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Exploring stakeholders’ collaborative partnerships in enabling inclusion of learners with hearing impairment in selected West Pokot County primary schools, Kenya
Education is a right for all children. Learners with Hearing Impairment (LWHI) are also children who are entitled to free, quality, equitable and compulsory primary education. However, achievement of this right is still far from being attained in some parts of Kenya because LWHI continue to face exclusion from and within schools in West Pokot County. Exclusion occurs when LWHI do not enroll or drop out of school. The exclusion derails the Kenyan government‘s achievement of Inclusive Education(IE) and attainment of Universal Basic Education by the year 2030. This study, therefore, sought to explore stakeholders‘ collaborative partnerships in enabling inclusion of LWHI in selected West Pokot primary schools. This exploratory study adopted a qualitative approach, underpinned by an interpretivist paradigm, and employed a phenomenological research design. The Practice-People-Context (PPC) model framed the study. The overarching research question that guided this study was: How do stakeholders‘ collaborative partnerships enable inclusion of LWHI in selected West Pokot Primary schools? To answer this main question, three sub-research questions were formulated: What is the nature of stakeholders‘ collaborative partnerships in enabling inclusion of Learners with Hearing Impairment in selected West Pokot County primary schools? What are the experiences of stakeholders‘ collaborative partnerships in enabling inclusion of Learners with Hearing Impairment in selected West Pokot County primary schools? How can stakeholders‘ collaborative partnership be supported to enable inclusion of Learners with Hearing Impairment in selected West Pokot County primary schools? Non-probability sampling in the form of purposive sampling technique was adopted to select the participants. Individual semi-structured interview, focus group discussion and drawing were used to generate the qualitative data from seven Special Needs Education (SNE) teachers, five parents, four head teachers, one Education Assessment and Resource Centre Officer (EARC), two County Disability officers (CDOs), and five Curriculum Support Officers (CSOs). Trustworthiness was observed to ensure credibility, dependability, transferability and confirmability of the research study. Analysis of data was done using thematic analysis. The findings showed that there were limited stakeholder collaborative partnerships, an aspect that heightened exclusion of LWHI from education in selected West Pokot County primary schools. Stakeholder attitudes, relationships and how they perform their roles determined the nature of stakeholders‘ collaborative partnership. The participants‘ experiences of collaborative partnerships revealed barriers as well as enablers. The barriers hindered their collaborative partnerships while the enablers enhanced the collaboration. Participants further emphasized the necessity for stakeholders‘ collaborative partnerships to be supported. They suggested that this could be done by ensuring that all stakeholders have specialized knowledge of Special Needs Education, and by creating awareness and involvement of all stakeholders. This study makes a contribution to the knowledge of the nature of the collaborative partnerships in the inclusion of LWHI and has implications for SNE stakeholders and policy makers for improving the practice, implementation and management of SNE programs.
Uploaded by: Japheth NoelAuthor: Lagat, David Kipkemboi
Institution: Moi University | Centre: East and South African-German Centre for Educational Research, Methodologies and Management (CERM-ESA)
Thesis Supervisor(s): Serem, D. K. | De Lange, Naydene
Type: Theses | Master’s | English
Subjects: Education
Date: April 2019 | Pages: xiv, 222
Copyright: The Author | License: Open Access
