Exploring the nature of support for reception year teachers of learners who are severely intellectually impaired

M.Ed. (Inclusive Education)This study explored the nature of support for Reception Year teachers of learners with severe intellectual impairment at Lerato Special School (pseudonym) which is in the southern suburbs of Johannesburg in South Africa. As a past Reception Year teacher at this school, I experienced numerous challenges in teaching these learners, which prompted me to research more in this area. I experienced challenges such as overprotection of the learners by their parents, language barriers, lack of parental support, high learner-teacher ratio and health problems. From the focus group interview conducted, these were the same challenges experienced by the Reception Year teachers of Lerato Special School. As a result, I embarked on this study to find out from these teachers the extent of support that they are receiving and still require for them to be able to execute their duties to the expected standard in terms of teaching these young and inexperienced learners to their maximum potential development. The Education White Paper 6 (DoE, 2001) outlines four levels of support for both teachers and learners. At the national level, policy is formulated, and it is implemented at the provincial level (Landsberg, 2011). The district level provides co-ordinated professional services in supporting teachers, drawing on expertise in specialised schools through the district based support teams (DBST). Lastly, at the institution level the school based support teams (SBST) support teachers and learners directly. Teacher support teams are a way of supporting individual teachers who request support over a teaching concern relating to special educational needs (Cresse, Norwich & Daniels, 2000). The focus of district and institutional level support should be on differentiated teaching strategies, overcoming barriers, curricular adaptation, flexible teaching methods, individualised learning support material and assessment concessions. Since teachers are the primary agents for achieving such specialised education for intellectually impaired learners, the teachers should be fully supported in their endeavours. Yet, it is my experience in this special school that teachers are not being fully supported, particularly, teachers who are teaching severely intellectually impaired children between five and ten years old ..