permitted a focus on how the ecological systems lecturers exist in influenced their experiences of and need for teaching visually impaired students. The offer of this theory allowed a focus on how the ecological systems lecturers reside in influenced they are sympathetic to and need for teaching support. The data generation was analysed according to thematic coding with relations to the academic or theoretical framework.
Description
Masters Degree. University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban.