Special Education Needs and Disabilities within Guyana’s mainstream system

Sep 02, 2017 Letters

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Dear Editor,
In two previous letters on the above subject, I made mentioned the texts I drew from, so I would just cite the authors’ last names in this missive. Bourdieu (1990a), postulated that human action occurs in the natural and social world, and there is the transformative nature of the action and the priority of action over thought. This is the case for the mainstream elementary teachers of Guyana. In a recent study I have conducted, 90 percent of Guyanese mainstream elementary teachers indicated that they are aware that their actions are not very inclusive in nature and they do have knowledge of some of the reasonable adjustments needed to be made to their actions.
Bourdieu (1977, 1989), indicated that individuals, in their actions, incorporate social structure and organizations. Individuals do this by exteriorizing their individual interests, perspectives, worldviews, and dispositions to act. These renew social structure and organization as they share the same conditions; they develop the same habitus. While doing this, people incorporate social structure and organization. It was revealed in the study that the elementary teachers gravitate to teachers of similar status, beliefs, and culture. They even indicated a preference for learners of similar culture, noting that they are easier to relate to. Through this, a shared habitus is established. The cultural norms of the schools include:
1. Delivering the curriculum at a rigid and inflexible rate which does not allow teachers the autonomy to differentiate enough to cater for all learners, especially learners with SEN and disabilities in Mainstream Schools.
2. Teachers showing preferences for learners of influential cultures and groups in society. This is done by making more modifications and provisions for these learners than they would for learners of minority cultures or with SEN and disabilities in mainstream schools.
3. Grouping slower learners and learners of SEN and disabilities in mainstream schools at the back of the classroom.
4. Focusing more on academic performances in core subjects such as Mathematics, English, and Science at external examinations that define the rank and prestige of the institution and effectiveness of the teachers and the programs offered by the school rather than its inclusiveness.
5. Limiting the participation of learners with SEN and disabilities in external school competitions because they do not believe learners with SEN and disabilities can perform equally or better than learners considered more able.
6. Treating learners with SEN in mainstream schools as low achievers or learners with challenging behaviours when a physical or known disability is not reported.
7. Teachers gather with only teachers of similar status or rank in the school and similar culture.
8. Schools indirectly replicate the inequalities of society in the criteria that learners must achieve before they can access certain programs and resources. These criteria do not enable access to all but limits access for some learners.
9. Teachers moving on to the next concepts once the majority of the class grasps the current concept. This results in learners with SEN always lagging behind without support.
10. Teachers treating learners who are more cognitively capable better and giving them more support in order to enhance the school’s image at external standardized assessments and streaming learners according to academic performance and placing them in the ‘A’ class (the class learners and parents perceive as superior).
11. Unconsciously, showing preferences for learners of the same culture as the teacher or learners whose parents are affluent or in high offices of authority.
Guyanese mainstream teachers hold several misconceptions about Special Education Needs, Disabilities and Additional Education Needs. These misconceptions include:
1. Thinking those learners with SEN and disabilities are more challenging to teach.
2. Feeling those learners with SEN and disabilities will always exert more challenging behaviours than the learners they considered normal or abled.
3. Thinking that all learners with SEN have permanent learning disabilities.
4. Equating physical impairment with lower cognitive abilities.
5. Thinking those learners with SEN and disabilities will contribute to a decline in the academic performance of the class they teach.
6. Thinking those learners with SEN and disabilities always will need a lot of support and time which will always equate to more challenging work for the general mainstream teachers.
7. Thinking those learners with SEN and disabilities always has a pathologized problem.
Teachers’ preference of a selected group of learners is reflected in the differential treatment of learners because of a disability and or Special Education Needs rather than individual learning needs. This is evident in the current mainstream education system. This is a major cultural norm maintained by the collective conscious of the mainstream teachers and the habitus of Guyana’s elementary mainstream education system.
Stetsenko (2005) indicated that the discriminations evidence in any social system was generated directly or indirectly through the curriculum and structure of the public mainstream education system. If the education system perpetuates the thoughts and ideas that learners with SEN and disabilities will contribute to a decline in the academic performance and more burden on the school’s limited resources. This will permeate through the society that learners with SEN and disabilities will place a burden on the state. It was clear that teachers’ attitude and perspective will dominate the hidden curriculum and indirectly teach mainstream learners this form of discrimination in Guyana. This directly will contribute to Guyana’s mainstream elementary schools being non-inclusive to another generation of learners with SEN and/or disabilities.
Mitchell (2005) as cited in Andrews and Frankel (2010) the non-inclusiveness of mainstream elementary schools will directly affect negatively any ‘Education for All’ initiative. Guyana’s mainstream elementary teachers’ attitude and perspectives on SEN, disabilities and inclusion will directly impact negatively its pursuits for elementary education for all goals and prevents the total achievement of elementary education for all.
Lidon Lashley B.Ed., M.Ed., M.A.SEN
University of Guyana

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