Teachers’ Beliefs and Practices in Reaching Children’s Varied Needs in Early Childhood Education Programs.

Belay Tefera,Dawit Negassa,Firdissa Jebessa,Tesema Regassa

doi:10.37284/eajes.5.1.543

Abstract

Quite a lot of research investigations were carried out in Ethiopia to examine ECCE designs, provisions, and contributions. However, little research was done to understand how developmentally appropriate were the ECCE designs and provisions. This research piece attempted to fill in this gap by attempting to explore teachers’ beliefs and practices about reaching out for children’s varied needs in Early Childhood Education programs in Adama Town. A sequential exploratory mixed design was employed in which data were collected through unstructured interviews, observation, and document analysis from purposefully selected private, government, and faith-based early childhood education centres. The participants of the study were 9 early childhood care and education (ECCE) teachers purposefully selected from private, faith-based, and government preschools. Data collected from a sample of nine teachers through interviews, records, and observation field notes were transcribed, coded, categorised, and developed into themes within and across cases. Data from the quantitative strand employed a sample of 190 (45%) teachers from the three settings. The findings were presented under one overarching theme that revealed that children with special needs were minimally integrated into the ECCE settings. Also, the teachers had inadequate training and pedagogical skills to create inclusive ECCE settings for children with special needs. Moreover, environmental factors had a greater impact on their classroom practices than their beliefs. In discussions of their beliefs, the teachers mentioned various sources of barriers, such as limited knowledge and pedagogical skills, pre-service and in-service training, DAP curriculum, hands-on experience teaching materials, play equipment, suitable learning environment, budget, awareness about children with special needs and stakeholders’ collaboration, which affected their practices. Lastly, the implications of this study for the ECCE stakeholders were suggested.

Highlights

In a survey conducted in a cluster of schools with mainstreaming of disabled students in Ethiopia, 93.5% of the disabled students reported difficulty with gaining support from their parents, teachers, and peers (Dagnew, 2013)
The UNESCO article presented in 2006 stated that children who participated in Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) programs have demonstrated improvement in school readiness, are more likely to enrol in first grade, and have lower rates of delayed enrolment, dropout, and grade repetition and increased completion and achievement
There were some subthemes identified within the larger theme of teaching to enhance learning and development, but the intention of this paper focused on understanding and reaching children’s varied needs in inclusive ECCE settings

Summary

Introduction

In a survey conducted in a cluster of schools with mainstreaming of disabled students in Ethiopia, 93.5% of the disabled students reported difficulty with gaining support from their parents, teachers, and peers (Dagnew, 2013). A number of factors could be involved in their refusal (or inability) to enrol them in school, including the stigma which is attached to parents of children with disabilities, lack of community support, the inability of mainstream schools to include them, or distance from schools who offer inclusion for disabled children (Lewis, 2009). The UNESCO article presented in 2006 stated that children who participated in Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) programs have demonstrated improvement in school readiness, are more likely to enrol in first grade, and have lower rates of delayed enrolment, dropout, and grade repetition and increased completion and achievement. The point is that preschool education in Ethiopia is not compulsory and neither is any budget allotted by the government for it” (Woldehanna, 2011, p. 116)

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion