Towards developing teacher competencies for holistic enablement of visually impaired learners

Abstract

Despite South Africa’s adequate legislation for protecting the right to education of people with disabilities, the National Development Plan (NDP) of 2012 found that there are still cases of this right being infringed. In 2015, Hodgson and Khumalo, two Section 27 reporters, identified challenges at schools for the visually impaired, such as insufficient basic assistive devices, a lack of accessible textbooks, lack of funding, serious staff shortages, inadequate orientation and mobility instruction, and teachers who are incapable of reading and writing Braille (Hodgson & Khumalo, 2015). One of these challenges, insufficient teacher development, is the rationale for this study. The study is part of research that informs the programme outline for an advanced diploma in visual impairment studies. The purpose of the study was to identify the core competencies (knowledge, skills and values) that teachers of the visually impaired need. A competency in this sense refers to “an ability to carry out a specified task or activity to pre-determined standards of attainment” (Buultjens, 1997). These competencies had to be based on or aimed at the unique needs of the visually impaired learner. For this purpose, the experiences of different stakeholders in the visually impaired community were explored. The project team visited 17 schools in five provinces. These visits involved 240 teacher participants and around 40 experts in the field. Participatory reflection and action (PRA) workshops were conducted following an action research design. It was reasoned that a consultative and collaborative approach would have results that would lead to a programme outline to address the practical, everyday challenges of learners and teachers. Because the researcher is a full-time teacher, she could unfortunately not join the team on all the visits. However, she conducted individual semi-structured interviews with four parents, two school-leavers, three blind adults, two occupational therapists and three teachers. Participants were encouraged to have the holistic education of a visually impaired individual in mind when answering the questions. In the data analysis phase of the study, the researcher chose to use applied thematic analysis (ATA), which is a type of inductive analysis of qualitative data that can involve multiple analytic techniques. Three themes were identified after the analysis: values and attitudes, accessibility and transition. It is hoped that the competencies identified by the participants will feed into the framework of a practical, high-quality programme outline for an advanced diploma for teachers of the visually impaired so that young adults will be enabled to access society and the world of work as holistically functioning individuals.