Teacher Strategies for Providing Access to Learning for Students with Special Needs in Elementary Schools

Abstract

The presence of children with special needs in society automatically requires service education that suits their needs so that they can develop their full potential. The teacher plays an important role in the learning component, as the teacher’s role is not only limited to teaching. The teacher is also a guide, developer, and manager of the learning activities and can thus facilitate student learning activities for the purpose of achieving the goals set. The purpose of this study was to investigate teacher strategies used as part of providing access to learning for students with special needs in 25 elementary schools that provide inclusive education in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. Qualitative research methods were used in this study, including observations, interviews, and documentation as data collection techniques. The informants in this study were 100 elementary school teachers providing inclusive education selected using purposive random sampling. The collected data were analyzed through data condensation, data presentation, and drawing conclusions. The results of this study show that there are various teacher strategies for providing access for students with special needs in inclusive elementary schools, including providing physical and non-physical access to learning based on the special needs of the students. Training in the context of increasing teacher competence and increasing the role of the parents means that experts from various related disciplines are expected to be able to support the implementation of inclusive education.